December’s Mercury Retrograde: Phantom Redial

The upcoming Mercury Retrograde in December promises to be more interesting than most for a few reasons – there are many nuanced and in-your-face energetic layers in the mix at the time this retrograde kicks off (December 3, 2017), but for the purposes of this post right now I’ll stick to discussing the components that give a broader and unique context on what’s really going on.  There’s something more significant playing out underneath all of this besides the normal Mercury Rx communication glitches and don’t-sign-anything caveats…

One factor that makes *this particular* Mercury Retrograde period unusual is due to its kickoff overlapping with the Gemini (i.e. a Mercury-ruled) Full Moon; a mere 8 hours separates these twin events! Uncanny as it is to see double the Mercurial energy in the astrological air at the same time, there’s an important subtext inherent in this by virtue of the fact the Full Moon also falls along a degree of the zodiac sensitized by last year’s Saturn/Neptune Square. The Sun is lighting up 12 degrees Sagittarius; almost exactly the same spot Saturn occupied on June 17, 2016 when the Saturn/Neptune Square perfected for the second time.  This being a Full Moon, the Moon of course sits opposite the Sun at 12 degrees Gemini while Neptune – having recently turned Direct – squares both luminaries from essentially the same place it did in the middle of last year when Saturn was on the scene instead.

What’s really going to bake your noodle, though, is the fact Mercury (which we remember is the ruler of the aforementioned Full Moon that is reigniting the energetic residue of the Saturn/Neptune Square) weaves back and forth between a conjunction to Saturn and a square to Neptune during its upcoming retrograde!  Again we’re seeing an astrological imprint of the Saturn/Neptune Square’s reverberations – during this entire retrograde period, it’s as if Mercury is acting as an intermediary to bring us some sort of message from mid 2016. Basically, in December we’re all collectively getting a phantom redial from the Saturn/Neptune Square where weird messages from the past may send their ghost-like echoes into our Now.

What does all of this translate to?  December is going to be a real temporal vortex of a month for one – we may well receive some kind of (literal or figurative) call or message from the mid-June 2016 era.  What’s the memo, exactly?  It will vary for each person but this entire Mercury retrograde phase (all of December & into the beginning of January) should be thought of as a sort of wrinkle in time connecting that period to our present somehow. Think about what was going on in your life in the middle of last year to get an idea of the theme this retrograde may have in store for you.  Geopolitically, this should ring some major bells – Brexit happened during this time and I will not be surprised to see more news on this topic hitting in a big way very shortly.

We should also be aware this may be a collect call (LOL, I just realized youngsters won’t have any concept of what this is!) – metaphorically speaking, it will be good to think twice if something comes up for our review during this period to make sure there isn’t any toll (read: lesson) we’ll have to accept if we answer.  For example, if the Saturn/Neptune Square in June of 2016 manifested as major disillusionment regarding a parent, mentor, authority figure, or spiritual leader and suddenly December comes around and we hear through the grapevine this very same individual has been asking about us, is it really worth picking up the receiver for them? Think carefully about any kind of “sequel” situations arising this month – often the second movie isn’t as good as the first. And if the first sucked, well….it’s not likely to get much better with time, let’s put it that way.

Now the “memo” Mercury brings us in December may not necessarily be a “repeat” kind of situation as mentioned above; it could also simply represent a cosmic communiqué regarding where we may have erred during the Saturn/Neptune Square of 2016. For example, perhaps we were excessively Saturn; too closed/self-limiting/defensive/pessimistic/ambitious/overworked/cautious (pick any or all that apply). Or maybe we were OD-ing on Neptune’s denial/escapism/fantasizing/delusions/self-martyrdom. From a cognitive POV, Mercury will be letting us know which mentalities are holding us back so we can make revisions accordingly during this time. Mercury represents a “both/and” rather than an “either/or” influence so we’re intellectually integrating the Saturnian principles of wisdom, practicality, maturity, responsibility, and structure with the Neptunian concepts of intuition, imagination, compassion, spirituality, and free-flowingness so we’re neither excessively earthbound nor living in La La Land building castles in the air.

11/29/2017