How to Look at this Mercury Retro in Your Chart
Synopsis: “Mercury Retrograde is neither good nor bad but will be seen its effect upon you in it’s relationship to your own natal chart energies.” If you don’t like to read, hope you got this far 
First thing I do here is to go back and look at the last one, never that far away with Mercury, our most dedicated and regular Retrograder. Look at all of this in your own chart, in January and February 2021 in Aquarius, at how this 10 to 26 degrees of Aquarius impacts your personal energy in natal, progressed, Solar Return and other charts, synastry and composite, if you want to see how this is impacting your relationships. Please do feel free to detach from and disregard popularized Mercury Retrograde notions based upon generalized, “Transit to Transit” energies. This is not about ex’s returning or electronics breaking down but it is about communication - the one pop astro area that is actually relevant. It is mostly, I believe, about personal mental energy, of how we think and how we talk to ourselves within our own minds and how we communicate our thoughts to others and this is the meat of Mercury energy. Mercury is also about details so we must here go into the details to grasp the depths of its impact upon us.
As I write, if go a little blurry with astrology, simply think back to this time frame in January and February to where you were at in life, what was going on with you internally especially and in your life in general. The Chart is a Soul Map of our incarnation but You are the one with Feet on the Ground. Back in January, Mercury hit pre shadow on the 15th at 10 degrees Aquarius and did not clear post shadow until March 13th at 26 degrees Aquarius. (Pre shadow is the degree that the retrograding planet crosses whereby it will then later return after it stations direct and moves forward again crossing back over the retrograded degrees) so here it goes retro at 26 Aquarius, for example, and retrogrades back to 10 Aquarius that it had previous hit on Jan 15th when direct having passed on the 10th of January into it’s Pre-Shadow phase of retrograde energy until it then hits full retrograde on the 30th at 26 Aquarius. Mercury stations direct then at 10 degrees Aquarius on the 20th of February but does not go full direct and clear it’s “Post-Shadow” phase until finally clearing that 26 degrees Aquarius where it started retrograde on January 15th 2021. In general, the strongest impact of a retrograde energy comes with the 2nd, retrograde transit hit but this is highly mitigating by ones exact natal positions. The devil is most definitely in the details so simply look at these degrees in your personal charts to see if they impact these degrees with significant aspect.
The biggest thing here with the present retrograde in Libra is that it I hitting us at similar degrees to the previous one with Mercury having hit pre-shadow on the 7th of September at 10 degrees Libra and not clearing it’s post-shadow until March 13th at 26 Aquarius. A very important element in this, I feel and something to be strongly considered is that on the recent Full Moon in Pisces on the 21st of September was at 28 degrees Pisces to only one degree off of this retrograde stationing direct at 26 Libra. At the full moon, Mercury was a very exact trine to Jupiter in Aquarius and back during the previous Mercury Retrograde, Mercury had stationed direct in Aquarius conjunct Jupiter. I think this is an important energy to consider in this retrograde “Mercury Trine Jupiter, along with in the previous retrograde Mercury Conjunct Jupiter. The previous Mercury to Jupiter impact of the February Retrograde brought the energy of Jupiter “to the mind” Mercury, as conjunctions do, joining those energies together. You have to consider this, again, in natal, Jupiter, Lord of the 9th house, ruler of Sagittarius, about expansion, growth, optimism and religion, belief systems and higher education and foreign travel. What house is that in in your own charts? What aspects is this making to your own charts?
This trine energy or angle of relationship of 120 degrees, which is harmonious energy, is the theme and now in September and October, my guess is that in some sense what was triggered by conjunction of Jupiter to Mercury will be made real now in Libra during this retrograde because the energies of these two retrogrades are trine so then it would be more likely so with any of our natal energy in conjunction or opposition to then also be trine to one another. So we would focus the natal impact of these degrees of Libra, retrograding at 26 Libra on 27th of September and stationing direct at 10 degrees Libra on the 17th of October. In general, this in my mind lends an auspicious flavor to this retrograde but again, we must consider our natal positions that for you, I do not know, of course, so I will speak about my own. One of the most important things that I feel is often left unsaid, is that what we are really talking about here is not The Map but The Ground aka You and more to the point whatever you yourself have made over time of the energies impacted as described above. One person with an exact square of Mercury to Saturn my join the debate team in high school and become later a world renown orator while another chooses to go the other way and become increasingly muted in their voice over time. Even that is a very simplistic example of a very complex interaction involved.
This retrograde of Mercury comes in the midst of retrograding Saturn, Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune, Uranus and even Chiron so this is perhaps more “internal” than it typically is and please do think “Internal” when you think Retrograde anything perhaps most especially with Mercury, forget all the electronics and ex’s or you may miss a very important show rising up from the most profound depths of your own mind. Perhaps because I am Mercury Ascendant, Mercury retrogrades always have a strong impact upon me personally but one thing I have seen is that each one is good for one whopper of an insight that can come out of nowhere so be vigilant as these can be life changing insights usually around patterns and routines especially around thoughts and communication.
So for me February’s retrograde hit in my 6th house and my Chiron was highlighted by Mercury’s degrees of station and movement which means also that Jupiter was on my Chiron and comes into it most significantly, my Uranus in Leo, my 12th house, was impacted by opposition energy. In February, Jupiter was sextile to my natal Mercury in Sagittarius on my IC and, to note, my Chart Ruler as a Virgo Rising. My natal Chiron is sextile to my natal Sun in Sagittarius and trine Black Moon Lilith (H13) which is opposite my natal Sun. This is all about deep healing of the Chiron wound which I will not go into at length but as much as can to direct you on how to look at your own energies in this. The present Mercury Retrograde impacts my empty 2nd house in Libra so has an effect upon my chart primarily as it makes sextile to my 4th house of Sagittarius with it’s loose stellium of Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Sun. February found me emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually challenged, let’s say, to the point where I knew serious illness would ensue most certainly if I did not relieve this energy which, short story, I did.
I find myself here in September and October, having made significant life transitions within all those areas creating, in general, a much more harmonious expression of personal energy in emotions, mind, body and soul. The most pressure I feel is around 6th house energy of daily routine especially with Saturn transiting there has been a large overall theme and a challenge still but overall, I see this Mercury Retrograde as offering healing energy within my own mind and expect to experience positive self dialogue in a Libra fashion and an emphasis upon harmonizing and enjoying relationship in every manner, good bad or indifferent but mostly good I feel with this one. I look forward to some welcome relief, frankly, with this year the big themes being Uranus opposing my natal Venus as Saturn squares it and Pluto opposes my natal Moon all as Neptune works over my 7th house squaring my natal Sun. I think it will be a pleasant vacation from a demanding job kind of energy.
Lesson also is that transits are not good or bad and if we think back to all the wonderful things that happened in life, the transits will show reflect this our chart so feel free to go back to the most wonderful day of your whole life, I say, and just look at the transits in the sky that day.
