Mercury retrograde April 21 - May 14

 

Mercury from Mythopedia 

Mercury Dates 

April 7, 5:02am shadow begins 

April 21, 1:35am PDT station retrograde 15 Taurus 37

May 14, 8:17pm PDT station direct 5 Taurus 50 

May 31, 12:39pm PDT shadow ends 

 

 

Adding to the potency of the period, Mercury stations retrograde within 48 hours of the new moon/eclipse.    Since January we have been enjoying every planet traveling in direct motion.   No surprise that Mercury who is usually retrograde three or four times a year is the first planet in 2023 to retrograde.  

 

During the retrograde, Mercury will go from 15 to 5 Taurus.   Like the other earth signs, Taurus is focused on practicality.   Taurus is THE sign, of all signs, to put its head down and do the work.   When given a task Taurus will do it until it is complete.  Taurus is known for building things from the ground up.  Look no further than the great pyramids in Egypt who were built during the Age of Taurus.  Mercury is our brains and thinking.   

During the retrograde we may observe parts of our life that are missing that Taurus discipline and focus.  Maybe this is the steely resolve we find, to use that focus where it is needed.   Or, we could find ourselves doing a task we do all the time and now it feels ‘off’’.    Taurus, ruled by Venus, is a sign that relies on being connected to our values.  We could start thinking about narrowing who, what and where gets our energy.   How are we spending our time, energy, and resources?   Are they in sync with our values?  We just look at everything with more practicality.   

Of course, Mercury retrogrades are notorious for being fuzzy so we should double check facts before we jump on someone or something.   The good news is that Taurus prefers being slow and knows how to take a beat and not race into something which could include being too dismissive or jettisoning something that we may later regret.   Use this Mercury retrograde to double down on things that support your values but before you ditch or get ugly, take a breath, and consider making big decisions after the three-week retrograde is complete.   

Also this Mercury retrograde has a tie in with the retrograde of Jupiter later in the year.  Jupiter will be retrograding exactly over the same Taurus degrees that Mercury goes back and forth over during this retrograde.    This gives us more reason to watch what comes up during the Mercury retrograde and then the Jupiter transit especially between the shadow points of June 11, 2023 and March 24, 2024 to see if there are any common themes both personally and globally.