Listen up, my cosmic babies!
Get ready for a wild ride from December 13 through January 1, 2024, as Mercury, the trickster planet of the mind and its multitudes, goes retrograde through not one, but two zodiac signs.
First, the backstroke begins in the restrictive, striving, dad jeans, cardinal earth sign of Capricorn (Dec 12 – Dec 22). Then, Mercury will make moves in Sagittarius, a bon vivant, caution-to-the-wind, arrows-to-the-sky mutable fire sign (Dec 23 – Jan 2).
Mercury, named for the mischief-minded, trash-talking envoy of gods, is the fastest-moving planet in our solar system and retrogrades three to four times a year. If you include the two-week pre and post-shadow periods of a retrograde, known as retro-shade, the effects are felt for roughly half of the year.
Now, don’t fear Mercury retrograde, but revere it instead!
What is Mercury retrograde?
The term retrograde is a misnomer. The planet does not actually stop or flip in reverse but, instead, slows enough to appear to be backspinning from our viewpoint here on Earth. Our ancient forebearers correlated the shift to the challenges and changes that befell them.
During retrograde, we are called to engage with all matters of “re” prefixes: reflection, revision, reinvestment, revisit, reconnection, relativity, etc. It’s not a great time to start something new, but it’s an auspicious moment to return to unfinished business or passions.
From limits to boundlessness and back
Mercury rules the mind and mouth, and the sign it moves through influences these areas. In Capricorn, Mercury teaches the value of limitations, directness, and speaking volumes with sparse sentences. Capricorn is all about time and killing one’s darlings. During the first part of this retrograde, consider your relationship with your waking hours, what you’re working for, and what’s holding you back.
On the 23rd, as Mercury moonwalks into Sagittarius, the planet of truth and freedom will have us all shooting off at the mouth and missing the mark at times.