Jan 7 2009 Retro

Retro: Not just 80's big hair. Today we are entering the stiction phase of Mercury Retrograde. If communication is missed, misunderstood or combative, desires are thwarted or blocked, you feel stuck or bottled, interpretations are taken in the worst possible way, that's retrograde---the shadow or trickster side of Hermes. It could be opposite day, but it might not be. If you ask if it is opposite day during opposite day, what answer do you get? See the link on the left under connections. The official retrograde is Jan 11 thru Jan 31, however there is more to it. Think of overlapping waves, and think of a slowly swinging pendulum. At the upper end of each swing it slows down before reversing direction. Likewise, the relative motion between Earth and Mercury passes through phases of forward, stiction, reverse, stiction, repeat. The stiction phases overlapping with the "actual" retrograde are in some ways less fun and more troubling than the "pure" retrograde. So, Jan 7 thru 17 are stiction days, overlapping with pure retro Jan 11 thru 31, overlapping exit stiction Jan 28 thru Feb 7. Relationships are prone to questioning and upsets during the stiction phase, those with a deep or solid connection will survive. An Archetypal explanation as to why bouncebacks usually don't last is that they start during retrograde right after a stiction induced breakup.

In the morning, Moon emerges from Void of Course into Gemini at 10:12 am PST. Moon is trine Jupiter exact at 11:00 am PST, square Venus exact at 6:09 pm PST, and trine Mercury exact at 9:02 pm PST. After a slow start, the Moon transits today are all good, magnanamous, warm fuzzies, in touch with feelings---offsetting the Mercury retrograde stiction start for today.

The Birthcard today is the mystical Seven of Spades, a Uranus implementation of a Jupiter core, with a King of Diamonds inside and an Eight of Hearts outside. Nicolas Cage, Kenny Loggins, Katie Couric, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gill Scott-Heron, Rachael Maddow, and the master of capitalism Charles Ponzi all share this Birthcard. Notice the contrast of the last two, one exposes mysteries lucidly, the other was good at keeping mysteries for a while.