Mercury Direct

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Mercury turned direct this past Friday and the final reverberations that usually occur for a day or two after a planet turns direct should be subsiding. We still have a retrograde Mars in the fixed fire sign of Leo and retrograde Saturn in the cardinal air sign of Libra, so all does not feel as clear or move as freely as we might have hoped. World focus is on Haiti right now and the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. The new moon and eclipse energy in the sign of Capricorn on the 15th amplified the square between Saturn and the Pluto/Mercury conjunction, and the moon drew in energy from the retrograde Mars at the time of the eclipse. Whenever I see a Mercury and Mars retrograde happen at the same time, I think of sudden death because my father passed suddenly during a time when both those planets were retrograde. Perhaps retrograde Mars and Mercury open a door for leaving the planet suddenly. At the time, I had been planning a vacation and was unable to get a flight for the day I wanted to travel (Mercury retrograde, of course), but despite being able to scope the ephemeris and know it was not the “best” day for me to travel, I took the only day available. That day, while driving to the airport with my family, my father died of a heart attack on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. Despite my astrological knowledge and my own reservations about traveling during difficult planetary energy, I was not able to foresee my father’s death; however, upon looking more closely at the planets and our respective charts after the event, the writing was on the wall, as the expression goes. We tend to see something only when we are looking for it.



Many other astrologers, intuitives, and channelers made mention of stressful energy in January 2010, especially during the new moon time period, that heralded upheaval, cleansing, releasing, change. So, what else is new? It can get a bit old reading the same predictions again and again, month after month. Many of us feel like it’s time for it all to be over already. We can attribute that feeling to the Saturn/Pluto square. Saturn = heaviness, restriction, limitation, time, and Pluto = intensity, transformation, life/death issues. How many saw the disaster in Haiti beforehand? Now the channelings, etc. are focusing on the “why” of the disaster and the good side of it. I’m not sure the why has any spiritual component to it at all, except for, “There but for the Grace of God go I”. Our planet is a living entity with frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Sometimes they happen where people live. If the planet communicated clearly to enough intuitives and gave a clear warning of the quake in Haiti before it happened, would we listen? Believe it? Act on it and get everyone out? Most likely not. Thankfully, despite the planetary stressful energy, we also have some true blessing and support going on with Jupiter, Neptune, and Chiron in Aquarius, and people are doing what they can to help each other and to help people in Haiti. On the 20th, when the sun and Venus enter Aquarius and Jupiter moves into the empathetic water sign of Pisces, I believe even greater awareness of world poverty and efforts to eradicate it will come to the fore. If there is a “why” behind the disaster in Haiti, I would consider the influence of Saturn, the teacher and taskmaster, retrograde in Libra. Libra is a sign of polarities and, as an air sign, intellectualizes, examines, and questions right/wrong, me/you. It is also a Venus-ruled sign and much prefers to see only the pretty, good, and pleasant whenever possible. I think Saturn square Pluto is manifesting as a tool to reveal and destroy what is ugly, rotten, or intolerable in our world. The “how” of this tool in operation is not necessarily something we can always foresee or control.

Looking at the rest of the month and keying into my own personal feelings, I have some general apprehension about the state of Mother Earth. I feel another major quake or volcanic eruption is in the works, perhaps before the month is out, when we have Mercury in direct motion returning to the eclipse point around the 26th (rebounding energy), and a full moon on the 30th making a conjunction to the retrograde Mars. I sincerely pray I am wrong. In our daily lives, I would advise everyone to take care when traveling or operating any machinery during the last week of the month as we approach the full moon. Mercury may be direct, but the Mars retrograde will intensify the heightened emotions that come with a full moon and put people on edge. Leo can be quite stubborn and aggressive. This energy mix can increase the chance of accidents or simply stupid mistakes.

Originally posted to Dunnea.net