Mercury Retrograde: A Brief Case Study
AUTHOR’S NOTE: As a natal and predictive astrologer with 50+ years of experience I’ve always accepted the premise that, unless they evoke a response by contacting factors in the birth chart of the entity involved (most acutely by conjunction, square or opposition), transiting influences of any kind have little impact on individual lives and even less import at the communal level, where multiple horoscopes would have to be affected all at once (which would only happen within the so-called “generational” context of slow-moving Uranus, Neptune and Pluto). We might make a pseudo-scientific theorem out of this: “All planetary transits are by nature incidental and are not specifically causal unless and until aligned by proximity or aspect to natal precursors as co-determinants of potential events and circumstances.”
A birth chart is nothing more than a static snapshot of transiting planetary positions and their angular relationships within a matrix of signs and houses at the moment of parturition, so it’s reasonable to assume that those positions would serve as trigger-points for stimulation by subsequent transits (and in a more abstract way by primary directions and secondary progressions). Without such triggering events, there isn’t much point in analyzing volatile, ever-changing “sky patterns” for the purpose of transit analysis beyond the evolving arrangement of houses and signs catalyzed by “planetary ingress” (aka entry) over time. Personalizing ends at the threshold of general life-circumstances in much the same way as the old newspaper “daily horoscope” columns and leaves specific event projection behind.
Even when they do actively engage the nativity in a more focused way, transiting planets that move rapidly through the zodiac — Mercury, Venus , the Sun and especially the Moon — don’t normally hang around long enough to make a lasting impression; they essentially create a rolling “background vibration” that some people will feel momentarily and others won’t. (For example, the monthly phases of the Moon briefly but deeply impress many “lunar” types like me.) Retrogradation (except for the Sun and Moon, which are always direct) creates a slightly drawn-out window of opportunity but once again, absent any angular aspects to the natal map, the emphasis comes and goes with little observable effect. The planets are just “out there” as raw data for “annotating the blueprint” when they happen to energize the birth planets, sensitive points-in-space like the natal Ascendant, Midheaven, Part of Fortune or Moon’s Nodes, and the house cusps upon ingress.
Fast-forward to the 21st-Century mindset that gets people with no formal astrological background all lathered up over transient T-Squares, Grand Crosses, Grand Trines and — most zealously of all — Mercury retrograde, without motivating them to check on whether there is any connection to the fixed placement of planets, points and house cusps in their personal birth chart (that is, assuming they have one). An ephemeris in the hands of an earnest but ill-informed cheerleader for “pop-astrology” can be a dangerous thing, but perhaps this supercharged enthusiasm is simply a product of the 84-year-cycle of “generational” Uranus, the planetary ruler of astrology. (As my kinder-and-gentler curmudgeonly self, I won’t equate this with “New Age-y mystical woo,” but the thought is there.) At any rate, a transit occurring in an “aspect vacuum” might as well not be happening at all from a predictive standpoint except for those entities (people, corporations, nations, etc.) born at exactly that instant in time.
I was recently reminded that transiting Mercury went retrograde on November 26 at 02:37 GMT. I seldom pay attention to Mercury’s direct motion for the reason stated above: its actions are too short-lived to worry about. But I decided to look more closely at this particular retrograde period and found something interesting. Mercury went stationary retrograde at 22 degrees of Sagittarius on November 24 and will remain at that location until November 28, a zodiacal position that is within one degree of my natal 1st House Jupiter.
This placement of Jupiter characteristically indicates good fortune in matters of self-promotion and self-realization (as well as a “larger-than-life” persona and perhaps some excess physical bulk due to overindulgence), and it has always performed splendidly for me. But over the last couple of days my luck has taken a definite downturn, coinciding with the retrogradation of Mercury; it’s nothing earth-shattering but it’s certainly annoying to have four adverse occurrences within a two-day span of time, which is something I’m not used to. The most significant of them involved a costly misunderstanding, another an instance of computer incompatibility, a third some not-unexpected bad news and the fourth an inability to reach customer support for a recent purchase.
Retrograde Mercury doesn’t quite get back to my natal Ascendant in Scorpio before going direct, but I will have my eyes wide open for its eventual return to 22–23 Sagittarius during the first week of January, 2025. At that point it will be direct and wasting no time, but that interval has now been engraved in my consciousness as one to watch. As the ruler of Gemini, the modern sign of Jupiter’s detriment, Mercury is no friend of the Greater Benefic, and I can see it playing tricks on me early next year. At least this time it should be fleeting, more like a practical joke than a resounding kick in the teeth.
Footnote: For those interested in verifying my results, I use the American Ephemeris for the 21st Century, Revised Second Edition, for my transit work.
Originally published at http://parsifalswheeldivination.wordpress.com on November 27, 2024.
