Transits: Mercury Retrograde

Transits In Astrology: Retrogrades

On this Page:

• The significance of Mercury Retrograde.
• Mercury Stations Retrograde and Direct transits through the houses of the natal chart.
• Mercury Retrograde transits in conjunction to natal planets.

Overview

Although not quite as popular as Sun sign astrology, "Mercury Retrograde" has certainly become a buzzword - or buzz phrase - these days.

What is Mercury Retrograde? Three, and sometimes four, times a year, the planet Mercury appears to be moving backwards in the sky for a period of approximately 3 weeks. "Appears" is the key word here, because, technically speaking, no planet actually moves backwards in their orbits around the Sun. In fact, they don't even slow down. Retrograde-station-direct cycles are essentially illusions that result from our point of view from Earth, simply because the Earth is also orbiting the Sun at a different speed than the other planets. Mercury turns retrograde more frequently than any other planet. It can never be more than 28 degrees from the Sun, and whenever it reaches its furthest distance from the Sun, it changes direction.

As the planet of communication, Mercury retrograde tends to breed a certain level of confusion. Mercury rules our "lower" mind--how we perceive and interpret information that we receive from our environment, and how we relay that information to others. Mercury has rulership over such things as speaking, negotiating, buying and selling, listening, formal contracts, documents, travel, the mail and shipping, and so forth. All of these areas of life are affected when Mercury is functioning in a sluggish state. Decision-making is challenged during Mercury retrograde. Needless to say, it is not advised to sign contracts, engage in important decision-making, or launch a new business. Delays and challenges are more probable with Mercury retrograde. This period is best used for re-organizing and reflecting.

Not everyone feels the effects of Mercury retrograde. Those born with Mercury retrograde in their natal chart, for example, may not notice the effects described above.

When Mercury is retrograde in the natal chart itself, the thinking processes are generally more acute, and the sense of humor rather quirky. People with Mercury retrograde take in information differently than those with Mercury direct in their natal charts. How many people are born with a retrograde Mercury? Roughly 18%.

The Karmic Insight report has to say this about Mercury Retrograde in the natal chart: "A prior lifetime in which you were discouraged to think, learn, or express your ideas is indicated. This may have carried over in this lifetime as a mild learning problem in childhood, or inner (somewhat unconscious) doubts about your ability to learn or to communicate. Thus, you have a habit of rechecking, reconsidering, reviewing, and rethinking everything before you put it out. You may even have a desire to learn about subjects that seem archaic, to learn about those things which were denied to you in the past."

In 2007:

Mercury Retrograde periods:

February 13 - March 7
June 15 - July 9
October 11 - November 1

Mercury Stations Retrograde and Direct - Transits to the Houses

What house(s) in your natal chart is Mercury transiting when it is Stationing? Note the degree at which Mercury turns Retrograde and find where that degree is found, by house, in your natal chart, then read the interpretation for Mercury Stationary Retrograde below. Then note the degree at which Mercury then turns Direct and find that point in your natal chart (it's likely to be in the same house or an adjacent one), and read the interpretation for Mercury Stationary Direct below. These interpretations (source: Day Watch software) indicate the areas of life affected by Mercury's stations.

Mercury Stationary Retrograde in 1st House
This begins a three-week period during which you have the opportunity to refine and perhaps repurpose the way you project yourself in your surroundings. Round off the raw edges and pull in any potential entanglements that might be slowing you down. You have not only the right, but sometimes the obligation, to change your mind in order to insure consistency and personal impact. Toward the end, this may particularly include tightening up solutions to previously resolved issues to be sure they are well in hand. When you've got all your ducks in a row, you won't have to look back.

Mercury Stationary Direct in 1st House
After three weeks of readjustment, you can start getting plans back into shape for going ahead, which includes some new feathers put on your personal image. You may find you have discovered some improved ways of fitting your own leadership into the mix, which will firm up during the next few weeks and everyday rhythms get renormalized. Although it might not have seemed so a couple of weeks ago, you're increasingly glad to have had the opportunity to edit your life a bit so you can better exploit your position both socially and financially during the next month or so. Some changes will be momentary, but some will last.

Mercury Stationary Retrograde in 2nd House
The coming three weeks mark a period when not only hedging your bets but replacing your wagers may be just the right thing to do. When resources come up short, don't hesitate to reallocate them in order to provide yourself a firm foundation and a springboard to the future. Redesign with an eye toward giving yourself some extra padding, rather than relying on last minute income to fill in the gap. Less is more when you streamline your operations, and that may include reshuffling the way you present yourself on a day-to-day basis, in order to become a better part of the flow of life around you. 

Mercury Stationary Direct in 2nd House
Kinks, twists, and delays in financial matters are on their way out and a return to smoother sailing is in the works. Although delays may have been annoying, the resolutions they have brought will benefit you immediately and in the long run. Picking up loose ends and tightening your operation has lasting benefits, not only on your resources, but also on your opportunities to disseminate your ideas and expand your contacts and horizons. Any headway you may have lost is momentary and will be made up for by a smoother operation, a steadier course, and fewer distractions over the next several weeks. Tie up loose ends and be ready to move on to expanded horizons and a surer sense of your underpinnings.

Mercury Stationary Retrograde in 3rd House
The next three weeks may well mark a lot of ebbs and swirls in the social fabric you move in, with associates backing and filling and sometimes seeming less than reliable. No blame here, just a general reshuffling until everyone feels comfortable with their positions, including yourself. Try to work on removing obstacles to the flow and diplomatically shift your schedule according to who better fits your evolving agenda. Toward the end, you may have to call into question some aspects of your financial underpinnings in order to effectively make contact and cause others' goals to come into step with your own.

Mercury Stationary Direct in 3rd House
Several weeks of greater confusion than you'd have liked are on their way out and you can get back to what you were doing with a bit more confidence and sense of purpose. Getting roadblocks out of the way allows you to chart a surer course and feel better about what you are doing and what kind of commitments you can make and live up to. Red herrings and detours can be put behind you as you get back onto a map everybody can buy into. The cost of delays and uncertainties is made up for by knowing that they no longer impede and that you can now throttle up and get on some real speed.

Mercury Stationary Retrograde in 4th House
The next three weeks may cause you to step back and rethink your course and reset your bearings to make sure you are really on the course you intended. Do not hesitate to question fundamental values in order to get to the heart of what you believe and resolve inner conflicts that may arise. Small insights can net you large gains, particularly in the future stability of your ship. Rock your own boat before others do, and you'll be the better off for it. By the end, you may find risk reevaluation highly useful, particularly when you depend on others to evolve into what you will lean on in the future.

Mercury Stationary Direct in 4th House
A period of some delays, detours, and slowdowns has turned the corner and with a little more fine-tuning life operations will be not only back to normal but improved. Issues having to do with direction and creative focus begin to resolve themselves and turn out to have been only temporary delays, not fundamental problems. Once you have buttoned down the last of the recently arisen distractions, you can put your mind fully on the game and get back to being the you you always thought you were, only better. The exercise provided by internal troubleshooting and introspection brings you back stronger than ever.

Mercury Stationary Retrograde in 5th House
Playful creativity can be a hallmark of the next three weeks, but only if you are willing to let it take its course wherever it leads. Don't expect to follow a straight track but go where things lead you until you start to establish a pattern. Only then can you get back to the main highway after an enlightening detour onto the scenic route. Don't be surprised if this muddies previously held opinions toward the end, as the new alternatives you will be finding will more than make up for any inconveniences or confusions experienced along the way.

Mercury Stationary Direct in 5th House
A period of changeability and shifting focus has turned the corner and you will increasingly know better which choices are viable and which are not. Provisional projects will turn into final directions; distractions will be identified and pushed aside. Wherever you do wind up going, don't simply forget the road not taken, the path decided against. Keep them in your memory bank as they may turn up in other guises later and you'll already be halfway there. Follow through on what looks like a winner now, but don't let seemingly wasted time be forever lost by throwing away its fruits. Act selectively, but retain all.

Mercury Stationary Retrograde in 6th House
The next three weeks could easily throw some kinks into your schedule and make your routine suddenly non-routine. You have the opportunity now to iron out the wrinkles that may have been bothering you but which were somehow still left unattended. You may be wise to put great leaps forward temporarily on the backburner until you are sure there is nothing to trip you up along your way when you make your moves. This may result in coming to some re-conclusions about how and with whom you deploy your creative juices. Listen to that inner voice to make sure you heard it right, then get back into gear.

Mercury Stationary Direct in 6th House
Hectic reduplication, delays, and scheduling confusions will be straightening themselves out after a few weeks of necessary resorting. All that remains is to put the finishing touches on new approaches and link them all up with others who may be involved. Missed or mixed up messages are resented or clarified so everybody is back on the same page and agrees upon what the next step is going to be. A general sense of well-being supplants a certain unease born of uncertainty and you get back to your healthy glow born of knowing where you've been and focus on where you're going.

Mercury Stationary Retrograde in 7th House
Sometimes assumptions about those most close to you can turn out to be misperceived, and the next three weeks gives you a chance to take a second look. You can nip problems in the bud and smooth potentially ruffled feathers, including your own, where things have been taken for granted and are slowing down progress. Mending ties to others can make for stronger relationships if you are ready to address small problems and so prevent them from growing. In the same way, good fences make good neighbors, and keeping your own integrity may be part of it, so don't do others' jobs, but let equality have play.

Mercury Stationary Direct in 7th House
As you turn the corner toward clarity after a few weeks of unasked-for change, you realize that no one was to blame. What seemed like mistakes were simply different roads to the same destination and it's clear that keeping your eye on the ball and not on the pitcher is the only way to go. Resolving differences is the surest way to a strong partnership, especially when driven by a common goal. You can look forward to a backward look that may give you a boost in the coming month or so, so keep those eyes in the back of your head wide open. Tomorrow's prize lies in the hand of another, so be ready to shake it.

Mercury Stationary Retrograde in 8th House
If you can spend the next three weeks redeploying your debts and reallocating resources, you will not regret it. In fact, it may simply be a necessity to pick up loose ends and take a second look at whether you are unnecessarily overextended. With a little tweaking, you could be sitting in the catbird seat, but you'll need to test the wind to get some height. Pick up on assets you've neglected or forgotten about, and you'll have all you need. Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver, but the other's gold -- in ways you hadn't even thought about.

Mercury Stationary Direct in 8th House
The last few weeks' complexities and contradictions begin to clear up and you've turned a corner on finding out what you can get elsewhere and what you can provide yourself. If you need to borrow, it will be in the cards, but you may equally find that a little inventory of your past resources will reveal you've actually got all you need if you try out a new way to tap it. Brilliant ideas that seemed elusive are headed back into the pipeline but will still need a little sorting out before you can bring them to fruition. Putting previous obstacles behind you will give you the chance.

Mercury Stationary Retrograde in 9th House
Sometimes painting life with a broad brush can cause you to miss messy details that then slow you down. The next three weeks are a great time to pause and make sure the rug rats and ankle biters are not in a position to sidetrack your whole operation because you ignored them. It's time to give the small things their due so they can serve your larger purpose. By doing so, you may discover a better version of your own vision as well. Don't hurry, you've got time, and you may find that in the end tapping resources you had ignored will trigger a rising tide that floats all boats, not just your own.

Mercury Stationary Direct in 9th House
After a few weeks of uncertainty about the big picture, your panorama on life returns somewhat amended. False starts have led to a focus on correcting details that have distracted from the overall plan, but these are being put behind you so you can return to your former path with a steadier hand on the helm. What you are putting together now will shortly have a direct effect on what people will be saying about you and your career plans, so don't toss off your ideas lightly. You will have the opportunity to impact your surroundings more than you think if you choose to, but you must make the choice.

Mercury Stationary Retrograde in 10th House
Just when you think you can enjoy the limelight, you have to turn around and put some more spin on your tale to satisfy the onlookers. That scenario can characterize the next three weeks when your image may need some polishing and you have to resolve differences of opinion on your status. But, a few stumbling blocks well attended to now will open up a path of clear sailing down the road. Part of this may be that you haven't really picked up the smaller stitches because you've not quite got the bigger picture in focus. Refocus, pull all the threads together, and then you're on your way.

Mercury Stationary Direct in 10th House
The best-laid plans for self-promotion may have been getting tangled during the last three weeks, but the wind is changing and you'll begin to find it easier to chart your course, especially career wise. Correcting misconceptions about yourself is an important task to undertake, as you can't benefit if others don't really know where you're at. That especially applies where you are trying to nurture valuable connections that will buoy you up in weeks to come. When you make things perfectly clear, that's just what they become, and clearing up confusion clears the skies in general.

Mercury Stationary Retrograde in 11th House
Sometimes when you choose to lean on friends, you find they're leaning on you already, and then everybody gets confused. The next three weeks give you the chance to discover and address this kind of situation so that good feelings remain all around and everyone is back on a mutual course. One reason this can happen to begin with is that you may have been paying too much attention to your own goals and aspirations and lost track of your personal support grouping. A little healthy self-introspection may help your own ambitions find better focus and general support where you can most rely on it.

Mercury Stationary Direct in 11th House
You may have found the last few weeks have required you to spend some time pinning down just who your real friends are. Misplaced expectations can make for delay, but once you've separated the wheat from the chaff you'll have a better idea of who is really in the game. Now is the time to nail down those connections who had been hovering in the wings, time to get the message through to the ones who matter. That's important because you may soon need a shoulder to lean on, or at least a reliable counterpart who can help provide focus and serve as radar when the fog rolls in.

Mercury Stationary Retrograde in 12th House
For the next three weeks you may feel like you're waiting for things to come together, but you don't know exactly what they are. Kind of like watching a row of seeds you've planted -- you hope something is happening, but it's hard to tell. Events for you are, in fact, restructuring themselves behind the scenes, and you may be in for some surprises when all is resolved. Your best course is to make as few assumptions as possible and don't bet on the same old horses. Be open to your own intuitive hunches and be ready to jump aboard a new bandwagon when it suddenly materializes. It may come from closer than you think and from those you might have taken for granted.

Mercury Stationary Direct in 12th House
If loss of communications has left you clueless, you can start collecting more reliable evidence again. When exterior sources fail to provide the information you need, you may have to rely on your inner resources and come to your own conclusions without external input. However, if you can avoid tying yourself down, that would be a better choice, as things may be going on without your knowledge that will surface soon and give you a better handle on your operations. When the mist clears, you'll have the opportunity to really make yourself seen and heard.

Mercury Retrograde Transiting in Conjunction to Natal Planets

During any given Mercury Retrograde period, Mercury may transit conjunct a natal planet or point (or more than one sensitive point in your chart). The interpretations below (source: Day Watch software) show what happens when Mercury transits conjunct a natal planet or point while in Retrograde motion, and then returns to "revisit" the conjunction after turning Direct.

Mercury Conjunct Sun (Retrograde)
Mercury's reversal directly on your Sun is a road sign for coming reevaluation of your fundamental energies, the way you project yourself from the inside out. Perhaps it is time to again put to words and rephrase just what it is that you're all about, and fine-tune your inner beacon's lens so that your light shines more clearly on the world. The message is: Don't take yourself for granted and don't let precious resources sit idly by when you can put all your balls in play. Don't just deal from a full deck, but from a full and knowing heart, without reservation.

Mercury Conjunct Sun (Direct After Retrograde)
Mercury turning back to action on your Sun means this three-week period of re-shifting is best rid of through the sheer force of your personality. Where things had gotten tangled, a willing smile and a positive attitude will cut through the confusion and clear up misunderstandings. Where you might have done well before to delay and see which way the wind blows, now you can be the wind itself and blow away the mists that may have limited visibility for all concerned. Don't expect instant sunshine, but you can count on clearing skies and relieving rays to decorate the coming days.

Mercury Conjunct Moon (Retrograde)
Mercury turning around on your Moon may give you the message that you may have been missing something emotionally, perhaps not fully accessing your feelings when personal matters come into play. It could be time to take a second look at knee-jerk reactions and the types of automatic responses that operate under the radar but should perhaps be monitored more carefully. Make a renewed effort to make each moment fresh and live and don't just skip to what you expect to come next. Your life is only as real as each individual feeling you experience, so let there be no forgotten ones.

Mercury Conjunct Moon (Direct After Retrograde)
Mercury kicking off its return to action on your Moon tweaks your sensitivities to the confusions and delays of the last few weeks and enables you to make snap decisions to regain headway and get things back to normal. If it feels right, it probably is right, and you'll even likely be able to find exactly the right words for it. Tune up your antenna for communications arriving that impact your emotional state and clear up mixed messages you might have been relying on. Keep it light and breezy if you can, as others may be depending on your cheerful attitude to infuse them with the same.

Mercury Conjunct Mercury (Retrograde)
Mercury's about-face on your own natal Mercury should be giving you a message to rethink your thinking -- take a second look at the way you analyze your situation and see if you can get rid of blockages, generally streamline the way you size things up. Fresh approaches are in the wind as you now can better pick out what has become stale and what bears real fruit. Throw old assumptions to the wind and investigate new formulas for handling your organizational needs. When you've separated out the trash, you'll feel a lot lighter and trimmer whenever you're asked to deal with a situation. Spend the next few weeks picking things apart, then move on with a new approach.

Mercury Conjunct Mercury (Direct After Retrograde)
Mercury hurling itself back into the fray right on your natal Mercury can mean more than one brainstorm and that "Aha!" feeling can be the order of the day. When that light bulb overhead switches on, be ready to pick up and run with the new plan that can put you ahead of what has been a slower-than-usual game. You may find yourself becoming information central as others gravitate toward what you have noticed first, but make sure it bears the stamp of your imprimatur before you give it away. You can copyright an idea, but you can make sure everyone knows where it came from to establish your leadership.

Mercury Conjunct Venus (Retrograde)
Mercury making a reverse move on your Venus can bring you a brand-new approach to your fundamental desires and goals in life. Feel free to change your mind like mad for a few weeks until you've rummaged through your options and figured out what and whom you want to keep, and who to get rid of. Stop chasing after what you can't get or what takes more than it's worth and align yourself to things that satisfy and are within both your reach and your grasp. Parting is no sorrow when it's something well departed, and now's the time to pick and choose. Cut the fat gladly, keep what tastes sweet.

Mercury Conjunct Venus (Direct After Retrograde)
Mercury taking off again right on your Venus can make you first in line to get the most if you make sure you've got your name in the queue. Uncertainties clear up and second thoughts rule and supplant previous picks and best bets. After some beating around the bush, it is becoming time to state exactly what you want and whom you want it from. Make sure you phrase it just right, because if you inadvertently ask for the wrong thing, you might not get to return it so easily. Once you have let it out of the bag, there it remains -- stores may have guaranteed return policies, but people often don't.

Mercury Conjunct Mars (Retrograde)
Mercury's about-face on your Mars could find you in a tailspin about just what to do with yourself and how to organize your energies to get things done. What you may find is that you have been regularly wasting effort in spots that give little payoff while neglecting areas of potentially high return. It's time to re-budget your available inner resources and only burn fuel on trips that get you somewhere you really want to go. Moreover, what frustrates can probably be dispensed with, even if it has seemed necessary before. Burn your candle at one end only and it will see you gladly to the morning's light.

Mercury Conjunct Mars (Direct After Retrograde)
Just about the time you thought you could never get the right action agreed upon, and then Mercury goes direct on your Mars and you can be off and running -- if you choose to, that is. What opens up is the shot at more confident and focused ways of spending your energy, with greater likelihood of a real return on investment. By discarding some of the recent options that may not have panned out too well, you can say more specifically just what you are going to do and put all your power behind it. Do that, and you'll inspire others to follow -- everybody likes a good plan, so make it yours.

Mercury Conjunct Jupiter (Retrograde)
Mercury making a pullback on your Jupiter should put a focus on reorganizing your go-ahead game plan and see if your horsepower plant could use a tune-up before you put in more gas. If you're not running on all cylinders, now is the time to find out and be sure everything is in gear before putting the pedal to the metal. That means rooting out half-baked (though well-meant) goals and ambitions and remixing a formula that burns clean and hot. Pull back from overextension and put all you've got into a revised plan -- the one you're revising now.

Mercury Conjunct Jupiter (Direct After Retrograde)
As Mercury turns around after three backwards weeks, it's right on your Jupiter, which should put you into the forefront of what's happening next. Claim the vanguard, and others will thank you for rescuing them from a sea of hesitation and indecision. It's becoming time to finally choose, and you can be the choice -- just step forward boldly with your beliefs and the rest will be history. Even if it's old, paint it like it's new, dress it like the future, and that's what it will be. You needn't have all the details, just the confidence in your direction -- take care of the rest once you're under way.

Mercury Conjunct Saturn (Retrograde)
Mercury doing a swivel on your Saturn may give you some pause for thought about how you are handling your limitations and if there may not be some better ways to get more mileage out of what you've got. There is more than one way to skin a cat, and if you think you've hit a wall, try looking for a previously unnoticed doorway into the potentials beyond. Old formulas may be tried but not true, and now may be the time to figure out how to streamline or dump them. The only thing that's holding you back may be you, and you just didn't know it, so take another look. There is a fine line between security and a prison, so put the key in your pocket before you lock (or unlock) any doors.

Mercury Conjunct Saturn (Direct After Retrograde)
As Mercury comes back to life over your Saturn, your ability to get down to brass tacks returns as well. It's time to clear out the detritus that has littered your life of late and lean on the more important stuff. That means be specific but don't waste time elaborating. Say it and do it right the first time and you won't have to repeat yourself -- and you'll earn the respect of others blessed with less decisiveness. Don't be afraid to put your foot down and ask what part of "no" they don't understand, but be judicious about where and when you do it so you don't dilute your authority.

Mercury Conjunct Uranus (Retrograde)
Mercury pirouetting on your Uranus could be just what you need to provide that sudden flash of inspiration you've been waiting for. It's less likely to be about the totally new, but more about new light on older inspiration, ways to make approaches work that weren't quite all there before. If you haven't quite arrived in some area and wonder why, now's the time for the internal rewrite that taps into the mother of all inventions, your inner muse. Don't hesitate to smash idols with feet of clay, break down walls, and clear the decks. You can't rebuild to suit your taste until you've got the space to do it and some elbow room.

Mercury Conjunct Uranus (Direct After Retrograde)
Mercury stepping out again on your Uranus can bring sudden flashes of insight, unexpected turns of events, and unheralded messages from surprising quarters. When inspiration strikes, be ready to write it down -- get it on paper, before you forget it or someone else tries to deny it. Don't tie yourself down right now, or you might lose the ability to go with the flow when a breaking wave strikes. If it ain't fixed, break it and go for something entirely new -- cut the Gordian knot and don't waste anymore time fussing with tangled or intractable situations. Go for the shortcut, the straight path.

Mercury Conjunct Neptune (Retrograde)
Mercury backing off your Neptune may mean putting your fantasies on hold until you've more thoroughly figured them out. Groping blindly in the mist will not serve you well -- better to be still so you can better hear what may be moving about. If fond hopes disappoint, it is perhaps because you have not framed them in a fashion where they can become reality. One wish leads to another only if you don't cling to the first one -- be ready to reload your camera and take another shot. When the pictures are developed down the road, you'll see clearly what you had only imagined was there.

Mercury Conjunct Neptune (Direct After Retrograde)
Mercury swinging around on your Neptune may not completely get you out from recent weeks' fog, but it will allow you to begin to get your bearings. Trust your instincts, not your eyesight, and feel free to feel your way. Spend more time living your life like poetry instead of prose, putting your emotions into words and your spiritual aspirations into print. You don't have to show it to anybody, just yourself -- you have to hitch yourself to a dream for it to come true, so start hitching. When you can put your finger on what it is you want, then it is more likely to fall within your grasp.

Mercury Conjunct Pluto (Retrograde)
Mercury making a temporary halt on your Pluto turns you on to a set of delays that are shared very specifically with your age group, so look to immediate contemporaries for both sympathy and solutions. Issues may circle around who is in control and what turf is worth having charge over, but it all comes down to personalities in the end. Fewer things than you may imagine are worth going to the mat for, so be ready to abandon time-wasting challenges and dead ends in favor of what's really worth the push. A few weeks of picking your fights carefully may eliminate the opposition to begin with.

Mercury Conjunct Pluto (Direct After Retrograde)
As Mercury gets itself back into gear on your Pluto, pecking order issues that may have arisen lately can be resolved and competition put aside where it is not needed. You can figure out how to get your way without imposing it -- either by cooperation or simply by sleight of hand -- and there is no reason to waste unnecessary muscle making it happen. You can equally well put your finger on your unresolved fears and find that when you shed light on them, there's nothing there to be afraid of. Known challenges are always easier than what lurks unseen, and this is a good time to cast a little light into the darkness.

Mercury Conjunct Ascendant (Retrograde)
Just when you thought you were home free, someone called time out and now you have to rework your game plan and refocus your approach. Mercury backpedaling on your Ascendant means you will have to touch up your personal presentation and make sure you are leading with the best -- and the most truthful -- game plan. What may seem like reversal is only delay, and you'll be glad in the end that it happened, giving you time to clear previously overlooked stones from your pathway. Once past selective makeover, you will find your image successfully bears scrutiny at every level.

Mercury Conjunct Ascendant (Direct After Retrograde)
Mercury making its turnaround on your Ascendant can give you the opportunity to be the person with the first word in -- the solution-maker -- if you let it happen. Don't be afraid to chime in with new ideas, even if there has been a lot of confusion of late, because now is the time when resolutions finally become available and forward motion can begin again. People will tend to look to you to be the instigator, so don't disappoint them, let your ideas out of the box where they can do some good. You may not get everything you want, but you'll be first out of the gate, and the beginning is half of everything.

Mercury Conjunct Midheaven (Retrograde)
As Mercury backs off your Midheaven, you will do well to take a second look at what people are saying about you and how well you are projecting the image you mean to. Are you flying the right flags to get what you want? Do people really understand your message and your achievements, or are you taking certain elements for granted? In matters of importance, don't make assumptions but enlist others for a second opinion if possible. If there is any time to tweak your résumé, the next few weeks are definitely it, and the only one who will do it right is you.

Mercury Conjunct Midheaven (Direct After Retrograde)
Mercury getting back into gear on your Midheaven means that word about you starts to spread after a period where you might have thought yourself neglected. The flag on your topmast is coming into view, so make sure your flying colors are the colors you really intend to fly by. Self-promotion leads to others promoting you in turn, so it pays to advertise. When it comes to brand recognition, make sure it's your brand they ask for, your style they distinguish and think distinguished. When your reputation is at stake, stake it out and mark out your territory.

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