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

July 2013 will see a grand trine - where three planets are each 120° apart in the sky - in this case Jupiter (Cancer), Saturn (Scorpio) and Neptune (Pisces). These three planets have not formed a grand trine relationship since the turn of the year 1749-50, again in water signs (1929 came close, though was disassociate). An internet search of ‘grand trine 2013’ will pull in some interesting comments, but it would seem to be a good time for blessing one’s dreams, especially if you have planets round about 5° of Cancer, Scorpio or Pisces. The trine will be within orb from the beginning of July until mid August and will be closest round about 16-19 July.
Read Christina Rodenbeck's July 2013 post here.
KL