Mercury Retrograde in Taurus with a Uranian Kick: After Effects

Hey everyone, this is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology, and today we're going to take a look at Mercury's retrograde, which is coming through this Friday. Mercury is turning retrograde in the sign of Taurus, and we'll be doing so in almost exact conjunction with the planet Uranus. There are a lot of other features about this Mercury retrograde cycle that are pretty interesting. So that's what we're going to do; we're going to take a look at ten different features of this Mercury Retrograde that will be shaping it and giving it its unique flavor. So hopefully, that gets us ready for it in addition to the eclipse this week and another Eclipse coming up in another couple of weeks, a big Mercury retrograde. So that's what we're getting into today.

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Let's get into this Mercury Retrograde, which I'm really excited to talk about, mostly because it has so many interesting and sort of quirky features. Here's the real-time clock, and we're looking at Mercury Retrograde between April 21 and May 15. Here you can see on April 21 So Mercury has stationed, and you can see a little red s under Mercury; it's pretty close within about two degrees of Uranus and Taurus as well. And this is just after the solar eclipse.

So we have the solar eclipse, the sun squares Pluto, and then Mercury's turning retrograde pretty closely conjoined to Uranus. So that is powerful; it's a pretty potent looking Mercury Retrograde as they go because of what is surrounding it. The context of every planetary event is really important, not just the event itself; it's what's happening in the greater community of planets around it; it's sort of like saying, Look, you know, you could have a day where you stub your toe, but if you stub your toe, and it makes you late to your sister's wedding, that's a totally different context for stubbing your toe, you know what I mean?

So similarly, like, all the planets are doing something, there's the event itself, but then there's the context and how it's connected to that context that really ends up giving it the fullest description. So I want to look today at ten contextual features that we ought to pay attention to with this Mercury Retrograde. Anyway, here are ten features to pay attention to.

Number one, this Mercury Retrograde starts in an almost exact conjunction with Uranus. And the reason that that's so important is that when you have mercury retrograde, and the starting point is that it's, it's slowly just stopping and sitting down right next to the God of revolution. Well, that gives you a clue as to what the cycle is going to be about. It's going to be a very Uranian Mercury cycle. What does that mean? It means that the cycle could very well start with the unexpected, the unanticipated, the surprising, the shocking twist or turn, that comes whether that's through saying something shocking or receiving some news or some twist or turn of fate that comes, and it just shifts the pattern very suddenly.

At its worst, you know, the mercury stationing along with Uranus can be a bit like the tower card in the Tarot; it's sudden, it's disruptive, it's shocking, it breaks apart structures, and no one really likes that, you know, but then sometimes those exact same features are the ones that are very liberating and help us move beyond the feeling of being trapped or stuck in something that's no longer working. You need that sudden shift that just blasts things apart and moves things in a new direction. So consider the Uranian signature of this retrograde as something that will be making its presence felt and that usually involves shock, rebellion, originality, and inventiveness, but also the unexpected twists and turns that break apart familiar structures.

Now that's important because the number two thing to pay attention to is the fact that this is a fixed earth sign. So the kinds of things that Mercury Retrograde will be shaking up with its little Uranian signature will probably be things that are more deeply entrenched, that it has the power to change structures that are more set in their ways or more established and secure and unmovable. In fact, one of the names that was given to what we now called fixed signs was solid and unmoving signs.

So signs that, for example, fixed signs in ancient astrology were said to be there significations often included things that repeated. They had a consistent way of expressing themselves the same way over and over again. Well, a Mercury retrograde and a fixed earth sign along with Uranus can change established patterns pretty dramatically or can be challenging to establish patterns, which for some people will be quite disturbing, especially considering how much the sign of Taurus tends to value things like peace, power, and stability. So that should that ought to be an interesting feature of this retrograde cycle.

Now, the third thing here is that this is the feminine Temple of Venus in the moon. So when Mercury goes retrograde in this sign, one of the things that it tends to do is express the need for change in relation to things that are either Venusian or lunar. This moon sign can be very maternal, but it has a little bit more of a nature goddess feel than like a, you know, just kind of like Cancer, a little bit more stereotypically maternal at times than Taurus, which is a little bit more pagan and earthy, a little bit more of the sensual. Now natural maternal qualities for the moon.

For example, you know, the Moon in Taurus is a bit more romantic, like a romantic painting of a beautiful natural landscape, right? There's a post of the moon in Cancer, which is, you know, oftentimes going to be a little bit more like the picture of, you know, a young woman who's just gotten pregnant for the first time and is ready to be a mom for the first time or something. There's a crossover between the two versions of the moon, but the Taurean Moon is like, I always consider it to be a little bit more of the natural, sensual pagan goddess feeling.

It's in Venus's temple, after all, so things that have to do with the body, with nature, with wealth, with luxury, with the things that we enjoy with things like food, and also with concerns around things like beauty and aesthetics and appearances, peace, prosperity, power, and control, with a, you know, with a Venusian aura around it, these are the kinds of things that will be affected.

So, for example, Mercury Retrograde in Taurus can bring up the need to make aesthetic changes to your body, your wardrobe, your house, you know, like where the rearranging of things that Mercury Retrograde often brings is essentially affecting things that are again Venusian and lunar. So, that's not exhaustive, right? Like, you could think about a million other things that could come up. So anything that's sort of earthy Venusian and lunar are going to be the subject areas within which the retrograde is moving.

So one thing that you can do is you can sit, you can sit down and make lists, which is a great way to practice astrology, to lists of things that are both lunar and Venusian and earthy. So you come up with images, and that'll just put you into the archetypal realm that the retrograde is working in, and then it's not so much that you have then just made a list that will help you predict what's going to happen as much as you've made a list, that will help you start to appreciate and notice the environment of the archetype.

So it's like it's trying to stimulate your imagination to identify the archetypal field that you're suddenly in. Then you can start recognizing the retrograde at work a little bit more easily. Anyway, so the feminine Temple of Venus and the moon, those are the topical realms or like the glasses through which Mercury Retrograde is looking. So just keep that in mind. That can affect relationships; it can affect topics like sexuality, it can affect things like the body, health, and beauty, and things like art and so forth.

Anyway, let's go to number four. This begins this retrograde begins as the sun squares Pluto. So not only does it have a Uranian signature happening around it, which is remember the context is important. But it also has a Plutonian signature, which means that the Sun-Pluto qualities transformation, depth, power, intensity, death, and rebirth, reconfiguring our lives and our sense of purpose as we encounter elements of the unconscious that force us to recalibrate and reconsider things. The death of the ego changes and transitions around leaders and fathers and things like that.

The Sun-Pluto dynamic, which is such a powerful moment for our conscious sense of self and purpose in the world and how it's being transformed as we're encountering things that come up from the underworld, metaphorically. That is also coupled with the retrograde right, so the Mercury Retrograde wants to create changes that are coupled alongside the Sun-Pluto dynamic, which is basically coming off from the solar eclipse as well. So you could also just look at it as this is a solar eclipse. We've said a lot about the solar eclipse this week. This is a Mercury Retrograde that's carrying those significations along with the Sun-Pluto significations and trying to do work on behalf of those signatures.

Number five, look at the whole sign of Taurus in your birth chart so you know, for example, if you're if you are an Aries rising Taurus will be in your second house. If you're a Taurus rising, Taurus is in your first. If you're a Gemini rising, it's in your 12th, and we'll go through. Cancer rising, it's in your 11th. If you're a Leo rising, Taurus is in your 10th. Virgo rising, it's in your ninth; Libra rising, it's in your eighth. Scorpio rising it's going to be in your seventh. Sagittarius rising is in your sixth; Capricorn, your fifth; Aquarius, your fourth; Pisces, your third.

Now I'm not going to go through the significations of all the houses because you guys have heard me do that a million times, and you should know, I mean you, in my humble opinion, if you watch and pay attention to astrology regularly you probably should know some of the topics of all the houses by heart.

But if not, there's a lot; if you just search Hellenistic house meanings, you're gonna find that there are really some really nice explanations of the significations. But you'll find the first house explained second house explained third house explained very, very brief but helpful reminders of the meanings of the houses from a Hellenistic perspective; you will find that most of what I have to say about the houses is similar to that one. And I just looked that one up this morning.

So yeah, there's also Chris Brennan from the astrology podcast has a nice little graphic; maybe at some point, what I'll do is try to give, like, I think what I should do is at some point, I should put something on my website, that's like a little list of references or resources because we have those kinds of things in my programs for students. But it might be nice to have like a house meetings list somewhere on my website, so I can just refer people to it. Look at the whole sign house of Taurus in your chart, and take a look at the topics of that house as the ones being activated by the Mercury Retrograde that'll help you a lot.

Then remember the two R's that come with Retrogrades, which are reversals and revisions. So reversals and revisions come with Retrogrades. A reversal would mean that something's going in one direction, but then it goes in the opposite direction; that sort of retrograde does, you know, physically, but that's also what it can do symbolically, that we have reversals of fate or fortune, we're going in one way, all of a sudden, there's a turn, of course, change, and we start going in a completely different direction.

So the reversals are a big part of Retrogrades. And that could be happening on only a couple of days with a couple of events. It's not like it's happening the whole time just because the planets are retrograde, but there may be a few significant reversals. The other one is revisions. So the other thing is revisions, you can have a series of revisions that come up during a retrograde and on one thing or on many different things, whether it's a creative project, revising the way you show up in relationships, revising something about the way you work, a project, you're working on your appearance or something about yourself physically or psychologically. So it's a great time for revisions. Reversals come up, and sometimes, reversals provide us for the opportunity of revision. Remember those two R's reversals and revisions? They come with Retrogrades.

Sometimes Retrogrades number seven also mean delays, which means that you know, things are just set back for a while; one of the ancient meanings of a retrograde was that things might be delayed for a little while. That often happens in Mercury stationing to turn retrograde, and you're at the airport, you know, for example, but it can happen in other areas of life. So keep it in mind and don't react with, you know, just don't be crazy reactive, because usually the delay only takes a little bit, and then you're moving on again.

Alright, well, number eight retrograde planets fall back into the primary motion, planets in direct motion or going against the grain of the primary or diurnal motion of the sky. I've talked about this at length in many other videos in the past, but basically, what that means is that they lose something of their own agency and autonomy; they fall back into the greater primary motion that everything is a part of. I've always read that as the hand of God, fate, or destiny just taking over. Sure, the planet loses some of its agency reflected in our lives, but that usually means that we lose some agency because we have a relationship with these planets. It's pretty intimate in terms of our psychology; their will and their way is associated with our thoughts, desires, wishes, hopes, opinions, and the changing landscape of our lives.

So when they fall back into a greater motion that's stronger than their secondary motion, they lose their autonomy in a sort of symbolic visual sense. It's as though the planet and so part of our lives is swept up in a force greater than what we can overcome with the simple adjustments of our will or our desires. So there's something about surrendering and trusting that is essential for Retrogrades.

Number nine, there's a really important rebirth moment on May first and second; this is, let me just show it to you, actually. So let's go to May 1 and 2nd. So right around this time, what we see here is Mercury is crossing over the face of the sun in the conjunction. That's a reset moment where Mercury is now going to be slowly moving out of its that because when it's moving through retrograde into the sun, it is it's in a phase where it's being burnt up by the sun, so it's combust.

That means it's in a weakened and compromised state, and that's often when we feel like, okay, things are really moving in a direction that I'm having to respond and deal with. And it's not totally easy. That's those reversals, revisions, the state, the Hand of Fate, the need to surrender, those kinds of things are coming up. But then when it hits the conjunction to the sun, it's like it's being reset, and it will start to rise and gain its own light and distance from the sun and come into its position as the Morning Star; often, there's a feeling of being born again.

So this rebirth moment, if you're looking for a little light during the cycle, you're like, Wow, this has been intense. Just remember that on May 1 and second, as it goes through the conjunction with the sun, it experiences a reset. And for most people, the cycle tends to be you send to integrate and start moving beyond the more stressful part of the cycle at this point. So for some people, that's nice to know.

Number ten is this Mercury Retrograde is seeing us through eclipse season, the Mercury Retrograde starts just after the first eclipse, and it ends by the time, excuse me, by the time it ends. So by the time it ends, we're under the dark moon, and so Mercury turning direct coincides with the conclusion of eclipse season. So there's something about this Mercury Retrograde that's also intimately connected to the eclipses, and we know these eclipses are pretty intense and anaretic degree Eclipse you know, at the last degree of Aries along with the ruler Mars and its fall in Cancer, a lunar eclipse in Scorpio along with the ruler Mars and its fall in Cancer, very powerful, dynamic Marzy Eclipse cycle.

For Mercury Retrograde to be present throughout the whole cycle suggests that this retrograde is helping us to revise or is indicating reversals of circumstance that are pretty intense, given the context of seeing us through eclipse season. So just keep that in mind. It's not all Mercury Retrogrades are the same. They don't pack the same force, you know, or whatever. So if this one's a little bit more dramatic, that's probably why. But go back to the basics. The need to shake things up to disturb patterns to create a little revolution to seek greater freedom, fixed earth stuff getting moved around, Venus and Moon stuff getting moved around. So those are the basics to consider, and remember to look at that whole sign house of Taurus in your chart for a more specific understanding of the topics likely to be activated.

Okay, well, that's what I've got for today. I hope this is useful for all of you guys can't wait to hear your stories as usual. We have some parenting tips for Gemini still coming up. Tomorrow and then Saturday, we have a bonus edition video. We did an astrology of sports podcast again, previewing the NFL Draft. So for some people, it's fun bonus content over the weekend. All right, that's what we've got. Take it easy, everyone. Bye.