Retrograde Mercury in Cancer

Retrograde Mercury in Cancer - Security is Paramount

"You can't go back home . . . back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time—back home to the escapes of Time and Memory."

—Thomas Wolfe

The retrograde Mercury in Cancer dominates this week's atmosphere but may not be recognized as anything like the driving force for the struggles that we are facing. The 'inferior' Sun-Mercury conjunction, in a tight sextile to Uranus stirs an intense desire for freedom and innovation. However, under this retrograde Mercury in Cancer, we feel that we cannot pursue that innovation without first establishing a solid, safe, and secure foundation upon which to build our ambitious vision of a 'New World'. We may be faced with bouts of wild expectation and extreme over-optimism but repeatedly come back to the importance of first finding some sense of stability or certainty before moving forward. Saturn retrogrades back into Capricorn on Wednesday, further stalling the drive for expansive innovation. Although we may initially feel some sense of stability with Saturn back in Capricorn, we will quickly realize that this 'return engagement' of Saturn in Capricorn is only to complete the task of clearing away the outworn structures and traditions of the past. As Mercury continues to ask us to seek safety and security, we find only that returning to the safety and security of the past is impossible. The only place where we will find any sense of security is the internal self-esteem that we can cultivate on our own or in cooperation with those very close to us. If we look for safety and security by returning to the structures and traditions of the past, we will find that they are crumbling around us — possibly leaving some of us hopelessly lost and confused.

The first quarter lunar phase on Sunday is activating and stirred by the entrance of Mars into free-spirited, independent Aries. We may be subject to extreme over-optimism if we don't maintain a strong connection with humility. Things may not turn out as planned on Monday. We may feel extra concern over what others are thinking of us. The shifts we see suggest that there will be long-term consequences from the unexpected developments. Impulsiveness takes over on Tuesday, leading to wild expectations. The 'inferior' Mercury-Sun conjunction, in tight sextile to Uranus, opens the doors to extraordinary innovation but we must recognize there will be no quick results from our new ideas. A short boost of optimism on Wednesday keeps us aiming forward with extraordinary enthusiasm. We may feel a short-term sense of stability which is not likely to last. The optimism continues into Thursday but we will likely sense that we need to review what we have believed to be 'safe'. There is little direction offered on Friday, opening the door to unproductive impatience. By Saturday, under the Capricorn Full Moon, there is a dawning recognition that whatever we had hoped we could rely on as a 'bedrock' of security is not longer sturdy enough to rely on. The environment may feel especially cold and unsteady if we had hoped to fall back on past structures and traditions.

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