Astrological Outlook - April 12 - 18 - Mercury Retrograde
White Owl
12 April 2010
This week features a shift in priorities and perspectives, as well as hints of changes in schedules and plans yet to come in the next few weeks. It’s all due to the action of Mercury.
This week, Mercury arrives at a point in its orbit which makes it appear to travel in backward motion from the vantage point of Earth. This appearance of backward motion takes place three to four times every year as a normal consequence of the way our solar system is arranged. Astrologers call this condition “Retrograde Mercury,” meaning backward moving Mercury. Centuries of astrological observation have found that this condition of Mercury is particularly worth noting, as it can bring otherwise unexpected disruptions of plans and mysterious changes of attitude.
The big change in the apparent motion of Mercury takes place just after midnight EDT on Sunday, April 18. However, the effect of this change is likely to be registered much earlier in the week.
As the normal forward motion of Mercury in the zodiac begins to show and eventually come to an apparent halt, so also do earthly affairs in the department of Mercury do the same thing. As the messenger god of Greek mythology, Mercury reigns over communication and travel of all types, plus the procedures and machines which make all that happen. Therefore all these matters will begin early in this week to experience periods of delay and stoppage. Procedures of communication that normally work without a hitch are likely to encounter strange and peculiar snags that essentially come out of the blue this week.
This situation is extremely important to bear in mind this week in regard to the matter of managing our human relations. Here’s why. Just about everyone will be experiencing some kind of internal shift, a change of perspective and interests. Normally a period of retrograde Mercury will throw attention back to a past issue or interest, reviving it for a period of about a month. Often this works out for the good, but it can also cause persons to suddenly drop interest in immediate surroundings and current responsibilities, or to change their intentions, ways of talking, and general plans. In other cases, the shift in Mercury’s apparent motion can correlate to periods of strange moodiness, longing for the past, inattention to present matters, forgetfulness, and consequent inaccurate communication.
This week in particular is likely to contain interludes during which persons and machines will not behave as they usually do. We simply have to make allowances for this, which means that this week is not an opportune period for gaining agreement with others, obtaining absolutely rock solid truth, securing quick and hassle free travel, or for setting up complicated machinery.
Further, no matter what we are told this week, we should all adopt an attitude of “wait and see.” In fact, that’s the deal for the next few weeks, until Mercury returns to normal forward motion in the zodiac on May 11. From now until that date, everything should be taken with a large grain of salt, which is to say, not everything we hear should be believed as the final word. The reason for all this is that everything is changing, not at all set in concrete, and whatever we see at this point is likely to be significantly altered by the time mid May rolls around. So we should not get too attached to any bit of information, whether positive or negative this week. The better part of wisdom is to defer the drawing of conclusions and taking of actions to a time after mid May.
However, up close and personal, this week we have also the New Moon, which occurs at the 24th degree of Aries on Wednesday, April 14, at 8:29 an EDT. In the sign of the bold and courageous individual, the New Moon hails a month ahead in which we will be inevitably driven to explore our unique talents as independent persons. This trend combined with the retrograde Mercury effect described above suggests that the month ahead is one in which individuals may be very prone to turn within self to search for inner understanding, strength, and some kind of uncommon vision. This is not necessarily a bad thing, thought it may lead to an apparent abandonment of others. Intimacy may therefore seem to suffer.
Yet, we should bear in mind that the desire to promote one’s own interests are strong anyway during the period of Sun in Aries, which runs from March 21 through April 19. The New Moon on the 14th will simply emphasize and highlight that characteristic for a few more days. On the one hand this can make for self-centeredness, but on the other, it can also make for a proper and healthy amount of individual desire, ambition, drive, and spirit. So this can be a very good thing for those of us who need to find a center of enthusiasm and personal power from which to engage in constructive action for survival and “thrival.”
But do remember this one thing. Aries energy wants passionately to forge ahead, and do so quickly. For the time being, that Aries urge to progress is tempered by retrograde Mercury. That means we must all slow down and relax our expectations in regard to the speed of transactions, but it also means that our personal quests can be much enriched by quality time spent alone while tapping inner talents between now and mid May.
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