An Ancient Warning — Mercury’s Morning Star Activating

Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/].

Today we're going to talk about Mercury's appearance as the morning star. This happens at the end of every Mercury retrograde cycle, as its retrograde takes it out behind the Sun. In zodiacal order, it appears as the morning star. Now our horoscopic tradition has a variety of things that have been said about this appearance in terms of its symbolic meaning. We're going to review some of those things today, but we're also going to compare it to a variety of different astrology traditions all across the planet, who actually said some really similar things.

And in particular, there's a special kind of warning that Mercury's appearance as the morning star tends to carry with it across all these traditions. We're going to talk about how to think about that warning or how to receive it, so it's not too scary, but that we also really take it seriously if we need to. So that is our agenda for today.

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Okay, on that note, as always, let's turn our attention to the real time clock. So heading over here to the real time clock. I will back this up just a day here tomorrow, I'm doing a live stream, and in that live stream, I will be breaking down your horoscopes for the Full Moon in Gemini, and we'll be looking at the relationship between that whole sign house of Gemini and the host of that Full Moon in Gemini, which is mercury turning direct.

So if you like, today's talk and you're thinking, Gosh, I wish I had some horoscopes to help me take a closer look at this mercury, this mercury morning star appearance that we're going to talk about today. Don't you worry tomorrow, tomorrow, we're going to take a look at it together. We're going to break down your horoscopes. We're going to talk in depth about the Full Moon in Gemini and its rulership, or its host, the fact that it's being hosted by Mercury, who is just now direct that mercury direct motion will be taking us into the final iteration of our Grand Water Trine.

It feels like we've just been in like the most watery season of all several months now we've been talking about water a whole lot on this channel, but everyone's sick of it by now. But anyway, mercury, hosting this full moon, is not only turning direct, appearing as the Morning Star, carrying all the meetings we're going to talk about today, but is also re engaging that Grand Water Trine.

So if you want to hear more about that, tomorrow, we'll be doing horoscopes in a live stream. You can catch that on the channel. I believe it is. What time is it at? Gosh, you'd think that I would, I would have, I think it's at 930 at 930 or 10 Central. Anyway, you'll see it's the time is listed there on the Live button, on our website, on the YouTube channel.

Okay, so what I want to talk about now, I'm going to eliminate everything from our perspective, except for the Sun and Mercury. We're going to talk about the Synodic Cycle just a touch. This won't be like full on Synodic Cycle lesson, but it's worth looking at. I'm. So when Mercury's you might remember that Mercury's retrograde at the time of the New Moon in Scorpio. This is around November 19.

We had that New Moon in Scorpio opposite Uranus. I think everyone, we were all pretty hyped about that new moon, including myself. I thought it was probably the biggest new moon of the year. It hasn't disappointed yet in terms of some of the super Uranian and Mercury Retrograde like significations, my car almost blew up, and then I ended up getting an incredibly, like, weirdly good deal on trading it in for a different car.

I think I told you guys that story. I can't believe, or I can't remember if I have or have not, but I couldn't believe it. It was a wild story, and that that was kind of what that was, where it landed for me. But I've seen a lot of people dealing with the Mercury Retrograde, the very Uranian signatures. We've got one more iteration of that from mercury, by the way, which we'll be getting into probably later next week.

But anyway, this is the moment at which Mercury went from its retrograde and burning up under the sun to the process of now being reborn as a morning star. This is always the second half of the from Mercury's retrograde and its cycle. This is sort of the second half of the mercury retrograde cycle, and its meaning is connected to what it's doing at this time.

So first of all, what I want you to see is that if I back this up just a little bit to sunrise, you're going to see that at sunrise, when Mercury is at the heart of the sun, you're not seeing it because it's joined with the sun, and at sunrise, it's therefore drown out by the sun. But what starts happening is day by day, as the two planets as Mercury continues its retrograde and is now coming out behind the sun in zodiacal order.

Sun's in sag. Mercury is retrograding through Scorpio, the previous sign. So that's what we mean by it's moving behind it in zodiacal order. Now, as that comes forward, you're going to notice that once there gets to be about 15 degrees of separation. That's November 27 November 28 the two planets get to about 15 degrees apart. That's an average number of degrees that typically corresponds with mercury recovering from under the beams of the sun, where it's taxed a little bit, appearing as the morning star because it can, because it's visible again, Mercury is now sort of reborn.

You could say that if Mercury has been in the womb, it's now coming out of the womb into its new life cycle as a morning star. I want to talk about the meaning of this appearance, because it just happened at the very end of last week, and that morning star appearance phase was thought to last about a week, which means we are in this week. We are in the morning star appearance phasal dynamic of Mercury's cycle.

Now that Synodic Cycle with the sun also features a really important stage when Mercury appears as the Evening Star. And sometimes the cycle is oriented differently in terms of its starting point, with the direct conjunction to the sun or the retrograde conjunction to the sun. I don't think it matters so much. The point is every phase is very unique and carries its own symbolic weight.

What we want to do today is understand what we're in the midst of this week, which is morning star appearance phase. Morning Star appearance phase carries mercury to the very end of its retrogradation. So what you're going to notice is just about as soon as that 15 degree range of separation is achieved, Mercury appears as the morning star its first appearance.

Now here's how you can tell that it's appearing notice as it's just now in the sky here, about 17 degrees apart from the sun, the sun has not yet risen. We'll call this line the ascendant, just for the sake of making it simple. Here in a whole sign house chart, the mercury is above the horizon, which means you could see it as a morning star.

If you didn't have anything in your in front of your view, like the mountains or something, you could see Mercury right there appearing above the horizon in the East before the sun. That's what we mean when we say it's a morning star. You can see it again it was too close to the Sun previously. Now you can see it when it first appears.

That first appearance, just like the first appearance of a baby coming out of the womb is marked to the ascendant, it becomes the ritual moment of significance that all of the symbols in the sky are aimed toward addressing, who is this being? What is this life about? That's horoscopic astrology. Similarly, the first appearance of stars after going under combustion, retrogradation, being invisible behind the beams of the sun, whatever the case might be in a Synodic Cycle, their first appearance was also heralded as a moment of great oracular significance.

The birth of a baby gets a moment of oracular significance that the whole sky speaks to but planet. Earths are also like gods or goddesses or archetypal fields that go through periods of transformation in this material world, in the way we see and experience them as humans, which means Mercury's rebirth is a moment of great oracular significance, again, in the same way that a human birth might be a moment of oracular significance.

But what did ancient people say about this moment, and what can we learn from it right now? That's what we want to consider today. First of all, again, just before I even get into that one last thing here, notice that right as that appearance happens, you'll see the little s next to Mercury. That means Mercury stationing direct now that direct motion means that mercury is going to be barely moving very slowly as a newly appeared Morning Star.

That's why we give it about a full week. So if the morning star appearance happened at the end of last week, if you're in the United States, would have been around Thanksgiving. Just after Thanksgiving this week, we're still in the sort of broader orb of mercury being like, Hey, I'm here. I'm a brand new being born into a new part of my cycle.

I went through the alchemical fires of the sun. Now I've been reborn, and I have something new to say. I have something new to bring now again, horoscopically, we'll be looking at that tomorrow. Today, I want to talk more broadly about the archetypal significance of this stage. So now, if we take this forward again just a little bit, we're going to see that mercury speed very gradually picks up, and then, not surprisingly, as its speed picks up, it's going to gradually move back to under 15 degrees.

It does this more quickly than any other planet, except for the moon in terms of the speed of the moon cycle. And then we're going to see that that cazimi is happening in Aquarius about January 21 that's the reset that then leads mercury into its evening star appearance phase, right? So the cycle resets pretty quickly, which is why we get these Retrogrades three times a year, give or take.

So that's just a little crash course, but let's bring it back to this current moment and where we stand today, Wednesday, December 3. Wet my whistle before I talk like mercury, about mercury, there are five things that we can watch for given this appearance now. First of all, if you wanted to get a jump on this, look at the whole sign house of Scorpio, because that's where Mercury is making its appearance, and that's where Mercury is turning direct and being reborn as the morning star.

Anything we say today could be applied to the topics of the whole sign house of Scorpio in your birth chart. That would be the horoscopic way of looking at your birth chart. All horoscopes are done in whole signs. So consider that whole sign house of Scorpio, and that's where the change of direction or any of the applications that we look at today would show up now again, like I said, we'll do horoscopes on all of this tomorrow.

So if you don't want to do that work on your own, don't worry. We've got you all right. But here's what to watch for in considering all of this. Now, what I find just absolutely remarkable about this is that there are traditions from all over the world that say the same things, not always the same things. There are a variety of different takes on mercury as a morning star that are interesting within different traditions, but they all say some very similar things.

This is what I find truly remarkable. So here's the first thing. You may recall that there is a famous quote at the beginning of I want to say, it's the Gospel of John, and this was we now know we're scholars who are, let's call, more open minded and interested in religious, mythic and philosophical plurality and diversity. At least, will support this idea, which is that the statement at the beginning of the book of John, the in the beginning was the logos the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and so on and so forth.

Those words would have been broadly understood and accepted by the philosophical audience of the world at that time, because those ideas, philosophically speaking, in the reference to the logos, was kind of like would have been popularly understood against the backdrop of Greek philosophy and metaphysics. Now I remember when I even when I was in I went to a Christian college, and I remember studying the connections between Greek philosophy and the New Testament.

And, you know, they're they're there. So to me, it's silly to ignore that they're there. I say that just because there's always some it seems like there's always some Christians listening who can't open their mind to those kinds of interplays. But anyway, as a. Morning Star. When Mercury first appears in the light of the luminous, sunlit world, that's the morning where you can you're always going to see Mercury as a morning star, as the light of the world is coming to be.

And that was associated, not just by the Hellenistic astrologers, but by astrologers from different traditions all over the world as the first creative words spoken, so that the way that the word, or even if you think about it, as you know, at a new moon, we set intentions. Really, what we're talking about is the power of spoken words, of the mind, of intentions, to set the course for something.

I say I'm going to do something, and that has a real power. And even if that verbalization is only in my head, I think to myself, I'm going to do something. This was something that was associated by people all over the world because the appearance of Mercury, the god of speech, the psycho pomp, who guides the soul, the guide of the god of words, and also the God of maps and plans.

Appearing as a morning star, has the power to announce the direction that will be taken at the start of a new endeavor or a new cycle. This is really important, because when Mercury is appearing as this morning star, you may be unconsciously starting to make intentions or say things or words may be spoken that you're you're because you're not paying attention, you may not realize the sort of incantational power that your words and thoughts have at this time.

That becomes a really important clue for us. Now, this was in Mesopotamia. There was Naboo, who was considered the dawn scribe associated with mercury in the morning star appearance issued proclamations at sunrise. The proclamation of mercury at Morning Star has this kind of magical like you think of the magician card in Tao, the incantational power of mercury as the Morning Star, is like writing down an intention on a vision board.

Now, the fact that life is doing that, whether we're participating or not, ought to perk our ears up. The ears of our soul ought to go, okay, you know, like I'm listening because I want to be consciously a part of what is being spoken into creation at this hour. Now in Egypt, we also have Thoth associated with Hermes mercury, and the appearance of Mercury's morning visibility with that who brings something into daylight, intelligence, that that which articulates and makes clear and known something that has been unclear, and that becoming aware of something has the power to direct the course of life in a new direction.

In China, Morningstar associations will be about the the things that are spoken prior to events transpiring. There you have it in Mesoamerica, Maya and Aztec, associated with scribes, messenger deities, tricksters and shape shifter energies. It's it's amazing how all of these traditions assign very similar things to Mercury, but in the morning in particular, that assignment of mercury to scribes, messengers, etc, was often associated with announcements.

So keep that in mind, indigenous and cultural folk traditions from North America, African traditions, animals that appear around dawn will be speaking to what is to come. So the first thought, first word, or first insight of the day, also associated with mercury at dawn, and some of these North American and African traditions that I did some research on. There's a great book, by the way, called religion.

No, what is it? Called astrology and cosmology in the world's religions, by Nicholas Campion, great reference for this kind of thing, in terms of understanding all the different astral omen and astrological traditions from all around the planet. Anyway. So for all of these reasons, you can think right now, if you have, if you kind of put on a different set of archetypal and symbolic glasses, you can look for the things being spoken at the start of a new cycle, the the first incantational words of a new cycle.

That is a Wow. What a lens. Because suddenly, if your partner says something, and you've got it in yourself, in your seventh, or suddenly something is proclaimed or spoken at work and you've got it in the 10th, or something that you learn becomes part of your awareness in the ninth, you see what I mean, you get a bill in the mail or some kind of announcement from your utility company in the second.

Now you're starting to. See how the scribe will appear in things that you know you might just see as natural part of earthly life, but is actually part of how the messenger is speaking at dawn, the dawn of something new. Now this is the part that I think is very, very fascinating, the morning star appearance of both Mercury and Venus all across the world has sometimes has the connotations of providing us with a warning.

Now, the reason for that seems to be, as far as I can tell, just reading a variety of different texts and and I've taught on this before, but when something appears right before dawn, it has the feeling of something that is preceding the rising or appearance of something else. Now, you wouldn't think that Dawn would be something to warn us about, but things that happen right before dawn can be like preparing you for something.

So there's this long tradition of Venus as a morning star warning us of conflict to come, for example, of war that's about to come. Mercury is very similar in that all across the world, whatever appears right now could be trying to alert you to something in the same way that when the sun rises, you naturally get out of bed and your energy goes from sleeping to awake.

Things that appear right before dawn are sometimes seen as warnings, or like, you know, an alarm clock trying to get your attention. Hey, pay attention to this. Pay attention to that. Raising your awareness. Like the sun coming into being, these omens will appear in our life around this time that are trying to warn us, like, Hey, be careful of this. Or, hey, something's about to happen over here.

So they can guide us and direct us through like raising the alarm bells a little bit. What I want to be clear about is that as soon as you say warnings, alarm bells, things like that, it it can seem like it's announcing disaster. It can feel really ominous, and our imaginations can start running wild and thinking that really terrible things are about to happen sometimes.

I Okay, let me give you a simple example. All of us in our cars when we're driving at these days. Anyway, I think most of us have, like, a little digital indicator that'll tell us you've got 20 miles left before you're going to be walking along the side of the road trying to get a gas station or, you know, a ride to you're going to have to go buy one of those little gas pails and fill it up and walk back to your little car, you know.

So when we see that little warning light go on, we think to ourselves, okay, is running out of gas the worst thing in the world? No, but is it super inconvenient? And will we sort of, will it really Jack the rest of our day up? If I have to hike along the side of the road or, like, call someone and get a ride or whatever? Yes, it will totally screw everything up.

An alarm doesn't mean that the thing coming as a consequence is the end of the entire universe. It doesn't have to be the fucking apocalypse, right? Oh my gosh. You know, ever since Mercury has been retrograde in sag and Scorpio, I just have a potty mouth. It's like, I attribute it to the sag, or maybe it's the mercury in a Mars world sign. I don't know.

The truth is that I just like being a little sassy sometimes. So anyway, don't take it like you know the world's gonna end. But there could be a warning right now, the appearance of mercury as a morning star in a Mars world sign in Scorpio that could be drawing your attention to something that you're not quite seeing, or not take taking seriously enough that could be a threat, or that could be undermining or that could be a bigger deal than you're thinking it is.

I think we have to be serious about that, since, again, this is not just a Hellenistic and Vedic traditions that talk about this. We have the same warnings present as coming from other worlds to warn in the Mesopotamian traditions, Egyptian, Chinese Mesoamerican, indigenous North American and sub Saharan African traditions, we have Morning Star appearances of both Mercury and Venus as warnings.

Now again, just remember, we tend to imagine a warning as a worst case scenario, but remember, even something as simple as your gas light has a warning indicator number three, this is again, something I've already said, but it bears repeating, which is that you. Um, all planets are signs and symbols, and all, all planets are constantly conveying symbolic information. In ancient astrology, all of the entire language of astrology was understood as signs and omens.

So it seems redundant in a certain way, to say, oh, Mercury appearing as the morning star will give signs and omes like, Well, duh. Isn't that what we're always looking at with mercury? Yes, but when something appears as the Morning Star, it's a little bit more like expect that the, let's call it The Omen, activity level will be significantly higher, the importance higher signs and symbols are passing through all of the time.

This is actually a living matrix of signs and symbols. Everything we wear, the clothing we wear, the colors, the way we speak, we are. We're moving through a matrix of signs and symbols of language that's living and alive and that's geometric and artistic and musical, and here we are just moving and swimming through it. But when things appear as morning or evening stars, especially in that first stage of appearance, like the first week, there is a significantly greater chance that powerful signs will appear in your life.

Pay attention to what is appearing and trying to grab your attention in general, in other words, doesn't have to be a warning. It doesn't have to be the first word spoken at the start of a cycle. It could be a message, it could be a meaning, it could be a lesson, it could be an insight. It could be some sense of what's about to happen that is good.

It doesn't even, doesn't have to be a warning, instruction, guidance, whatever it is. Just notice that this week is a lot busier and more dynamic and active with respect to Mercury's appearance as symbolic and as a sign. Now, I think it's important to understand that, again, in an astral Omen tradition, we have all of these different basically all of our techniques are teaching us how to prioritize which signs and symbols are speaking most loudly.

For example, we commonly mistake the language of essential dignities for a language of strength, when really, in the ancient tradition, the entire language of dignities is meant for us to understand voicing which means it's about the whole language of dignities is not about which planet is the strongest. It's about understanding which planets are speaking loudest, and also in relation to which topics and to which conversations with other planets.

So really, what we mean when we say watch for the signs of mercury this week is that Mercury's Voicing is very loud this week, and you may notice that if you pay attention and that can have a it's it has to stay that general, because there are so many personal, you know, instances in which that will mean and look completely different. And again, the best hint you have is to look at that whole sign house of Scorpio, which, again, we'll do in horoscopes tomorrow.

Okay, finally, when the morning star appearance of mercury comes about, especially things that are mental verbal, that have to do with learning or skill development or technology, that have to do with things like writing or speaking or teaching communication, that anything that that starts to show up as the fruit of your labor will often show up when Mercury appears as the morning star.

Let's say you've been writing a book, something I'm in the process of doing right now, editing and finishing a book, The morning star appearance phase will often coincide with something moving from having been in the process behind the scenes to going forth in more public ways and being seen in more public ways. Well, not surprisingly, in the next two weeks, I'll be passing my final personal edits off to a professional editor, so you can even it's something that simple, where anything you've been working on that's mercurial.

And again, look at that whole sign house of Scorpio. If it's in your seventh house, it might be the kind of things you've been working on, communication, emotional, psychological dynamics in relationships, whatever the work has been. Notice that the fruit of the labor might be appearing right now. And if the fruit, if you've not been working on things consciously, then you can expect that the fruit of the karma will appear in whatever way it's been unconscious.

But the fruit means the karma, so the results, the outcomes, will start to appear and make themselves known when Mercury appears as a morning star. Because that's in the birth position. It's coming to light. In other words, all right. Then finally, we have a masculinized mercury. Now this, again, is all across the board in ancient Indian astrology, Hellenistic astrology, its eastern orientation tends to be about faster, sharper, more commanding, more initiative.

Forms of mercury, which means it's it's sharper, more rational, maybe slightly more combative. It's less feminine in the way that expresses mentally and verbally. Now this is a feminine water sign that it's in still, a Mars ruled one. You're going to notice this a lot more when Mercury rolls back into Sagittarius. Everything I'm saying, but it's it is good for things like analytical, assertive, business oriented things, trade contracts and learning that require being very direct or aggressive, teaching, speaking and writing that's more public or visible and maybe more assertive, it has a association with things that are like diplomats, accountants, scribes, merchants, but typically in a way that's going To be more forward, direct, aggressive, masculine.

So sometimes interesting that Mercury's appearance as the morning star will sometimes, is sometimes associated with new decrees or new laws or or so anything that we're initiating in an entrepreneurial and Mercurial manner can appear under such uh time periods. And also like anything that's clever and that has to do with like, how do I get what I want? Tends to be more of a masculinized market.

How do I use my intelligence to pursue something? So if you think about the masculine it's a bit like a hunter, and if you think about mercury in the masculine position, it's like, how do I use my intellect to cleverly pursue and achieve my desired outcome? It's very competitive intellectually mercury in the morning star position, verbal sharpness, cunning, etc. So watch for mercury to just pick up a little bit more of a masculinized feel.

And again, like when it comes to a sign of Scorpio that might increase some of the psychological drama and some of the emotional depth and intensity at first, you'll notice that mercury gets significantly clearer with respect to this bizarre blend of like masculine mercury and feminine Scorpio once it reaches Sagittarius, which is, you know, about the 11th or 12th of December. Of December.

Okay, well anyway, that's been a little crash course in Mercury's appearance as a morning star, which is very active for us this week. So I hope this is useful, that you learn something new. Hey, as always, this today, from the time I sat down, developed this talk, produced it, sent it off to the team, curated, it edited, got it prepped for everything that's three hours.

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