Affecting February, March, April and May 2022 – Finding New Ways To Experience Transcendent Security.

Mercury goes direct in motion at 8:13 pm PST on February 3, and speeds up for the next 10 weeks. This shows a quickening of the ability to coordinate, put things together, understand the whole and the parts, the process and the larger cycles. It is now stationary at 25 Capricorn, affecting that area in our lives for 3 months to come.

Mercury, or Hermes, "the Guide of Souls," is also known as the Divine Trickster, as well as all lesser models. What does Mercury going stationary direct at 25 Capricorn mean? Perhaps it would be useful to take a look back on what the last Mercury direct station brought us since October 2021.

You will recall that the last time Mercury went stationary direct in October it was at 11 Libra. It completed a year of Mercury retrograde periods which began and ended in Air signs. That pattern has now shifted for 2022, which features all three Mercury retrograde periods beginning in the early degrees of Air signs and retrograding back into the late degrees of Earth signs. This one began at 11 Aquarius and went back into Capricorn; the May RX will begin at 5 Gemini and go back to 27 Taurus, and the September RX will begin at 9 Libra and go back to 25 Virgo.

This retrograde period began at 11 Aquarius, helping us review the late Capricorn-early Aquarius global focus of 2020 and 2021. We’ve taken a new look at our vision, group work, and ideals in our early Aquarian sector, remembered many things about people and ideals in our past, and found a new inspiration. We’ve gotten a different perspective on all things Aquarius and Capricorn these past 3 weeks, and from here we move forward into a new expression of these energies in our lives.

We’ve now re-traced ground that we first saw via Mercury’s first pass from December 29 through January 14, and re-examined via the RX from then to now. Of major importance will be when Mercury goes back over 11 Aquarius on February 23, because then it moves into unknown zones, carrying all its RX lessons forward until its May 2022 retrograde when we review what we’ve learned related to this year’s Capricorn and Aquarian themes set into motion in February 2022.

Now we face 4 months of being guided to our Soul using the qualities of 25 Capricorn. How we use those realizations to coordinate the qualities of that degree into our lives over the next 4 months will show us a different way of finding social and/or emotional effectiveness within our unfolding group work.

We should all start seeing, hearing, and understanding things that point the way to some Mercurial fulfillment related to how we have been and continue to be guided to our Soul. Given that it falls at 25 Capricorn, that area of our chart will be the focus of where the past gives way to the future.

Here I’ll note this direct station begins the theme for the entire year, since it’s the exact degree where Mercury will go retrograde in late December. That makes this SD degree the general Mercury retrograde theme for 2022. So let’s take a look at the theme for 2022!

The Sabian Symbol for Mercury’s Direct Station

The Sabian symbol for the 25th degree of Capricorn is “An oriental rug dealer.” In the Astrology of Personality, where Rudhyar uses the original Dr. Jones' class notes on the symbols, he states this degree is about “first realization of cultural values through sensuous enjoyment,” “refinement of sensations,” and “psychological enrichment.”

In "The Astrological Mandala he states this degree is about “the use of cultural and artistic processes as a means to enhance personal comfort and appreciation.” He goes on to say this is about “the material, yet esthetic, aspect of the benefits a society can bring its members,” where the rug symbolizes “something on which a persona stands or sits,” and a “foundation for cultural understanding, and as such it can have a magical or sacred meaning.” He says this implies “society offers the relative comfort of beautiful rugs so (we) may meet the universe…. Protected by and securely established on the mental-spiritual, as well as manual achievements of those who keep the cultural symbols alive.”

He offers that this symbol “shows the beautiful products of dedicated and inspired group performance at the level of tradition” emphasizing “the value of reliance on tradition.” He states this degree falls in the Span of Dependence, and is the final degree in the Scene of Group Performance on the emotional, social, and cultural level of the Act of Group Integration.

Dr. Marc E Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this is a degree of “the irrevocability of (our) obligation” to our reality, with a focus on “accumulated knowledge or acquired skills as an indication of (our) enduring competency” in practical and immediate ways. He continues that “self-expression here is the use of various advantages and resources as actually a commerce in human potentialities, and this becomes an individual’s real service” to others.

He offers that “eternal values are meaningless until they are woven into the fabric of humanity’s familiar transactions.” He offers us the keyword CONSIGNMENT, and states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is “an effective employment of the facilities and goods of a modern society.”

From this symbol, it seems the next few weeks will help us to assist and be assisted in finding transcendence in comfort and becoming psychologically enriched by refining our sensations. This is a Mercurial platform to move forward as we tap into a lot of Pluto seeds from 2020 and 2021 when it occupied this degree. We now get to express a new Mercury form of enduring competency in practical ways, and as we use “advantages and resources” we’ll find new ways to be of real service to our world.

From Here We Move Forward

25 Capricorn is now a launch point for entering into a new (and somewhat familiar) realm in the Gemini and Virgo areas of our chart via Mercury’s placement in the Virgo decan of Capricorn with an extra dose of the Sun. We now move forward, having done our time of going inward to find new inspiration related to our experiences the past 2 years. We now have a new understanding of things past and present in our late Capricorn and early Aquarius chart sectors.

Mercury now begins to chase the Sun toward their next Superior Conjunction, bringing all its reflections and reviews into the NOW. We’ve finished the first of “Air to Earth” retrogrades, and have new ways of understanding our Gemini and Virgo areas, as well as Capricorn and Aquarius.

We’ll close today with a reminder that although Mercury is now direct and won’t be retrograde again until May 2022, the retrograde we’ve just experienced will affect the coming months until the next Mercury stationary retrograde at 5 Gemini. At that point we’ll have a look back at what we’ve discovered since February and review some of our favored ideas in play since the 2020 Venus retrograde in Gemini.

Of course you can find out more about past, present, or future retrogrades by getting your copy of my book A New Look At Mercury Retrograde. Here's the Amazon link to where you can order A New Look at Mercury Retrograde to check out possible ways this Mercury retrograde effect could play out over the next 4 months. That link will also allow you to order an ebook copy on Kindle, or you can go to B&N’s nook instead. Just make sure you get the 2016 2nd edition with the book award on the cover and not the 1997 Weiser first edition.

In part 2, we'll continue to examine what we can expect over the next 3 months now that Mercury is direct.

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

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