Mercury Retrograde Basics It seems like Mercury retrograde is one of the first cycles people learn about with astrology and its reputation is not the best. Mercury's principle of energy is with all the left-brain, detailed areas of communication such as thinking, speaking, the conscious mind. So it is easy to understand it's apparent retrograde cycle to Earth interfering with letters, phone calls, etc. and creating all kinds of miscommunications, overlooked details, and the unfavorable reputation.

However, being able to classify and organize all this information and then periodically review, reevaluate and throw out excess thought is very necessary. So, keeping Mercury's retrograde cycle in perspective is quite helpful. It is an excellent time period to mentally clean house, to seek out counseling and astrology readings, and to rewrite or edit any written projects we have undertaken. It is a time period to work on improving our communications with whomever there may be any misunderstandings or just different viewpoints. Remember that our mental viewpoints -defined by Mercury's natal sign, house and aspects - are different than others and it is through our differences that we grow and learn.

Yes, it is a time period to pay attention to details and maybe not sign any documents if possible. But life still goes on, and maybe those Mercury papers are not meant to last. Maybe, sometimes, Mercury retrograde is the best time to make one of those changes.

If you were born during Mercury retrograde your soul is taking an entire lifetime to throw off excess thought from the past (lives). And Mercury retrograde is an excellent time for you to mentally focus, its your time to become mentally clear.

Pisces Mercury Retrograde (February 20, 2000 - March 14, 2000)
This is one of the hardest signs of the zodiac for analytical, left-brain Mercury to pass through, and then for it to be retrograde can get really confusing. It asks us to entirely let go of excess fluff in our head and let our intuition take over. Mercury is comfortable only when it can be rationalizing, making lists, analyzing all the details. So this retrograde tends to make us doubt ourselves. Answers just won't come no matter how much we dwell on the issues in our head.

At this time on Earth (the end of the Piscean Age) Pisces can really be a sign of victimization and martyrdom, or the opposite of con games and lying to the max, so this Mercury retrograde may easily bring up any of these issues for us. Mercury retrograde in Pisces asks who are we trying to fool? How are we fooling ourselves? Where are we not facing reality as our fantasies come crashing down?

During February and March 2000 this Mercury retrograde cycle makes 3 waning sextiles to Jupiter and Saturn, and 3 waxing squares to Pluto. This adds to the theme of asking us to let go of old beliefs and realities so new soul viewpoints have room to come in. Perhaps we are realizing our careers are no longer meaningful. These aspects easily add to the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in May (and conjunct with Mercury) that asks us to create new realities, especially in work and career. See the Jupiter-Saturn section above.

Positively, this retrograde gives us opportunities to "let go and let God/Goddess", to allow our intuition to guide us instead of just ego and rationalization. This is a time period to search for our connection to the larger whole, to ask how our deepest desires need to be revised. Mercury's retrograde through Pisces allows us to realize what dreams and fantasies we can make real and what is not there for us at this moment in time. In other words realigning our desires with new mental realities.

The highlight of this retrograde is Mercury's inferior conjunction to the Sun on March 1 at 11/12 degrees Pisces. This is the time period for answers to come, to really let our intuitive right-brain guide us through the details of life at the moment.

Cancer Mercury Retrograde (June 23, 2000 - July 17, 2000)
This Mercury retrograde happens during the first eclipse season in Cancer-Capricorn. There will be a solar eclipse during this retrograde and a lunar eclipse the day before Mercury turns direct again. It will be the most emotional time of the year. The challenge will be to think clearly when all these emotions are coming up and all we can do is feel.

All of our emotional insecurities will rise to the surface and this Mercury retrograde along with the eclipses can make us feel like we could easily loose it and emotionally explode. Family issues that we thought we had dealt with will come back again. Old wounds will resurface to be hopefully healed once again on an ever-deeper level. With Venus and Mars also traveling through Cancer at this time and contacting Mercury during the retrograde we will have emotional issues in personal relationships as well. Who is projecting emotional needs on to whom?

This retrograde will help set the stage for the Moon's nodal axis transit through Cancer-Capricorn. Issues of gender roles gender equality and parenting will come up. There are lessons here to balance that inner female and inner male in all of us. And in our patriarchal world it is way past time for balancing with the matriarchy. Issues concerning familial abuse and incest may also come up at this time.

The essence of Cancerian energy is to learn emotional self-reliance. To realize that no matter how "bad" or "good" our relationships may be, no matter what gender we are this lifetime, it is still our own responsibility to take care of our own emotional needs. No matter who we think is "hurting" us it is just the mirror to help us to greater levels of emotional self-relating. So this Mercury retrograde will help us determine where in our emotional relationships we need to relate to ourselves better.

The highlight of this retrograde is Mercury's inferior conjunction to the Sun on July 6 at 14/15 degrees Cancer. This is the time period to realize our deepest emotional fears and insecurities and face them, to mentally listen inwardly on how to do this. The Lunar Eclipse on July 16 just before Mercury turns direct can give us additional realizations on what we need to do to take charge and create our world from a foundation of emotional self-reliance. The opposite is to try and emotionally control others through domination or subtle manipulations and victimization games. The choice is ours. What will your choice be?

Scorpio Mercury Retrograde (October 18, 2000 - November 7, 2000)
This Mercury retrograde will serve as an opportunity to see how well we have learned our Taurean self-reliance lessons earlier this year. Intimate relationship issues as well as money concerns will come up for review at this time. Venus at 29 Scorpio makes an opposition to Saturn in Taurus on the day Mercury turns retrograde, which can initiate this Mercury retrograde cycle with some harsh realities in our relationships to people and resources.

Scorpio is one of the relationship signs and it ranges from the worst of controlling, dominating codependencies to the best of soul mates with mutual interdependencies, and of course everything in-between. Being the psychological detective that Scorpio is, this Mercury in Scorpio retrograde cycle allows us to intuitively search out any areas where we have codependency with other people, situations or things. Why are we attached, especially emotionally? How are we being asked to mentally look at these emotions differently? What situations and/or patterns do we need to metamorphose?

In October and November Mercury makes 3 waning squares to Neptune asking us to again let go of old beliefs and ways of thinking while at the same time letting the new ideas start to come in. With analytical Mercury in emotionally intuitive Scorpio and nebulous Neptune in detached mental Aquarius there is a kind of mutual reception to make major spiritual, mental and emotional breakthroughs. At its worst, we could stubbornly cling to our old ways of thinking while they crumble apart around us forcing us to look at things differently, especially our emotional attachments.

This Mercury retrograde cycle ends with Mercury turning direct at 29 Libra, which asks us to find that fine balance in relationships for all concerned. All relationships, including our relationship with money and resources, work best when there is equality of giving and receiving. At its best, Mercury in Scorpio is excellent at intuiting this.

The highlight of this retrograde is Mercury's inferior conjunction to the Sun October 29 at 6/7 degrees Scorpio. This is a time period to search for answers to those deep emotional issues and attachments. A time period to search for those ways in which to empower others and ourselves at the same time.

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