Mercury Station Direct, and Moon quincunx Pluto

This weekend, Mercury begins to station direct at the end of his Virgo retrograde, and from now until September 27th he will be within 3 degree orb trine to Pluto, and 4 degree orb conjunction to the north node.  On September 21st, only hours before fall equinox, Mercury stations direct at 14 Virgo exact trine Pluto in Capricorn.  At that moment, the moon is at 14 Gemini, square Mercury and quincunx the Moon.  Interesting to notice that the Moon was also exact quincunx Pluto when Mercury stationed retrograde… let’s look at that chart first.

August 30th 2016.  Mercury station retrograde 29 Virgo, conjunct Jupiter 27 Virgo, and Venus, who had just entered Libra.  Mars in Sagittarius was transiting square to the lunar nodes, and the final exact square between Saturn and Neptune happened in synchronicity with the Sun’s third quarter square to Saturn.

Pop astrology says of Mercury retrograde, don’t travel, don’t make plans, don’t have important conversations, don’t don’t don’t, hide under a rock until it’s over.  But if there ever was a Mercury retrograde for taking action, it was this one.  The role Mars played during the long weeks of Mercury retrograde, square the lunar nodes, square the Sun, square the Virgo solar eclipse and Pisces lunar eclipse, meant that this was a time for action, for actively amalgamating all the information we’ve acquired during this past year of Jupiter and the north node in Virgo that taught us all about how the mundane routines of our daily lives are intertwined with our identities and, through the looking glass, intertwined with our soul’s purpose.  September was a month of going deep into the primal subconscious, flipping over tables and finding secret messages taped in envelopes underneath, ancient recipes from a long lost great grandma, crystal clear instructions that fundamentally altered the way we do things.

And then there was Moon quincunx Pluto.

 

Vesta was aligned with fixed star Sirius in Cancer, and transiting opposite Pluto in Capricorn, linking our efforts for self-care and self-realization to the energies of unavoidable righteous elimination. The Leo Moon’s quincunx to Pluto charged the entire situation with a divine ego imperative:  I must BE ME, and as this Mercury retrograde increased our understanding of the interrelatedness of every seemingly minor detail about the way we engage with life, we increased our understanding of how we are creating the obstacles that prevent us from being our best selves, and realized that outright demolition might not even be necessary, the quincunx from the Leo Moon might have even made us somewhat oblivious to traditional Pluto-style smashy smashy as a problem solver, which made room for us to experience drastic change in our lives through revolutionizing the way we approach those not-so-minor details, funny how it can make quite literally a world of difference.

These major breakthroughs and shifts in consciousness during Mercury’s retrograde in Virgo were activated by the Virgo New Moon Solar Eclipse and the Pisces Full Moon Lunar Eclipse.

Which brings us to the present moment: Fall equinox 2016.  Mercury station direct conjunct the north node and trine Pluto.  This time the quincunx to Pluto comes from the Moon in Gemini, who is exact square to Mercury as he stations direct.

Quincunx aspects are famously difficult to interpret, because we are trying to draw connections, some type of relationship, between things that are blind to each other on the zodiac.  On our natal charts these aspects represent things about ourselves that we don’t naturally have a conscious awareness of.  Without other aspects involved in the quincunx, it may pass under the radar altogether.  But when two planets are in a quincunx, they share a resonance that causes them to be activated simultaneously when a third planet transits in aspect to them both, most usefully by a square/trine transit, such as how Mercury stationing direct is square the moon, and trine Pluto. Mercury stationing direct on the north node, in exact aspect to Pluto quincunx the Moon, is singing out the beautiful quote by James Baldwin: “The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat.”

 

 

Lilith and Juno in Scorpio are enjoying ten days of sextile between Mercury trine Pluto (from September 17th to September 27th). As the Sun crosses the fall equinox point, Zero Libra, crucial revelations vibe up from the underworld, and give us all the opportunity to see our own truth in a new light, finding revolutionary ways to speak our truth, leading to advanced level manifestation of the reality that we choose.  Isis opposite Sedna, and Sedna quincunx Mars form a familiar configuration, same as Moon/Pluto/Vesta at the beginning of Mercury retrograde. Isis, solar christ goddess in the Underworld, has broken away from her conjunction to Lililth and Juno, to face off alone opposite Sedna in Taurus. Sedna aligned with Algol in the final degrees of Taurus is a place on the zodiac that points to terrifying betrayal and the pain of trauma.  Mars blazing strong in Sagittarius, quincunx to Sedna, is blind to her.  But she is not ignored.  Isis greets our wounds with her transformational glow, in resonance with Mars- I’ll say it again, advanced level manifestation of the reality that we choose.

As Mercury’s trine to Pluto and conjunction to the north node separates at the end of September, we will experience Sun conjunct Jupiter in Libra, followed by Mars entering Capricorn (a ruthlessly productive combination) which will positively launch us down our new and improved lifestream, into the final months of 2016.