Mercury, the planet of communication, commerce, and reasoning, officially stationed retrograde in Aries yesterday evening just after 5 pm central time. Aries is a fire sign ruled by Mars, otherwise known as the Roman God of War. Mercury retrograde is usually regarded in pop culture as a time when communication goes haywire, electronics malfunction, and people from your past pop back up. Those things are not wrong and often do happen, but not ALWAYS. What is essential to understand about this time period, which occurs roughly three times a year, is that it is a time of RE-thinking and RE-doing, and in Aries, we can even say it is a time of RE-ACTION
Indeed, just after Mercury stationed retrograde, I immediately got a passive-aggressive text from someone. It was uncalled for and seemed extremely off the cuff. With the Ruler of Mars in Pisces, we may deal with people being reactive based on confusion or delusions. Pisces, by nature, can reflect issues of avoidance and escapism, but with Mercury Retrograde in Aries, there may be little choice but to take action on a situation.
This is where the Mars conjunction to Master Saturn comes in. Saturn in Pisces wants us out of the delusion and into our intuition. During the Eclipse, Mars and Saturn will be at almost the same degree, meaning there will be obstacles to overcome, especially where avoidance, escapism, illusion, and delusion are concerned. Although Mars makes its way past Saturn's tall walls, it will still be traversing Pisces for the remainder of the Mercury Retrograde, meaning much of this theme remains the same the entire time.
However, we can talk about some nuances to this Mercury Retrograde. Mercury will conjoin Chiron on April 15 during its retrograde. This will be the 2nd of 3 conjunctions to Chiron as it dances back and forth through Aries (March 20, April 15, May 6). Chiron is a dwarf planet known as the wounded healer, and in Aries, it has a lot to do with healing wounds tied to independence, action, and identity. This particular Mercury Retrograde dance with Chiron becomes sensitive, and we might encounter some sore spots that we must consider and act on.
Lastly, there will be a conjunction to Venus on April 19. Venus, associated with relationships and values, is not exactly as peaceful as it likes to be in Aries. Opposite its home sign of Libra, Venus cannot properly mediate and becomes a warrior. A meeting with Mercury retrograde can bring things into better focus so that we know exactly what we want, but this also means we may be having conversations with those close to us around that time.
Ultimately, Mercury Retrograde draws focus to the things we desire to do. Life is rough, and sometimes we HAVE to do things, but that is not what Aries and Mars are concerned with. Passion, drive, and sometimes anger become the name of the game. Realizing we are not in alignment with true desires can trigger us and cause rash decisions, so it is helpful to think about these things NOW with Mercury in the beginning stages of it is retrograde.
In the words of Paul "Bear" Bryant, there is a big difference between being willing to do something and truly wanting to do it.