How to Successfully Navigate Mercury’s Retrograde in Virgo

Hey everyone, this is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology, and today we are going to take a look at Mercury's upcoming retrograde in the sign of Virgo. In order to do so, we're going to take a slightly different approach, at least from what I've done in a while, and we're going to look at the I-Ching, an ancient Chinese Oracle.

I did an I-Ching reading this morning, asking the I-Ching for archetypal advice for us so that we can use that advice to understand the transit. This is something I've been doing for years, sometimes overtly over the years I've shared with you guys, the way in which the I-Ching informs the way that I develop and shape my talks. Most of the time, I'm doing it as a part of my prep and not including it in the way that, you know, I don't tell you the hexagrams that I was looking at as I was writing my talk every day. But people recently asked that I do this a little bit more so that, okay, hey, let's do it. I also drew a couple of tarot cards.

So we're going to play around with some other divinatory systems and ways of looking at Mercury's retrograde in Virgo, and hopefully, it will be useful for everyone. This shirt goes along with the latest line of apparel that my wife has been buying for me after getting me hooked on the Grateful Dead this summer. So anyway, hope you like my teddy bear shirt.

Yeah, so before we get into it today, as always, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share your comments and reflections. Now or as the retrograde goes on, feel free to come back and do so. If you have a good story to share, use the hashtag #grabbed. Tell us the name of the transit and then your story in the comment section. We aggregate those into storytelling episodes. Occasionally, you can email us your story as well. grabbed@nightlightastrology.com is the email address. When you go over to our website, by the way, nightlightastrology.com, be sure to check out all of my readings and courses; you can book a reading on the website we can get together and talk about your birth chart. If you have any questions about what you find there, email us at info@nightlightastrology.com.

Okay, well, let's pull up the real time clock and take a look at this transit, and then I am going to be guiding you through the I-Ching reading I did this morning and the tarot cards that I pulled and then reflecting on the archetype of this Mercury retrograde and hopefully giving you guys some good thoughts on the retrograde and some good advice for handling it.

Alright, well, here's the real time clock, and we're going to start by looking here at the fact that Mercury is stationing. So here's Mercury stationing, and if we go forward just a day, we'll see that the 23rd Wednesday into the 24th Mercury turns retrograde, but the 21st degree of Virgo is broadly opposed to Neptune. It refrains from a conjunction with Mars, and its retrograde goes as most Mercury retrogrades do about three weeks what watches we advance it one, two, and three.

So at about three weeks from the time of its retrograde, we'll see that it stations about September 14 and turns direct by the 15th into the 16th. So we have about three plus weeks, a little over three, and change of Mercury retrograde in the sign of Virgo. Interestingly before it stations and turns direct, it refrains from retrograding into an opposition with Saturn, so it kind of skates through the malefics and also refrains from an opposition to Neptune that it won't make until much later in September.

So let's see, the actual retrograde might even be October; the opposition is, yes, right, October. Looks like it's October 1 that actually makes the opposition to Neptune. So an interesting retrograde. Mercury is in its own sign in its own exultation. It is protected from the combustion through being in its own chariot. Which means that this is overall a pretty well-dignified retrograde, which should mean that we don't see, you know, it's not like the world's most topsy-turvy chaotic, difficult looking retrograde; it looks very constructive and helpful for the most part.

But there are some teachings that I think we can look at for this retrograde that are going to be applicable, and at first, it was funny because sometimes I cast the I-Ching, and I'll be like, What is this about? You know, how does this relate? Because it's not the angle that I was looking at the transit from if I spend time with it, it'll illuminate the transit in a way that I absolutely wasn't seeing before, and that was the case with the I-Ching reading that I did.

So in the I-Ching, you're casting hexagrams basically, and there are different ways of doing it with yarrow stalks, with coins, and you land upon one of 64 different hexagrams, and sometimes the lines of the hexagrams are changing and creating a second hexagram, and each hexagram is sort of like a teaching; a philosophical teaching tool that is applicable for the moment at hand.

In this case, there are two kinds of teaching tools, two hexagrams that came up for this Mercury retrograde. As I was reading them, I realized that one of the things that the reading was getting at was the fact that this Mercury retrograde is also happening alongside of Venus's transformation into the morning star and the completion of her retrograde cycle.

So, you'll see here at the beginning of Mercury's retrograde, here's what I want you to notice. Notice that Venus is retrograding through a square to Jupiter and that Venus will stay in that square to Jupiter for a good portion of Mercury's retrograde within three degrees.

This is all the way into September, and Venus is stationed and turned direct, but it's still within three degrees of a square to Jupiter, and I just kept thinking, gosh, this I-Ching hexagram sequence keeps reading like it's talking about the Venus-Jupiter square and then I started putting some things together. Oh, isn't it interesting that this Mercury Retrograde also features Mercury moving through its retrograde a trine to that Jupiter.

For example, right here, here's Mercury Retrograde moving through the square to Jupiter, and as it's moving through the square to Jupiter, Jupiter is stationing to turn retrograde itself. Very interesting. The cazimi moment that comes for Mercury and the Sun, check this out. So if we move it forward just a little bit, we'll see that Mercury crosses the face of the Sun as both Mercury, the Sun, and Venus are all contacting Jupiter through trines and square.

So suddenly, I started realizing that at the heart of this retrograde cycle is the Venus Jupiter square and a Sun Mercury trine to Jupiter, and then the reading started making sense. So now I'm going to share with you what, why it didn't make sense, and then why it did. Okay, the first hexagram that came back was number 27, and if you don't know the I-Ching, it's really not that important that you understand how it all works; just listen to the actual hexagram meaning, and you should be fine.

So hexagram 27 is translated as nourishment, and this is the Richard Wilhelm translation. The hexagram is a picture of an open mouth. Above and below are firm lines of the lips in between them, the opening starting with the mouth through which we take food for nourishment. The thought leads to nourishment itself. Nourishment of oneself, specifically of the body, is represented in the three lower lines.

Well, the three upper lines represent nourishment and care of others in a higher spiritual sense. The judgment reads the corners of the mouth perseverance brings good fortune and pay heed to the providing of nourishment into what a person seeks to fill their own mouth with. In bestowing care and nourishment, it is important that the right people should be taken care of and what we should and that we should attend to our own nourishment in the right way as well.

If we wish to know what anyone is like, we have only two deserve on whom He bestows his care and what side of his own nature He cultivates and cares for nature. Nature nourishes all creatures, a great person fosters and takes care of superior people in order to take care of all people through them. If we wish to know whether anyone is a superior person, I mean to be likewise, we need only observe what part of his being he regards as especially important. The body has important and unimportant things that need caring for, relatively speaking.

We must not injure important parts for the sake of the unimportant parts. Nor must we injure the superior parts for the sake of the inferior. He who cultivates the inferior parts of his nature and inferior person who cultivates the superior parts becomes a superior person. So it's just sort of a way of saying, like, if you only ever take care of your appetite, but don't cultivate your virtue, for example, you're not going to be a very good person. In the same way that if you don't eat, you'll starve. So what are we nurturing? What are we nourishing, and what are we caring for? What are we trying to make great? What are we nurturing and trying to feed?

This is really interesting because Mercury's retrograde in the sign of Virgo trines at its key moment of transformation right around the cazimi trines Jupiter in Taurus, while Venus is in a prolonged square to Jupiter, and as if you listen to my channel, you know we've talked about Venus-Jupiter, in terms of finding the golden mean, finding the middle, finding temperance. So it's interesting to me is that what that theme of temperance is in the air with Venus-Jupiter. What is beauty? What is satisfaction? What does indulgence look like in a way that is like appropriate? Like, aligned?

Some philosophies in a way of dealing with the problem of finding temperance; we'll just say that everything material is evil. Well, that's not. I don't think that's what we're going to be. You know, I don't think that's a great idea, personally. The I-Ching seems to say that in this hexagram, what's important is that we cultivate the right things, that we feed the right things that we nurture, and nourish the right things because when those things grow to become, the more that we nourish those things, the bigger and more pronounced they become, will you want to cultivate things that you want to become big and strong and successful are the good parts of yourself, or the good parts of relationships. So the good relationships that you have in general.

So I think it's really interesting that this Mercury retrograde seems at its most transformational moment to feed right into the Venus-Jupiter square, as though this Mercury retrograde is helping us to discern or differentiate between what is healthy and unhealthy. What is the middle path of temperance? What are we amplifying, and what is getting bigger because we're feeding it, and is it the right good things and that can be in any area of life.

I thought that was really fascinating. There are two changing lines, one of them reads just simply translation unspeakable delights tempt maddeningly from the far bank; you must not cross the stream. The other one says you gorge yourself on tempting sweets devoid of real nutritional value. Such heedless compulsiveness carries long-lasting consequences.

Both changing lines that were part of this reading; one speaks to not being tempted to undertake something really big that's actually empty, Venus square Jupiter, Mercury retrograding, at the heart of the Sun, transforming into the Morningstar, hitting the trine to Jupiter at the same time.

Don't chase things that look really big and spectacular and wonderful but are really void of any substance. The other line very similarly, you don't just gorge yourself on things that have no nutritional value; both are speaking to like a hollowness or an emptiness of things that are sweet and tasty looking or that look one way but are really void of real value. The transformed hexagram is number 37 family duties. Transformed hexagrams can be read as a comma and but almost like a second part of the reading that offers a kind of juxtaposition. The next hexagram represents the laws obtaining within the family, and this is from ancient Chinese culture.

So it goes on to talk about the different, you know, relationships in the family and sort of how they are supposed to go. The family, the judgment reads the perseverance of the woman further; she's sort of seen in this hexagram that the woman has seen like the hearth fire that keeps the tender relatedness of all the parts together. So the role of the Yin is to create a strong bonded interconnectedness in the family.

Now, that's an archetype that didn't have to take it literally, and anyway, it goes on to talk quite a bit about the different interrelationships with the family. But the idea here is also about a sphere of influence.

One of the ways of reading this hexagram that I've always liked over the years has been of understanding, you know, it's like, take care of your home first, you know, like, take care of what's at home first. The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing. Something that one of my spiritual teachers likes to say. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

There's something about the first hexagram that suggests that there could be a temptation to do something really big, and then this juxtapose second hexagram would be saying you may do so while neglecting something that's much more immediate and much more important that's closer at hand. It's almost like thinking that, you know, if, well, you know, maybe you have a problem holding on to too many things. You know, and so you think to yourself, you know, I know what will help me create more space in my house. It'll be if I get a storage locker, you know, and go cram a bunch of stuff in that locker, well, it's not really going to address the main thing, which is that you have trouble holding on to too many things and then before you know it, you'll need to storage lockers because you keep filling up with more stuff at home.

This hexagram was a little bit like that. It's a little bit like saying, don't go looking for something far off, or a big solution or an answer that somehow avoids a more immediate need. This would also be maybe like, Yeah, I'm sure there are so many, so many analogies that are running through my head. But I think when you read them in order, you get this feeling of looking at your, your sphere of influence in your sphere of concern, like what is of concern to you, that's immediate, that you actually have some, you have some influence on.

For example, your own house, your own closet, your own things, your own inner life, your own diet, your own sleep, you know, it's like, what can you actually, when you look at your list of concerns, which of them actually come into your sphere of influence, you have some power to act and do something about them. This hexagram sequence seems to be saying, do that first and be careful of the temptation to try to do big things when more immediate things close to home are more important.

Then the other advice seems to be about restraining yourself from distractions, and like temporary gratifications, that keep you from something that needs more immediate care and nourishment. It's like, don't think that, you know, if you're, having a bad day, you know, rather than, you know, eating some candy, it might be a better idea to take a few minutes and care for yourself.

So both hexagrams seem to speak to keeping the main thing, the main thing, and not getting distracted, not going too far out, and, you know, not missing what's right in front of you. It's interesting because when I pulled out the tarot card cards, I pulled the four of cups. I thought this is really interesting because this card will often be read as someone that can't see a gift that's been given to them. Or someone that is complacent, or someone who's missing the point. Or someone who is not grateful or they're so stuck on something that's wrong that they can't see the gift or the positive thing that's coming through.

So I asked the question, follow up, I said, what isn't the young man seeing in this case, that gift that's coming from the clouds that he can't quite see because he's so muddled up in the cups on the ground? What can't he see? What can't he see? So I drew another card, and I got the nine of pentacles that can be read in a lot of different ways.

But the way I would read this in context, what can't he see? He can't see the nine of pentacles. He can't see that he's surrounded by beauty. He can't see that he's surrounded by this is a woman, kind of like in her own backyard, the feeling of being in a private garden or something. This person can't see the beauty that's right there. There's a kind of richness and abundance that's right there, and I can't help but notice that this is specifically what the I-Ching was saying as well. You know, through the changing lines, I thought this was a good one. Let me go back and read it again. Unspeakable delights tempt maddeningly; from the far back, you must not cross the stream.

The changing hexagram again suggests that what's right in front of you is your true source of wealth, your true source of happiness. Don't get distracted by things that are far away. The real gift that's being given to you is perhaps something right in front of you, and then you gorge yourself on tempting sweets devoid of nutritional value.

There's something about such heedless compulsiveness carries long-lasting consequences. It's like you can't see what you have, can't see what you actually need. Those are some warnings built in. It's interesting that this Mercury retrograde happens at the outset with an opposition to Neptune as well, suggesting some process of clarifying needs and values as we go.

When I look at the fact that this Mercury retrograde again is happening as Venus becomes the Morningstar through a long square to Jupiter, I think to myself, this Mercury retrograde could aid Venus in a creative transformation. But it is really interesting that right is Venus as Mercury is coming through the heart of the Sun, making its alchemical transformation that it's hitting a trine to Jupiter as Venus is square to it.

This Mercury in Virgo tends to be a little bit more prudent and meticulous and careful and cautious. With the trine to Jupiter, I wonder if we aren't looking carefully at what we're attracted to what is what are our Venusian compulsions. How do we, you know, find that temperance if we need if we need it? How do we look at what we have that's right in front of us rather than, you know, getting pulled off by, you know, some Venus-Jupiter delusions of grandeur, I think those are questions that we can ask ourselves right now.

So always find that talking through I-Ching hexagrams, with the transits that it's a little bit more exploratory. See, that's like pulling my way through fog and seeing these; the I-Ching, for me, is like taking this completely other language and pulling it into the context of the transit and using it as a way of shining the light on the jewel, and then trying to catch the light as it bounces off.

So hope you find this useful and not too abstract. You know, for me, I've been using the I-Ching for a very long time, and often the way it works for me, one of the reasons I don't always include it is because it's very suggestive on a kind of instinctual and intuitive level for me, that's sometimes harder for me to articulate, which is exactly why I sometimes avoid doing these because I end up feeling sort of inarticulate.

But yeah, there's something you know, one of the things I love about Virgo, Virgo is well aware of the approaching judgment of the harvest moment, and there's a strong concern for purity with Virgo. That could be an influence that training that Jupiter in Taurus is just checking a little bit of the hedonistic tendencies of Venus and Jupiter, and that was really what I picked up from this. You know, stay home in what matters. Find the wealth and richness, nourish and grow the things that are of real, lasting value.

Find, in a sense, reorient what wealthy, beautiful, successful, happy happiness looks like. It doesn't have to be something that takes us too far away from the most immediate things that matter the most and are, in a way, the most basic. It's a good little a good check for a Venus Jupiter square, and that's what I felt like I was getting from the I-Ching.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts and reflections as you look at those symbols, or if you know the hexagrams or the cards, feel free to add your own thoughts as well. I'd love to hear them, and that's it for today. So I hope you're having a good one and we'll see you again tomorrow. Bye, everyone.