Now, I do imagine that I will eventually get around to doing special posts for the other planets and their retrogrades (beyond the 3 Phases of a Retrograde that I have already written about) – of course, as insights come up; however for now, given that Mercury Retrogrades happen more often and I have been able to track its affect on my own personal life more often than the others, I do have some Mercury Retrograde insights now to share with you which I will do here in this article.
As I mentioned above, this will go beyond the 3 Phases of a Retrograde that I have already discussed in an article, namely: (1) the Pre-Shadow Phase – where we make some unconscious yet critical missteps in perception, (2) the Retrograde Phase – where we get a chance to revisit and review our missteps, or they are brought to light, and (3) the Post-Shadow phase – where we are tested once again by the universe (sometimes with new characters) to see if we have truly learned our lesson.
While I have validated this for myself in my own personal life with Mercury Retrogrades, I do make the assumption that this can also be applied to Venus Retrogrades as well, given that Mercury and Venus do share a commonality in that their orbits are between us and the Sun. In fact, the insights shared here have to do WITH THE SUN and Mercury, and their movements throughout a Retrograde cycle (once again, from our perspective here on Earth). So with that, I will go into these insights here.
There are two aspects that are well known to Astrologers, yet maybe not so often discussed in more general circles when it comes to a Mercury Retrograde; and these are the Superior and Inferior Sun-Mercury conjunctions, commonly called ‘Mercury Cazimis’ in Astrology. [Note: A Cazimi is simply when any planet meets up with the Sun and is considered to be ‘burned out’ or temporary offline due to the brilliant rays of the Sun]. Both of these aspects involve the Sun and Mercury appearing together in the sky from Earth’s perspective, yet the Superior Conjunction is when Mercury is on the opposite side of the Sun from where the Earth is at; whereas the Inferior Conjunction happens when Mercury is on the same side of the Sun that the Earth is at…let me illustrate (while also incorporating the 3 Phases of a Retrograde as well, so we know the order of when these aspects happen in relation to the main 3). To show where these two (2) added Mercury Retrograde landmarks fall, I will note them with a yellow band behind them.
And of course, I will also throw in the Astrological or spiritual relevance to our personal lives here, as that is the main purpose for me writing this article.
A Mercury Retrograde Cycle, for me, actually begins with the Superior Conjunction, where Mercury appears to meet up with the Sun (from Earth’s perspective), as illustrated in the snapshot of Mercury’s placement on March 17th, 2023 at the time of its Superior Conjunction with the Sun.
As you can see in this snapshot, Mercury and the Sun are aligned from Earth’s perspective, however Mercury is on the opposite side of the Sun from where the Earth is at.
So what is the spiritual relevance? I have noted that this is when the plots and characters that will be involved with my lessons for the upcoming Mercury Retrograde start to seed or take shape in my life, continuing to unravel up to the Pre-Shadow phase (in this case…this phase lasts from March 17th to April 7th…so about 3 weeks).
The next critical phase is the Pre-Shadow Phase, and this is where things start to get a bit ‘juicy’ (let’s call it). This is the phase (as we know from the 3 Phases of a Retrograde), that we typically make some errors in judgement, or missteps due to a false perception, which we will end up having to ‘clean up’ or revisit during the Retrograde.
In the snapshot to the left, you can see that Mercury has moved from the ’12 o’clock’ position to about the 9 o’clock position (remember, the planets move counter-clockwise). This is a snapshot for when Mercury entered a Pre-Shadow phase on April 7, 2023; and this phase lasts up until the Retrograde (in this case until April 21st…so about 2 weeks).
So this one is the second landmark I am focusing in on this article, and this is the Inferior Conjunction, where Mercury appears to meet up with the Sun (from Earth’s perspective) once again, yet this time is on the same side of the Sun as the Earth is; as illustrated in the picture to the left.
Here we have a snapshot of Mercury on May 2nd, 2023, the day of a Mercury Inferior Conjunction with the Sun, and as you can see it is directly between the Earth and the Sun; hence from Earth’s perspective they look to be together in the sky.
The Inferior Conjunction always takes place during a Retrograde and marks the point where big realizations come through, specifically as it relates to the critical missteps we made during the Pre-Shadow Phase, having us revisit them in our minds and make some needed course-corrections throughout the remainder of the Retrograde (in this case until May 15, 2023).
And finally we reach the Post-Shadow Phase, and this one is yet another critical one as it marks the period where we are ‘tested’ once again by the universe (sometimes new characters) to see if we have learned our lesson and have made the necessary upgrades.
In the snapshot to the left, you see Mercury has moved past the Earth and from our perspective will start to move from right to left once again, in a DIRECT motion. This snapshot shows Mercury on May 15, 2023 when its DIRECT will begin, and Mercury will cross over the same part of the sky (again from Earth’s perspective) that it was in during the Pre-Shadow and Retrograde Phases.
This phase continues until Mercury exits Post-Shadow (in this case until June 1st).
And here is a final snapshot of Mercury on June 1st, when it exits the Post-Shadow phase. From this point to the next Superior Conjunction (in this case happening on July 1st, 2023…so about a month later), we are simply wrapping things up and getting ready for a new cycle to begin.
So there you go…my added insights of Mercury Retrogrades!
