Mercury is now retrograde in Leo (12+° to 1+°) and will continue until 8 August 2012. The last Mercury retrograde was in conjunction with Uranus in Aries. This time, Mercury stationed retrograde in Leo close to the time Uranus stationed retrograde in Aries, which is in a long-term square with Pluto.

With Uranus in the picture there is always the possibility of something sudden, shocking, or unexpected, although with so much craziness in the news these days, one wonders what else could shock us. Because the Uranus-Pluto square is long term (until 2015) and collective, and Mercury retrograde is short-term (three weeks) and personal, any disruption during this period can feel like shouting in a very loud rock concert — your voice adds to the general noise, but who can hear you, and would it matter? You can hear you, if only inside your own head, and that’s still important.

Rather than see any delays or disruptions during this Mercury retrograde as less significant than the larger changes around us, it may be worthwhile paying attention to how the lessons of any personal disruption (Mercury) in this period may allow us to cope with the wider disruption (Uranus) happening around us.


Some notes from the blogosphere:

Lynn Hayes, Astrological Musings:

Ouranos was the sky god – from his viewpoint in the sky he could see all, and know all. Thus the Uranian archetype expands Mercury and takes our ability to witness and observe to a higher level. Under the Uranus influence we have a greater perspective and an ability to see the larger picture.

With both Mercury and Uranus turning retrograde within a day of each other, there is a powerful focus now on the way in which we translate what we see in the world into an understanding of it. Any place in which we are blinded by emotion or a lack of reason will be highlighted now.

When Uranus is retrograde we tend to look more closely at areas of our life that need change. When we’re in a time of great change such as we’re in right now, this can be enervating and inspiring. It can also be somewhat terrifying if we stare too long into the abyss. There is a lot of mind and mental activity right now, so any activity you can do to offset that headiness (yoga, swimming, meditation) will be very helpful.

Pat Paquette, Real Astrologers:

The second interesting factor about this Mercury retrograde, and by far the more volatile one, lies in the simultaneous retrograde of Uranus on Friday. On a collective scale, this reverse is more significant than Mercury’s phase shift, especially since Uranus and Pluto are still within a degree of an exact square. Unless transiting Uranus is sitting on a personal planet or sensitive point in your chart, you’re not likely to feel this one personally. But combined with Mercury’s retrograde on the following day, the reversal of Uranus could manifest as major mischief … as though there hasn’t been plenty already.

Len Wallick, Planet Waves:

The fact that Mercury’s apparent motion is reversing concurrently with that of Uranus clearly indicates that the immense magnitude of our era in history will ultimately derive from the minutiae of our lives.

Many astrologers consider the energy signature of Uranus to be the higher octave of Mercury. If that is true, then the history being made now is the result of every life of every being now on Earth. Gone with the ages before the discovery of Uranus are the times when only the powerful determined posterity. The essence of the period that started with the discovery of Uranus is that individuals play a part in making history, whether we acknowledge it or not.

The intrinsic theme of our era in history is the personal and political urgency of coming to that acknowledgement. The necessity of the epoch when Uranus and Pluto will dance back and forth into a series of seven exact squares is, for each and all of us, to take personal responsibility for the tacit recognition that each and all of us, without exception, create history through our action, or lack of it. In other words, the certain and inevitable disruption implied by this concurrency of Mercury and Uranus retrograde stations is nothing less than the cosmos asking us to wake up from routine, step up to reality, and human-up to the plain fact that the future is ours to create right now.