If we include the ‘prelude’ and ‘postlude’ the entire cycle lasts from November 25th 2023 until January 21st 2024. On December 22nd, so coinciding with the December Solstice, there will be a conjunction of Mercury and the Sun.
Stay tuned around this date, as it is like a ‘seeding time’. Ideas which lead into the future may surface, or something we’ve been struggling to understand becomes clear. You might just receive your ‘task list’ for the forthcoming year!
In general terms, when Mercury is Retrograde, the ways of feeling, intuition and sensation are favoured, rather than the technical and logical. This is why one sees ‘bad press’ for Mercury Rx! Things scramble or ‘don’t work’ because our soul is calling us to the inner world, rather than the outer world at these times. So engaging in meditation, contemplation and quietness is often more appropriate.
Overall, this cycle is rather interesting because it moves between Sagittarius and Capricorn, ruled by Jupiter and Saturn, respectively. In 2020, on December 21st, there was a conjunction of these two in the first degree of Aquarius. We may find ourselves reviewing not just the immediate period, but these last three years – back into the period of lockdowns, restrictions, and illness for some.
Now we are distilling ‘lessons learned’ and consolidating ‘where we are’ in this new stage. Note the oscillation between optimism/pessimism, joy/sorrow, momentum/inertia, hilarity/sobriety as Mercury weaves together the energies of these two signs and their ruling planets. However compelling, neither end of these polarities will last forever!
See how it feels to refrain from ‘grabbing’ either one in the (mistaken) belief that ‘This Is It’! Try letting the energies flow, blessing each extreme and honouring the invisible Oneness in which they are anchored.
Rather wonderfully, this Mercury cycle ends on 21st January, 2024, the very day when Pluto enters Aquarius for the 2nd time! (This is the point where Mercury passes the same degree where it turned Rx, on 13th December at 8.29 Capricorn).
This brings us to a major ending of a phase, and the life-review which Mercury will prompt may take us back to 2008, when Mercury first entered Capricorn.
