Mercury Retrograde in Aries: Rediscovering the Truth About Self

I’ll start by airing out the truth…Mercury Retrogrades are not a bad thing! Keep that in mind during these times of possible delays and miscommunications. It serves a necessary purpose in the cycles of life. Mercury Retrogrades are among the top astrological topics that are misunderstood and misconstrued (even by many astrologers…but consider that each person has our own natal makeup coloring our views)…though the dreaded Mercury Retrograde has been recently outdone by the Ophiucus debacle that is for some silly reason still hanging around. If I had time to address that misunderstanding fully, I would, because even my aunt…and even the bagger at the grocery store…have mentioned in conversations with me that they don’t understand why their signs have changed. That’s just it, I keep explaining, they haven’t. But anyway…maybe this Mercury Retrograde will provide me with some time to write a further review.

More important now is that Mercury is stationed in the 25^th degree of Aries and is turning retrograde today at 3:48pm CST.

First let me paint a picture of Mercury in Aries, before we revise that energy in retrograde. Mercury rules the mind, communication, and transportation (just to name a few) and, in Aries, Mercury dons the cloak of the warrior, leader, pioneer and initiator…impulsive, fearless, and active. Mercury in Aries people (yes, I am one of them) tend to speak their minds…and at best, desire to champion the causes of those whose voices are not being heard. At worst, they can be hot-headed, quick-tempered, and tactless argument-starters. The Mercury in Aries mind moves full-speed ahead, which can result in appearing to speak before they think. But it isn’t that (though many times they find their foot in their mouth), it’s a willingness to speak the truth that can often find them in trouble.

As Mercury has been travelling through Aries (since March 9^th), you may have noticed a tendency (in you and those around you, and particularly in the world as a whole) to fight for what you believe in. There is more aggression in our communication, and less ‘beating around the bush’. And there is decidedly a lot less patience. But for those who are usually indecisive or timid with their communications, this placement boosts your ability to act bravely and quickly on your ideas. There is greater self-confidence and more self-expression, as Aries has a focus on self.

As Mercury stations (from our earthly point-of-view, of course…planets don’t actually stop or change directions), the above-mentioned qualities come to the forefront. The focus is on our mental state and the actions that respond to it. Then, when Mercury starts moving retrograde, we are in review mode…picking up things we may have sped past through the month of March. This is why these retrogrades are a good time to rethink, revise, and rediscover. In Aries especially, our minds have been quickening with the change of seasons…and many of us (including Mother Nature, it seems from a Northern perspective) need an adjustment period to prepare for the growth and activity that Spring will bring.

Now is the time to meditate on who you are, how you think about things, and how you want to express yourself this year. Mercury is having us all step back for a moment and reassess how we are coming across and what actions we should take in moving forward. For those who need a wake up call about these things, this retrograde can be a very trying time…causing delays and miscommunications if we haven’t taken the time to review our thought processes and ‘be the change we wish to see in this world’. For those who are already aligning with their goals and direction, this is a time of preparation and revision…crossing all the t’s and dotting all the i’s before we move along at the end of April.

It’s always best not to plan a busy schedule that relies on big decision making and timely travel during these times, because you may find the universe giving you grief for not allowing yourself a chance to calm your mind and learn the lessons that Aries has to offer. But don’t be afraid of it either…a travel delay gives you time to prepare, and the aftermath of a hasty decision can clue you into how you really feel about something…or how it effects others.

There is a boost in Aries energy from the cosmos right now, and not just from Mercury. The bigger picture in the following weeks shows Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus giving focus in this sign as well…with a necessary balance point of Saturn in Libra to remind us about others while so much energy is focused on the self. The New Moon this weekend is also in Aries, ushering in even more attention to bold new beginnings.

With Mercury’s ideas, Venus’s charm, Mars’s decisiveness, Jupiter’s optimism, and Uranus’s brilliance (all grounded by Saturn’s lessons on relating to others)…April’s New Moon may prove to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship with ourselves and with the world around us. Here’s to fresh starts and new opportunities in all of our lives.

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

Aries Ascending

There's no beginning like an end. Today begins a new cycle of Aries influence in the cosmos, but only after one more Piscean lesson.

In about an hour from now, Mercury (the planet of communication) exacts its conjunction with Uranus (the planet of innovation) in the last degree of Pisces. In this degree, discernment is key. Today is the day to strengthen your sense of self and project the image of the person you want to be. This is the first (mental) step toward the transformations taking place once these planets reach Aries. The insight you receive today, whether it is in the form of unexpected, strange, or liberating news, is part of your preparation for what is to come. With Mercury and Uranus (Mercury's higher octave planet) working in tandem, you'll want to keep an open mind this week.

About an hour after that (11:47am), Mercury enters Aries. The key phrase for this transit (which lasts until 5-15, as Mercury retrogrades through this sign between 3-30 and 4-23) is 'new ideas'. The key word for this transition into Aries is 'realization'. During this transit, we have knowledge being channeled from the unconscious to reality. This blossoming awareness provides comfort, and opens opportunities for creativity and independence. Fun, enthusiastic people who stimulate your creative thinking will boost your own unique talents during this time. Attend events or join causes where you can contribute your ideas and energy toward something co-creative. Use the retrograde time (3-30 through 4-23) to break free of habits that are holding you back or weakening your will. When summer rolls around, you'll want to be liberated from those things that aren't working for you...so set yourself up for some inside-and-out 'spring cleaning'.

On Friday (March 11), Uranus enters Aries at 6:49pm. We had a pre-cursor to this transit last year when Uranus waded into Aries briefly (May 27-August 13) before retrograding back into Pisces. But now we're approaching the 7-year long transit of Uranus in Aries...the beginning of an important cycle (individually as well as globally). Significant changes are ahead, and so are a lot of surprises.

Uranus rules inventiveness, social innovation, oddities, surprises, the unexpected, technology, independence, and rebellion. This transit signals a time to break free from limiting situations, ideas, and thought patterns. During this transformative transit, if you ignore the necessary changes in your view and keep doing the same old things in the same old ways, you'll miss a great opportunity to make your life more interesting and meaningful.

Dan Furst on the history of Uranus in Aries:

"The essence of the combination is Change. Uranus is the artist and trickster of Revolution, the one who brings change that is heady and exciting to those who welcome it and are brave enough to play it, and upsetting, even terrifying, to those who resist it, or think they will control it to their ends. When Uranus is in the zodiac sign of the impetuous, desire-driven Warrior and initiator of the new, he tends to witness, and perhaps to provoke, revolutionary changes that can go either way, toward freeing people, or enslaving them in new and more ingenious ways. Some recent exhibits in the Uranus-in-Aries wing of the History Museum:

1927 - 1935: The 1929 crash leads to worldwide depression, war and revolution. The new planet Pluto is discovered in 1930. Japan invades Manchuria in 1931, Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected president of the US the next year, and Germany goes Nazi in January 1933. A year later the Red Army in China survives the Long March, and the Stalin dictatorship begins.

1843 - 1851: Socialist and other anti-monarchic uprisings shake the regimes of Europe. The new planet Neptune is discovered in 1846, as the Baha'i movement begins. Civil unrest and the Irish potato blight propel a wave of German and Irish immigration to the USA, which wins a war of expansion against Mexico. The Communist Manifesto is published, and the labor movement begins.

1756 - 1764: Uranus is in Aries during the entire time of the Seven Years' War, as England, reaping the benefits of its recent Industrial Revolution, defeats France and emerges as the world's dominant empire. England imposes in its American colonies the mercantilist laws that will soon lead to revolt when Uranus is in the communicative sign of Gemini.

This is enough to establish the main shape of the picture: transformative events, often involving mass movements of millions of people, sometimes achieving the end of oppressive regimes, but sometimes bringing worse ones. One way or the other, when Uranus is in Aries, especially when he is in a 90° "square" to Pluto in Capricorn in 2012 - 2013, we may feel that we're being swept along by currents that we cannot direct or control. We are in the white water now, and it will get louder. We can choose to navigate it in a strong canoe with fit, resonant, well-equipped friends. We can get inside a barrel and shoot the rapids alone. One way or the other, we're in a fluid, turbulent water environment that requires us to get flexible and inventive if we're going to travel on the water's terms. This is the theme of my book Surfing Aquarius, which Red Wheel Weiser will publish in September."

-Dan Furst's Universal Festival Calendar for March 2011 on Hermes3.net

Dan Furst will be here in Omaha this October for his 'Surfing Aquarius' book tour and we will be planning an event together for the second weekend of October. If you're interested in learning more about the waters ahead, keep your schedule open that weekend and join us in Omaha for a mind-expanding, heart-opening, soul-stirring gathering of Spiritual Activism.

Love and Gratitude,
Felina Lune Kavi