-What It Means For Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo,
Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces-

In case you forgot (ha ha) Mercury retrograde is happening! This article will help you figure out what house(s) this Mercury retrograde will transit in your chart. At the end there's a table so you can find which Solar chart house(s) it affects based in your birthday, with a link to an article specifically about the possible associations of Mercury in every house. Of course, if you know your Ascendant, it's a two for one score.

If this is your first trip through Mercury retrograde, I'll begin with a few basics I've offered before. All Mercury retrograde periods last for 3 weeks, but show effects before and after the actual retrograde period. Mercury retrograde periods offer a chance to reorganize in the areas of our life ruled by Mercury. Those are the houses of your chart ruled by Gemini or Virgo, any planets in these signs in your chart, and the house occupied by your natal, progressed, or solar return Mercury. The house Mercury RX transits will be where these work out in specific life affairs. Returns, reconsiderations, reflections, and other angles of perception and understanding may occur through that arena of life.

What Goes On During A Retrograde?

All retrogrades show us that sometimes it is more important to be inwardly oriented than outer-directed. These are times when our previous activities "echo back" information about what we've already experienced during the previous phase when the planet was direct in motion before it slowed down. When the inner planets are retrograde, our personal life is most subject to review, reflection, re-doing or getting a new angle on those affairs. When the outer planets are retrograde, we get the same process of review but it impacts our place in the larger scheme of things, whether social, cultural, or transpersonal-global.

When retrograde, Mercury, the "Guide of Souls," challenges us to cultivate our personal understanding of our "fellowship with the Eternal," explore our deeper issues and useful but overlooked details in what's being discussed or asserted, take an unusual view, and allow ourselves to be led by the future implications of what's happening. It’s a time when we truly get a new look at many things and come to a different understanding of how the various affairs of our inner and outer life are coordinated, or need to be.

We can get different perspectives and insights into prior events, messages, and signals, and can fill in important gaps in our understanding. Sometimes it may seem like it's one step forward, two to the side, one step back, one to the other side, then two steps forward, but often we find that we are offered entirely new and crucial perspectives and knowledge that can help us when it's time to move forward again after the retrograde is past.

The period before Mercury goes retrograde is important in getting your paperwork and other life areas in shape, so take note of what was presented in the first half of October to see what has now hit a threshold. Take a new look at what evolved during the period before Mercury went stationary retrograde and now requires a delay, or re-thinking, or re-shaping to express a renewal in the future.

What’s Coming

While Mercury is retrograde, take the time to re-trace ground covered in recent weeks, get new information and interpretations of old ideas and perceptions, and find new points of view. It’s a great time for picking up things that have been on hold, or which have progressed in bursts of activity followed by fallow periods.

It’s a natural time to research, review, rehearse, and re-do whatever needs a new approach in our lives. Since Mercury is in Scorpio for now, reconsider, reinterpret, and rework Scorpio issues and activities, seeing their significance from new angles of understanding.

These periods are good for getting a different understanding of things we never quite figured out why they happened the way they did. Sometimes communications are more difficult or slower than usual, but I regard the difficulty or delay as part of the process of how that communication unfolds between two people when and how it does. I go into the retrograde process in great detail in A New Look at Mercury Retrograde.

So we’re in another three week retrograde period where it’s a natural time to deal with things that have been put off, and take care of unfinished past business. Take a new look at the past to bring things up to speed in the present. This October 2020 Mercury retrograde will give us new understanding about events of the past four months and indirect insights into what we'll be dealing with from November 3 through November 19 as it moves through its shadow zone for the third time.

So in what House(s) does this Retrograde Occur for my Birthday?

By learning about these recurring Mercury retrograde periods, we can understand how to deal with them productively, as well as the months afterward, which they also indirectly influence. Since this Mercury retrograde begins at 12 Scorpio and retrogrades back to 26 Libra, you can learn a lot about this coming period by reading all you can about Mercury retrograde in Scorpio and Libra, and all the possible ways these signs manifests in the world. I've already offered some examples of ways these energies could externalize in previous articles in this series.

If you want to know even more about what we can expect from Mercury retrograde in Scorpio and Libra, as well as all the other signs and houses, if you haven't already gotten your copy, please consider getting a copy of my pioneering book A New Look At Mercury Retrograde. The first major work on Mercury retrograde ever written, it offers in-depth information about Mercury retrograde people, Mercury retrograde in the various signs and houses, and what the entire Mercury Retrograde phenomenon is about. If you want to know what we can expect from Mercury retrograde in any sign or house, it’s all in there.

Here's the Amazon page where you can purchase a paperback edition of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. (Just make sure you get the 2nd edition, and not the 1997 1st edition.) Ebook versions are available at Amazon, as well as through Barnes and Noble Nook.

You can find out how this transit affects you personally by consulting my article How Does Mercury Retrograde Affect Us In The Different Houses? What’s offered there works, whether you're looking at natal or Solar charts. It’s a brief take on what I expand on in A New Look at Mercury Retrograde, and combining the information in the article with what I’ve written in the book gives a comprehensive overview of the many possibilities that could show up when Mercury is retrograde in any house in your chart.

To that end, the houses in astrology show us the specific areas of our worldly affairs where we experience a given planetary influence. If you know your natal chart, then read the corresponding house in the article linked above. However, whether you do or don't know your chart, you can find out Mercury's approximate position in your solar houses (created by your Sun sign position) by consulting this table:

For birthdays between:

Oct 3 to 16, read Mercury retrograde in the 1st house.

Oct 17 to Nov 2, 12th and 1st houses.

Nov 3 to 15, 12th house.

Nov 16 to Dec 1, 11th and 12th houses.

Dec 2 to 15, 11th house.

Dec 16 to 31, 10th and 11th houses.

Jan 1 to 13, 10th house.

Jan 14 to 29, 9th and 10th houses.

Jan 30 to Feb 12, 9th house.

Feb 13 to 28, 8th and 9th houses.

Mar 1 to 14, 8th house.

Mar 15 to 30, 7th and 8th houses.

Mar 31 to Apr 13, 7th house.

Apr 14 to 29, 6th and 7th houses.

Apr 30 to May 14, 6th house.

May 15 to 30, 5th and 6th houses.

May 31 to Jun 14, 5th house.

Jun 15 to Jul 1, 4th and 5th houses.

Jul 2 to 16, 4th house.

Jul 17 to Aug 1, 3rd and 4th houses.

Aug 2 to 16, 3rd house.

Aug 17 to Sep 1, 2nd and 3rd houses.

Sep 2 to 16, 2nd house.

Sep 17 to Oct 2, 1st and 2nd houses.

This table is approximate, and if your birthday falls near the edge of two possible positions you may need to read both to know which applies to your Sun sign. Of course, one should always have a correct natal chart calculated professionally in order to know where the planets are situated, as this helps clarify your exact cyclic pattern. Remember too that with so many possible house division systems, any given Mercury retrograde period could involve multiple houses.

This completes our initial look at the coming Mercury retrograde period for now. I’ll be posting more as the Inferior Conjunction draws near, so until then, take a new look at how you’re moving into a deeper feeling-connection with yourself and others, see how your relationships have been elevated this past year, and remember that life is a constant continuum of shifting inner positions to become a more refined vehicle for higher energies to be made manifest. Purify your mind, accept your group connection, take a new look at how to eliminate what you no longer need, and get a new view of how to alternate between “Yang” and “Yin” energies.

When it’s time to use your mind, be focused; when it’s time to express your heart, be loving. Kindness goes a long way these days, so see what supports you and hasten to it. See how you are a support for others, and be strong. By the time this retrograde is over, we’ll all have a new perspective on the future!

Previous articles in this series:

Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio and Libra 2020 – Be A Diplomat and Master Soft and Hard Power

Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio and Libra in October 2020 - An Overview

The Guide of Souls in October 2020 - Mercury Slowing Down, Preparing to go Retrograde at 12 Scorpio

Mercury Is Entering its Shadow Zone at 26 Libra – Signs and Signals About How Our Past Will Soon Be Feeding our Future