Ashlee's Mercury: The Retrograde, The Sign, House and Aspects

Mercury: The Retrograde, The Sign, House and Aspects

 

 

Since Gemini is ruled by Mercury I thought that it would be a good idea to start there. 

 

 

Mercury- Perception and Mentality

 

Mercury symbolizes reason and the thinking function and the ability to make contact, whether this is externally via communication and perception or internally in the form of your nervous system. Wit and speed, dexterity, and the capacity for learning- and therefore employment and commerce- are the essence of Mercury. Negatively, Mercury can make for over-rationalization, leading to dryness and a lack of feeling, as well as sleight of hand and sharpness of tongue, including sarcasm and cynicism as Mercury can block or be blind to empathy, belief or intuition.

 

Gemini and Virgo are the mercurial signs in the zodiac: Gemini symbolizes the presentation of ideas, mental curiosity, the development of the mind, the concept of the new, the logos. Virgo represents the feminine side of Mercury and, as with all feminine signs, symbolizes the ability to apply what has been learned on many levels to the world of actual being.

 



Mercury in the personal charts indicates our five physical senses (touch, taste, hearing, sight, smell) and how they work, as well as how we communicate. Blocks in communication indicate that we are unwilling to share, or we may be afraid to share, or we may not be able to hear. The aspects to Mercury suggest the communication difficulties that may have occurred in the early life; they also suggest difficulties we may have as adults because we never learned to discuss things properly, or fairly, or at all, in our early childhood environment.  Stress is laid on the parental influence because we are a species of imitators. When parents don't communicate, children don't have a chance to see others communicate. When there are blocking aspects to Mercury, communication will be an experience that a child may have to learn if he wishes to share experience with others.

This is known as the trickster mechanism within the unconscious. Our mind asks us questions and argues with us. Sometimes there seems to be a "little person" in our heads, someone who argues with every decision we make. Sometimes that "person" leads us astray, sometime it is a valuable critic. WE have to determine its place in our life. Some have called this "little person" the conscious.

Mercury in Gemini

Your mind is efficient in that it is quick and precise, but its quality is only as good as what you feed it with. You can be eloquent or just gossip, cleaver or facile, fluent or flippant. It all depends on what you read and the people that you mix with. To avoid incipient nervousness and restlessness, and possible mischief making, it is equally important that you actually have something worth while to do. This should not be too difficult for you are a fast learner and can lend your native wits and dexterity to any number of jobs, especially those that involve the use of your tongue or hands.

Mercury in the 12th House

During some period in your past, even before birth, you somehow gained the impression that these mental capabilities of yours were inadequate because you were overwhelmed by an emotional force of some kind. As a result of this- or rather what caused it- you have a mind that can pick up all sorts of intimations, vibrations and undercurrents. These can either haunt you  and impair clear think in, or be useful in determining a subtle way through difficulties, for yourself or those who need it. Establishing regular intervals of retreat- when you may restore your mental composure and safety open your mind to those unconscious powers of the imagination which you are especially privy to- is essential. You have a channeling mind and are therefore prone to "voices in the head" If such is the case you have to determine whether such are friendly or not.

Retrograde Mercury: The symbol, Personality, Karma, Retro in Gemini and House

The symbol of Mercury is formed by the circle of Spirit resting between the crescent of Soul and the Cross of Matter shows that man achieves union between these three essential parts of himself by understanding how they integrate in all of his creative expression. The crescent on top symbolizes the Soul which is actively pouring itself outwardly by pushing its ideas downward further to the Cross of Matter. In order for this process to work, man must achieve the understanding that all knowing comes from the highest plane and gradually sifts down to the lowest. When a man is in tune with himself all of his knowledge originates in his Soul and then by penetrating his Spirit seeks its outward expression through the actions of his body and his responses to the body of form he sees in the world around him. Thus, men's expression is greatly dependent upon his perception is very much under the domain of Mercury's rulership.

Man can use Mercury to experience his Soul, express his Sprit or fulfill the needs of his body. He may actively express himself based entirely upon his Divine Essence and thereby view the whole world as the experience of Soul in all things. Or he may seek to actively express himself through the Spirit, thereby coloring his perception of the world around him as vivid moving kaleidoscope of life. Or his third possibility is that he mat seek to use all expression in terms of fulfilling his physical needs. Therefore, he may see the world around him as material and physical.

When Mercury appears to be retrograde the natural polarity of Soul over spirit over Matter becomes inverted. The individual is most concerned with the form of his life as well as understanding the form of all things around him. Then through his perception of whether such form either fits or contradicts the ideas of form he established in himself through prior incarnations he reacts to Spirit. Finally when form is satisfied, and Spirit is activated he achieves contentment with form and allows himself to experience his Soul.

It is this trinity of Soul, Spirit, and Matter that makes Mercury the most important planet in terms of how an individual perceives his total life experience.

The Personality

When Mercury appears retrograde in the horoscope the individual's conscious mind is capable of tapping ideas in the universal consciousness from prior times. Usually, he is unaware he is doing this, but what he is aware of is that he cannot easily make others understand all he knows. In part this is because of the inversion of Mercury's symbol in which the importance of matter takes precedence over Spirit and Soul. This causes the individual to become preoccupied with the form of his ideas. And this acts as a block to the essence of his knowledge.

In addition, his wavelength is slightly different from the rest of society in terms of his mental life. Thought processes tend to repeat like an endless record, and as a result most of the things he creates are in different shapes or forms, carbon copies of what he has already done. When he speaks, he has difficulty projecting the exact telepathic pictures which convey the meanings of his thoughts. Thus, he often feels misunderstood and wonders why others do not always see things the way he does.

He believes himself more separated from society than a person with direct motion Mercury might. And as a result, he tries desperately to develop contact with others to the point that he often overemphasizes his ideas until they can actually become an annoyance to those around him. Uncomfortable in company, he tries too hard to win the acceptance of others. Still at the slightest hint of rejection, he can give up too easily. Ultimately he learns that his safety is in growing more detached and impersonal than those people with direct-motion Mercury. This is often interpreted by others as a "coldness" but it is merely the vibration of the retrograde Mercury which is so obviously disharmonious with direct motion vibrations. Underneath the apparent wall, this individual is a lot more sensitive than most people would realize.

Once the communication barrier is passed, there is a tremendous amount of insight that comes out of the retrograde. To make this easier, the retrograde individual should not try to make the form of his life fit into the ideas and opinions of others around him. Instead he can find more comfort in being grateful for his rather unique way of seeing things.

In areas that require concentration, this individual can be an excellent student even though it might take him a little longer to grasp the ideas and principles. In the end he will know the subject more thoroughly and with much grater insight and depth than the individual with direct-motion Mercury. This occurs because he is literally ignores nothing. In areas of learning he is unwilling to skip over a point that leaves him questioning. Regardless of the impatience of others in a classroom situation he will constantly go back to some past question until the answer rests clearly.

He is a natural in the study of history, where the backwards study of man's nature gives an understanding of how one might predictably act in the future. Liking to teach others through his different sense of perspective, he has the ability to make one aware of past details that are needed in the present in order to recapture and put together puzzle pieces which would otherwise be missing. To do this, he always seems to be fighting a natural flow of things, which leads him to be misunderstood by those close to him. This causes nervousness and irritability when enough of a buildup triggers feelings of separation from those he wishes to be close to.

Because he is drawing on overlooked but still useful ideas from the past, he tends to come into contact with those individuals who are running ahead into the future so fast that they are missing many pieces behind them. He can fill this gap for them, as soon as they stop to listen.

Dealing with different time periods all at the same time, the retrograde Mercury individual is acting like a funnel and an interpreter. Always there is a powerful message, but he will shy away from giving it unless he feels accepted at the moment. In the area of sexuality, this placement makes it difficult to establish a smooth flowing communication with the opposite sex.

Karma

The individual with retrograde Mercury is here to experience an unresolved karma in relationships. He has a tendency to react to others as if they symbolize people from his past. Thus, he has difficulty keeping the full focus of his consciousness in the 'here and now'

usually this manifests as difficulties with family and relatives. but the question of relationships goes beyond how one communicates with people. it also involves ones perception of the universe as a whole. Often there is a problem inherent in the retrograde in terms of seeing what might be called an inverted reality. The individual has difficulty understanding the very basic relationship between cause and effect. He questions the very essence of life itself, yet he cannot often see the most simple links between things, circumstances, and people. Losing himself in thought which is beyond comprehension he must learn to be content with the very basic simplicities upon which life is founded. So intent is he on discovering that which is beyond understanding that he nearly always misses the obvious.

From a karmic point of view then, this individual must learn how to focus his attention on the reality of the present rather than loosing himself in all of the transparent overlays he perceives. Once he can do this, he will be able to establish a firm reference point in the here and now through which all of the discoveries he makes can be expressed to the outer world.

Retrograde Mercury in Gemini

here, the individual experiences the mutable adaptability of Gemini as it acts on Retrograde Mercury moving through its three phrases. Because of the dual nature of the sign, and its intense quest for understanding, along with a chameleon-like changeability according to external influences, this individual is able to experience comfort during each one of the three phrases.

Actually, he is on different thought planes at the same time. This ability to experience different frequencies of thought simultaneously makes it possible for him to deal with hypocrites better than any other zodiacal placement. He can be unusually agile communicator even though his thoughts sometimes seem a bit disjointed. This is because although he can have difficulties pulling things together, he has a great ability to see the essence of an idea instantly.

He is good at writing poetry and music but sometimes gets himself into mental mazes by attempting to test his thinking powers. In some instances there is a past life residue of a relationship with a brother or a sister. And when obvious difficulties in that area continue in the present life, he still keeps trying to resolve the past incarnation by working it out through the present actors. His karma is in relationships with others, and all he goes through in this life is part of his learning to understand the nature of duality within himself. His greatest strength is the fact that he is a born student, and while it may take him longer to learn something that the individual with direct-motion Mercury he will ultimately understand it on a deeper level.

Retrograde Mercury in the 12th House

Here the retrograde spend most of his time in phrase 3 of the retrograde process, where in absorbing introspective vibration he turns most of his thoughts inward to understand the inner nature of his own being. In this very special placement, every conscious thought is Karmic. All the individual perceives is a continuance of past ideas in his mind concerning the relationship of things, people and circumstances in the universe. He tends to draw into himself and on the personality level becomes introverted. Still, he is thinking all the time. He tends to replay past conversations for days and weeks after they have actually occurred. in a way he is experiencing the pure essence of perception in its rawest form. For most individuals this is very difficult to handle.
His frequent disorientation with time and space knows no boundaries, and often goes beyond the borderlines of the current life, as well as the planet that he is currently living on. He can be mystically oriented as he tries to perceive the universe through himself. Thus her tends to experience in his own life anything he allows himself to think about. Truly this is the individual who has become exactly what he thought.

He is nearly always misunderstood by others, for the Neptunian essence of his ideas becomes awkward as he tries to express it to others through the absorbing introverted phrase 3 of the retrograde process. He underestimates himself, tending to retreat from life rather than easily expressing himself outwardly. Some with this position have great musical ability as words often seem inadequate means of expression, thereby leading the person to other creative areas of expressing themselves. On the negative side, some with this position  can experience long periods of mental depression, during which time they are attempting to sort out the multitude of thoughts they are absorbing from the formless universe. This individual is here to karmically understand himself on the very deepest of levels. In order to do this, he spends much time away from the many outer world activities which would otherwise prevent him from seeing the seed of his inner being. Thus, he avoids the lighter side of life and focuses much of his attention on the deep mysteries that confront his inner mind He is quite a student of the past and can become an excellent metaphysician when he directs his mental energies towards universal knowing.

Putting it All Together:

Thanks to my 12th house Gemini aspects you can see that my greatest gift is my mind. Its unlike most in the sense that I think 8 times faster than most people. I am able to jump from one conversation to another with ease and the retrograde gives me the ability to "put peoples missin gpuzzle pieces back in order" My mind allows me to see what cannot be seen within people as if it was normal. this is why I am caring and nurturing towards people- I can see their pain and feel it if I so choose to. Karmically speaking I need to learn how to fit in and make deep lasting connections with people. This is why I like getting to know people behind their mask. I put myself out there, for good or bad, to understand myself so that I can understand others to better understand myself. If you ask me for help I will help you - but do not get upset for me telling you things that you did not want to hear. Clockwork Illumination is my brainchild to help people see what they really are. Yes, I am extremely sensitive individual on many different levels; get highly offended on multiple levels but I face my fears and let the courage take over which is why my persona screams Amazon Warrior Goddess and my inner self as a pure and innocent child full of wonder.