Around 12:30 am PDT September 30, Mercury leaves its “Shadow Zone” and moves into the future. What does this mean?

For those who don’t know the term, a planet’s “Shadow Zone” is the span of degrees between the point it goes stationary retrograde back to where it goes stationary direct. When a planet which was retrograde goes direct, it moves across the same span of degrees it did when retrograde. That is the Shadow Zone.

Mercury went SRX at 22 Virgo on August 23. It retrograded back to 9 Virgo, where it went direct September 15. It’s now in forward motion and just left the boundary of its shadow zone at 22 Virgo. As Mercury, “the Guide of Souls” and coordinator of our Life is now speeding up, we can expect all things related to Mercury to speed up as well for the next few weeks.

Now Mercury moves forward through the rest of Virgo and into Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, and the first third of Capricorn, where it goes retrograde again in mid-December. During that time “the Guide of Souls” will take us through a Mercurial examination of the signs of relationship, fair dealings, eliminations and deep attractions and memories, philosophical orientations, and taking responsibility. When it next goes SRX, we’ll be in a place where we’ll take a look back at the entire year to see how we’ve “attuned to the invisible world” since January, when Mercury went SD at 9 Capricorn, setting the theme of the entire year.

As Mercury leaves its Shadow Zone, it now can bring us a new approach to dealing with practical things and stabilizing our material world in some way. We’ve now taken a look back at the “venerable standards” we’ve lived the past 14 years, and reworked some of what and how we do our service. While Virgo can be nerve wracking, it’s also good for a detailed look at what need correcting, adjusting, or preparing for the future. We’re still seeing the need for new approaches, new answers, and new frames of reference and can move forward with a solid understanding of how to adapt in practical ways to the need of the time.

We now we have a new view so that our ideas can “catch up” with our life, likes, and initiatives. From here, Mercury will speed up until it catches up to the Sun at the next Superior Conjunction at 27 Libra on October 19/20. That will offer a “fusion of Life and Mind” related to our way of finding a transcendent calm and objective, peaceful view of things. We can touch our inner strengths then, flying above the usual stresses. As that degree is semisquare Venus, triseptile Uranus, quincunx Neptune, and square Pluto, that conjunction promises major changes in the collective atmosphere.

So enjoy the quickened pace, which should help many areas of our lives move forward in fine style. As usual, I’ll be writing more about Mercury’s Superior Conjunction with the Sun in mid-October, as well as the very important aspects going on at that time. We now have reviewed and reflected on many things about our Virgo involvements, and now get to experience a Mercurial take on the spans in Libra and Scorpio already transited or to be transited by the Sun and Mars.

All the Mercury retrograde periods of 2022 began in the early degrees of the Air signs, and ended in the last degrees of the Earth signs. So last year was mainly focused on learning how to ground the idea, or find practical ways to accomplish the ideal.

The one we just finished was entirely in Earth, as was the December 2022-January 2023 in Capricorn and the April-May retrograde in Taurus. This has put the focus on the life areas (houses) where we have these signs.

The Dec 2022 Capricorn retrograde began with a look back at 2022, and ended on a degree of a technique of attuning to our invisible helpers, the same degree of the coming SRX degree in December. The Taurus retrograde made it clear that old answers are inadequate to current needs, and ended on a note of joining with others to bridge some sort of “chasm.” This Virgo retrograde began with a review of what we hold venerable, and leaves us with a technique of emotional or social discernment. The December 2023 retrograde will give us a look back to see how well we’ve “attuned” to the invisible world, and leave us in January 2024 with a sense that we are “immigrants seeking entrance into a new country.”

The Guide of Souls takes us forward from here, into the leaving behind of an old destiny in Virgo, the moderation and social instincts of Libra, the intensity and depth emotions of Scorpio, the sky high wide open promise of Sagittarius, and the responsibility and further attunements of Capricorn. Welcome to the Autumn of 2023!

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