Mercury Stationary Direct at 22 Leo Affecting September, October, and November 2024 – Messages to Give, Messages to Receive

Mercury goes direct in motion at 2:14 pm PDT on August 28 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 direct at 22 Leo, 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 22 Leo mean? Perhaps it would be useful to take a look back on what the last Mercury direct station brought us since April 2024.

You will recall that the last time Mercury went stationary direct in April it was at 16 Aries, the first of two retrogrades which begin in Fire and end in Fire. Themes associated with 16 Aries have predominated since then involving our opening our minds to seeing things with fresh eyes and a willingness to embrace a new potential and the “friendliness” of life that allows us to contact the source. Those themes have predominated our Mercurial lessons wherever we have 16 Aries.

This retrograde period began at 5 Virgo, and gave us a review of four things; 1) we’ve now done a review of the recent past and what’s emerged in this time when early Virgo and late Leo are active; 2) we’ve done a review of things related to the house where we have 22 Leo-5 Virgo; 3) we’ve gotten a new look at the various Yods which have been in play with Mercury and the Sun both in double quincunxes with Neptune and Pluto.

So we’ve taken a journey through parts of our Virgo and Leo past, remembered many things about previous elevated understanding resulting from creative imagination, perhaps re-evaluating the method of recent events and seeing what needed changing. We’ve all had to get over preconceptions, tune to our invisible helpers when our efforts seemed to fall short, and get a new expectation and unselfishness which led us to connect “the above and below” in us, a “spiritual linkage through emotional stress” which brought blessings after the death of useless things. We’ve taken a new look at natural individual and spiritual self-expression and how to release old feelings in a new understanding of a special message which is ours to deliver. As this station is at 22 Leo, from here we move forward into a new expression of the themes of the last decan of Leo which will echo for many months to come.

We’ve now re-traced ground that we first saw via Mercury’s first pass from July 16 through August 5 and re-examined via the RX from then to now. An important point in time will be when Mercury goes back over 5 Virgo on September 11/12, because then it leaves its shadow zone and moves into new sections of the zodiac, carrying all its RX lessons forward until its coming Nov/Dec retrograde when it goes SRX at 23 Sagittarius and reviews the span back to 7 Sagittarius. That retrograde will give us a look back at the 23 Sag theme for the year 2024, and begin the 2025 themes related to 7 Sagittarius.

Now we face 4 months of being guided to our Soul using the qualities of 22 Leo. 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 releasing our social or emotional power in a “message” which is ours to deliver. This will help us be more creative and expressive in our heart knowledge, and lead to adventures inn “practical enlightenment.”

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. The area in our chart where we have 22 Leo will be where the past gives way to the future. The span of this retrograde, active between mid-July through mid-September, is a forward snapshot of what we can expect when Jupiter is in this span between October 2026 and August 2027.

The Sabian Symbol for Mercury’s Direct Station

The Sabian symbol for the 22nd degree of Leo is “A carrier pigeon.” In the Astrology of Personality, where Rudhyar uses the original Dr. Jones' class notes on the symbols, 22 Leo is said to symbolize “the return of the Soul energies to the central Self after a significant experience,” “adventuring,” and “practical enlightenment.”

In the Astrological Mandala, he states this degree is about "Spirituality, in terms of training for service” to humanity. He says birds, and especially carrier pigeons, are “domesticated birds” that are “endowed with a special significance and purpose,” referring to “spiritual energies … being used constructively and which bring to the consciousness messages from the other realm.”

He goes on to state “the ‘release’ of higher energies becomes effective and valuable to the extent to which it serves a higher, but concrete and definite, purpose. This is the ideal of the World Server.” He says it falls in the span of Interpretation, and it’s the counterpoint degree in the emotional-cultural level of the scene of Combustion in the Act of Stabilization.

According to Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, this degree is about “the unlimited service of life… to the special requirements of an individual’s intelligence or understanding” and our ability to learn what we need to know when facing unfamiliar things. He says this is a “universal sensitiveness of mind” which “commands all knowledge” and receives messages through intuition when that capacity has been developed.

He offers the keyword ENLIGHTENMENT. He states when functioning positively, this degree is “a complete mastery of all things through the normal processes of thought.”

So the Mercurial theme for the coming months involves us expressing forms of “practical enlightenment” as we hear our inner voice telling us the message we have to give our world. We should be both giving and receiving messages within our “individual intelligence or understanding” in ways which help us master our unique type and way of communicating.

From Here We Move Forward

22 Leo 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 Aries decan of Leo, where it is dramatic and courageous with an added dose of Mars (Curiously, this is the reverse of the April SD at 16 Aries, which was the Leo decan of Aries with an added dose of the Sun). We now move forward, having done our time of going inward to reflect on what’s emerged for us since July. We’ve all re-imagined many things the past 3 weeks, and now move forward to give and receive our special understanding.

Mercury again turns to chase the Sun toward their next Superior Conjunction, bringing all its reflections and reviews into the NOW. In 2024 we’ve had retrogrades of Earth to Fire and Fire to Fire which impacted how we’ve expressed our Gemini and Virgo areas, and now have a new understanding of our late Leo and early Virgo sectors.

We’ll close today with a reminder that although Mercury is now direct and won’t be retrograde again until late November, the retrograde we’ve just experienced will affect the coming months until the Mercury retrograde station in December at 23 Sagittarius (the theme for 2024) which will RX back to 7 Sagittarius, the theme for 2025. So the themes of 22 Leo are front and center until late November!

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. 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.

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