Mercury’s Refranation — A NEAR Miss with Pluto

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

Today we're going to take a look at Mercury slowing down to station in the sign of Scorpio in a prolonged square with Pluto. However, what's really interesting about this square is that there's something called a referenation taking place.

Which is when Mercury is or any planet is moving to make an aspect with another, comes very close to doing so, but then changes directions. Could be retrograde or direct. In this case, it's direct, and because of that change of direction, it avoids or has a kind of near miss encounter with the planet.

It almost connects with Pluto, but then stops and turns in the other direction. I think that's really fascinating, and we're going to take a look at that today. I'm going to give you a list of things to watch for, and we're going to explain this sometimes little-known concept from ancient astrology.

So that is our agenda for today. Before we get into it, as always, remember to like and subscribe. It helps us so much when you give us that thumbs up, turn on notifications. Really appreciate it. Daily transcripts of any of these talks can be found on the website.

That is nightlightastrology.com. Couple of brief promotions today, as always. Once you're over there on the website, take a look at the courses page. Click on first year course. We start this weekend, so if you want to join us, we start November 14th.

That is this coming Saturday, and that is going to be the first year course, Ancient Astrology for the Modern Mystic, which is now an APAI certified program. We have our our whole school has received the APAI accreditation, which means that you can get one of the best professional certifications in the world by going through our programs.

But even if you're just doing this for yourself, it's an amazing program. I'll tell you more about it in a video that's attached at the end of today's content. The main thing I want to make sure that you're aware of is at the bottom of the page you'll find that the tuition assistance is available.

So, if you are someone who could use a little help, that's a sliding scale pricing that will allow you to take the course at a flexible rate if that works for you and helps you make the program possible. Please do take advantage of that. We still have spots open there.

That's easy. Just fill out the application, and that's there for people who might really want to take the course, but don't you know you can't push yourself to live outside your means. So if that's you, we know people are in all sorts of difficult positions financially, and we want to make sure a spiritual subject is accessible.

On that note, you can book a reading as well. Readings with me, and then if you can't reach my price point, need-based astrology readings are some flexible pricing in there with our staff who are developing their experience. That's the way that Nightlight has rolled for a long time.

So glad to provide those offerings. On the shop page, you can go to my books. My book, The Oracle Speaks, is out. Of course, the Audible version is now available as well. You can click on the audio book form or paperback, whichever. Go to the events page, click on monthly webinars.

On the 19th of November, I'm giving a talk on the fourth house, the foundations of the natal chart. There's a lot, a very deep, esoteric, hidden and occult-like topics associated with the fourth that make this a really rich house, also a house associated with enlightenment.

Why we're going to talk about that in this talk. We're going to discuss that on november 19. So check that out. You get the recording if you can't attend live. And then finally, every single day at Nightlight, of course, there's free meditation. Come join us in the mornings.

We meditate as a community. It is wonderful. It is free. Go to that community quiet tab to learn more. All right. On that note, let's turn our attention to Nacep. So, of course, this is our affiliate software program.

So, if you would like a perpetual 20% off discount using this awesome astrology software, the discount code is in the description of the video. Okay. So here I'm just playing with the chart here's on November 11th. You can see I have Mercury highlighted.

And then what we want to point out is that Mercury is stationing at around five degrees and is moving into a square with Pluto as it is doing so. Now Mercury turning direct as the morning star. This is a significant event.

Let's go forward a day. We'll see that this is tomorrow, Thursday. We're going to go to Friday, and then we turn direct Saturday. So between now and Saturday, we have Mercury stationing to turn direct in a square with Pluto, two degrees off, little less than two degrees off, but refraining from the exact square.

So what what does that mean? Again, before we get into it, the date is november 10 to the 14th. That's the little range in which we're dealing with this. You may notice all the way through the 15th or 16th, the square energy lingers.

But the referenation, the approaching the square, stopping, turning around, is between now and Saturday. So that carries with it some very specific meanings. Interesting that both Venus and Mercury are turning direct at the same time. We're going to talk about that.

Later this week, but for now, what I want to focus on is just the referenation. So, referenation is often something that people. I feel like the first time that I learned about it was when I was studying horary, because in horary, a referention might be a very specific situation where you're asking if you know you'll get the job.

Or you're asking if you'll end up going out with somebody, and the referenation shows that it looks like it's happening, but then it stops and it does not happen. And so there's a kind of transformative dynamic that works by virtue of something almost but not quite happening.

So that's the gist of what a referenation means, and hopefully the technical side of it is clear enough. I don't think it's that complicated. But what I want to talk about are five things that you might watch for between now and the weekend, given this square and refer nation.

And there are some very powerful things. So the first one are just powerful conversations. So Mercury and Pluto together can bring conversations with a lot of weight. I have to confess something. I have a difficult question to ask. There's a confrontation that has to happen.

It's necessary, or words after they're spoken that really change us or sit with us for a long time. Another thing that can happen is that we may become much more aware of the power dynamics that exist within communication, speech, emails, etc. Who is asking questions?

Who is controlling information? Who feels like you you have to explain yourself because of power dynamics around words and explanations and language and things like that. Mercury Pluto, in terms of powerful conversations, can also be about the desire to go beneath some superficial surface level of politeness.

Like that's polite, but what is this really about? So you can get a lot of psychological insight in reading between the lines, but also sometimes like, what's it called? The fifth degree, the third, fifth, third degree, fifth degree. So I don't remember that.

My parents are giving me the something degree. What is that? But interrogation, right? That would be a word for it. Investigation, suspicion. These are Mercury-Pluto dynamics. Now, with Mercury refraining from the exact square, it's possible that all of this, these themes approach some kind of breaking point, but then shift direction or hold off from the worst case scenario.

Someone says, "Okay, I'm going to soften my mind or my position or my language," or a fact emerges that sort of prevents some worst case scenario from happening. An ultimatum becomes unnecessary because people become willing to move or change, and so the all of these dynamics around powerful words and conversation maybe peaking or cresting towards something, but hold off from the most intense expression of it.

That's the idea. All right, that's number one. Number two on my list are revelations. Very Mercury, Pluto, but it changes things when there's a reformation. But let's talk about it. Mercury and Pluto together will often evoke powerful feelings and powerful thoughts and ideas that up until now haven't been seen or fully expressed.

So it they come into view somehow. That would be secrets or buried feelings or subconscious, or unconscious material, or motivations, or a pattern that we suddenly recognize. Right. So that sense of I'm recognizing something, something's emerging, something's coming into view, something secret, hidden, buried, and underworld-like is coming up to be seen.

That revelation may be very internal and emotional and psychological. It could be something that's purely within ourselves, but it could also happen in some kind of environment: the environment of a relationship, or the workplace, or our family, or our parenting, or you know some some other sphere of life.

We're going to think about what is provoking us, what we find provocative or interesting, what we're afraid to maybe look at or admit, and this revelation can be you can seriously have your mind, heart, or life changed because of some powerful idea or insight, which may be something that prevents something else from happening.

This insight, a revelation, prevents something that you were moving toward from occurring. There can be really strong feelings about just enormous ideas or things beneath the surface that just sort of come up. An intuition that's kind of like building and growing. A suspicion. Strong feeling something's coming up.

It comes up, but whatever in whatever way it comes up, it doesn't create the total explosiveness or the sense that it's going to create something. It doesn't quite create what you think it's going to create. It changes direction at the last moment. Now, because again, the square doesn't perfect.

There's an anticipation, but that anticipation could be delayed and then sort of softened and redirected. That's the idea. You might learn something that was hidden, but it shifts what you're doing or how you're responding in some change of direction that occurs as a result.

And it could also be that something's revealed, but you're unable to come to a conclusion. That could be the referenation. All right. Well, number three on my list is mental obsession. Very common Mercury Pluto textbook interpretation. Mercury Pluto can intensify very focused or concentrated work or thinking or learning, which is great.

Psychological inquiry, decoding something, investigative journalism. These are all Mercury, Pluto kinds of things. You may be following some kind of thread or question with total dedication and focus, but you can get fixated. You can reread an email a dozen times and start seeing things that aren't there.

You can, you know, be rehearsing worst case disaster scenarios in your head. For me, it's like pulling too many tarot cards. You know, it's it's the idea that you can get obsessed with something. However, if you're obsessed with something and you're thinking this is moving toward a worst case scenario, something may prevent you from the worst case scenario, or your mental obsession.

There might be some kind of referendum on it, like, "Hey, you have to stop this. You have you have to change the way you're processing things mentally." It's like a close brush with you're going down potentially like a dark mental path where you're stuck on something, and something helps you get unstuck.

Mercury's station can make a subject of any kind, when it's that close to Pluto, feel very charged and sort of stuck and powerful, and something you have to deal with. However, the Reformation creates this sense that, okay, well, we don't have to go all the way to the worst possible end of things, or the darkest possible end of things.

Now, in a slightly more, I don't know, like what's a not so great way of reading the Reformation? Maybe there's something you're avoiding, and you need to confront it. But this Reformation means you get close to confronting it, but then back away. That could be a warning.

It doesn't literally mean that you can't have to back away just because Mercury is backing away. It could be a sign that you want to back away, and the Reformation is calling you to not avoid something that could be very easy to go.

I'm going to do it. Oh no, I'm not. I'm frozen by fear. I'm changing my course. Not going to do it. So be careful of that because the the referenation doesn't mean that again you can't face something or follow through with something. It could be a message saying be very careful of some desire to avoid something that really ought to be done.

You have to use discernment, of course. Yeah, you know, going deep. That's a very Mercury Pluto kind of thing. All right. Well, let's go on a close call. So you're you're approaching again something that looks sort of harrowing, a decision or a consequence or a confrontation.

But a literal example might be that you you catch an error that would have been costly prior to it happening, and then creating some bad result, and you catch it, and you edit, you change, you revise because you caught something.

In relationships, you might be getting close to a fight or an accusation or an ultimatum or saying something difficult, and and instead, you go. What's a better way to you know what? How do I not go nuclear? And I've sort of been alluding to a close call the whole time, so this one's a little bit redundant, I suppose.

But yeah, a close call can also reveal something that's beneath the surface. It's like when you and a friend have a close call, and almost the relationship almost ends, but it doesn't. It may reveal to you some things that both of you need to look at.

You know, even when an event doesn't happen, in other words, the pressure that led up to it can still require attention and have maybe some creative purpose that it serves. That's actually interesting to me. I think that's that's a fascinating possibility.

Another thing would be number five on my list would be finding your voice. So if Mercury is stationing direct as a morning star, one of the things that we and let me just show you how you can notice this, in case you're like, how do I tell that it's a morning star?

Let's. I'm gonna get rid of everything on the chart except for the sun and Mercury. Let's take out the nodes to just clean up the chart view a little bit as well. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to back this up a little bit so you can see the difference between an evening star Mercury and a morning star Mercury.

Okay, so this is an evening star Mercury, and here's how you can tell: we rotate the sun through the sky. See how it's rising? That's up at about the mid heaven. Then it's setting, and then when the sun goes through the seventh house over here.

It sets right, so we're the right hand side of the wheel. The sun is below the horizon, and Mercury's up above the horizon after the sun sets. That's Mercury as an evening star. Now, what happens? In case you're not familiar with retrogrades, is Mercury is going to reach its maximum elongation.

That means the furthest distance away from the sun that it can get, and that starts at around 18 degrees for Mercury, and then it's going to stop moving, station turn retrograde, and then what happens is Mercury becomes invisible because it gets so close to the sun.

Then it retrogrades out behind the sun in zodiacal order, and that distance starts gaining. And then what happens is you have something like this. The station is approaching this weekend, and watch what you have when we rotate this through the sky.

You're going to see. Here we go. So notice how right on the ascendant here at five degrees of Scorpio we have Mercury, and you know behind Mercury we have about 17 degrees away from the Sun we have Mercury stationing direct.

That's Mercury rising as the morning star, it appears in the east prior to the sun rising. So that's always happening, and then Mercury in direct motion will eventually catch up to the sun, emerge on the other side of the sun as an evening star.

Let's actually trace that out so you can see Mercury's upcoming cycle. So Mercury moves really quickly. We're going to see Mercury as an evening star. I don't know technically exactly when it's going to occur, but let's just say it looks like it's mid to late January.

It's a mid to late January. Mercury is making its appearance as an evening star again in Aquarius. Up until then, after the station will be moving in direct motion, and then it comes out on this side, and then we'll see that next retrograde in Pisces in February, and then it does the whole thing over, and it does this three times a year, sometimes four, but usually three.

So that's the dynamic. Okay. Well, anyway, just just because I thought that would be a fun little segue, I guess. Let's go to the last one, which is finding your voice. So when Mercury stations direct as the morning star, the morning star is thought to be more assertive, more masculine, or yang for Mercury for Venus too.

Both of them are morning stars right now. That morning star Mercury offers an image of thought, speech, words, ideas emerging in a more assertive, sometimes aggressive manner. So when when Mercury is appearing as the morning star in a square with Pluto, then there is a a powerful emerging sense of words, ideas, thoughts, communication, strategy, things around business and commerce or technology.

Those things are kind of something new is appearing, and in its first appearance, it's very bold. It's like someone blasting a trumpet. So, finding your voice can be a way of. We could just generally say Mercury has a new voice, or Mercury is vocalizing something, and that might mean for us personally that we're finding our voice, or that something is finding words, or confidence, or momentum, or a decision, or something's ready to be initiated, and Mercury and Pluto can bring us also into contact with subjects that we maybe feel we've been unable to speak to, and now we can because we have voice: grief, or resentment, or desire, or fear, or shame, and power, and any experiences that are just so-called negative that we want to vocalize, or be real, or not shy away from.

So that might be, well, I usually would censor myself, but I'm not going to. Or it might be, I'm not going to be afraid of this, or I'm going to face or confront it. There's a level of emotional depth with Scorpio that's quite profound, and Aquarius might also appeal to different group dynamics.

Where do you belong? Group opinions, the consequence of speaking out within various social settings. And with that square in the Reformation, finding your voice or speaking out, it may take on a. There may be a different form that Mercury is taking on than what's expected or anticipated.

Something that looks like it's about to occur shifts and changes forms kind of dramatically. Maybe there's some history to this, given that we do have a whole retrograde cycle behind us now. You would look to the whole sign house of Scorpio in your birth chart for more information about that.

So we're going to look at both planets turning direct, and maybe we'll do some horoscopes around Mercury turning. I'm not sure yet. I've I've been thinking through if we're going to do any horoscopes this week, we've done a bunch lately.

So, anyway, that's what I've got for today. We start our new program this weekend, so check it out. Check out the website. Use the need-based tuition. If it will help you, we'd love to have you there. I'm going to tell you more about the program next.

Take care.