Astroweather -- Mercury Stationary Direct

Mercury will go stationary direct this evening at 11:21 pm pst. This last retrograde cycle of the year began on December 10, 2010 in a fire sign and will end in a water sign. Mercury stations direct at 25 degrees Scorpio and will return to its previous retrograde station point of 11 degrees Sagittarius on January 17, 2010. During this time it will transit the highly critical Gandanta degrees of 27 Scorpio - 3 Sagittarius between January 3-11, 2011.

Gandanta is traditionally described as an inauspicious position causing misery to the area of influence of the planet, in this case Mercury, the ruler of communication. In Sanskrit Gand means knot, or node, and anta means end. It refers to the juncture between water and fire, in particular last 3 degrees of a water sign, and first three degrees of a fire sign -- at the three distinct junctions of Pisces (Revati)- Aries (Aswini), Cancer (Ashlesha)- Leo (Magha), and Scorpio (Jyeshta)- Sagittarius (Mula). The weakest degree or junction is 29 degrees, called sande in Vedic astrology. Mercury will be sande on January 6, 2011. When planets travel through gandanta positions, they take on a special power to unravel knots of karma and move on to the next level. If a planets falls in the last three degrees of water sign, it is completing an old cycle; if it falls in the first three degree of a fire sign is beginning a new cycle. As Mercury rules the nakshatras of the last three degrees of each water sign, it may have more significant power to release the binds of the past than other planets passing through gandanta, or at least speed up the process. Ketu rules the nakshatras of the first degrees of each fire sign. As the primordial creative force, Ketu's energy may trigger chaos at the beginning of a new cycle.



When the fast-moving Mercury does it retrograde dance through gandanta degrees change and transformation concerning Mercurial interests speed up. This quickening may lead to massive releases of information in the form of writing and communication. We certainly witnessed this phenomenon as Wikileaks and its Mercurial leader Julian Assange (Gemini Sun, Venus and Mercury) were scrutinized by the media for the past four weeks. Although he turned himself in to police before Mercury went retrograde, he was initially held for what might be trumped up sexual assault charges without bail. Despite attempts by governments to vilify and suggest that Assange is a terrorist and rapist, plenty of independent media types came to his defense, including director Michael Moore who donated bail money and explained why in an open letter. Assange was finally released on bail on Saturnalia, December 17, 2010; but the question remains, is he a modern media hero or mischievous libertine?



When Mercury was last at 25 degrees Scorpio on November 22, 2010 the big headline was that North Korea had revealed that it was operating a previously undisclosed uranium enrichment plant. The very next day North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire in what many described as the most dramatic confrontations since the Korean War. Although it seemed sudden, tension between the two enemies had been building for a long time. During the week that followed Mercury transited the gandanta degrees and this tension escalated, especially as Pluto conjoined Rahu in Sagittarius. Just as Mercury approached this explosive conjunction of Pluto and Rahu, WikiLeaks released more highly controversial information -- US diplomatic cables that revealed things like China is getting tired of dealing with North Korea's bad behavior. So even though the tension between North and South Korea was at an all time high, the world began to understand that China may have some interest in controlling its naughty child.



Mercury also rules the markets and commerce. During the holiday season initial reports indicated that sales were up significantly. According to the Huffington Post Christmas Even shoppers were setting holiday records. However, all is not as it seems. Bank failures are at an all time high. The intense winter weather patterns may also have an effect on post-Christmas retail as major winter storms shut down the East coast for two days. Once Mercury goes direct we may get a more accurate assessment of the state of the economy.



Mercury also rules travel, and winter storms in both the US and Europe wreaked havoc. Of course some of that intensity was also connected astrologically to the expansive power of Rahu over the full lunar eclipse of December 21, 2010.

As I mentioned in a previous post on Starsyncs, Mercury retrograde cycles may in fact activated the right brain. During this retrograde cycle I felt an incredible download of galactic information that I obsessively described in multiple blog posts. As Mercury stations today, my brain is having difficulty finding the right words, or connecting various abstract thoughts. Where once there was clarity, now there is an approaching fog bank. Perhaps this is the effect of going from fire to water? In 2011 the Mercury retrograde cycles will all begin in fire and transition back to water through gandanta degrees, until the final period which begins and ends in water. Until then we may see these periodic awakenings of the mind and great downloads of information through the coming Mercury retrograde cycles. Keep an eye on the stationary direct periods of Mercury's re-entry through fire. These may be times of great alchemical change.

Namaste!