posted July 03, 2006 10:05 PM            

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We experience Mercury retrograde three times in 2006. Because 2006 is universally an EIGHT year (in numerology), the Mercury retrograde process becomes important in the adjustments required for our outer journey toward success. Mercury retrograde provides the opportunity to adjust our thoughts, attitudes and decisions about our direction. The adjustments that are slated to occur in 2006 are in water signs, Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio.
These water signs of the zodiac and relates to our emotional status and the inner world we carry with us. This emotional and inner self become the perspective that we see all situations through and only when we are able to feel security within our self do we venture out to understand the emotional and inner self of another. Most of the time we have our emotional reactions to situations and we seek to find emotional stability any way we can, rather than to address the issue of why we have chosen a particular emotional response. Changing our emotional response can often change the situation and allow us to grow and emerge more of our true inner spiritual being.

The Mercury retrogrades that are occurring this year provide the opportunities for us to show our true inner self, our true inner essence and to display the contents of our spiritual cupboards. The success that is destined to occur this year will not be determined by words and other shallow communications, but by the x-ray vision of qualities, ethics and abilities that have their roots in our spiritual cupboard. The changes, revisions and adjustments that occur during these Mercury retrograde time frames will have a major impact in the chutes and ladder events of 2006.

Mercury relates to thoughts, concepts, ideas, and communication. When Mercury retrogrades, we find that many parts of our life are being revised. Often these revisions can be a surprise or throw us back a step. However, these revisions which occur during a Mercury retrograde, are a "course correction” and provide a stop gap measure until we can review situations. During this time of revision, change is compounded and confusion is created by our reactions to the ever-changing situations. Thus anything started during this time will ultimately be taken back or even revised further, making for a high-frustration time.

The best mode to be in during a Mercury retrograde is one of "non-reaction". Treat the time period as a time of gathering information, yet because the information will be in constant change it would be like trying to comb your hair in a wind storm. Best to wait until the changes stop before attempting to make things orderly. Therefore, just let the winds of situations blow around you without reacting. Once Mercury turns direct, take a look at the information that is still around at that time and go about putting everything in order, while maintaining the fine art of flexibility.

http://www.alphalifetrends.com/sys-tmpl/mercuryretrograde2005/

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Thanks for this information- just what I was looking for. The bolded parts are the bits that speak to me the most.

posted July 03, 2006 11:12 PM              

Mercury turns retrograde July 4th at 1° Leo
Mercury turns direct July 28th to 21° Cancer

This Mercury turns retrograde in the first degree of Leo and returns back into the sign of Cancer to review and revise our emotional world. There are many issues that we need to adjust before we can express ourselves in the true and positive energy that is required. Leo rules self expression and Cancer rules our inner emotions and our emotional status. This Mercury retrograde will push us to look at the water element of our life, as did the earlier Mercury retrograde in Pisces. The Cancer element deals with our emotions and our emotional world is what prompts our Leo self-expression. The Cancer elements within our being are required to be clarified and honed in to our positive emotional expression rather than our negative emotional elements prompting this expression. Similar to a calm water such as a lake or a raging storm at sea, we have to address our inner emotional world to see and understand how we impact ourselves and how we impact others.

This Mercury retrograde becomes a very important element because the planet of Jupiter turns direct in Scorpio, another water sign. The ability to look at our self from an in-depth perspective becomes a very key part to this Mercury retrograde. If we don’t look at our inner world to see what is truly there, then we cannot see the impact that it has upon ourselves or others. This month of July becomes important to address our inner emotional status and how our inner emotions impact as they are expressed. Cancer can be incredibly nurturing and help things to grow and to grow with strength. Cancer can also be a dis-easement that causes others to be disconnected from the emotional world, thus disconnect from the ability to nurture, grow and become strong. Each of us will address the areas of our life that require additional nurturing to heal the emotional disconnects and dis-easements.

Also at the same time that Mercury barely touches into Leo, Saturn has retrograded back to the early degrees of Leo to address our self-expression in similar ways. However, this Mercury retrograde addresses the emotional issues that result in expression. This is opening the door for a new phase, as Saturn left the sign of Cancer in July 2005, which pushed us to face very difficult and challenging emotional issues. It was a great relief for Saturn to move out of Cancer and move into Leo. The time of Saturn in Cancer helped us to shift out of the jagged-edged experiences and to grow the strength and nurturing quality of Cancer. Mercury retrogrades on July 4th, and then on the 6th, Jupiter turns direct in Scorpio. This gives us the ability to look beneath the surface and to heal any unresolved issues to sooth the wounds that occurred in our challenges and battles so that they don’t continue to ooze the negative hurts, but instead express the strength and understanding that allows Cancer to become the strong nurturing qualities in our lives and in the lives of others.

To see the area of our life that will become the foundation of nurturing and growth, look to the house that contains the later degrees of Cancer. This will be the focus of our natural expression of nurturing that needs to be healed, strengthened with love and understanding. This is also the same area that was greatly challenged during the Saturn in Cancer times that has earned our rewards if we choose to bring forward the healing and nurturing qualities of love and understanding.

Mercury retrograde in Cancer impacting your 1st house – With Cancer ruling your first house you will be addressing issues of how your emotional qualities are being expressed. The sign of Cancer is sensitive and caring and at times when it feels hurt, the feelings are protected and the barb wire fence comes out to keep people away.

With Cancer in your first house it is important that you become aware of how you impact others and how well you take care of your own feelings. Others shouldn’t pay the price for you not taking care of your feelings and emotional world. However, on the other hand, you shouldn’t accept others throwing daggers at you either. This Mercury retrograde gives you the opportunity to see how the self expression of each person impacts another. This allows you to revise the impact you would like to receive and thus the expression you provide to others. You can provide a strong nurturing quality to others and provide a great inspiration to others.

Mercury retrograde in Cancer impacting your 2nd house – With Cancer ruling your 2nd house of outer values such as money, financial well-being and the like, you will be looking at your finances during this mercury retrograde. You may be buying or selling a home or that may be your business. In that case, you will be revising your approach to this monetary endeavor. You value your finances and they can sometimes take the place of emotional security. The fact that emotional security has to be built on your inner world and not your outer world, you may feel vulnerable during this time if your finances are going through a transition. This mercury retrograde becomes important to reset your value system based on your inner security first, then allow it to expand into the outer world. Issues along these lines will be addressed during this time.

Mercury retrograde in Cancer impacting your 3rd house – The 3rd house relates to communication and intellectual pursuits. With Mercury retrograding in your 3rd house you will be researching information and rethinking the decisions that you had made previously. Having Cancer rule your communication sector, you easily communicate your feelings and emotions. You may have a natural way of writing your feelings or expressing them, and so your communication approach is very powerful. You may be an architect or have the ability to bring design, color and form into your world. The emotional communications can also take the shape of intuition and counseling because of the care and concern you so easily express. This Mercury retrograde allows you to revise your communication style and maybe even begin a writing project that has been a long time coming.

Mercury retrograde in Cancer impacting your 4th house – With Mercury retrograding in your 4th house, your home environment will be the subject of this time of revision. You may be buying or selling a home or taking a look at changing it in some major way. You want to have a home that nurtures you and this begins to bring about some very strong desires. You want to bring the emotional element into your home and so you may be changing it to be closer to family by bringing family into your home or you into the home of your family. Getting closer is going to be the impetus that drives you to make some important decisions. You will be revising your thoughts, feelings and desires during this retrograde.

Mercury retrograde in Cancer impacting your 5th house – Mercury impacting your house of children and creative endeavors will give you a strong impetus to make some changes. You are very giving and have that caretaker mentality that drives you toward children and projects that surround children. During this Mercury retrograde, you will be getting in touch with this element of your life and you will be addressing the issues surrounding children and your desires to provide this type of expression. You naturally express your feelings, whether on a canvas with paints or in a writing a children’s book, or teaching gardening to children. You have a natural talent and this expression will be addressed and you will revise your projects and goals to bring this alignment back into sync.

Mercury retrograde in Cancer impacting your 6th house – You have the natural ability to be a chef or have food be a major part of your work or service. You may even be a nutritionist or a personal trainer. You want to make sure that your work environment is one that provides and gives emotional well-being to others. You may make some major adjustments dealing with your work environment at this time because you are not satisfied emotionally with your business environment. You have to be in a place that takes care of feelings and allows you to express your feelings. If not, then this stifling can only last so long before you break out into a more appropriate environment. The Mercury retrograde time frame will push you to come into more of your natural expression.

Mercury retrograde in Cancer impacting your 7th house – You are a natural caretaker of other people, especially in regard to your relationships. You tend to go out of your way to make sure other people are doing ok and have that type of care and concern. During this Mercury retrograde you will have a chance to address the balance that you provide so that you are not catering to the negative aspects of relationships that keep you hoping to their tune or changing yourself to please another. It is important that you align your inner emotional self with another, yet keep and maintain your sense of self and independence. Looking through others eyes to determine your own worth provides a distorted version. This Mercury retrograde allows you to revise your approach to relationships and to bring emotional well-being into all interactions.

Mercury retrograde in Cancer impacting your 8th house – With the emotional sign of Cancer on your 8th house, you have very, very deep feelings. The mercury retrograde will require that you address these issues and look deeply at how everything impacts you as a person. Because of this inner depth you can perceive a vast amount of information whether it is with people, places or things. Your intuition is strong because you have the inner depth of awareness to understand all situations. The fat that you so easily gather information allows you to know a lot by osmosis and this ability may seem to be rather miraculous to others. During this retrograde you are coming to some conclusions about your self and about your emotions. This will greatly impact your goals and pursuits as your directions begin to change.

Mercury retrograde in Cancer impacting your 9th house – With Cancer ruling your 9th house you will be geared toward some kind of journalistic pursuit. You have a real passion to gather information and you want to travel and understand other cultures and situations. You have a natural talent and ability to be very universal in your conversations and gravitate to include multi-cultural information in all that you do. Your goals may be changing at this time or you may be traveling for your work as you have a way to feeling at home wherever you happen to be. Traveling is always very exciting to you and you like to have this element in your life on a regular basis.

Mercury retrograde in Cancer impacting your 10th house - With the sign of Cancer in your 10th house, you will be addressing your career and your business dealings. The sign of Cancer in the business arena can make for a problematic search for the right career. Cancer is very sensitive and is typically not the best in business, however, dealing with real estate, child care or landscape design would give you more of the right direction for your career. Nursing or counseling would fit right in as well. During this time you may be revising your career directions and looking for the right avenue that will feed you emotionally as well as earn the money to put food on the table. This Mercury retrograde is important because you have probably not really spent time thinking about the right career for yourself and with situations changing around you, you are ready to make a major change.

Mercury retrograde in Cancer impacting your 11th house – With Cancer ruling your 11th house, you will expand your connections with humanity and you will be reaching out to more people than ever before. You have keep pretty much to yourself, but now there is a desire to take care of others that are in the shoes that you have walked. You can provide some great understanding, sympathy and awareness to others. You may find yourself prompted to write and to get information out to others. This begins to become a strong drive as you have a great amount to give emotionally and this cannot help but spill out. You will find situations during this Mercury retrograde usher you into more of the limelight to communicate your emotional connection to humanity.

Mercury retrograde in Cancer impacting your 12th house – With Cancer ruling your 12th house, you are reviewing how you feel about yourself, your life and your emotional world. Coming to terms with your true feelings is an important part of this mercury retrograde and you will be revising your home environment because of how you feel. You want to be able to express yourself, however, you can’t do that with any confidence until your emotional world is calm. You may have to look at the people around you and if they are causing the emotional storms, you may have to make adjustments to the different parts of your world to gain the emotional calm you are looking for. During this retrograde you will revise your concepts about your self and your emotional world.

posted July 04, 2006 07:24 AM              

On July 4, 2006, Mercury, the cosmic magician, turns retrograde in Leo, the sign of the Lion, sending communications, travel, appointments, mail and the www into a general snarlup! This awkward period begins a few days before the actual turning point (as Mercury slows) and lasts for three weeks or so, until July 29, when the Winged Messenger reaches his direct station. At this time he halts and begins his return to direct motion through the zodiac.

Everything finally straightens out on August 12, 2006, as he passes the point where he first turned retrograde. Mercury turns retrograde three times a year, as a rule, but the effects of each period differ, according to the sign in which it happens (see box for Retrograde Periods in 2006).

A planet is described as retrograde when it appears to be moving backwards through the zodiac. This traditional concept arises in the illusory planetary motion created by the orbital rotation of the earth, with relation to other planets in our solar system. Planets are never actually retrograde or stationary, they just seem that way, due to this optical illusion.

Retrograde periods, although often problematic for us earthlings, are not particularly uncommon. Each planet retrogrades, except the Sun and Moon.

Fated Events
As a rule, retrograde planets presage a period of seemingly inevitable or fated events, which relate to their sphere of influence. They present us with a series of events over which we seem to have little or no control, relating especially to the sign in which the retrogradation occurs. For example, Mercury retrograde in Leo presents quite different sets of circumstances from those generated when it retrogrades into Cancer.

A retrograde period is best seen as a cycle, beginning when the planet begins to slow to a halt before travelling backwards through the zodiac and ending when the planet returns to the point where it first paused. However, during the cycle, the planet's energy is most powerful (and more likely to generate critical events of universal importance) when the planet makes a station, appearing motionless in the sky.

These stationary periods occur near the beginning of the cycle (when the planet first halts as it prepares to move backwards) and midway through the cycle when the retrograde planet slows to a stop before moving forward again. The "direct station" (when the planet halts before moving forward again) is the most powerful and can be used for maximum benefit.

Some astrologers consider that the "Mercury Shadow" begins some three weeks before the actual retro station (when Mercury passes the point of direct station for the first time), but I am more inclined to think that the really noticeable peculiarities begin when Mercury slows significantly, a few days before the retro station. This period of "Mercury Shadow" extends to the Return date, some three weeks after the direct station. Bear this in mind, because experience shows that the effects of the retro period are still marked during the "shadow" phase.

What does Mercury affect?
In general, Mercury rules thinking and perception, processing and disseminating information and all means of communication, commerce and transportation. By extension, Mercury rules people who work in these areas, especially people who work with their minds or their wits: writers and orators, commentators and critics, gossips and spin doctors, travellers, tricksters and thieves.

Mercury retrograde gives rise to personal misunderstandings; flawed, disrupted, or delayed communications, negotiations and trade; glitches and breakdowns with phones, computers, cars, buses, and trains. And all of these problems usually arise because some crucial piece of information, or component, has gone astray, or awry.

It is therefore not wise to make important decisions while Mercury is retrograde, since it is very likely that these decisions will be clouded by misinformation, poor communication and careless thinking. Mercury is all about mental clarity and the power of the mind, so when Mercury is retrograde, these intellectual characteristics tend to be less acute than usual, as the critical faculties are dimmed.

The Key Issue
The key issue here is one of focus. Mercury's retro phase tends to bring unforeseen changes and blockages, but the aggravation and frustration that many of us experience during these periods is often due to our own inability to roll with the punches. Is this due to our ego-fixation? Mercury sets out to restructure our thinking processes and for many of us this is painful and frustrating. Moreover, these experiences reveal flaws in our internal organisation as well as our external planning, which can make us feel foolish and inadequate.

Mercury retrograde, like any cosmic aspect, affects people differently, depending on where it hits their personal charts. Some people actually prosper under a retro Mercury, especially if Mercury is retrograde but otherwise well-aspected in their birth charts. It is also a time when matters begun under a previous retro period will come to fruition, or completion as the case may be. Firm decisions that have been previously made when Mercury is travelling normally through the zodiac may be implemented or finalised while Mercury is retrograde without too much worry, for experience shows that this can be done without undue problems arising.

Mercury Retrograde in Leo
When Mercury is retrograde, everyone's thinking is more introspective and we tend to think about issues and concerns which relate to the sign involved. With Mercury retrograde in Pisces, people with this sign prominent in their charts will be especially prone to such introspection. There is little choice but to reconsider our personal views and opinions about life. There is, however, an opportunity to gain insight into our own ego.

Mercury retro in Leo gives confusion regarding high ideals and aspirations. People tend to be outspoken or quick-tempered, and their kind-hearted impulses can be misplaced, due to getting the facts wrong. Leaders and those in high places are subject to delusion and error, especially as nebulous Neptune is in opposition and lordly Jupiter is square. They tend to appear haughty, proud and passionate. Individuals find dramatic ways to communicate and are quick to refute ideas that disagree with their own. A love of children and a fondness for pleasure should not be allowed to get out of hand. Love affairs can be fickle and inconstant, due to egotistical presumptions. Avoid gambling and those who display a low and sensual nature. Attend immediately to back and chest pains.

When Mercury moves back to Cancer on July 11, the need to revisit emotional commitments will become more present. Family issues are likely to arise and you may need to review decisions regarding your residence and any career moves you have in mind.

posted July 04, 2006 07:31 AM              

Retro Station
26 Pisces 55 Thu, Mar 2
Direct Station
13 Pisces 11 Sat, Mar 25
Return
26 Pisces 55 Fri, Apr 14

Retro Station
01 Leo 22 Tue, Jul 4
Direct Station
21 Cancer 03 Sat, Jul 29
Return
01 Leo 22 Sat, Aug 12

Retro Station
25 Scorpio 04 Sat, Oct 28
Direct Station
09 Scorpio 04 Sun, Nov 18
Return
25 Scorpio 04 Mon, Dec 04

More on Mercury!
Rules: Gemini & Virgo
Exalted: Virgo
Detriment: Sagittarius & Pisces
Fall: Pisces
Exalted Degree: 15 Virgo

posted July 14, 2006 05:14 AM              

But here I go again with more struggles with my freeflow of emotions. I feel like no one else is watching the house except me. Does anyone understand what I mean?

As if a part of me becomes engulfed too much in another person's feelings before my own.

Well, here's a few Transits I'm wondering if it could be exhasperating this. Please tell me what you think :::

* Trans. Moon in Natal 10th House

* Trans. Retrograde Mercury in Natal 3rd House and Conj Natal Moon

* Trans. Saturn closing up on my IC (4th House Cusp)

* Trans. Venus getting ready to leave my 1st House

* Trans. Uranus entering my 11th House

* Trans. Retrograde h13 Lilith hoving over my Natal h13 and my already jinxed 4th House.

AND the one which is aggravating me is Trans. Pluto. As it FINALLY left my 7th House and entered my 8th I began to feel a lot of emotional relief. Now Trans. Pluto is Retrograde, hovering closer to my 7th House again ...