Literally

It’s been a while since we checked in on Mercury, which is in Capricorn for…forever. Just kidding: til mid-February, but as always with Mercury, it blows through a sign or two and then sticks around in one for a while, and this time around, it’s Capricorn.

For iPhone users, if you would like to appreciate the rapidity with which Mercury travels around the sun, I highly recommend making your lock screen background the solar system for a little while just to see the little guy go. I find it amusing.

I digress: the messenger of the gods retrogrades in Capricorn from 12/30 - 1/18. Overall two things come to mind: 1. Serious thought. 2. Literal thought. Get ready to spend time thinking about what you’re going to do about something, probably something specific, but then don’t take action until late January, after the retrograde ends.

Capricorn is a cardinal sign, and cardinal signs start things. It’s also an earth sign, so it’s action-based thought in reality. But Mercury’s retrograde, so the vibe is “where am I going with this?” What is “this” in your life? Depends on where 8 - 24° Capricorn is in your chart: the house holding that part of the sign will give you an idea of the topic you’ll be revisiting, but you get to wait until the new year to see what, exactly, is up. Or maybe it’ll slowly become obvious as we head into it.

Let’s say someone followed the 12 days of Christmas song and got you a lot of birds: like, a LOT of birds. What are you going to (literally) do with all of the birds? Build an aviary? Maybe! But take the Mercury retrograde to think it through. Someone with this situation might have the retrograde occurring in their 2nd house (stuff you own), or 5th house (stuff you love, if you love birds)…6th house is usually pets, but can be 5th house also. Seventh house could be a situation in which a significant other gave you the birds and you’re stuck trying to figure out how to break it to them that you don’t like birds, 11th house same but with a friend, 12th house maybe you’re having a Hitchcockian bird experience (yes I’m having fun with this). Identify the house, see what comes up; hopefully it’s not birds.

Not helpful is the fact that Mars is retrograde in Gemini while Mercury is retrograde in Capricorn. The signs have nothing to do with each other, but Mars in Gemini is already acting like a big, fat Mercury retrograde, so just throw more thinking and talking on the pile, just in a second area of life. In fact, they are both stationing (stopping) in inconjunct (150°) aspect to each other, adding heat to all the thinking and talking, which can lead to hot tempers, erratic driving, or aggressively spewing nonsense…stuff like that. That happens the third week of January. It’s very temporary, but it’ll be colorful.

XO,J