Mercury Retrograde: Treading Water or New Seas?

Toni Frissell photo for Harper's 1947

Mercury Retrograde in Pisces
February 23 through March 13, 2013

Tomorrow, Mercury turns retrograde in the visionary and also confusing sign of Pisces. Today is a good day to back up computers, and send messages that especially need to be clear and direct.

And yet ... I see the coming weeks with Mercury as an invitation to depth, not a time of anxiety.

Back in 2010, I wrote about how Mercury retrogrades are part of this planet's cycle, a time of renewal and reflection.

It's time to slow down. Relentless forward motion is exhausting and ultimately self-defeating. We are cyclical creatures who need are own times to replenish, and this is one.

We're entering the first Mercury retrograde of 2013, an experience quite different from 2012's retrogrades. Last year, Mercury explored the Fire signs––we were asked to look at our motivations, what drives us, what fires us up.

This year, all three retrogrades will be in the Water signs, and so we're diving into emotions, dreams, visionary experiences, lyricism, poetry, and mist.

Mercury turns retrograde in Pisces overnight (4:41 am EST), ushering the North American times zones into this period of reflection while we're deep in dreams. He's just past the Pisces planet conclave and decides ... wait, I'm not done here ... and decides to turn back and reconnect with each of the energies there: Mars, Chiron, the Sun and Neptune are in Pisces now, with Venus poised to enter soon. Each will conjunct Mercury during his journey.

Saturn retrograding through Scorpio makes this a time of power as well as vision. Astrology is about cycles within cycles, and the dance of Mercury and Saturn over the next few weeks will draw each of us into questions about what we desire, what moves us, what triggers us, and where the power lies in it all.

I'm fascinated with what I'm seeing in the charts over the next weeks. At the moment Mercury turns retrograde, the Moon will be in Leo trining Uranus––pulsing underneath the watery calm is intense energy for change and renewal.

On March 7, Mercury trines Saturn, both retrograde, as Mercury conjunct Venus, with both in the middle of a very large Pisces group. Questions of emotional power, visionary depth, and the power of dreams may come to the fore at this time.

March 17, Mercury goes direct sitting between Neptune and Chiron as the Sun and Venus are conjunct in late Pisces. Just days before the Spring Equinox, Mars moves to conjunct Uranus as the Moon moves to meet Jupiter ... Boom!

When we reach the Spring Equinox, the planet party has moved decisively into Aries and everything lights up.

Right now, we're offered a contemplative time, a reflective time, to dig deep, look in the mirror and unpack our emotional baggage. It's likely to be intense, confusing and emotional. Issues of power, manipulation, deception and glamour may raise their threatening heads.

If we accept the invitation, we'll do far more than tread water for the next few weeks hoping nothing gets too messed up––we'll find ourselves in new waters, refreshed and alive, ready for the explosion of Spring, the rebirth of Aries Fire.

It's up to you ... but I'm grabbing my swim fins and diving in!