Mercury Retrograde & a Sneaky Mercury Aspect To Watch Out For

Hey everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology, and today we're going to take a look at an aspect that is being formed between Mercury in the sign of Libra as Mercury is going to retrograde and Neptune in the sign of Pisces. It's not a typical aspect. It's called antiscia. And it is when two planets create an aspect across equinox and solstice lines, rooted in the amount of sunlight or light in the 24-hour period. It's a really interesting thing. I have talked about what antiscia is at length in other videos. So if you aren't familiar with what antiscia is, and you want kind of a lesson on antiscia, look in the comment section of this video, or excuse me, look in the description of this video, and you'll find a previous video that you can access to kind of get a little lesson on what antiscias are, what this aspect is all about. In case you're unfamiliar, you don't really need to know that you can just listen and get the gist of it too. But if you're curious, you can always check that out.

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So I am excited to take a look at this aspect. One of the reasons that I think it's important to look at this is because it lasts so long. Let's go ahead and put the real-time clock up, and I'm going to point it out. So here you'll see on September 9, there's Mercury in Libra stationing now; what basically happens is when the planets that are in signs of antiscia form, they both land at degrees that prospectively add up to 30. Then you're getting antiscia. So let's let me just show you just briefly. If you are working across the zero Capricorn axis of the winter solstice, the signs of antiscia run like this; you have Sagittarius Capricorn; if you had two planets that degrees and those signs that added up to 30, they would form antiscia. Same thing with Scorpio and Aquarius, and then Libra and Pisces. So you'll notice that eight and 24 add up to 32. So it's very, very close, and Mercury is moving backward, which means as it heads toward six degrees of Libra, it will form that perfect antiscia. Now antiscia are just, again, not giving a full lesson on this, but just kind of a reminder; they are often thought of as a kind of secretive form of conjunction between two planets. And on the days when the sun is at six, Libra and 24 Pisces, it means that there's the same amount of light in the 24-hour period. The difference is that one is on the waxing half of the year, and one's on the waning half of the year. So but the same amount of light in the 24-hour period. So they are going to share a similar similarity. They're coming together, although not in a conventional aspect. And this is why it's thought of as somewhat secretive; it's not based on a traditional line of sight. In fact, they have no line of sight; they're actually averse to one another by whole sign. But nonetheless, their degrees have a correspondence. And so what we're seeing is something like a prolonged mercury, Neptune conjunction, although it's more subtle, or you might be less aware of it. And that has potentially some sort of secretive connotations.

So I have several themes that we're going to; now that I should mention, how long does that aspect last, that aspect lasts all the way through, say, 16th, 17th of September, you'll see it starting to recede by the 16th or 17th of September, so but then again, after Mercury finally turns direct, it'll go back through Libra and eventually do it again. So and, you know, we might eventually come back to that. But for now, the main thing is just to know that between, say, Mercury turning retrograde around the 10th of September, and let's see, yeah, Mercury Retrograde around the ninth, 10th is when you're really starting to feel Mercury Retrograde all the way through, like 16th 17th right around that time, you have this very subtle sort of secretive Mercury, Neptune conjunction from Libra to Pisces.

So there are three themes that I would watch for, or I would have, you just sort of pay attention to. And they're already present because Mercury is two degrees away and applying now through its retrograde. So, into this weekend, all the way through next week, I would pay attention to these three themes. Now, not all at once, not all the time, but you might just notice them popping up under the radar here or there.

One is going to be the tendency toward deception, secret, and gossip that is typical of a Mercury Neptune conjunction. When the two planets come together, boundaries slip away when it comes to speech, which can mean that we're more likely to deceive people and less likely to play by the rules of or, you know, kind of maybe looser in the way that we talk or how we talk which could mean deception, it could mean that there's a kind of secretive quality in the air around speech or communication, could be that there's a little aura of gossip, I would be careful of hiding things from people, this is not a good time to sneak on to somebody's phone and spy on them. You know, like, Oh, I've got a girlfriend, and I wonder if she's, you know, dating Ted or, you know, whatever the case, I'm going to look on her phone.

Because anything that you're doing with, you know, without being straight, like straightforward and direct, and if you're crossing boundaries, or violating people's privacy, or speaking about them when they're not in the room, these things could have more of a consequence than you might imagine. A little smack talk, you know, we all do it. But a little smack talk could lead to bigger problems. So I'd be very careful of gossip, secretiveness, deception, crossing boundaries that shouldn't be, and so forth. I think this is kind of one of the big shadows of this secretive formation between Mercury and Neptune would be anything that's sort of under the table and anything that's been hidden or that you're trying to hide or be, you know, you're hiding it from sight like you know there I'm sure there will be slight I think a manifestation of this you could see in the news would be somebody famous hiding something or something being revealed that was hidden or that some someone was trying to deceive or get away with something. And then it's like revealed.

The second theme that I would watch for would be giving or needing too much. Now Mercury Neptune could be a sign of, you know, let's call Mercury and Libra, the diplomat or the near the careful negotiator, the one who is mediating between different parties or different needs or so forth. You could find with the porousness and sort of vast, watery quality of Neptune in Pisces that there's almost like in some kind of negotiation, or in some kind of balancing act that you're trying to pull off with other people that someone is just asking for too much or is being too needy.

On the other hand, you could be tempted as a way of trying to solve the problem of giving too much or of over-compromising, or, like, let's just make the problem go away by, you know, giving way more than we ought to. You know, maybe sometimes that's the way to solve a problem is to just give an unreasonable person what they want, so it'll just go away. I'm not saying that that hasn't ever happened to me before. But, you know, be careful of people potentially trying to drain you somehow. And for the sake of peace or diplomacy, very Mercury and Libra thing you're going to acquiesce, or you're going to suffer a fool somehow. So I would be a little bit careful about that.

It may be maybe it's, you know, I could see there being like a grand, charitable, generous offering to with Mercury and Libra, in the secret of conjunction with Neptune in Pisces, like a giving fourth, that's more than, you know, adequate, like a great diplomatic gesture. And if it's coming from a noble place, then amazing that the spirit of charity, generosity, compassion, and doing something to be a peacemaker. That could be a really wonderful thing. I would be cautious about the boundarylessness of Mercury Neptune, and you know, giving too much or needing too much as well, you know, checking ourselves to make sure we're not asking the people around us for too much more than they have available emotionally or financially or something like that.

Number three. The third theme I would look for is the potential to be seduced by appearances. Now, Libra is very conscious of what people think and of the scales and how they're always balancing. And there is always a sense of the social ramifications or the consequences of actions and choices and what other people will think that Libra is naturally very aware of being a Venus ruled sign, but also the exultation of Saturn, a sign of the scales. I think that with Neptune, the sense of becoming very aware, very open, and receptive to what other people need, think, and want, and being seduced by the appearances of things as well, could become problematic with this aspect to the point where you're thinking, how I look, or what I do, or what I choose, or how I respond is, you know, I have to maintain a certain appearance or a certain image, I can't let people think that there's something else going on.

That's a lot of pressure to place on ourselves. And probably, if you try to hide too much or try to create too much of an ideal image or appearance, on some level, there'll be a problem eventually. You'll find eventually the truth will come out, we're all a mess, you know, what I mean? The more of a pure image you try to present, the more that the complicated, diverse, messy part of who we are or the reality of the situation will eventually need to come forth; you can't just suppress that forever. So be careful of trying to present or being seduced by overly clean, pure, simple, perfect things. Leave a little room for the flaws, the faults, leave a little room for the mess, leave a little room for the chaos; the Mercury Neptune dynamic with Mercury and Libra could be, you know, seduced by images of perfection. And I would be careful of that.

Well, there are three insights that I think go along with these themes. Not exactly, they're not exact correlates to each of the three themes, but I think that they can help. These are things that I would say, you know, Mercury in Libra with Neptune in Pisces could stand to remember, and it might, and it may help us.

So number one is this comes from the 12-step background that I have family members and 12 Step programs. And so I've learned a lot from just being in the vicinity of people who are working the steps. And I love the saying; it's one that I've heard, you know, many times, many people have said it; probably some of you out there have heard it, but I'm not the cause. I can't control it. I can't cure it.

It's really tough. When Mercury, the peacemaker, the diplomatic Mercury with Neptune, full of compassion, you know, and we're alone, many of us are more wired to be dependent than independent, which is not to say codependent like in a clinical sense, it just means I'm wired for my well being is rooted in the environmental relational matrix. And, yes, I'm an individual, but you know, if there are dark clouds, I feel a little dark. If you know you're in a bad mood, I might unconsciously try to take responsibility for that. And you know, that there's positives, that's not all negative like to be empathetic is a wonderful thing.

On the other hand, with this combination, I think that we could get to the point where we somehow unconsciously believe if someone's angry around us or someone's being unreasonable, that I will I must have caused that because it's easy to be really empathetic, and to associate my own moods with the moods of someone else, you know. So one helpful thing that comes from 12-Step programs is to say, I'm not the cause of what other people are, are, are feeling, I mean, you can cause someone to feel hurt or whatever, and you know, but sometimes there's the space you have to remember, like, and this is often the case, when you have someone in your family, for example, who is an alcoholic.

You say, look, I didn't cause them to be an alcoholic, right? Because I can't, the tendency to want to take on what they're dealing with. Because your peace and your sense of well-being is relational when you live in a family, right, and, and so you try to fix the parts of the family that are constantly making you feel bad, you know, so you, Oh, I gotta fix them, it helps to remember, look, I'm not the one who caused, you know, this person to drink, that's something you'll hear in 12-Step programs. And it's a healthy way of kind of coming back from this feeling of I gotta manage and control everything around me; I think this would be really, this is a helpful piece of wisdom from Mercury and Neptune in the antiscia that they share right now. I'm not the cause; I didn't necessarily cause this environmental thing that's making me feel off and feeling like I've got to fix or come up with a compromise or solution; I can't control this, that's another one, and I can't cure it.

And when we take that pressure off from ourselves, it's not that suddenly we become callous; it's that we've come back into our own center. And it becomes much easier from that point to figure out what to do to pull the natural intelligence of the moment and situation to illuminate us from within and to know how to deal with it. Like I didn't cause the disturbance in the environment that's kind of bothering me, I can't control it, I'm trying to manage it, and I can't cure it. And actually, not trying to take it on gives it the space also to start to heal and deal with itself. That's a hard level of detachment to take on. And the point is, we can do it while also still being compassionate, and being kind, and being caring. People think that this somehow means that you are callous and that I don't think that's the case; I think it takes great compassion to keep healthy boundaries between ourselves and things in the environment that are a source of stress. So just remember that because the mercury Neptune thing can really be boundary dissolving.

Number two, what you think of me is none of my business, which is, you know, probably everyone's heard that phrase before, right? But I've, you know, I'll have a moment of honesty with you guys. I love content creation; I love sharing this stuff with you guys and stuff like that. I have someone who goes through the comments that you know, and they don't talk to me about it unless there's maybe some very specific question. But if someone is trolling and being rude, offering really personal unsolicited advice or saying something really mean or negative, you know, that's just like personal and rude, or you know what I mean? I have a person who helps me post all my does all my social media stuff for me. She'll just take it down. And I don't even have to think about it.

Because for years, I was reading every single comment trying to respond, trying to, you know, interact with every single thing. And what I came to, and I'm a Cancer sun with Mercury in Cancer. So it's, it's very, you know, it's very well watery at times, it's very easy for me to care too much about what other people are thinking or saying about me. Because in social media, anyone can pop off anywhere and say pretty crappy things about you. And it was getting to the point where, you know, I was spending a lot of time in my, you know, I see, I see a Jungian therapist. So, in my therapy with my Jungian, you know, my Jungian, that's funny. My Jungian therapist, I was spending a lot of time being like, I'm so hurt by this or that, and even my therapist got to a point was like, why don't you just stop reading those comments, and I was like, yeah, yeah, that's probably you know, that's a good idea. And so I think that but with Mercury Neptune and the potential for images, appearances, gossip, judgments, and some evaluations, very Libran scale kind of thing to be taking place. It might help to repeat the mantra that what so and so thinks of me isn't my business. And by that, we're not trying to be again.

And it's not like, well, I have no, I have no interest in the social ramifications of my actions, right? That would be an irresponsible take on this idea. But it is to say that when people start offering unsolicited advice or opinions or, you know, and it's, there's an there's a critical edge to it or whatever, it's, it's helpful to go like, that's your experience. I don't know why I'm not. I can't control it. I didn't cause it; I can't cure it. And I'm gonna; it's not going to be any of my business; why you feel or think that, right? So I think that's a good one to embrace if you're running into the feeling of people judging you, which is very possible with Mercury in Libra conjoining with Neptune, very idealistic high standards cloaked in a sense of ethical purity and penal, pristine judgment and evaluation, but you know, still what you think maybe none of my business, so it's a good one to remember.

And it saved me a lot of, like, it is how I think I'm still here doing this. Because I've learned that that's been a mantra, that's been really helpful for me. You guys don't see it in the comment section. Sometimes you do. But we weed out probably a dozen to 20 comments a week that are, like, super malicious. And that's just most of the time we, you know, I have someone who's looking and then pulling really crappy stuff out because I just don't tolerate like people being hateful. And not just toward me toward other people in the comment section. Sometimes, too. It's just a problem of social media in general. So to me, whether it's in the workplace or social media or wherever, just be aware that not everything that everyone thinks or says, or the judgments that they have, you don't need to concern yourself with them all the time.

And number three, sometimes there is no easy solution. Now, I think this plays into the potential of Mercury Neptune to want to seek a solution, even if there's overextension involved and unhealthy compromise of boundaries involved. Or needing too much, and having to step back and realize that, you know, I'm asking for something that's not going to be given to me. My ask might be too big, or I might be dealing with someone who's unreasonable, or you know, whatever. So I think that it's important to remember that Mercury in Libra can, you know, secretively conjoined with Neptune, and Pisces could have an amazing idea of what the idea, you know, this amazing sense of what the ideal outcome is, in a situation like, this is what should happen?

Well, sometimes, you know, it's not ideal. Sometimes there's not an easy solution, sometimes, things are not going to be perfect, and we've compromised for the mess, you know, like, be able to be willing to allow.

One of the things I'll tell you this, guys, this is something that as a parent, "let me tell you guys," as a parent, I feel like this is something that, like, when my first daughter was born, I used to flip out about how the house was just a mess of fluids. I feel like there was just fluids and diapers and smells and highchair; Do you know grossness and, you know, milk barf everywhere. I just, and you know, I'm like, I have Saturn in Libra. Right? So I have, you know, I have to be impeccably clean, or whatever not that I'm like the world's I guess I'm it's all relative, but I had such I was so irritated all the time by not the not my daughter, but by the byproducts of like having kids, you know, and it took me a while, and it was actually one of the reasons I went into therapy was because between the colic she was super colicky. Gigi, my first one, and between the colic and like the Barfo Rama of fluids and smells and mess and lack of sleep and everything. I just started feeling like an eye booger. Weird. I just started feeling so gross.

And finally, I just got to a place it felt like a real breakthrough for me. I got to this place where I go, little messes; okay, it's not going to hurt anyone. It's not going to be messy forever. I got, like, I got to punch this clock for like 18 years. I was like, I'm just gonna live. I'm going to become comfortable with messiness. And it has made a huge difference in my life because things do get clean eventually; things do get organized eventually; smells do go away eventually. You know, everything that comes to be, passes away, even messes. And then I've developed real patience for it right, and so I don't know for whatever it's worth, I hope that you can bring some of that like sometimes.

It's just life is a mess, and you can't have Libra's pristine image, especially influenced by Neptune of what it should feel like or look like. Sometimes it's just going to be a mess. You learn to live with it; it turns out that there's beauty. There's curiosity, and there's humor, there's delight, there's joy, there's spontaneity, there's creativity in messes; in fact, they're very the messes are great places for creative things to grow. And I found that that's exactly what I've noticed about my children. I look at their toy room, and I'm like, insanity, chaos. You guys have lost your minds, you know.

And then, and then I realized I'm like, Yeah, but they're there. They have created world upon, you know, world upon world upon world in their playroom. And, like, that's good, that's good. Eventually, you know, It'll all get put into place, and there'll be report cards, and just let him. Let them go.

You know, actually, you know what, I learned that a little bit of that too, from, we had our daughter in before she went to kindergarten, she was in a Waldorf preschool. And I feel like I got some of that from Waldorf too, like, they would have like rhythms. But between the rhythms, there was like a healthy amount of chaos going on, like with, like, play. And then you know, eventually there was there's, oftentimes if you allow for the chaos, it's weird how like a rhythm of order will just naturally appear somehow. Anyway, I'm going off on a crazy tangent. I've insulted my children, I think.

I hope you guys find this useful. I hope you guys are having a great week. Don't forget to like and, subscribe, and share your comments. Click the notification bell for updates. And don't forget also to share your stories. I would love for you to use the hashtag grabbed and tell me how you're seeing Mercury and Neptune show up if you've got a story. I would love to get it together. We're going to be doing another storytelling episode pretty soon. So if you feel like emailing it, grabbed at nightlight astrology.com is the email address. Alright, that's what I've got for today. Take it easy, everyone.