Mercury Retrograde February 2021

We are coming off a Leo Full Moon so I hope you all found some fun and joy and a renewed spirit in the past couple of days. Mercury stations retrograde today at 26 degrees of Aquarius and will remain so through February 21. The trickster entered Aquarius on January 8th and remains in this intellectually driven sign through March 17th. That's about three months to learn some logical new ways of doing things in your life based upon what house the transit occurs in your natal chart.

The first shadow of Mercury between January 8th and 30th starts to prepare you for the lessons that will inevitably challenge you on the formal retrograde between January 30th and February 21st. That will be the brunt of the period, the juicy part when you have to deal with the Aquarius themes in your life through the learning lens of Mercury. This is about a review of friendships and what they mean to you during the intense winter months of a pandemic. Who continues to add or decrease value to your group, pod, bubble, community or team? It's time to reorganize which friends and team members remain and which go. It's a wonderful time to get back in touch with those friends who have been at a distance and less reachable. This Mercury retrograde will also have a great deal to do with making sure your daily routine is in order in terms of technology at your home and office space. Is all equipment up to date so that it can handle the innovative and new ways of on-line communication? Rethink your strategies for using communication to better reach out to as many people as possible, especially for your business. Paperwork must be organized. The paradox of this mercury retrograde is that while you have to go deeper in order to make a review of your life and how it functions on a daily basis the sign of Aquarius demands detachment and a bird's eye view from a distance. Go deeper and aim your vision to see the bigger picture. The purpose is to liberate, not limit. The focus becomes stronger and fixed towards dealing with the past in order to move forward towards a stronger more secure future.

The second shadow of Mercury which occurs from February 21st through March 14 has a more liberating quality where you see if what was worked on during the retrograde has been adjusted in your life in a way that improves the daily routine, and if not, to make further adjustments to get the train fully on course.
Here's a brief synopsis of the houses which is where Mercury retrograde events play out the themes in action-oriented ways.

House 1: The personality, the image, the look and the appearance and face that you show the world. This is a house where you personally make new beginnings to act in new ways.

House 2. Money, talent, self-worth, values, real estate. Psychologically developing innate talents even further to secure future financial gain. Possessions. Pleasure.

House 3. Writing, travel, education, lecturing, learning, siblings, neighbors, gossip and all forms of left brain thinking. All modes of transportation and communication.

House 4: Family, Mom, Dad, the past, history, real estate, memories, cooking, bonding with loved ones. Your home and what goes on in that biosphere.

House 5: Creative self-expression, acting, fun, joy, sports, recreation, children, games, hobbies, dating, romance. Self Love.

House 6: Work, health, pets, the gym, taking care of the body, the daily work routine, the desk, rituals, crafts, mentoring, apprenticeship. Helping others, service related tasks.

House 7. Marriage, partnership, relationships, socializing, protocol, etiquette, social opportunities. Finding balance in life, conversation meeting up with your other. Things, places and people that bring beauty, harmony and balance into your life. What and who you like?

House 8: Sex, death, taxes, inheritance. Intimacy, trust, the bedroom, passion. What brings marriage partners, business partners and close relationships even closer. Those things that emotionally bond you to others like sex and money. The power derived from combining what I bring to the table vs what you bring to the table. Intense feelings and passions that we must learn to control and release.

House 9: All things foreign, travel, culture, religion, higher education, philosophy and your belief systems. The law and legal matters. Publicity, advertising, importing and exporting. Mind expansion.

House 10: Career, status, reputation. Authority figures like a Mom, Dad or Judge. Positions of power. Visibility in the world. Achievement and success. Reaping rewards. The climb to the top and staying there.

House 11: Large groups and organizations. Teams, alliances and political affiliations. Social connections and humanitarian causes. Giving back to society through charitable work and sharing your achievements. Hopes goals and wishes for the future. Friends.

House 12: Prisons, museum, institutions, hospitals. Places of solitude like a church, retreat or monastery. Escapism, pain, suffering. Ecstasy and imagination. Letting go and processing the ends of life and the ends of phases of life. Retirement, Charity, sacrifice, surrender. Art, music, poetry. Doing things in solitude that require being alone. Vacation, being by the water, being in the imagination through healthy and unhealthy fantasy, Pain and suffering or joy and freedom. This house is a paradox and conundrum.
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Mercury retrogrades are wonderful opportunities that happen three times a year where we reset our daily routine. Think of it as doing continued work on your personal infrastructure. We have to upkeep bridges, roads, homes, buildings, cars, machinery by constant repairs and adjustments and that's what Mercury retrograde does for each of us three times a year on a personal level.