Mercury Retrograde Squaring Mars

Transcript:

0:00
Hi everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology and today we are going to take a look at Mercury retrogrades upcoming square to Mars, and also a number of aspects that are coming up between Mars and planets in Aquarius that are being formed through a special kind of aspect called contra-antiscia, you'll have heard me talk about this concept before. I'll review it today in case you're brand new to the concept, and then talk about what to expect. The short and easy way of saying it is that we're not out of the Mars woods yet, this month. Even though Mars seems to have passed away from all of the more intense aspects it was making to planets. There's going to be this kind of reprise of Mars energy coming up. So I just want to sort of prep everybody for that and show you kind of how this interesting aspect works and maybe a few tips for navigating it.

1:05
So first of all, let's just highlight the major aspect that's happening which is Mercury. So Mercury has just passed through the the the cazimi aspect with the Sun, meaning being at the heart of the Sun. It is now officially transitioning into the morning star phase, which means in the next couple of weeks, you're going to see Mercury appear as the morning star after having been the evening star. And this transition happens during every retrograde cycle, that switch from evening star to morning star occurs. And then gradually, when Mercury turns direct and moves forward, it will gradually go back onto the beams of the Sun and then eventually emerges the evening star is always on the eveningstar side of things that Mercury is going to turn retrograde and back into the sun. So at any rate, after Mercury passes through the heart of the sun, and its retrograde It is as though the alchemical crucible of the retrograde has occurred. Here are some basic tips that I would give anyone for a Mercury Retrograde cycle. Look at the whole sign house that the retrograde is happening in by sign it usually is happening in just one sign. But sometimes Mercury will vacillate between two signs as it retrogrades. But look primarily at the house where it's station retrograde is happening. And for this recent retrograde that we're in the midst of that would be Aquarius. So let's say you have Aquarius in the seventh house. And we're talking about a process that's focused on the topics of love and relationships, among others. So that can help to just get a sense of, where's the work, you know, where's the focus happening right now.

2:47
And then you have to think of it in a couple of phases, I'm going to write these on the screen. So, first is the station retrograde, so when it stations to turn retrograde, it is as though we have reached a point in the karmic development of us in a certain area of life. And some of these areas or time periods are going to be more prominent than others, depending on where it lands in your birth chart what the Time Lords are for the year, a lot of different factors. But you can still use this template and get a lot out of it, you just may notice that some retrogrades are going to be much more powerful and some are going to be less visible or noticeable. Anyway, so when the planet reaches its station retrograde when Mercury does in particular, it's as though you're reaching a turning point within the karmic development of a certain area of life such that there will be a reversal. Now the reversal can be mental, it can be internal, it can be external. That's one way of looking at it. The reversal isn't going to occur all at once. It can sometimes feel chaotic, or like something is falling apart or your mind is changing, or you need to rethink something, and that process is going to happen as Mercury then starts retrograding back into the Sun. Typically, I would think of this phase as something of a death though, it does not at all have to be ominous or a terrible or bad thing. It's often a letting go a changing mind, a reversal of circumstance or fortune, an examination of something, a slowing down a delay. So those are the kinds of themes or words that you'll hear surrounding this first dimension the station retrograde and then this is going to intensify as the retrograde approaches the Sun and in this sense, things will start to cook a little bit more and the breakdown can become a little bit more intense. People will tend to notice that the station point when Mercury stops and turns retrograde can represent a sort of breakdown or turnaround or reversal of some kind. And then that person So we'll either intensify or peak in some ways as we get closer to Mercury's conjunction with the Sun through its retrograde, then you have the Kazemi moment, which is when Mercury is actually at the heart of the sun. And I like to think of this as I'm just going to write the word, "alchemization". I don't even know if that is a word will make will say that it is. So at that moment, it is as though the "aha" moment the insight or the peak moment of the process is sort of distilled, refined. And usually it's kind of an auspicious moment of reset, reconfiguration. If you want to think about it optimistically, even if you are in the midst of some difficult turnaround, or reversal or revision, this is often a moment where things become clear. And that alone, even if you are in the midst of difficulty can be very helpful. So Mercury gets right into the heart of the sun as it crosses and then as it moves in through the retrograde on the backside, I'm just going to do one part of the cycle here today. As it moves through, and starts to emerge as the morning star, there is a kind of clarification and announcement. I use the word announcement because the planets are oracles and so Mercury comes to signify something new that will emerge and sort of announce itself. And that announcing doesn't mean that you literally are going to announce something though, sometimes it does. But more that you're going to implement a change, or that some circumstance has changed everything such that a new phase begins. And so that's all going to happen usually relative to the whole sign house topics of in this case, Aquarius or whatever sign Mercury's landing in. So we're starting to emerge from under the beams of the Sun during this process as the clarification occurs. And usually it's about 15 degrees on average of separation between Mercury and the Sun before that kind of announcing, heralding will appear, and at that moment, Mercury will also station again, and then turn direct. That moment typically is understood as a kind of recovery, and a sense of momentum returning like that.

7:14
So people stress out about Mercury retrogrades. But one of the things to remember is that this cycle of Mercury, and then the other side that I haven't described today, which is when Mercury goes back forward toward the Sun, that that that cycle is repeating all year round, it's never not in process, it's the retrograde of Mercury, we get fixated on it, you know, but the retrograde is just one part of a cycle. It's always repeating from Mercury. And it's much more important to understand the totality of the Mercury cycle, so that you don't freak out about retrogrades and so that you also know that it's just a natural part of the ebb and flow, of the Tao, in some specific area of your life. And mercury moves through its cycles in different signs of the same element over long periods of time. So we're also going to get certain areas of your life and chart repeatedly sort of visited by these cycles. Air signs right now, for example.

8:17
As that's happening, let's try to take a moment to understand what it means that Mercury as its emerging is going to hit Mars. This is exciting, because you have a Mercury Retrograde that's starting to emerge, clarify, it's coming out on the on the Morningstar side of things was very yang-like, meaning it's going to assert create its centrifugal force moving outward from the centre, right, it's going to come out as the trumpeter at dawn, and as it is doing so it's hitting a square to Mars, which is going to energise it, and push it to take action. Now, this could become an expression of something that's dominant, or combative, or it could be a kind of challenge that comes up as Mercury is trying to establish something new in this area of your life. But that Mars square is happening in a very energising and activating place within the Mercury cycle. So you can anticipate that this kind of energy to establish the newness of the Mercury retrograde cycle is going to be very dynamic in the week ahead. So here's what that looks like.

9:27
If we take this by day at a time, you're gonna see mercury go through between Tuesday and Wednesday. You could stretch it out to say Tuesday through Thursday, if you want to give it a couple of degrees of this week. And right now, Mercury's within the engagement range of three degrees and moving along pretty quickly. Now, I have every reason to believe that this is going to be pretty auspicious that whatever Mercury is tying, trying to reboot, it's going to need some action. It's going to need the engagement. of Mars that that will to do, and to act and the courage to assert. But then, interestingly, right after that happens, right after Mercury moves through that square, look at what's coming. Just as that happens, it looks like a very auspicious moment, Venus and Jupiter will join together in a conjunction, and then Mercury's retrograde is going to move right into them. Right, so watch, this Mercury will come back down, and then it crosses over Venus, and get that circle out of the way. And then you can see, see, it's gonna go right in with the benefics. And then finally, Mercury is going to station after passing over Jupiter, it's not going to hit Saturn is going to station goes back towards Saturn, stations, and then turns direct, and then it's going to move back over the conjunction with Jupiter by March 4. At that time, you've got an exalted Venus as well. Then Mars moves into mercury sign and becomes sort of a companion of Mercury. So Mars and Mercury are about to really start working together quite nicely. If you're thinking about innovating something new implementing a new strategy, or idea or approach, you're gonna see that coming across this week getting started, and then it hits it gets all this beneficial contact from Venus and Jupiter. And then it stations moves direct. Now, it's the morning star really, you know, broadcasting, speaking, announcing this new thing. And then it comes forward again, and will then have reception with Mars in its home sign of Gemini.

11:53
So this is a really dynamic period for Mercury, and one that should be quite empowering. Again, as Mercury is going across the square to Mars, you could see some turbulence like there could be initial challenges or struggles, there's not reception between the two of them right now Mercury is in the overcoming position, but it's also retrograde, still trying to figure something out. So there might be a few hurdles to leap. But I would imagine that whatever Mercury has been trying to do or change or whatever kinds of reversals or revisions that have been happening in your life, after this little challenge from Mars, you're going to find a lot of implementing power, and the will and the mind, especially working together to do things that are quite effective. So just wanted to take some time to unpack that for you all in detail. So you can see where Mercury's at in the cycle. It's not just your average square to Mars, it's a very specific square to Mars. So now at the same time, Mars is also going to get into it with, you know, a bunch of other planets. You can see right now that as Mars moves along, it's going to start engaging in some contour and tissues with planets. Let me show you how that works.

13:15
So contra-antiscia, which I've explained before, they're going to be formed across the equinox points. So, for example, you have Aries and Pisces as two signs that who planets in those two signs will form contra-antiscia, if the planets in each sign degree totals add up to 30. So you can see Neptune at 19 Pisces. If you had a planet at 11 Aries, then those two planets would be in contrast, because they're in the appropriate signs, their degree totals add up to 30. So if we draw this out a little bit more, though, the next two signs equal distance apart from the zero Aries point are going to be Aquarius and Taurus. So if planets add up to 30, in those respective signs, they're also going to be in a contra-antiscia, they also have a square to one another. So there's two different kinds of aspects that those signs can form.

14:11
As Mars moves along, to 17 degrees, right now it's at 16 degrees, which means the contra-antiscia is going to be at about 14 degrees of Aquarius. Well, there's nothing there. But watch what happens. So Mars is going to go forward to 17 degrees Taurus, so then it comes down to 13 degrees, so it's getting closer to Jupiter, isn't it? And then when it gets down to when it gets to about 18 degrees, then look, all of a sudden, see how this Venus Jupiter conjunction is now forming contra-antiscia with Mars in Taurus, at 18 degrees. So here's this really auspicious Venus Jupiter conjunction, but it has this kind of secretive or non traditional, you could say contact with Mars that stimulating it. Contra-antiscia like antiscia are sometimes said to have a sort of secretive nature because the aspects formed are not going to be by your traditional degree based aspect and sometimes not even by by sign based aspect. So they have maybe a little secretive or subtle dimension of contact. But contra-antiscia, because they're happening on the opposite Yin or Yang side of the year, Taurus is on the light half of the year and Aquarius is on the dark half of the year. Those signs are also said to have one that's going to be more active or dominant and one that's going to be sort of more receptive or submissive. Taurus is going to be the dominant one even though you know you may not think of tourists as as a more dominant sign than Aquarius, because Taurus is on the light half of the year on the yang half of the year, from the standpoint of the language of ancient astrology, the archetypes of the of the year that are used to orient the entire system. Then what we're saying is that they're in this kind of secretive, oppositional contact with one another and Mars is going to be a little dominant. So that's a Venus Jupiter that at best can be put into the service of actions, ambitions, entrepreneurial endeavours, like Mars wants to do things wants to act wants to assert, and essentially, it's going to be sort of subtly and secretly dominating that Venus Jupiter aspect. Another way, this is not bad totally though, because Mars is in Venus's sign. And so it has reception with Venus, which is good. So I would interpret this also because within the dynamic Venus and Jupiter also when we call the superior position, so you have this real back and forth between them, that I think ends up kind of in a in a draw, you could say, and what I would, I I'm seeing this, like I was talking about with Mercury hitting Mars as Mercury is becoming empowered. And then Mercury is going right into the conjunction with Venus and Jupiter, Venus and Jupiter are hitting this sort of secretive contact with Mars. And there's enough reception and enough mitigating factors here that it looks like there's some really beneficial positive sort of successful energy in the air to act upon to get things done and to have good results with so I'm really excited about the next two weeks. I feel like along with the new moon and Aquarius that's coming through on the 11th you can see right here, that there's a lot to look forward to the next cycle has the look of rewarding work or, like the kind of taurean emphasis on work and results and steadiness. That there's some rewards or benefits, achievement, good fortune that's there. The one thing I would say is to be careful that you're not working for greed or selfish interest or that you're not overdoing something and becoming like King Midas, who got so sick with a desire for gold that everything he touched turned to gold and he turned his own daughter to gold or you know, something like that, like, something where the ambition could become, to lusty somehow, like I would be careful of that, but well planned, well articulated, well reasoned. See, it's nice that Mercury's in the mix emerging with a very objective and Saturn's they're sort of studying things. So I'm seeing this as a really fortunate energy, overall, is is the point I wanted to make. Now, then you're going to see some other interesting dynamics.

18:53
Mars is going to keep plodding along. And then you're going to see Mars slowly starting to get into a square with Venus. Now you're going to see a more this is not contra-antiscia, this is just your traditional square, and Venus is overcoming Mars. So I love that like, Venus is kind of end up having the upper hand on Mars and Mars sort of becomes a servant to Venus by about February 19. When Venus squares Mars, and then what's interesting is that Mars goes right into contra-antiscia with Saturn right after that. And that happens, essentially right here as Mercury is stationing. So Mercury stationing turned direct and then look, you're getting the contra-antiscia between Saturn and Mars. By the end of this as Mercury is trying to create this big turnaround. Here, Saturn and Mars and what is their best signification? Hard work under pressure. Disciplined and concerted effort, what a mature and structured use of the will and action. So I've been looking at this for a while and going like there's something here that is really offering us the ability to move things in the right direction, in the positive direction. At the same time, if we're being driven by just purely selfish, egotistical desires, then I would see this as where there's greed, there's gain, like that's kind of the shadow of it. So I think we have to be a little bit careful about that. If I was counselling, someone that they're going to be revising their business strategy, or implementing a new business or taking a new job, I would see most of these transits as an indication of a little bit of work and effort, things will work out pretty nicely.

20:56
So hopefully, that wasn't too abstract. And you were all able to follow it. I know, it's sort of really technical. And I debated whether or not to get into it because of how technical it is. But if nothing else, it can just help to see the subtleties of these dynamics and to hear somebody talk about them, it can get your own wheels turning, and give you some ideas about you know, how you might be relating to those aspects. And again, that the easiest way to tie these into your life in the most practical and grounded way is going to be to use whole sign houses and look at the whole sign House of Aquarius, and Taurus. That's where the conversation is, all of these things that I've talked about today, if you can transplant them into those areas of your life, you're going to get a lot out of it. We will be taking a look at the new moon this week through all of the houses in Aquarius, because it's also such a huge emphasis on the planting of a new seed in that house. So we'll come back to that later in the week as well.

21:57
This is my last week, I'm down to like, I don't know 15 or 20 Kickstarter readings left to do. And then I'm I'm finally that's been such a grind. You can imagine in every year previous to this year, I would have between three and 400 of them to do. And this year, I limited it to about 150. And it's still you know, it's like every reading takes, you know, 30 minutes, maybe a little less than that. And these are just little mini readings. And so it's just been, you know, it's been a grind, I do like four or five of them a day. And it makes it hard to create content on top of it. So I've been trying to do you know, two or three videos a week, something like that. Usually I do five a week, probably be returning to that by next Monday, but we'll probably think I'm guessing we'll do three or four this week too. So anyway, I like to keep you guys in the loop because you're all my patrons. I couldn't be here doing this without you. And I like to make sure you know, you know you're supporting me and that I'm not going anywhere. I'm on board to be here as your servant. So this astrology this year, by the way, has been it's been pleasant to see all of this Aquarian energy like it's a real shift from the capricornian and energy and I feel like I'm also learning a lot about the comparison between Capricorn and Aquarius, which at some point I feel like maybe doing a video on would be interesting. Tell me what you think about that. Would you guys like to see me do a video on that? Alright, that's all I've got. I hope you guys have a great day. Talk to you later. Bye.