Myles Dannhausen Jr. says ‘While the design of the final stretch of Highway 42 from Charlie’s Smokehouse in Gills Rock to the Washington Island Ferry Dock might annoy those hurrying to catch the boat, those not in a rush often stop to take pictures or just enjoy Door County’s [Wisconsin] beauty from their car. They’re supposed to.’ It was designed on purpose to make people notice their surroundings more and enjoy the ride. Some say it may have been done just to preserve some good trees. Superb photo by Heather Harle Frykman
In any season, sun or shade, Retrograde can be a beautiful journey! In this earthy Taurus Mercury Retrograde I hope you slow down, breathe, and savor the different vantage points of each shift in your passage.
See the complete 2023 Taurus Mercury Retrograde Timeline
2023 Started with a double retrograde, Mercury and Mars. August/September Venus and Mercury do a double retrograde – Virgo Mercury’s entire RX cycle happens during the longer Leo Venus RX cycle! All the 2023 Mercury RXs are in earth signs simplicity, practicality and daily living. Three stations, when planets turn retrograde or direct/forward, are at 8 degrees. Jan 18 was 8 Capricorn as will the Dec 12 one. The 8 Virgo one Sep 15 will trine both of them! Stations are important because, if Mercury, he hovers for 8 days at the same degree! There is time to focus, take it in, think it over, anchor the good stuff.
This retrograde is the first in Pluto in Aquarius, a 246 year sign shift that proceeds for 21 years, until 2044! Humble Taurus Mercury Retrograde will be doing his duty symbolically aerating the soil, stirring up the Earth to receive Pluto’s seeds, for Aquarius to make r/evolutionary changes, especially those related to climate. We will have food shifts, pay better attention to our bodies, attractiveness. Better management for drought/fire, clean water, flood prevention/water saving, snow will be on our minds. We will change our living place choices, in favor of using less, sustainability. Taurus is expert at sensible simplicity. Jupiter entering Taurus May 16 during this retrograde cycle amplifies Taurus perspectives! For now, Mercury, a small planet, leads the way.
Our Taurus Mercury Retrograde Cycle is from 5 Taurus April 7 to 15 Taurus May 31. The retrograde period is April 21 to May 14, Mother’s Day! The Cycle has 3 parts. The first is covering the ground until Mercury turns back, retrograde. When it is going back over the same degrees is the retrograde time. When Mercury turns forward/direct, brings the third part of the cycle. It crosses the same degrees the third time, finishes up, perfects the matters considered.
This springtime Taurus Mercury is perfect for gardeners! The ground is warm enough, the soil workable, a lot of plants will grow readily! One of the prime techniques of planting is to plant successively, to keep a plentiful table supply of fresh food. Plant every week or two to keep them coming. Do the tending- watering, weeding, prevent pests and diseases. Do the same in your life, LOL, no pests, keep connection with the good people in your life, keep growing! Leave no one behind! Go back and get them.
Mercury in Taurus grounds our thinking, gives clever common sense solutions. Mercury here can sooth us to accepting the time it takes, give us kindly patience. Mercury’s touch healing, massage, laying on of hands, can do more than medicine to revive our health and spirits. With yoga and massage, acupuncture, our body relaxes so energy released can flow. Mercury is our lungs, the breath of life. Breathe life into those spots. Mercury in Taurus gives constant good tending and is a strong Earth mover. Taurus grows delicious organic foods, exceptional flowers, mighty healthy trees. Hugs are free and healing happens!
For many this year, there will be necessary remediation after climate events, snows, droughts, floods. Get good advice from permaculturists for better ways to reestablish livestock, soil, water distribution for clean water, saving water, safe and sustainable housing. Select different varieties of plants that withstand drought, heat, cold, being flooded. Choose locations, change locations, build more wisely. For example, atmospheric rivers are expected to be more intense and more often. If you do the same as you did before, you may lose it even more quickly next time. Renovate is no longer the word. Remediate.
Our Spring Taurus Mercury Retrograde is at a quite eventful time! It is acting both as a steady anchor in Taurus, and as a facilitator as he is making changes himself to accommodate the many other concurrent changes.
1. Pluto has already gone into Aquarius March 23! Aquarius is the evolutionist ChangeMaker, opening new gateways to astonishing possibilities! April 5’s Libra/Aries Full Pink Moon Super Conjunction and Easter April 9 herald new beginnings and relationships. The Mercury RX Cycle starts April 7 at 5 TA 50, coming right up! At the Full Moon, Mercury is sextile Mars, the Aries Planet, now in the sign Cancer. Mercury lends support to Mars’ causes, new beginnings for feminine efforts, children, safe housing. Mars works for good food, is a guardian in emergencies, encourages when people feel alone, inspires. Mercury is helping simplify processes, comfort and make us feel safe, build self esteem, keep an easy pace. He is with the Moon’s North Node, working on building new outcomes, to stabilize the gains.
2. April 19/20 RARE HYBRID Solar Eclipse at Second Aries New Moon, Sun into Taurus 4-20! Mercury in station RXs April 21 at 15 TA 37. Earth Day is 4-22! Uncommon insights will be flourishing! Mercury is conjunct genius Uranus, connecting people who are making change with groups who will help them make further change, linking them one step to the next. Uranus is the planet of Aquarius the Awakener, Pluto’s new sign. Eclipses, perfect planetary lineups, allow direct access to passage and Pluto in heavenly Aquarius, fearlessly goes further than anyone before! The RARE HYBRID Eclipse is unique in that it changes forms during the eclipse! Only 3.1% of solar eclipses in the 21st century, are hybrid eclipses. Mercury is standing still, in in his eight day station, focusing, keenly observing. Being the quicksilver planet, making lightning changes while he stands, he is quick to see the shifts and keep connections current. The SECOND New Moon, at the last and final degree of Aries, is building on the first, upping our chances of successfully stepping over that threshold onto new ground! We can do it! We are doing it! It is inevitable.
3. Mercury Directs (goes forward) May 14, Mother’s Day at 5 TA 50! May 16 Jupiter enters Taurus, squares Pluto at 0 Aquarius the 17th! That will be a super boost forward, but a big challenge too! Friday the 19th, is a 28° Taurus Black New Moon, the 3rd in a season of four new Moons! Moving forward gets Mercury going again – Moms and all the rest of us will like that! Jupiter’s shift to Taurus may slow Jupiter down and that may be a blessing. Time to breathe and catch up. But Taurus will be speeded up! It may take a little adjusting. First it was unpredictable Uranus, a wild card planet in Taurus, so Taurus has already been ‘speeded up,’ now it’s Jupiter too, both a groan and a delight, LOL! Tauruses may not want to be faster, but they will be, and get used to it in its year in their sign. We may not like the financial situation that has been brewing, but it needed sorting anyway. Pluto will get the ‘trash’ out of the way so you can get to the bottom of things, not be blocked in your efforts. It’s time. Don’t put it off. You will get more done sooner. You will be glad when it is done. It may not have been easy, but proves to be worth the effort. After this aspect is over, Mercury going forward will be gaining momentum and final changes readily made. The final touches will give it its dignity and authority of place.
4. Memorial Day is May 29. Mercury finishes the complete cycle May 31 at 15 TA 37. Each retrograde is different. Not everyone’s chart is activated. Take a deep sigh, congratulate yourself if you have been dealing with important matters throughout this period. Taurus rules personal monies, your body, things that require determination no matter the setback or adjustment. Many memories may strengthen you, help you find your place and step forward from the past.
Important Retrograde Direct Stations!
When planets retrograde or direct (go forward), they have a ‘pause’ period when they appear from Earth to have no motion. With Mercury it is an 8 day period, 4 days before, 4 days after. You can measure it by degree if you wish, 1 degree, 2 degrees, 3, but 1 degree range is most common. Since Mercury or the planet is at that degree so many days, it has potency, first of anticipation, being in focus in the degree for days at a time, then of understanding the necessities of changing direction and being in the new direction.
Outer planets, on their much longer timeframe, retrograde each year for months, often half a year! With planets like Pluto and Neptune, that move only 3 degrees a year, stations are almost a moot point. The stations are so long, usually there is no real pinpointing an ‘event.’ It is more a continual daily process. It would be more like ‘that was the year I…..’ or ‘those were the yearS I…..’ An aspect with an outer planet, allowing a 5 degree range, would take a minimum of a year, and often as much as 3 years! A retrograde cycle would be the same. Many outer planet retrogrades activate a factor in your chart 5 times, not just the 3 times only of inner planets.
If the planet is slowing to retrograde, fire and air signs may feel sluggish, not their usual free and easy selves, be a bit grumpy, feel they are losing time. Retrogrades, going over the same ground (degrees) again, can wear on them. However, they are a curious lot, even then. If there have been mistakes or upgrades discovered, thank goodness! They are glad to repair or fix, and be the best again!
With retrogrades Earth and water signs are generally comparatively more easy going. Earth signs don’t like being rushed anyway, and can be patient and practical. However Virgo and Capricorn can be pretty demanding and hate their work routines to be interfered with. Water is infinitely flexible, by nature more accommodating, go with the flow. But busy, let me help you, crabby Mama Cancer doesn’t have time for this. Scorpio may seethe a bit at added costs, interference with his privacy.
If a planet is slowing to go direct, it can be the crazy ultimate bottom of the barrel time, having gone that far back in the degrees. You just want this to be over. Yet, the end is so near, the planet about to turn direction forward! Yet there is still that pause. There is a deep consideration of the root of what has been part of what all has happened. There is a vow to never again……… There is an acceptance and recapitulation. What are those 5 steps? Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. We kinda go through this process sometimes during a retrograde.
It is important to know that all retrogrades do definitely NOT affect everyone! Only those who have factors in their charts in the same degrees as the retrograde are connected. If in a compatible sign, things may go smoothly for some factors in your chart, but not be compatible for other factors. So one retrograde may have multiple results for one person. The station degrees are especially potent because of their duration. Things can go well or not for days! It may take days to find a problem or its fix, or to set up a favorable new project. We can be grateful to have the time to do it.
Each retrograde station shift brings a different vantage point, reveals a whole new perspective. Sometimes you expect it, other times you are shocked, pleasantly or not, at the new context. If you are a backcountry hiker you learn to look back to get the view going the other way – it’s totally different than the view ahead. It could save your life to know the way back! This is a form of ‘retrograde’ you plan for. You might try the same technique in your everyday life. Take timely looks back over your shoulder. What caused you to come to be where you are now? How can you get back to a good place, or to where the problem started?
Check with your astrologer to see how this year’s retrogrades do or don’t activate your chart factors!
Emphasis by Situational factors, Repeat aspects, to Your chart factors!
When Mercury retrograde makes or an aspect is made to Mercury during a retrograde cycle repeatedly, they additionally speak to the purpose of the retrograde, emphasizing their special interactions.
This Taurus Mercury Rx Cycle there are no repeat aspects in all three parts of the Cycle.
The emphasis of this retrograde is how it is situated among the surrounding transits. The start of the cycle is at the Libra/Aries Full Moon Super Conjunction! The retrograde is at the RARE HYBRID Solar Eclipse, SECOND Aries New Moon! Mercury Directs at Jupiter into Taurus, square Pluto at 0 Aquarius followed by a Taurus Black New Moon!
There is a Lunar emphasis with two of the Cycle’s points being at strong lunar events. The other important factor is Jupiter’s shift into Taurus, the sign of the retrograde! Mercury is plowing the Taurus fields, making them more rich, turning up treasures, to be available for, to enrich communications for Jupiter’s arrival in Taurus! Taurus will be primed because Mercury will have things to say to Taurus, tell Taurus about Jupiter coming, what the possibilities may be. The sign Jupiter is in, is the lucky sign at that time, and it is Taurus’ turn! Jupiter in Taurus is key to Pluto’s success in his arrival into Aquarius. Jupiter enhances Taurus patience, sensibleness, grounding. Jupiter has big ideas for our planet and wants to roll with r/evolutionary Aquarius to make the changes with Pluto’s partners and their financial guidance! Getting going right at the beginning gives the most time for the long term changes in the wind!
The third emphasis possibilities are how the retrograde connects, or not, with YOUR chart factors! Since so many planetary connections dovetail so amazingly with the retrograde sequence, I recommend you check with your astrologer right away for your part to play! Could mean enhancing some important life events for you!
2023 Taurus Mercury Retrograde Timeline! Pacific Zone
March
23 Pluto into Aquarius!
April
05 Libra/Aries Full Pink Moon Super Conjunction
07 Mercury RX Cycle starts at 5 TA 50
09 Happy Easter
19/20 RARE HYBRID Solar Eclipse at Second Aries New Moon
20 Sun into Taurus
21 Mercury RXs April 21 at 15 TA 37
22 Earth Day blessings!
May
14 Mercury Directs (goes forward) 5 TA 50, Happy Mother’s Day!
16 Jupiter enters Taurus
17 Jupiter squares Pluto at 0 Aquarius
19 28° TAURUS Black New Moon
29 Memorial Day
31 Mercury finishes the complete cycle at 15 TA 37
Like Door County Wisconsin’s Hwy 42, design and build your very own Retrograde pattern of beauty in your life. Make peace with it and use it well.
ALL ABOUT RETROGRADES! Some of you are old hands. Others have never heard of Retrograde before. New lingo: Retrograde, Direct, Station and more…
Retrogrades are fascinatingly complex! The wild dynamics of retrograde cycles are, as viewed from Earth, it happens when a faster planet passes a slower planet. Mercury is faster than Earth, while Earth is slower than Mars. The planet appears to go forward, backward, then forward over the same ground three times, and if outer planets, sometimes five times in two years! Of course that doesn’t happen in reality. It is visual because of the perspective from Earth. During that time, all the other planets are moving too, so even when a retrograde planet is going ‘backward’ over the same degrees, they are ALL going forward, even the retrograde planet! It’s ‘illogical,’ but that’s what happens.
Venus retrogrades about every 19 months for only about 40 days. Only 7–8% of the population has it in their natal chart. Mercury retrogrades 3 times a year, once every 6 years it’s 4 times that year. Mercury actually spends little time retrograde, only about 3 weeks! Mars retrogrades every 25/26 months for 60-80 days.
Retrogrades in the sky are passing periods. Retrogrades in a birth chart are life long, a living entity. As a place that is reprocessed over and over, fantastic skills are developed per planet and sign, along with the other chart factors that may be linked to it. Many top world businesses have many retrogrades in their charts! They have super expertise and it is still growing with the times! Retrogrades keep us mindful and present. In humans about 25% of the population has Mercury Retrograde, and that includes celebrities, LOL! Fun read: 5 Fascinating Facts About Being Born During Mercury Retrograde
The type of special communication skills of Mercury retrograde depend on which sign, house and planets Mercury connects with in your chart and what type of connections are made. Check out the planets of your own chart, your besties, and track the charts of babies born during retrogrades! Take advantage of these retrograde linkages, learn how to make transitions well for optimum results. Not a time to be nervous and hold back. Stay aboard! Like on a ship at sea, get your sea legs! Flex with the flow. It may seem like a mess, but the magic will happen. Guaranteed!
We hear about Mercury Retrograde the most because it retrogrades 3 to 4 times a year, for only about three weeks a time.
Mercury is the planet of the Mind, thinking, our attention, our breath and lungs, how we learn to learn, communication skills, gathering data, paperwork, signing contracts, a hand shake, the laying on of hands. All of these are essential.
Mercury is heady, there is little that isn’t interesting and little escapes its attention. Air sign Gemini is Mercury’s first sign, and Earthy Virgo is Mercury’s second sign that focuses on details, looks for perfection, expertly organizes and applies the data Gemini secures, is semi grounded! Both are known to be ultra busy! Gemini listens fast, often replies while you are still speaking! Virgo writes the book, organizes the finances, won’t go home, just has one more detail to finesse, worries about her and your health. They are quite different, you see.
Mercury Rx is don’t sign those papers about issues of the sign(s) Mercury is retrograde in! Or, do everything to make it possible so it doesn’t fall through. Escrows can fall through. Use experienced brokers who can get it done no matter what. People don’t return your calls. The dog ate it. Your computer has a snit. Or you do, LOL! You lose your cell. You get lost, turned around. Rule is be sure purchases are from reputable firms that have been around, have a good track record, have reliable returns/guarantees/warranties. Be sure the company is legitimate before you deal. Date and sign any contract changes and make sure they do too. Get/make copies, save and backup. Generally, you avoid making significant purchases/decisions especially of matters specific to the sign/s involved. If possible, don’t move or change or start jobs until you wait 4 days after Mercury turns Direct/forward.
The house/s where Mercury falls in your chart while it is retrograde is the area of your life that will be specially affected. Briefly: If it is in your 4th, it is home and family matters, your Mother. If in your 2nd or 8th, financial adjustments will be made. 6th can be work environment, skills, coworkers, your health regime. 5/7/8 houses can be important relationships. 3/9 is educational, class requirements may shift. 9 is long term plans, travels. 10 may be career, father, 11 career associations/associates, friendships. 12 may be your spiritual beliefs, perceptions. So for example, if in your 10th, be cautious about signing professional documents. If in your 4th, you may opt to wait to buy the new refrigerator – a better deal or fridge may come along. In the 1st or 3rd you might wait to purchase a new vehicle. In 2 or 7, wait for the face lift. If you need help with this, see your astrologer!
Inner planet – Mercury, Venus, Mars – retrogrades have three phase cycles. Sometimes outer planets have five and take 3 years! Sun and Moon have none. Astrologers use different names for the 3 phases. Basically they are:
- Covering the initial ground, degrees that the retrograde will go back over when the planet ‘turns’ retrograde.
- Retrograde covers the same degrees as Phase 1, only in the reverse direction, so your perspective takes a 180 shift while other planets continue on in their own patterns, many of them moving forward. While retrograde the planet checks on previous actions, improving on, updating choices made as it goes back.
- The planet turns ‘forward,’ and goes over the same degrees a third time, adds finishing touches, makes experienced final adjustments before it moves on.
Stations bring special emphasis! A Station is when a planet literally appears to stand still in the sky at the retrograde and direct/forward turning points. Stations help us slow down. A Mercury station holds consciousness at a certain point for 8 days. They are a pause when we are able to be still to receive, focus, take time to think, steep in our thinking. We make things the best we can, anchor important ideas we want to keep. The longer the station the more its strength. Mercury sometimes likes to think things over, draw as much from a valuable experience as possible, or get to know a special person more deeply. More often, it is likely to go crazy waiting for more things to happen and wants to be the first to deliver the news! They may need to rest at the station because a lot has been changing. It can be a relief to take a breather from the rigors of speeding here and there so they don’t miss a morsel!
Planets at different speeds hold station different lengths of time. Mercury stations are about 8 days – four days before and four days after the turns. Prepare for retrogrades as best you can before the Retrograde Station starts! When Mercury turns forward, wait for the Direct Station to finish before turning yourself loose to go ahead.
Every Retrograde is unique by sign, aspects, and where it happens in your chart! As time goes on the planetary backdrop changes. Context shifts. Retrogrades, like any other astro phenomena, evolve. Each planet has its own matters. The sign(s) it is in while in retrograde, are how those matters are applied, which matters are processed.
In retrogrades we may be at another stage or encounter an addition to something already going on in our personal chart. Also, the degrees of this retrograde have to be in connection with your personal chart or it will have little to no effect. There can be a turning away from things we are done with that we never thought we would change about, yet here it happens…old ideas are simply abandoned. Just done.
Sometimes retrogrades cross Portals, where sign changes happen! As the cycle goes forward, retrograde, then forward again, we learn how to make that particular crossing. Gradually we see how those two signs are linked, work together, support/lead each other. We see the contribution of each sign, how they each are part of the Zodiacal Great Circle. Be mindful of your own talent, offer it. Be mindful of what others have to offer, be grateful. You may not like them, but we can’t do without their part of the divine tapestry, the Light they hold at that crossroads or as they lead.
What a journey! When you are traveling, what amazing beauty lies around each new bend. Different directions, different views. Maybe what’s behind is out of sight, a memory; what’s ahead is a mystery! Inward turns, like retrograde, give us time to pause, hold steady, slow down. Outward bends like turning forward/Direct, extend our vision of potentials. Each turn, that Station, gives us time to think, recalibrate, prepare for the next stretch. It’s important that there are changes, reversals, old ideas that clogged things up are left behind, revelations have room to occur, new ideas are teased into action! Potential is remembered or revealed and we are rededicated.
Clearly life doesn’t stop during retrogrades, and not all people’s charts are connected to all retrogrades. If your chart is connected to any given one, you will need to do your best and what you can. You can’t explain this astrological stuff to all people, maybe not your boss or even a good friend. Astrology? You’re nuts! Ok, so there are times to find ways to stall or not connect, delay. You can estimate the possibilities of others not bringing certain papers to the meeting and bring them yourself, save the day! You can ask for a review of the current decisions 4 days or more after Mercury goes Direct/forward. If there are important must do meetings, Dr and Veterinarian appts, call in advance to verify that the date and right time are on their calendars AND yours! Verify that part you ordered IS ordered, being sent to the correct address, the expected arrival date! Know that it might be late. Keep track of keys, wallets/purses, phones.
Document your work and events daily, save ALL emails and backup safely off the premises. No giving your passwords or copies of keys to anyone. If all goes well, fine. If not, all the pertinent information you need is available.
If you have other favorable prevailing aspects, especially with outer planets, it is likely changes will ultimately be to your benefit. Do check with your astrologer for your good dates and times of day to make the best of it! And pray their chart isn’t affected by the retrograde, LOL!
With a transiting Retrograde, if you have factors in your chart at or very close to those degrees, especially at the station degrees, you will be activated. Check in with your astrologer if you have significant plans at those times. Plan ahead for what you want to get done, as much as possible, well before those times, and line up what you can do during those times!
Classically, marriages are not scheduled during retrogrades, especially double retrogrades. The most common doubles are Mercury with Venus or Mars. Mercury is contracts. Venus is love and money. Mars is sex and independence. Hmm… Mercury can have a short attention span in some signs. Nonjudgmental communications are vital in relationships, to keep up with each other’s thinking, to allow for change. Listening is a cherished skill to balance daily sharing. Venus is love, affection, admiration, the grace of expressing appreciation, giving blessings and gratitude, important values. Mars is what we do for each other, being there, working together, times of passion, a shared exuberance of life together, mutual inspiration! If even one, sometimes some, of these basic components to a relationship changes, it can be the deal breaker. We choose relationships for the important things in life. Remember, transiting retrogrades or rx combo, come and go, but if they are in the marriage chart they are there forever. It is the birth chart of your marriage. If a transiting retrograde activates the marriage retrograde(s), it can be a vulnerable time, even more so if it activates one or both of each of your natal chart retros if you have one/them.
Some relationships are matters of the Soul’s growth and will happen no matter what for better or worse. They happen perhaps due to a ‘karmic’ debt, are for us to learn humility/compassion as we learn how to deal with differences, strengthen us to make personal change – and so many more possibilities.
Check with your astrologer. First be sure your own natal charts indicate your ability or likelihood to enjoy relationships at all. Check if basic compatibility is in especially good order. If that is good, be very careful with those wedding plans. Look ahead for timing that may be better for you. Remember, we are proposing a life long relationship. That is worth waiting for the very best chart. Be wise and wait if possible. A marriage chart is like a birth chart; it is with you the rest of your marriage.
Yes, there are times when it is not possible to wait. Still check for the best available chart within the time frame available. A simple thing like the Moon changing signs or houses can make a big difference. Moon changes sign every 2 1/4 to 2.5 days. Sometimes just waiting a few minutes or an hour can make a significant difference!
Retrogrades can drive you crazy and still be a terrific asset if you know how to use them!
Updated 4.15.23
Please see your astrologer for how these factors do or don’t connect with your personal chart! May it go very well with you….
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Please, always remember these planetary combinations are what’s happening in the world. Check with your astrologer to see how they do, or don’t, activate your personal chart! Check with your favorite astrologers for the whole picture! May it go well with you….
Here is your 2023 AstroLogical Annual Planning Special Edition Newsletter! These infos will contribute to making all your plans potent, well timed, successful! With your calendar in hand…. Again, see your astrologer for how they do or don’t connect with your personal chart!
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Cerena Childress, Astrologer! 