Merc Rx and me, January/February 2008

Mercury retrogrades from 23° 52′ to 8° 19′ Aquarius, from 28 January to 18 February 2008.
The back-end shadow period lasts from 19 to 27 January 2008 and the front-end shadow period from 19 February to 9 March 2008.

I am discounting the usual glitches and disruptions to do with missed appointments, computer trouble and travel delays. This is a list of events that stood out.

 

The Internet and the oceans

On 31 January, it was announced that several undersea internet cables had been cut. This occurred shortly after Mercury went retrograde in Aquarius. Mercury is the planet of communications and Aquarius rules not just technology but also the egalitarian nature of the internet, Aquarius being the sign of the humanitarian.

This incident brings to light not only the connectedness of human society (ideally) embodied by the internet (it is clear that not everyone is connected and the question of uneven access is always contentious), but also calls attention to how fragile those connections might be. It also calls attention to the intimate connection between those networks and the raping of oceans we are experiencing as symptomatic of the central crisis of our times.

 

Merc rx in Aquarius — connecting the inner self with the outer world

In an earlier post, I summarised Eric Francis’ themes for Mercury retrograde in Aquarius as a reminder to ourselves ‘to get in touch with our own humanity that we may thus get in touch with the collective’. Robert Wilkinson expresses it in more grounded terms, but the main themes are there.

 

Battle of the techno titans

It is perhaps no coincidence that the biggest news in the technological world is announced while Mercury (news) is retrograde in Aquarius (technology), at the point of Pluto’s ingress into Capricorn.

 

Merc rx ++

Pat Paquette of Pisces Chronicles posts an article explaining why she thinks this Mercury retrograde is not going to be an ‘ordinary’ one.