Last Thursday Mercury ground to a halt, or at least appeared to, if you had been lucky enough to see it each night. This was its Retrograde Station, and it is now in its retrograde phase for several weeks, until Feb. 28th (longer if you include its 'shadow' period).

Mercury is not only retrograde however, but is in the sign of its fall and detriment, Pisces, which is ruled by Neptune, God of The Sea. On top of this, Mercury was also conjunct Neptune the day it went retrograde. Put together this suggests this suggests the idea of water causing disruption on a large scale, and, as usual during a Mercury Retrograde period, disruption to travel and communications is the order of the day.

Why is the UK experiencing this Mercury retrograde so intensely? Well maybe it has something to do with the retrograde station (and therefore Neptune too) being conjunct the UK 1801 chart's Pluto at 3 degrees Pisces. Thus the retrograde phase, and it's preceding and following 'shadow phases' (Jan 22nd to March 20th) could have been expected to bring chaos, transformation and tests of survival in addition to the blurring of boundaries between people and places.

No ordinary Mercury retrograde period for us in the UK, but one that touches a deep strand of feeling, calling forth a both a deeper sense of community, a Plutonian transformation in attitudes towards climate change, and a powerful response from the government. Whether these take place is in the lap of the gods howewver - or should I say Mercury?

Graham

There are some great workshops coming up in Oxford and Bath, with well-known astrologers Bernadette Brady, John Frawley and Maggie Hyde. 

15 February in Oxford, Bernadette Brady will be showing how you can Chart Your Life Story from your birth chart.

23 and 24 March in Oxford, John Frawley will be spending the Saturday explaining how questions can be answered using Horary Astrology, while the Sunday ail be devoted to Understanding the Fixed Stars. 

For details of these click here.

On 1 March, Maggie Hyde will be in Bath, presenting a day workshop titled The Symbolic Attitude, using astrology, the Tarot and the I Ching to explore how a divinatory space can be created that turns an individual towards truth. More details here.