Scorpio Solar Eclipse with Mercury Retrograde

With what seems to me to be the longest presidential election I’ve ever seen finally ending, we are heading into a new period that is going to change the landscape for many of us.  As my readers know, I pay close attention to periods when there are two or more astrological shifts. The two we are experiencing right now are the Mercury Retrograde period and a Total Solar Eclipse occurring on Tuesday, November 13, 2012 at 2:08pm PST.  Let’s start with the Mercury Retrograde cycle.

Mercury Retrograde

I have written many articles on this topic, so if anyone would like to read more on this important cycle, please click on the topic in the ‘Tag Cloud’ and look up ‘Mercury Retrograde.’ Let me cover the basics.  A Mercury Retrograde occurs every 4 months or so and lasts for 21 days, more or less. Sometimes, it seems to me that this cycle could be called the ‘scapegoat’ of astrology since so many people blame events in their life on this transit.  If we do this, though, we lose sight of the fact that this period is actually quite important, valuable and necessary.

Here are the details:  Mercury went retrograde on Election Day, Nov. 6, 2012 at 4° Sagittarius. It will remain in retrograde motion until November 26th when it will return to its normal direct motion at 18° Scorpio.  This transit will affect all of us in one way or another, but especially to those who have planets in this area.  The value of all Mercury retrograde cycles is that it is necessary for us to review and look more deeply at some area of our life involving our thinking and communication with others.  The regular motion of Mercury is quite rapid, often moving at a faster speed than the Sun.  As such, our minds race forward and if it weren’t for this cycle, we could not only get way ahead of ourselves, but not have the chance to be aware of the need for reflection and reevaluation.  This is exactly what is needed for the next three weeks.   However, it is also true that this can be an especially active time, even though one would prefer to have time to kick back and reflect.  This is due to the fact that another aspect of this period is that one is often going to feel a need or demand to finish a cycle. Often it is accompanied with a feeling that ‘something’ absolutely MUST be finished.  So, we have two contrary forces operating at the same time.  There is the need for rest and reflection, which is opposed by the need to make an effort to complete some cycle or project. Meanwhile, there is a greater likelihood of things breaking down or needing to be fixed, while simultaneously feeling the need to move forward rapidly, which, of course, is usually not possible.  Lovely, isn’t it? So, what are we to do?  Patience is what we need here; accepting, if we can, what we are able to move forward on and what we are not.  Not so easy, though, if you have a very demanding boss who knows nothing of Mercury retrograde and can’t stand hearing ‘excuses.’  That’s one of the problems of living in a culture that does not have a clue about timing.

This cycle spends much of its time in Scorpio. But, there is much more going on than just Mercury being retrograde.

Total Solar Eclipse in Scorpio

On Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012, we have a Solar Eclipse at 22° Scorpio.  Along with the retrograde of Mercury there is an interweaving of these cycles into one basic, but very intense theme.  Scorpio asks a lot of us and when we can fulfill its intention, we can release and let die so much of the past blockages that we will inevitably feel incredibly free.  But it is so much easier to say than it is to do.  This sign asks us to look at ourselves and others with a deep, investigative, penetrating eye.  It demands we look directly at the very thing we are so reluctant to see that we can feel torn apart.  We can feel that some aspect of ourselves is dying.  In a sense it is.  The obstacles blocking us from seeing ourselves are not actually real. It’s not who we really are.  But that’s not how it feels. Scorpio, at its best, describes the ‘letting go’ process of what we are deeply identified with and who we think we are.  The Eclipse and Mercury Retrograde will mean we may find ourselves in situations where we must find a way to resolve difficult matters.  There is a tendency to project unresolved issues and unaccepted aspects of our psyche onto others, which then creates the feeling of an irresolvable problem.   It will only become resolved when we take responsibility for our part in this matter, which requires that we do some deep inner work. From this cleaner place, we can see whatever is in front of us in a new light.

Eclipses are ‘inertia changing moments.’  Some astrologers believe they are almost always negative, but my experience is quite different. They certainly can be difficult.  But sometimes they can help us.  This particular eclipse is more positive than most.

Saros Cycle 15 North – Astrologers for centuries have used a complex system of notating how solar eclipses are different from each other.   This particular eclipse is called 15 North and here is its description by Bernadette Brady:

“There is a sense of commitment about this series.  This series is a time of good news which entails responsibilities or commitments, but ones in which there is joy in the undertaking.”  It represents a new cycle of opportunity to some aspect of one’s life that while involving more responsibility, is a welcome one.  Let’s see how it turns out.

Some Comments About The Election

As I indicated in a recent post, my concern was that the meaning of the Mercury Retrograde cycle beginning during the election process was that it could mean that there would be serious flaws in the voting process that could cause the election results to be challenged.  This did not turn out to be true, as Obama won the needed states for an Electoral College victory by wide enough margins that the vote could not be challenged.   For those watching the Nate Silver columns in the NY Times, there was no surprises to this election.  He got it almost completely perfect.

It seems that if there was a surprise, it came from how the news of Obama’s win has affected the Republican Party.  Mitt Romney was said to be “shell-shocked” by the results.  Karl Rove was as well and has been defending himself to conservatives ever since the election ended.  I did not imagine that they would be this surprised.   I assumed that they secretly knew that their polling numbers were off the mark and were doing what operatives do during an election cycle, which is to spin what they see as something positive.  But they seemed to believe they were going to win, some said by a landslide.  Now, this is interesting.

I couldn’t help recalling Clint Eastwood’s speech to an empty chair.  Somehow, many in the present Republican Party live in a universe that is not real.  The more they move to the right, the more they think they will win and, yet, in each election, it shows the opposite result.  Now the attention turns to how the politicians will handle the so-called ‘fiscal cliff.’  Will there be compromises or will the stalemate continue?  I think it will depend on how the Republicans react to the results of this election and how they respond to the new information that the election revealed.  This is exactly how a Mercury Retrograde can be helpful.  It can assist us to reevaluate information so we can process new information.