Messenger and Trickster
Mercury is a fast little fellow. Maybe that’s part of the reason he’s so tricky. In charge of the mind, the hands, trade and commerce, and the multiplicity of ideas, facts, Mercury is the ruler of learning and of thieves! Flitting from idea to idea, quick at picking ideas–or pockets, Mercury zips around the sun approximately three times for each Earth year. Mercury’s transits are the last one tends to look at when determining when important life events will take place.
But Mercury holds several tricks up his sleeve. Of course, there is the dreaded and much maligned periods of “Mercury Retrograde”. These are the three times each year when Mercury’s apparent motion is backwards. During these periods folks are advised to avoid signing contracts, buying new cars, mailing important documents, starting new electronic processes… the folklore leads one to believe that nothing at all can be done during these periods. That isn’t at all true.
It’s a perfect time to REdo anything. And it’s a great time to do any “re” activities: review, research, remember, reformulate, rewrite, and for any activity that depends on “reflection”. I have given successful speeches during retrograde Mercury, keeping in mind that they need to be “reflective” speeches. And Mercury Retrograde is an excellent time to sit down in solitude and write. So don’t be daunted by a retrograde Mercury–just plan your activities to take advantage of the “rethinking” time.
This is not Mercury’s most devious trick, however. Usually we don’t pay much attention to Mercury’s transits around the planets of our birthcharts–but Mercury holds several times for delivering special messages. These are the times of Mercury’s stations–when the planet hovers at or around the same degree in the process of “turning around” –as it pauses to go retrograde and as it turns around to go direct.
When these degrees aspect planets in your birth chart, Mercury is sure to deliver a whopper of a message. It may be a significant insight, it may be a significant event–but it’s sure to be something you notice–a clear message from the Universe to you, delivered by the quintessential messenger, Mercury.
All text and lineart in these pages Copyright 2009 by Anne Beversdorf
