MERCURY RETROGRADE IN VIRGO | AUGUST 12 - SEPTEMBER 15
Now Mercury is already in its shadow period as it starts to slow down. So let’s just cover first what is a Mercury Retrograde and the ways it can affect us all and then individually paying special focus to your rising sign and Sun Sign - To find your rising sign you need your time and place of birth, simply pay a visit to www.astro.com and plug in your details - the time will need to be accurate if you hope to get an accurate read on things.
Mercury Retrograde, in a nutshell, makes it appear in the sky if you were to watch the planets, it makes it seem as though Mercury is moving backwards. So what does that mean symbolically, well Mercury is a planet that governs over ours brains software, our mental and thinking capacity. So when it moves backwards it’s a period of reflection, reassessment, and ultimately what we need to release and make way for the new - think of it as a clearing or cleaning of the hardware that wires your brain.
Now I’m going to best help you to understand how this occurrence affects you every time and then incorporate it into how it will affect this particular transit in Virgo. . . Again, for the most accurate results, it is best to know your Rising sign/Ascendant - but it can still be applied to your Sun signs as well.
MERCURY AND WHAT IT RULES
Mercury rules over two signs Gemini and Virgo, knowing where these two signs fall within your chart can help you to navigate what areas of life are often going to be impacted by a Mercury Retrograde cycle/transit.
Secondly, the common traits of a Mercury retrograde would be that it can cause delays… Delays with messages, information, plans, it can cause mixed messages, misunderstandings, delays with travel, things can break down temporarily, technology can be on the fritz or it can even cause a little bit of a distraction, a confusion or a preoccupied mind.
This Retrograde will take place is Virgo and Virgo as a sign is the Workaholic, it calculates, it judges and it perfects things and as you may know with any retrograde it is a time where nothing seems to go quite to plan… It’s not a bad thing the fact of the matter is as I expressed earlier that we need retrogrades to spring clean our minds, to work through and release things that are clogging our progress.
Now Mercury Retrograde will affect everyone and perhaps Gemini and Virgo are the two signs that will feel it the most or anyone who is ruled by Mercury or who has a few planets in the signs of Virgo or Gemini… Now, everyone has Virgo somewhere in their charts and so this is the area of your life that will be going under “maintenance” during these next 3 weeks before getting a reboot and back up to full speed.
My words of caution with this one, is to try not and be such a perfectionist during this time, try not to over analyse, judge and get everything spot on. You could find yourself so focused on the way things need to be, the right way, that it unavoidably will go wrong or be delayed, there could be miscommunication, the confusion that it causes more problems. Saying that many of you could find that one little thing that’s not quite right and blow it way out of proportion - focusing upon what’s wrong, the issue, the problem and not taking the time to see what’s right or forgetting to count your blessings.
As Virgo governs over the energies of one of the workhouses as it influences the money you make, I am seeing it already that many people are losing things, misplacing things, leaving their cards in card machines/ATM’s, please are losing money so when handling your resources make a conscious effort to ensure you're paying attention.
Okay now let’s break down for each sign what could be happening with you over the next 3 weeks.
ARIES | SUN - MOON - RISING
All Mercury retrogrades are going to influence your 3rd and 6th houses of which represent the working, lifestyle and health area of life as well as your social life, communications, causal relationships, online networking and your environment area of life.
Now the Retrograde itself is taking place in your 6th house of work, lifestyle and health, so this is a time where you can start to reassess your work, edit, finish, complete and tweak anything you have been previously working on. It’s a time where you can experience past issues within this area of life, be watchful for miscommunications, making sure you say what you mean and that your colleagues understand what you are saying, there can be mishaps taking place in this area of life, delays and frustrations can arise.
Old health issues can creep back in as a way for you to correct and fix the issue. Virgo is a doing sign, it calculates, it heals and it wants to fix things so in the 6th house you have the opportunity to improve something that once was - not the best time to start something new but it is the perfect time to re-work the old.
It could be a time where if you have been thinking (previously) of quitting your job or if you have just recently started a new job, that you decide to quit because it regresses you back into an earlier state of being don't do anything rash right now.
Side note for all you Aries pet lovers out there you could experience old issues (if you had any) with your pet again during these 3 weeks or so. It’s a time to reorganise and restructure your lifestyle. Try to see the positives when it comes to your work in the world and not on all the issues.
There very well could be delays during this time when it comes to your environment, it brings a classic case of road works, traffic delays and missed deadlines, perhaps even an old friend or relative reaches out.
TAURUS |SUN - MOON - RISING SIGN
All Mercury retrogrades are going to influence your 2nd and 5th houses of which represent your resources, money, values, family & the 5th house representing fun, creative projects, romance, children or birthing of something new and dating.
The retrograde itself is in your 5th house this time around so this is a time where you could start to see flaws within your relationship if you are currently dating someone. You could experience a few more arguments, mainly that will stem from either suppressed things that you haven’t voiced or through misunderstandings. Those who are single during this time you could feel that in general you just have a feeling of lack of love, like you're not really into anything, your zest and thirst for it just isn’t there right now. You could also experience an old flame getting in touch or even your just thinking about past love interests, hearing a lot of things about them.
If you guys feel that the fun has been suck out of your life, or your just not that sparkly this August into September then this is a great time for you guys to reconnect with an old pastime, pick back up that old hobby you haven’t done in a while.
Now as I mentioned before every retrograde can affect your 5th house and 2nd house, not the retrograde just so happens to be in your 5th house but let's just talk about underlying themes that can play out…
So with the second house, you could feel like you don’t have enough resources, you could feel like you have more expenses or your not getting paid what you feel you should be. This could be a time where you need to re-budget. Or it could pan out in a way that you have an extra bill that you hadn’t accounted for and so your a little bit broke, this can cause your frustrations because now you don’t have the fund to go out and play.
Again my advice is to not focus on what you don’t have but make the best with what you do - perhaps you could make a little extra money by reverting back to an old way of doing so.
GEMINI | SUN - MOON - RISING SIGN
All Mercury retrogrades are going to influence your entire life as such it can touch upon all areas of life as it hits your 1st house of self and your 4th houses of which represent your family, home, security and it can make you a little bit of a hermit… Most Gemini’s can be social butterflies but when retrograde hits they can become a little more reflective and conscious of things that they hadn’t paid attention to previously.
Now this season's retrograde is in Virgo which governs over your 4th house of home, family, privacy and security. So this is a time where you start to get back to your roots so to speak, you need to clear things out, declutter, tidy and organise your home, this can be your physical home or you know what they say your body is the temple… so it can be about an internal and emotional cleansing and clear out also.
Now getting a little more real with you, Virgo’s energy is physical and it does bring with it the need to fix things… So being in your 4th house this could be a time where things break down, you might have to repair some stuff within the next 3 weeks or so, this can be repaired within the home, the home itself, conveniences like cars, it would depend on where in your chart that Mercury is sitting in your natal chart to give precise predictions.
When it comes to family, you might be reflecting a lot on what that even means to you, you can expect to have misunderstandings at home or with relatives and those closest to you, but it is a way for you to reconnect and fix or mend your personal relationships - once you get past and air out your grievances and upsets.
And as you are ruled by Mercury this is not the time to change your appearance, dye your hair, have it cut, change your wardrobe - because 80% of the time when it goes direct you can regret doing so. . . So if that is something you are thinking about perhaps research into it, look and play around with ideas just don’t commit to anything new right now.
Same goes if you decide to move, you could end up misreading the small print to the deed or you could find that things are in need of fixing up.
CANCER | SUN - MOON - RISING SIGN
All Mercury retrogrades are going to influence your 12th and 3rd houses of which represent your dreams, subconscious mind, the past and your communications, messages, social life, social networking and your everyday environment.
The retrograde itself is hitting your 3rd house, so the first thing that springs to mind is that you could have issues with the internet, technology, messages and all in all experience delays. There could be a huge confusion over what people are saying to you, telling you and the bridge of conversation is currently under maintenance during the next three weeks or so - in general, the world around you seems as though it’s under construction. Messages, emails, letters, Parcels are likely to get lost during this time or somehow are delayed in reaching you. If you're travelling around your local area you can experience delays from getting from A - B or experience obstacle in your way, so you have to make an alternative root. It’s a time where however you could receive messages from the past, hearing things about the past, messages that were not received or put on hold already could finally come through during this time. I’d say this is a great time to research, to study to edit or re-edit work you have already done.
I’d also say with it influencing your 12th house the notion of any retrograde brings elements of the past backup to rethink and reassess… I’d also say this is a time where your intuition is on point also, as long as you don’t get stuck in over analysing it, if you have feelings and inclinations about things jot them down don’t try and comprehend what they mean straight away, the answers will come in due course.
So yes for guys expect delays in short distance travels, be it trains or buses to and from work or if you have a journey planned then don’t expect all to go exactly and you envision it to - just go with the flow. Expect issues with the internet dropping in and out, technology failing you, gadgets breaking down, communications for you could have you seeming like an alien and anyone trying to talk to you can be a little confusing at this time - lean into your intuition more. I’d also say any detailed work could also be delayed or take you twice as long to complete during this time.
You might find that at this time you could be more restless and unable to get any shut eye, you could lose your voice which in turn prevents communication as Virgo is the sign of health.
LEO | SUN - MOON - RISING SIGN
All Mercury retrogrades are going to influence your 2nd and 11th houses of which represent your resources, money, values, family and throat area & the 11th house of gains, friendships and groups.
For you guys the Retrograde is happening in your 2nd house, therefore you can expect to need to do some re-budgeting as funds might be a little sparse during these 3 weeks or simply put on hold. It’s the perfect time to look at what you truly need, and ways to save a little bit of dollar. In other news, this could be a time where you're getting frustrated with your income as you start to reevaluate your worth and how it reflects your income or resources in some way. It could be a time where someone gets a bit poorly or an old illness creeps back to get you to pay more attention to it.
As well it will influence the 11th house so this is a time frame where you connect with people or a group that you haven’t in awhile. You might start to evaluate your friendships those who matter and those who you don’t really align with any longer. Or it can make you withdraw socially if you have been overdoing it of late, you may need some alone time.
VIRGO | SUN - MOON - RISING SIGN
All Mercury retrogrades are going to influence your entire life as such it can touch upon all areas of life as it hits your 1st house of self and your 10th houses of which represent your public persona, your online persona, career and all in all how you are seen out in the world.
Now this Retrograde season is in your sign! This is going to be a pretty big deal for you Virgos especially anyone with a planet in Virgo between the degrees of 25 degrees of Leo all the way through to 14 degrees of Virgo (The retrograde will go from 11 degrees of Virgo back into 28 degrees of Leo). You see you will be going through a life changing rethinking your life on a whole, where you want to be, what you want to do, what makes you happy and what doesn't. . . You will be purging all the past baggage holding up space within you to make way for the new and next chapter.
Something that I have noticed is that when this transit takes place you can reveal a part of yourself that you wouldn’t or haven’t done so before… You might be a little dazed and confused and kind of trip over yourself more often than not as you're working through how you can best express yourself. With all this mental cray-cray going on you can decide that you want to change the way you look as the 1st house is you, it’s your image and yourself, so you might decide you want to cut all your hair off, dye your hair, get a tattoo or something but I'd urge you to wait until September 19th before committing to something.
Virgo can also rule wounds too as it’s a sign associated with health… I’d say this is a time where you need to not be in such a hurry as you can bump yourself, burn yourself or cut yourself accidentally because your head is somewhere else over the next few weeks, especially from the 12th August - 5th September 2017. Try to not do anything harmful to yourself, eat clean and healthy and focus on just taking things easy during this time and focus NOT on what others think but on what you think and feel.
LIBRA | SUN - MOON - RISING SIGN
All Mercury retrogrades are going to influence your thinking mind as it hits your 9th house of higher mind, travel and future views and your 12th house of which represent your subconscious mind, your dreams and the internal self as well as the past.
But this retrograde with it transiting through your 12th house so it will involve deeper reflections on the past. You might suffer from lack of being able to sleep, you might need a little more rest than normal during these few weeks, you may long to get away and go on a relaxing retreat. In some ways this can be seen as the house of past karma so the things you thought had been done, dusted, completed and finished could reawaken and come back up to be revisited and reassessed. The old come back to life! Your subconscious mind comes bubbling over and you have to face whatever lies deep within you. This is an excellent time to take up some kind of therapy, meditation or spiritual exercise - perhaps even journaling can help you during the weeks that follow.
SCORPIO | SUN - MOON - RISING SIGN
All Mercury retrogrades are going to influence your 11th and 8th house as such it will influence your friendships, social network, groups and hopes and wishes as well as a house that Scorpio your sign rules over, the 8th house that governs over joint resources, other people's money, surprises, things that are a little hush-hush or taboo.
For you, the Mercury retrograde will transit through your 11th house… So you can expect to be going about your everyday life and casually bumping into people from your past, old friends and acquaintances… But it’s during this time that you start to really look at your friendships, social networking and groups and begin to ask what friendships are in true alignment with who you are and want to become and which resonates with an old version of who you once was. It’s going to be a time where you start to reconnect with people who do click with you and start to remove yourself from those who bring toxic energy into your experience. It’s a time to assess, reevaluate your social circle, network and friendship groups during this time.
With it influencing your 8th house you can expect many surprises when it comes to your connections, secrets get revealed as the truth comes out. It can be a time where your connections need to be real and non-superficial.
SAGITTARIUS | SUN - MOON - RISING SIGN
All Mercury retrogrades are going to influence your 10th and 7th houses of which represent your career, your work in the world, with your online or outer persona as well as your one to one relationships and partnerships. Now Mercury is also impacting 2 out of the 4 houses on your angles so it’s going to always be a bit of a sensitive time for you.
With this transit happening in Virgo which happens to be your 10th house, you can expect to have some kind of career review during this time. As it also influences your 7th house you might have a meeting with a boss or authority figure that requires you to be calm cool and collected simply because there will be misunderstanding and general confusion during this time. It’s the perfect time to wrap up old projects, going back over and reviewing your own work to ensure everything is as up to par as it can be. Now because it is so impactful it can work to your advantage or disadvantage, let me just clarify this is not the time to look for new work or take on a new role but if you didn’t get a position previously then go for it again you are likely to be more successful during this time. But if you have put a lot of efforts into your work, what with Saturn making you think more seriously and maturing you then you may get a promotion, or contract extended if you have been slacking then you could manifest some of the more negative side effects to this with a potential job loss - be if you have an outburst or you're not fulfilling your duties or you decide enough is enough. It’s a time to reevaluate your career goals, what is it you want to do or to achieve in the long term, are you happy in your position, if you are not then you can start to think what might give you that new growth.
Let’s say if you run your own business, self-employed or are in management you could use this time to re strategize how you market yourself, how you work with your employees or clients… but new clients at this time might not always prove to be long term ones - just as a heads up.
CAPRICORN | SUN - MOON - RISING SIGN
All Mercury retrogrades are going to influence your 9th and 6th houses of which represent the working, lifestyle and health area of life as well as your future goals, beliefs, legal contracts, travel and your higher mind.
Now, this Mercury retrograde is transiting your 9th house, so what I feel you can expect is that future goals will need to be reevaluated, you might feel as though you have lost sight of the bigger picture or the long term vision. This is not the time to sign anythings, and travel plans might have to be delayed, postponed or something like that. If you have flights scheduled then there very well could be flight delays, issues with flying like forgetting to take out or declare certain items, you could potentially lose your luggage as well with this transit.
The positive side to this one is the rethinking your future, assessing current plans and reworking them, it’s a time where your beliefs could change after experiencing some things during this time. Read and study some things that really open your mind up to new perspectives during this time and be prepared to have your mind blown.
The 9th house is also a house of higher education so for those worried about exams or resisting any kind of exam this should be a really great time to do just that.
Also because it is still influencing the 6th house as well pay attention to your health it is a time where if you have not recovered or fixed old issues they could come back in for you to rest and take some time out.
AQUARIUS | SUN - MOON - RISING SIGN
All Mercury retrogrades are going to influence your 8th and 5th houses of which represents joint resources, other people's money, surprises, things that are a little hush-hush or taboo as well as romance, dating, creativity, children or starting or birthing something new.
For you, the Retrograde is transiting your 8th house so this is going to be all about your joint resources, money, loans, sex, secrets and hidden things. It’s such a deep house the 8th house so you could very well over the coming weeks feel the need to connect to people in a much deeper way, you want true connection and so there could be an issue if you are someone who indulges in casual sex it just might not be so fulfilling during this time. You might find yourself starting to think about a past lover or even start to think if you're in the line of business to reconnect with an old business partner during this time.
This is a time where secrets get revealed and the truth comes to the surface. This is not the time to take out a loan, borrow money but it is a time to renew anything that needs renewing a passport, visa, insurance etc.
With its influence on your 5th house of love and romance, you could be in a very reflective state when it comes to that area of life… Not so great at starting something new, but a time where an ex could remind you just how happy you are with where you are or just how far you have fallen and how unhappy you are.
PISCES | SUN - MOON - RISING SIGN
All Mercury retrogrades are going to influence your 7th and 4th houses of which represents your one to one relationships, intimate relationships and business partnerships and well as your home, family, privacy, security, your roots and private side of self.
Now this Retrograde is happening with your 7th house of relationships, it’s a time where you hear from an ex, an old friend or business colleague or you hear about things about them or are reminded of things as your remember and reflect.
I feel with this there is a need to redefine your relationships during this time and in business, you need to renegotiate before signing anything during this time, double, triple check. I think this transit in this house is okay to reconnect or recommit to something but it’s not likely a great thing when starting something brand new.
This is a time where there can be more arguments with current partners, it’s the perfect time to air out old annoyances, but do it in a compassionate way, remember that anything you say will impact a person 3x more than if mercury was not in retrograde, it’s a time that can really bring's you closer together or break you apart if you go about it all wrong.
It also influences your 4th house of home so you might have a few issues when it comes to things breaking, or arguments with the family or those you live with could come up, again it’s the time to get these issues aired out and sorted once and for all.
So this is a time where you start to get back to your roots so to speak, you need to clear things out, declutter, tidy and organise your home, doing so you could come across old things that make you a little nostalgic and reminiscing... This can also be a good time for an internal and emotional cleansing and clear out also.
