Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio 2020 – Closing the Elemental Triangle of Water

A young messenger darts quickly through dark and tangled alleys. With a light step he confidently goes through hidden passages in the night, a lantern lighting his way. In his hands a golden key has the power to open all the doors before him. There is no place dark enough or deep enough he can’t reach. Not even the realm of Hades.

Mercury is the only god allowed to come and go from the Underworld. In Scorpio he expresses exactly this powerful signification, especially then the planet turns retrograde. In fact in a general sense Mercury retrograde is about the mind turning its attention within. The psyche becomes the object of observation. And Immediately the alchemical motto of the V.I.T.R.I.O.L.V.M. is evoked.

Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem Veram Medicinam. Visit the interior of the earth, and by rectifying you will find the hidden stone which is the true medicine. The black dirt of Egypt (al-Kemia) contains vital forces hiding in the mud. 

Working on our shadow side isn’t easy, and sometimes not event desirable. It’s the soul’s journey into the underworld, the place keeping in secret everything we do not want to see. Most of the times we would rather turn our back to the unpleasant parts of us than facing them. Confronting our fears is hard. Still, this is what this transit is all about. And I believe that all the shadows that emerged during the lockdown—which was a forced social Nigredo—are going to come back during Mercury retrograde in Scorpio.

So, how will it be like? If you want to see where these shadows are going to emerge, check 12° Scorpio in your Natal Chart. Which astrological house is affected? If that spot falls within 5 degrees from the following house cusp, take that house instead. Also check whether any natal planet is going to be triggered by transiting Mercury: all the houses ruled by those planets are going to be affected as well.

Opposition to Uranus and a Hard Square with Saturn

You can see below a quick animation that shows the movement of Mercury through its retrograde period. As you can see not only Mercury performs an opposition to Uranus in Taurus (see details below) but also a strong square with Saturn. Technically we are going to have two perfected squares immediately before and after the second stationary point, but we can consider it as a very long square (long at least for Mercury standards). So please check 26° Libra in your chart because this spot is going to be on fire during the week of November 3.

Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio is not only about shadow work. You might also experience returning people or external events you thought gone. Specifically, you’re gonna get more info or insights about them. This is what Scorpio does, turning Mercury in a sort of private detective. External shadows are known and revealed. Truths are unveiled.

Will it be painless? The opposition with Uranus is about technology, means of transport and communication betraying us. After all, isn’t that the way the truth often comes out? Messages sent to the wrong person—a classic. Or our car spotted in a parking lot, revealing when and where we were… as well as what we were doing.

But the worst is going to be brought by the square with Saturn. Deep intuition (Mercury in Scorpio) and reason (Saturn in Capricorn) are not going to get along very well. Our gut is going to tell us something, our reason something else. My take on this square is that it’s going to bring a lot of fights, being Mars retrograde in Aries. Not only it will be very difficult to be reasonable, but it will be just as easy to be suspicious. Especially because Libra is very sensitive to justice issues.

Closing the Elemental Triangle of Water

This year we had Mercury retrograde in all Water signs: Pisces, Cancer and now Scorpio. This created in the sky a great triangle of water. Water is the element of emotions and feelings, meaning that the repercussions of the transits affected mainly this sphere.

Next year we are going to see Mercury doing the same thing in Air signs: Aquarius, Gemini and Libra. Being the second stationary point of this retrograde period in Libra we can already have a taste of Mercury retrograde in the air element.

These are the main dates of Mercury retrograde in Scorpio:

Pre-Shadow

• 09/23: Mercury entering shadow zone at 26° Libra
• 10/07: Mercury at 9° Scorpio opposing Uranus at 9° Taurus

Retrograde

• 10/14: Mercury turning retrograde at 12° Scorpio
• 10/20: Mercury at 9° Scorpio opposing Uranus at 9° Taurus
• 10/25: Mercury conjunct Sun at 3° Scorpio
• 11/1: Mercury at 26° Libra Square Saturn at 26° Capricorn

Post-Shadow

• 11/3: Mercury turning direct at 26° Libra
• 11/6: Mercury at 26° Libra Square Saturn at 26° Capricorn
• 11/20: Mercury leaving 12° Scorpio exiting shadow zone 

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Roberto Corona

I consider myself a free researcher in western spiritual disciplines, in particular Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy and the Neoplatonic Hermetic tradition. I have a three-year training in Astrology at the CIDA delegation of Trieste, the Italian Center for Astrological Disciplines. I graduated in Computer Engineering from the University of Trieste.