You could almost hear the collective sigh of relief across the globe on Wednesday as people woke up to find that Mercury Retrograde was going direct. A few days ago I talked about some of the insanity happening out in the planetary realm right now with, at the time, four planets all in retrograde. Mercury is the one that everyone focuses on when it’s in retrograde because {in my humble opinion} most people don’t have enough of an understanding of the other planetary influences to be as freaked out about their retrograde travels as they are about Mercury. The only “planets” that don’t have retrograde cycles are the Sun and Moon, so something is always retrograde. But here’s the kick in the pants. Mercury Retrograde is only kind of over.
Today I wanted to give you a little crash course in some terminology and understanding of the retrograde process.
Let’s start with a few definitions.
Retrograde– Yup, we’re starting at the beginning! When a planet is retrograde this means that earth is passing this planet while in orbit. It’s sort of like when you’re driving faster than another car on the highway and as you go speeding past it can look like the car next to you is actually going backward. The car isn’t really going backward but just moving much slower than you. That’s the same with a retrograde planet. Planets don’t really move in reverse! It just looks like it because of this and several other optical illusions from our point of view on earth.
Metaphysically the energy of a retrograde planet tends to be slow and turned inward. This is why you see things during a time like Mercury Retrograde where everything just hits a wall. During these times we find ourselves either stopped, slowed, or looking back to things in our past. We ourselves go a bit retrograde for a time.
Stations– Planets make what we call “stations” during their orbit. This is the “still point” or “standing point” when a planet appears as though it’s not moving at all. Again, a planet isn’t actually standing still, it just looks that way to us. This is when a planet is moving so slowly that it literally just looks stopped completely.
During a retrograde cycle a planet makes two stations, retrograde station/stationary retrograde and direct station/stationary direct. During the stationary retrograde period we find the energies of the retrograde can be at their strongest. This period of time is one of the early stages of the retrograde and is part of why some people find that things seem to really get nuts when a planet like Mercury starts it’s retrograde motion. The second period, stationary direct, happens at the end.
Retrograde Zone– This is the place in the zodiac where the planet is going to be during its retrograde motion. When the planet enters this zone. It’s specifically the space in the zodiac between the direct and retrograde stations. While a planet is retrograde it moves through this zone three times and the speed with which this happens can always vary {it’s the difference between a retrograde that last a standard 21 days to one that last 3 months}.
First the planet makes and entrance into the retrograde zone. Then the planet then hits the stationary retrograde point which is when we typically say a planet has “gone retrograde”. Then the planet comes back to the same point as where it entered the zone and becomes stationary direct for a period. Finally, when it moves out of the retrograde zone, we see it as fully direct.
During a retrograde the planet will pass through these zones three times, the first time once it’s entered the retrograde zone, the second time “in reverse” while in retrograde, and then the third time heading out of the zone.
To make things even more complicated {if you can believe it} there are pre-retrograde zones and post-retrograde zones…but we’re going to just ignore then for now because that’s more than we need to deal with here. Plus, I see your eyes glazing over already.
Currently Mercury is Stationary Direct and will leave the Retrograde Zone of Leo on August 22nd and head into the sign of Virgo on August 31.
That means right now Mercury still carries some of it’s retrograde energy. That means you might still be feeling in until the middle of August, around the 22nd.
It all has to do with the degrees of the sign it is retrograde in. This is what we saw this time around:
June 27 – Mercury enters retrograde zone at 1°26′ Leo.
July 15 – Mercury stationary retrograde at 12°33′ Leo.
August 8 – Mercury stationary direct at 1°26′ Leo.
August 22 – Mercury leaves retrograde zone at 12°33′ Leo.
So we see Mercury come into Leo and hit the retrograde zone at 1°26′ Leo. That means that after making it’s reverse motion through the zone it stands still and prepares to start moving forward again once it comes back to 1°26′ Leo. Then it start to head out of the retrograde zone. Once it’s moving forward and it hits the point in the zone where it went stationary retrograde {in this case 12°33′ Leo} then it is seen as fully direct and out of the influence of retrograde.
*WHEW*
So what does that means for you?
It means that while a planet is preparing to go direct the date that we often call the direct date is only technically accurate. I find it interesting that we tend of see the date of when a planet goes retrograde take into account the stationary retrograde but the direct date doesn’t take into account the stationary direct date. Personally I have found that if you work with the retrograde from the dates the planet enters the retrograde zone you have all your bases covered.
Remember, the stationary retrograde/stationary direct periods can be particularity strong or interesting because the planet is, in a sense, just standing there in the sign of the zodiac that it is moving retrograde in and we can feel some really big effects from this. So even though we might say a planet is direct, that doesn’t mean the retrograde energy is completely gone.
