Mercury's Current Retro Period & Your Chart

Now I'm going to talk about how to apply Mercury's current retrograde period to your particular chart.

NOTE: The following applies to those people who are in Group #1. If you do NOT fall in this group, then skip the following. (It won't apply for you.) I'll write more later about how to apply Mercury's retrogradation to your chart.

I Wish I Could Use Your Chart As an Example...

In order to explain this, I find it necessary to use some sort of specific example. Unfortunately, blogging doesn't allow me to refer to specific examples for each and every person in Group #1. (Sorry. I wish I could!) 

Therefore, I'm just gonna use an arbitrary example. 

Afterwards, I'll talk about how to apply all of the following to your particular case. 

Let's suppose that in your birth chart, you have Mars at 9 degrees 34 minutes Sagittarius in your 7th house. 

General Rules and Learnable Skills

Transiting Mercury squares your natal Mars from about February 7 till February 15 and from about March 2 till April 2.

(Personally, I use 6-degree orbs with Mercury. In other words, I consider a transit from Mercury to a natal planet to be in effect from about the time that Merc is 6 degrees before aspecting it exactly until the time that Merc is about 6 degrees past aspecting it exactly). 

This aspect is exact three times: 

1. on February 11 (while Merc is in direct, or seemingly-forward, motion)

2. on March 8 (while Merc is in retrograde, or seemingly-backward motion), and 

3. on March 27 (while Merc is in direct, or seemingly-forward motion)

As a general rule, while a transiting planet is retrograde, and when it does this while it triggers one of your natal planets, then you can expect a certain series of events to happen in a particular order.

(I say "as a general rule" because there are some variations in these events depending on a particular case. However, as a  general framework, this sequence does always apply.)

By the way, if this seems hard to follow, give it time to sink in. 

It's a skill: it's learnable, and the more you practice doing it, the better you do it. The more you try applying it to a chart, the easier it gets to do it. 

It's a little drama in three acts between the transiting planet and the natal planet...

A Drama in Three Acts (In Detail)

Act One (while the transiting planet is in direct motion):

• The transiting planet (TP) starts to aspect your natal planet (NP).
• The TP aspects your NP exactly for the first time.
• The TP continues to aspect your NP, though no longer exactly. 

Act Two (while the TP is in retrograde motion):

• The TP starts to aspect your NP again. 
• The TP aspects your NP exactly for a second time.
• The TP continues to aspect your NP, though no longer exactly. 

Act Three (while the TP is in direct motion again):

• The TP starts to aspect your natal planet again.
• The TP aspects your natal planet exactly for the third time. 
• the TP continues to aspect your NP, though no longer exactly. 

Now, continuing with our example from above, if we apply this sequence of events to the chart, and we "plug in" the specific dates and other information, then here's the blow-by-blow list of what happens when...

Act One:

• Starting on about February 7, Merc (direct) starts to square your Mars. 
• On February 11, Merc (direct) squares your Mars exactly (for the first of three times). 

Act Two:

• On February 24, Merc turns stations retro.
• From about March 2 till April 2, Merc (retro) is (again) within range of squaring your Mars. 
• On March 8, Merc (retro) squares your Mars exactly (for the second of three times).

Act Three:

• On March 17, Merc turns stationary direct again.
• On March 27, Merc (direct again) squares your Mars exactly (for the third of three times). 
• On about April 2, Merc (direct again) moves outside of range of squaring your Mars (again). 

Whew! That's a Lot of Technical Information 

Now that we've gotten through that, we're freer to look at what this drama-in-three-acts might mean for you. 

I'll talk about that next time....