We have reached the second round of Mercury Retrograde for this year. From April 10 to May 4 Mercury is going to move backwards in the sky. As always, this is an important opportunity to tune in with the rhythms of the stars, and use them to our advantage. I say this because many people love to complain about Mercury Retrograde. Finally, they have an excuse for everything.
But the point is that Mercury Retrograde is about awareness. The retrograde motion suggests—and facilitates—introspection. The mind turns inwardly, and it’s time for retrospectives. So let’s see what lies ahead for the next three weeks and how we can handle it.
Sense of Security put to the Test
Mainly, Mercury Retrograde in Taurus is about money concerns. Usually they are triggered by delays or misunderstandings in payments—which sadly are very common. But we need to understand that this is only the outer side of the matter. We don’t have to fall in the everyday materialistic mindset: there’s more than that. There’s a lesson to learn.
As always, you are going to make it through. What’s really important here—the lesson—is the way you react to the situation. In other words, you have the opportunity to better understand the way you react to uncertainty. In fact, even though Taurus is strictly related to wealth, we can’t reduce this transit to money issues.
Please note that money is just a symbol. In this case, the meaning behind it is: “what makes us feel safe” or “the source of abundance”. Everybody knows that people with strong taurine traits love to stock food and money. For them it’s important to feel they can always afford what they love. Mercury Retrograde puts this sense of security to the test.
This is the way I interpret the entrance of Mercury back in Aries on April 21. Basically, our warrior personality (Mars-Aries-Fire) activates when we feel threatened. For this reason the second part of the transit is going to be about boundary issues, being Taurus the sign of our territory. The initial sense of insecurity can turn into the feeling of being invaded.
How to Handle this Mercury Retrograde
- Give it a Context. It is very important to understand where this challenge is going to manifest. To do that, simply check where 5° Taurus and 25° Aries fall in your Natal Chart. Which houses (areas of life) are involved? If you don’t know it, prick up your ears. You will realize it soon by yourself.
- Double-Check the Information. When it comes to Mercury Retrograde, communication is key. Most concerns can be contained—if not completely avoided—by an effective communication. Misunderstandings are very common during these transits, so you must learn the art of not worrying until you are a hundred percent certain of the actual problem.
- Know Yourself. How do you react to uncertainty? For example, I react trying to plan everything up and keep things under control. Like most of us I don’t like uncertainty at all. So what I usually try to do is to make the uncertain, certain. This is a clear expression of my Mars in Virgo—my warrior side. Efficiency and effectiveness are my weapons, what are yours?
- Practice Mindfulness. Taurus are hard workers, but they usually have a very calm pace. Sometimes this makes them look lazy, even though they are not. What we want to do is to embrace this attitude inside, bringing it in our mind (Mercury). To do that you can try with mindfulness, a widely practiced discipline that can give you extraordinary results.
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.
