Mercury and Venus Conjoin in Aries — A Fiery Conversation Turns Mercury Backward!

Hey, everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/]. Today we're going to take a look at Mercury in the sign of Aries, making a conjunction with Venus, who is retrograde in the sign of Aries. This is an especially interesting conjunction, because right after this conjunction, Mercury is also going to turn retrograde in the sign of Aries, at almost the same exact degree that Venus turned retrograde at the exact same point of the sign of Aries.

So this makes for a really interesting conjunction, because it is as though the two planets are meeting to discuss something, and then immediately it sort of forces Mercury to change course, change directions. We're going to explore this conjunction today, from that standpoint, and speculate as to what this conjunction might mean in terms of Mercury's approaching retrograde. So that is our agenda for today.

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We will begin promotion for our Year One course in April, that's coming up pretty soon. In the meantime, I want to turn you on to a few things on the website that you may find useful. Head over to NightlightAstrology.com, click on the Events tab, go to Live Events, Live Talks, and you will see that I have another webinar coming up on April 3 on Essential Dignities: what they are, how they work, what they're used for, how to use them.

This is a crash course for people who have heard words like a planet in its fall, a planet exalted, a planet in its rulership, a planet in its detriment. What do these things mean? Where do they come from? What's the logic? How do you use them? And I think a lot of people are going to find that one really useful. Also, it will help you make sense of those kinds of planets if you got them in your chart.

The other thing to take a look at is the Speaker Series coming up here in the month of March, the 15th, 16th, and 23rd. We have three new speakers in our annual Seasonal Speaker Series. So one Speaker Series per season of the year. This is sponsored through the Kickstarter. It's free to attend. You just register, get the link, and then if you can't make it, you get the recording afterward later.

The other thing to check out is Need-Based Astrology Readings. If you haven't seen this service yet, you also helped us set this up through the annual Kickstarter campaign. These are tiered pricings, so you have our course directors at one tier, some of our tutors at another, and some of our talented alumni, gaining their first experience reading. So this is a way to give back to the community in the form of affordable astrology readings that kind of match your budget, so that you can get someone to look at some of these transits that are happening.

It's a big month right now. It's helpful to have someone look at it with you. So anyway, check those out. And again, all of that, all of those services, are thanks to your generosity through our annual Kickstarter campaign.

Okay, well, on that note, let's turn our attention to the real-time clock, and let's take a look at this Mercury-Venus conjunction. So here are the two planets, and they are conjoining today, Tuesday, March 11, in the sign of Aries. That conjunction was forming yesterday within a degree. Today, it's exact. Tomorrow, they'll be separating within a degree.

And then what I want to notice is that Mercury will then station at that ninth degree, which is right about the same place that Venus stationed retrograde. Mercury will then turn retrograde. On the weekend, the station is happening Friday through Sunday, the retrograde really gets started on Sunday. So over the weekend, Mercury will turn retrograde and then follow Venus backward into Pisces.

So it's a really fascinating thing. We're going to look at this today from the standpoint of their conjunction leading to Mercury's retrograde, and what that might mean for us. The first thing to notice is that here we go. Sorry about that. First thing to notice is that these two planets are both going to dip back into Pisces for a little bit where they came from.

We also have Neptune transitioning over the sign barrier. We have an out-of-sign eclipse in Aries with the North Node in Pisces. So really interesting kind of back and forth between Pisces and Aries. And the first thing I want to say, for those of you who are aware of the meanings and topics of the houses, is to take a look at a kind of conversation that's happening topically and thematically between the whole sign house of Pisces and Aries in your birth chart.

This is something that we talked about in our monthly overview with horoscopes at Dana and Alex. We mentioned that there's a dialog taking place between these two whole sign houses. So that might be something to pay attention to this month. What are those two whole sign houses doing in relation to one another? That would be just a tracking clue for anyone.

But what I want to do right now, or give you, is the five things to watch for, given that these two planets are conjoining in Aries as Venus is already retrograde and then almost instantly after their conjunction. The end of this week, Mercury is turning directions. What's interesting to note is that Mercury is already slowing down significantly.

So as they are meeting, it's as though their meeting is happening and Mercury is like slowing down. It's like Venus is heading away from a convention center where something was happening, and she's heading out. Mercury was going toward the convention center, and they meet up, and Mercury is slowing down as Venus is coming out of the convention center toward Mercury, and Mercury goes, "Yeah, I guess I'm not going to go there either," turns around and goes the opposite direction.

I'm just kidding. I have no idea. That's not like something to be taken literally. It's just a funny image that kind of conveys something about what's happening. Regardless, these two planets in a very fiery sign that is featured this month, with the solar eclipse coming up, with Neptune changing signs, with Saturn moving into Aries in the next two months, is significant.

So I'm going to give you five things to watch for that I would take note of between now and, let's even call it at the end of this week into early next week, as Mercury then turns retrograde. Number one, whenever we talk about fire, the element of fire, which is, of course, the sign of Aries, is a fire sign. So we're talking about fire here. We are talking about passion.

Passion is the ability that we have to hold something that burns us as much as it excites us, or maybe not as much, but it burns us to some extent, but we hold it anyway. Let's just say, for example, that you're falling in love. This is, I think, an easy example to understand. When you're falling in love with someone, there's a lot of nerves and anxiety and excitement and uncertainty.

Is this going to work? I really want this to work. I'm very passionate about this person, but there's a period of time where you're testing the waters, and there's a kind of honeymoon phase, and during that time, think about how much you burn and yearn inside, and there's this tentative quality, like, I don't know, is this gonna be forever partners? Are we gonna end up in a relationship together?

I can tell you right now that a huge majority of horary questions I receive about relationships are, "I met someone I'm really excited about. Will it turn into a lasting relationship?" Why? Because it's painful. You're so excited, there's nothing wrong, or maybe there is, but most of the time, like the people asking these questions, like, there's nothing really wrong with the relationship, but it's new, and so there's a kind of tentative quality.

Well, in that space, that's a very passionate space. You're burning, you're yearning, you're feeling good, you're feeling excited, something is going in a new direction. Fire is very inceptional. It likes to start things, and yet there's a kind of pain, there's a tension that you feel inside. The same thing is true in my experience when you start an entrepreneurial endeavor.

When I started Nightlight, you know, back in 2010, I was so excited, but there was so much uncertainty, and it's like pioneering. Trailblazing comes with a certain amount of risk, and you better be passionate by that. It means you better be excited and also willing to carry some of the stress and tension of the activity. Anything in life that we love that is worth carrying, despite a degree of tension or stress, we could call passionate.

It's that sense of suffering along with something that we love or that we cherish or that we're excited about. So when these two planets get together in a fire sign, and Venus tells us so much about what we love, and Mercury tells us so much about what we're mentally excited about. In this sign, what are we passionate about, mentally, essentially, artistically, relationally?

These two planets getting together can start to shift our understanding or present us with clarity around what we love, what we desire, what we're passionate about, what we're excited about, what ideas have us fired up. Life, for most of us, is not worth living if there isn't some degree of passion. Now, some people are more peaceful. They're easygoing, they're even-keeled. They're not like, getting super manic about stuff. You know, it's like, "Okay, fine."

But even I don't know anyone I've ever met who doesn't have at least a few points of passion in their life, a few people or things that you carry with a degree of suffering and service and love and care and concern and devotion that kind of burn inside of you. I just think it's human. And these two planets coming together right now might be helping us clarify what I desire, what I love, what I'm passionate about, even if that causes us to revise or change something or shift directions.

That clarity could be coming along right now. So that's one thing I would watch for. Number two, remember that these two planets coming together feature Mercury, the messenger, coming together with an already retrograding planet. It's as though the messenger contacting Venus retrograde might bring into our life some news, information, or communication.

For many of us, this may be the first point along Venus' retrograde where we start to say, "Oh, I see the change of direction. I see the revision. There's or maybe there's a delay, and I see that it's connected to some kind of process that has to take place here before I can go in the direction that I wanted to go in." Mercury, in other words, may be bringing news of Venus's retrograde that clarifies the Venus retrograde itself.

Sometimes that happens where a planet turns retrograde and you kind of go, "I'm not really sure which new direction," unless it's flipped something on its head right away for you, which could be the case. But if it hasn't, then sometimes it's one of the initial contacts with another planet that sort of starts to convey what the retrograde is about.

Well, here's the messenger coming into contact with Venus retrograde. We may receive some news, information, a form of communication with someone that starts to clarify, "Oh, okay, this is the change of direction. This is the revision, or this is what Venus retrograde is all about." So you could think about it that way too, that you may gain some clarity about Venus's retrograde through Mercury, the messenger, conjoining with Venus and offering some clarity.

Another way of thinking about it is just that Mercury brings news, information, and communication, and then the fact that Mercury is also going to turn retrograde with Venus could just mean that they're meeting together. Signals a series of things that are going to have to change directions, revise, course correct, or that these two planets come together will offer us a revision, or that they may delay something, they may bring something to our attention, and then that causes a slight setback or delay in our plans, or something along those lines, which is very common for a retrograde.

What to speak of these planets meeting right as Mercury will also turn retrograde and join Venus. So these are, again, just different ways of playing with the symbolism that will hopefully track with what you're experiencing. One of them, if not all of them. Number three, when these two planets come together, one thing that is worth mentioning is that in the ancient world, Venus, as the goddess, was, in general, associated with wisdom and understanding.

Mercury was a conveyor of ideas and a philosopher and someone who was also integral to understanding how things work and to conveying things intelligibly through written word or language or thoughts or pictograms or textbooks. So when these two planets come together, remember, in the ancient world, truth was both intelligible, logical, reasonable, but also beautiful and aesthetic.

So we live in a cosmos that features truth, but not a truth devoid of aesthetic value and like substantive, sensual expressiveness. So the cosmos, the more we understand it, the more we appreciate it as beautiful as well as true. It's not just a machine that we understand the objective parts of. And then, "Okay, now we're enlightened." It is something that, as we understand it, our appreciating capacity for its beauty will also deepen.

So when these two planets come together, they can convey something of truth and learning and understanding that also enhances our appreciation for beauty. This can also come through directly in terms of how relationships challenge us or change us to understand each other and to appreciate and be more deeply attracted or magnetized to each other.

They can also come together in a way that conveys that some relationships are better or more appropriate or aligned than others. Aesthetics, you know, with Venus, can also break down to something like, what do I value? What do I attract? What do I like? What don't I like? What do I find repulsive? So these two planets coming together can also convey to us a sense of what is magnetizing or attractive, what we desire, what works, what harmonizes, and what doesn't.

And it wouldn't be uncommon for this combination of planets, given that they're in a Mars-ruled sign, and we have Mars in its fall in Cancer still as the host, to bring about a sense of what emotional bonds or relationships are safe or attractive or serving our needs, or which bonds are maybe keeping us from our most important or basic emotional needs, things like safety, support, sweetness, care, well-being.

The things the relationships that we're finding are not helping us may also come up for us right now that these relationships have to be let go of. Now, that would be also fitting for just a Venus retrograde in Aries in general, especially given that Mars is in Cancer. But just reiterating, this is a transit when it comes together that can convey like with your craft, skill, learning, intellect, beautiful, interesting thoughts and ideas can come about where, like the attractiveness of the intellect is another feature of these two planets coming together.

I've mentioned this on the channel before, and I always forget the name, always, and I always ask you guys to remind me. There's some word that's meant for people who find intellect sexually arousing. Right? Very Venus-Mercury combination. Anyway, number four, where do I need to return to before moving forward again?

As these two planets blaze into Aries, and we have a solar eclipse in Aries and Neptune entering Aries and Saturn entering Aries, that sense of starting something new is very much in the astrological air right now. This is an inceptional sign. It's the first sign of zodiacal spring, and a sign that loves to start things.

However, isn't it interesting that in a month where there is so much getting started here in the sign of Aries, that we have several planets retrograding back into Pisces? It might be something like, "I know where I want to move forward, or how I want to, or the future direction, but first I have to go back to something. First, I need to return and take care of some unfinished business, or finish some other process, or revise something, or revisit something, or bring some resolution to something, and then I'll be able to move forward."

It's as though, you know, like, I think about it like this, like, you know, when you're going on a car or a road trip or a long car ride with kids, everyone gets in the car, you're all ready to go, and then all of a sudden, it's "I gotta go to the bathroom." You know, 10 minutes later, there's, you know, this, "I forgot my stuffy, I forgot my lovey, I forgot my bunny," whatever it is. And now I've gone to the bathroom and I've got my snack, but, oh, I forgot my water.

And so sometimes we're ready to go, but just like a car ride, there's a lot of adjustments that have to be made before we can actually get out the driveway. Something like that might be taking place, and it might be a way of kind of capturing the mood of these retrogrades and Aries backing into Pisces in general.

And then number five, what karma from the past is coming back? Now, there is a way in which people and events and memories and traumas or victories or lessons learned from the past make a reappearance. They make a brief cameo in our life. Someone comes back that we haven't seen for a while, a drama, a conflict, or maybe even a creative endeavor.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, but think about what karma from the past is coming back to resolve itself. And by karma, the broad meaning of the word is just that we live in a world where choices are made and choices bring reactions, actions bring reactions, and actions bring outcomes. So in the chain of causally connected events that come about through, you know, the relative amount of agency that we have, we might have to look at something we've done in the past, an outcome that came in the past, a pattern that lives in the past, somewhere that is coming back to say something more, to add something. It's not quite done, and there may be something to gain from it, or there may be something that has to be let go of at a deeper level.

But think very deeply and meditate very deeply on whatever is coming back from the past, as though it still needs to speak. Give it some space to speak, while also, you know, letting go of things if they need to be let go of that are coming back that maybe aren't so healthy. So sometimes there's a way in which we get tested, like, "How far have you really come? Let's bring up something that you thought you were over, or you thought was gone, and let's just see how easily you can let go of it again."

Maybe you thought you let go of it, but now it's coming back, and it's a little bit of a test. "I'm able to let go of it, but wow, not quite as easily as I thought I would." And so that's nice. It's nice to know that, because sometimes we can get up on a high horse. We can think, "Oh, I'm so advanced. I've, you know, for me, for example, as someone who has, when I was in my early 20s, had a few years of struggling with substance abuse."

You know, there are moments in my life where, no, I have not returned to that form of substance abuse. No. But there are moments where I realized that that very much like people who go to 12-step programs, you recognize the capacity still exists in me, and something comes up to remind you. It's very humbling, and you go, "Okay, like, I have to be vigilant every day to care for my soul, to be humble and confident, not like, uh, like, I'm a doormat. I'm not worth anything, but to hold that tension between confidence in my highest self that lives in me, and humility knowing that I'm a vulnerable being who has frailties and weaknesses that I need to also respect and appreciate."

That just the awareness of those things. And I think that's what retrogrades can do for us. They can just help us stay humble, because they bring up things from the past that we might have thought we were over or beyond. And it's not always so easy to be completely over and beyond things, you know? Anyhow, that's just one angle of looking at it.

There could be ways in which things come back from the past to just reign some blessings on us, give us some encouragement. Coming back from the past can mean a lot of different things, not all of which is some kind of karmic test or whatever, but just another way of thinking about it.

So I will leave it there for today. I think these are some good ways to think about this conversation between Mercury and Venus, which will be followed imminently by Mercury turning retrograde and joining Venus. So this conversation today is clueing us in to a lot of what I think these two retrogrades are about respectively.

It'll be interesting to look at their cazimi moments, which come up later in the month, once the sun enters Aries after the equinox, and then we're in a fiery hallway of a solar eclipse, Neptune entering Aries. So a lot more to say. We will see you again tomorrow, where we will be looking at, what do I have tomorrow? We're going to be looking at Saturn cazimi at the heart of the sun.

And then Thursday and Friday, we're going to be working with the lunar eclipse in Virgo. Alright, we'll see you again soon. Bye, everyone.