Astrology Booth

Astrological Services and Information

  • JANET BOOTH
    • KUDOS
  • STUDY BOOTH
    • Beginner Topics
      • OVERVIEW OF ASTROLOGY
      • BASICS OF CHART INTERPRETATION
      • RULING PLANETS
      • HOUSES
      • ASPECTS
      • How to Read an Ephemeris
      • What’s A Rising Sign and Why Should I Care?
      • Astrologer’s Apprentice Cheat Sheet
    • Advanced Topics
      • The Vertex – Cosmic Appointments
      • WITHOUT A BIRTH TIME
      • A Birth Time for Andrew Cuomo
      • The 2015 Venus-Jupiter Triple Conjunction
    • ARTICLES
      • MERCURY RETROGRADE
      • MAKING PROGRESS – ASTROLOGICALLY
      • MOON VOID OF COURSE
      • YOUR PERSONAL MOON CYCLES
      • Out of Bounds Planets
      • Pluto Demoted, Ceres Promoted, Eris Noted
      • RETROGRADE MOTION
      • THE AGE OF AQUARIUS
      • Age of Aquarius article by Don Cerow
      • By the Light of the Transiting Moon
    • LINKS
    • ON A PAGE
  • Sales Booth
    • Services
    • Products
    • Time Selection
    • Submit Birth Data for Readings
    • Reviews
  • MEDIA BOOTH
    • MEDIA KIT
    • IN THE MEDIA
    • LECTURE OFFERINGS
    • UPCOMING EVENTS
    • FREE PODCASTS
  • BLOG BOOTH
  • Contact
  • Free Resources for the Year
You are here: Home / Archives for Mercury Retrograde

December 21, 2022 By Janet Booth Leave a Comment

Mercury Retrograde – Here We Go Again

The next round of Mercury appearing to go backward begins early in the morning of December 29, 2022, continuing until January 18, 2023. The reverse motion starts at 24°21’ Capricorn, descending to 8°8’ Capricorn. The entire retrograde cycle includes the “entry shadow,” when Mercury first passes through the retrograde range, from December 12, 2022 until its turning point on the 29th, and the final pass through the range (“exit shadow”) occurs from the January 18 forward-motion pivot until Mercury exits the retrograde degrees on February 7. That’s a long visit for quick Mercury in just one little portion of the zodiac circle. Capricorn is the sign of order, organization, structure, planning, goals and following the rules, any or all of which may be on your radar screen now.

If any part of your natal chart is in this area of the zodiac, Mercury will pass it three times. If you have something aspected from this range, such as in Cancer across from these degrees or in the other Earth signs, Virgo and Taurus, a third of the zodiac away, it will likewise receive a trio of hits. Usually the first contact is a wake-up call about what needs attention. The second one signals time to take action and if you do, the third one brings a conclusion or denouement. If you pay no heed to the call the first time, Mercury alerts you again at the second pass. Ignore that and you’re asking for a shove at the third hit.

ALL of the 2023 Mercury Retrograde cycles take place in signs of the Earth element, pushing us to deal again and again with practical matters in our lives (even if the retrogrades don’t touch your chart directly). There is even a certain small slice of the Earth signs that get hit every time, namely the degrees from 8° to 15°. Mercury is not the only planet emphasizing that degree area. Jupiter will make its Retrograde backtrack later in the year in the exact same slice of Taurus, 5°- 15°, where Mercury zigzags in the spring. This is rare! Jupiter enters the range in June and doesn’t exit until March 2024. The exact dates appear on Janet’s Plan-its 2023 On a Page. And if you look at the list of New and Full Moons there, you’ll spot a Lunar Eclipse on October 28 at 5° Taurus. Anyone with natal planets from 4° to 6° of any of the Fixed signs (Aquarius, Taurus, Leo and Scorpio) will have that part of the chart emphasized over and over, right until the end of 2023.

The top end of the doubly emphasized range, 15°, is significant because 15° of the Fixed signs are the degrees exactly halfway between the Equinoxes and Solstices, and they hold nearly the same power as the Equinoxes and Solstices, which are the key season-changing power points of the zodiac. Like those, the 15° Fixed positions have far-reaching influence and often bring news-worthy incidences.

Anyone with planets around 15° of the Fixed signs is also in the process of being strongly impacted by slow-moving and volatile Uranus passing through 15° of Taurus. It came close, at 14°, in the summer of 2021 (July to September) and reached 15° in 2022, in May and December, playing an important role at the Winter Solstice on December 21). It returns for a third visit in February to March of 2023. Uranus is famous for sudden, unexpected and often shocking turns of events. It certainly wants to force changes for whatever the affected planet represents in a chart. The 15° Fixed degree gets a n additional punch at the Lunar Eclipse at 14°58’ (nearly 15°) of Scorpio on May 5, 2023, during a Mercury Retrograde. Although neither Mercury nor Uranus is close to the eclipse degree, the Sun then will be about one degree from the midpoint of Mercury and Uranus, pulling their influences into the picture. This is a strong combination for fresh thinking and inventive ideas, and possibly jarring comments. The degrees of planetary turning points (“stations”) and eclipses are “sensitized” and respond when other planets pass through them. Thus when Jupiter comes to 5° and 15° Taurus, it is not only foreceful on its own, but it will bring us back to subjects that are important when Mercury is there in the spring. Similarly, the October 28 Eclipse may re-ignite topics that were highlighted earlier in the year by Mercury and Jupiter.

This Mercury Retrograde probably won’t be too difficult. It begins hand-in-hand with Venus, which it joins just 4-1/2 hours after it turns Retrograde. This sweetens the process or tunes us in to issues of fairness and balance. The repeating aspects Mercury makes with slow planets are more harmonious than discordant. Three times, Mercury is trine Uranus and sextile Neptune, stimulating the left and right hemispheres of our brains. We can benefit by using our intuition and imagination. Mercury is trine Uranus (at approximately 15° of Capricorn to Taurus) on December 17, January 8 and January 29. It’s sextile to Neptune (at 22-23° Capricorn to Pisces) on December 24, January 1-2 and February 6. The challenge comes from three squares to Chiron, December 15, January 11 and January 27 (at about 12° Capricorn to Aries). This likely requires us to heal or improve an idea, opinion, communication or document by revisiting it.

Astrologer Gary Caton has done extensive research on Mercury Retrogrades. His second book, Hermetica Triptycha: The Mercury Elemental Year, discusses the phenomenon of repetitions in a certain element, which is fairly common. A given year might have all the retrogrades in one element and the prior and next years have retrograde ranges that crisscross between two elements as the emphasis shifts. For instance, all of the 2022 Mercury Retrogrades had the higher degrees of their ranges in the Air element and the lower degrees of their ranges in Earth. After the Earth repetition in 2023, the retrogrades of 2024 will move between Earth and Fire signs, followed by primarily Fire signs in 2025, shifting to the Water element. Gary will lecture on this subject for the Astrological Society of Connecticut (on Zoom) on January 19, 2023, a day after the first Mercury Retrograde of the year ends. Non-members can attend by paying the $10 lecture fee by January 18 using the Donation button at myasc.org. A link for the Zoom will be emailed in the day(s) prior to the event.

For a better understanding of Mercury Retrograde, see my article by that name. And don’t fear Mercury Retrograde. It’s a good time to correct mistakes or deal with piled up paperwork.

Filed Under: Featured Post Tagged With: 15 degrees fixed, earth element, Mercury Retrograde, solstice

March 6, 2019 By Janet Booth Leave a Comment

As Pisces As It Gets!

Neptune, the ruling planet of Pisces, spends approximately 13 years in its home sign during its 165-year swim around the zodiac. It dipped its toes into Pisces in 2011 and doesn’t completely leave this sign until early 2026. You’d say that sounds like 15 years but you’d be fooled (a Neptunian pitfall) in that assumption. Because planets appear to move backward in the zodiac (an optical illusion called retrograde motion due to the earth also being in motion), slow planets take 1-2 calendar years to transition between signs.

In 2019, we’re just over halfway through this important period when this sign and planet reinforce one another and their shared traits and inclinations are exhibited most powerfully. And when the union of the Sun and Moon at a New Moon occurs close to Neptune, these tendencies are accentuated even more.

During Neptune’s time in Pisces, there are two New Moons just two degrees from Neptune (2/21/12 and 3/13/21) and one Solar Eclipse New Moon only three degrees from Neptune (2/26/17). The New Moon on March 6, 2019 gets the award for closest to Neptune, less than half a degree away, and that’s as Pisces as it gets!

What can we expect in the coming four-week lunar cycle? A big dose of everything related to Pisces and Neptune.

This sign and planet are not known for being straightforward nor transparent. Instead, they operate in round-about ways, in the realm of illusion and mysteries. They deal in dreams rather than reality, in impressions, wishes and fantasies rather than facts. Their domain encompasses fog, veils, and whatever goes on behind the curtain or behind your back. Their associated territory in a chart is the Twelfth House, a place indicating hidden enemies, imprisonment or confinement. This is also the area of our connection to the Divine (however that’s defined) and our need for retreat and rest. Neptune and Pisces are affiliated with sleep, healing (which takes place during sleep), the medical field, medications and self-medicating, including alcohol and recreational drugs. In the body, the related areas are the feet (containing reflex points that impact one’s entire physiology) and the immune system. On a psychological level, projection, escapism and delusion come into play, as well as pathological lies and playing the victim. Positive expressions of this energy are visualization, prayer, empathy and psychic ability. This is the sign and planet most connected to fear and faith, the opposite side of fear’s coin.

We may be in for extra confusion in the current period courtesy of Mercury, the planet of communication, traveling in reverse in Pisces. This can feel like swimming in circles (the fish chasing its tail). The retrograde began on March 5 with Mercury at 29° Pisces, a degree of selflessness and sometimes of suffering. This likely makes this bout of Mercury Retrograde in Pisces more challenging than some Mercury backtracks in this sign. In addition, Mercury passes by Neptune three times: February 18-19 (depending on your time zone) in the approach to its back-up, March 24 while Retrograde, and April 2 when leaving the back-up range. These are apt to be peaks of Piscean problems or possibilities. Jupiter, which magnifies whatever it’s involved in, is roughly 90 degrees (“square”) Neptune during this time (exact January 13 and June 16) and Mercury will feel Jupiter’s amplification when Mercury is square Jupiter on February 22, March 15 and April 12. The final connection may be most difficult since Jupiter turns Retrograde on April 10 and thus is motionless and exerting additional force.

Other important links for Neptune in this period (which Mercury will also replicate) are a jarring 45-degree “semisquare” with Uranus (exact December 15, 2018 and May 1, 2019), a planet famous for shocks and surprises, and easy 60-degree “sextiles” with two planets in practical, grounding earth signs: Saturn in Capricorn (exact January 19 and June 18) and Mars in Taurus (exact March 10). These sextiles with planets in earth signs are likely to be our saving grace to keep us from going off the deep end. Pisces and Neptune don’t incline us to stick to something but Mars in Taurus won’t let go or give up.

Recommendations for handling these energies:

To satisfy the Uranus-Neptune semisquare, break away from your comfort zone or old established ways and surprise yourself by reaching for a dream. To honor Saturn’s need for maturity and wisdom, don’t go crazy; have a plan or at least a realistic goal. Then bring in the assistance of Mars in Taurus by being persistent and steady in heading toward the finish line. In the process, trust your sixth sense since Mercury in Pisces isn’t good at logic. Use the positive visualization feature: “believe to achieve” and “see it to be it.”

To learn more about Mercury Retrograde in Pisces, watch the February episode of LOOKING UP entitled “Swimming in Stormy Seas.” Some of the other phenomena mentioned in this blog are also addressed in the March episode “Shift Into Spring.”

One more thing: we shouldn’t ignore another major astrological occurrence on March 6, 2019: Uranus enters Taurus for a visit of approximately seven years. It made its first foray into Taurus on May 15, 2018, with Neptune at 16°10’ of Pisces, only one degree from a precise semisquare. At Uranus’s re-entry into Taurus, Neptune is at 16°9’, a nearly exact duplication of the prior set-up. On May 15, 2018, the Kilauea volcano eruption in Hawaii began, a very apt symbol for the shift from a fire to an earth sign for the planet related to volcanoes and explosions in a tension relationship with the planet of the oceans. Literally fire went into the ocean and then created more land (earth). Over the next seven years, expect Mother Nature to give us some significant wake-up calls as Uranus, the “alarm clock” planet, travels through earth sign, Taurus.

Filed Under: Featured Post Tagged With: Mercury Retrograde, Neptune, New Mo, Pisces

Search this Site

Donate

If you like this site, please consider making a donation.

Follow Janet

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube

eNewsletter Sign-up

Choose either or both: GENERAL LIST (for occasional newsletters, monthly or so, with astrological information, Janet's events and special offers on services) and/or BLOG FOLLOWERS (for morning messages with the day rating and brief "cosmic weather report" and occasional essay blogs). At any time, use "Update Profile" at the bottom of an email to join or unsubscribe from a list.

Select list(s) to subscribe to


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: Astrology Booth. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact
  • Schedule a Reading
  • Send Janet a Message
  • Policies
  • View Cart
  • Checkout

Copyright © 2025 · Janet Booth for Astrology Booth, LLC · Log in