Mini Guide Part 1. Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius
Now that we are in another eclipse season, many of us can expect the seeding and fruition of major developments in our lives. The total lunar eclipse in Sagittarius is on May 26, 2021 at 4:13am Pacific and coincides with the largest supermoon of this year—when the Moon is closest to Earth and especially large and bright. Eclipses come in pairs or in threes, and the next eclipse of the season is a solar eclipse in Gemini on June 10, which falls solidly in the path of the Mercury retrograde. This accentuates the trickster quality of Mercury, and we can expect things like objects going missing, as well as grand revelations, per the symbolism of the Earth hiding the Moon (lunar eclipse), and the Moon obscuring the Sun (solar eclipse).
Eclipses can signify dramatic events in some individual lives, but not so much in others, depending on where it falls in a person’s chart. Since eclipses recur at the same degree of the zodiac every 19 years, we can look for clues about this eclipse season’s potential by reflecting on what happened for us from May to December 2002. It is unlikely to be an exact repeat, but there could be some resonance or similarities with what unfolds through 2021’s eclipses.
The current Sagittarius-Gemini eclipse series that runs through the end of this year will stir our philosophical and religious beliefs, testing our faith in ideas. Gemini ushers in new perspectives that can correct belief systems which are too rigid or righteous. The May 26 lunar eclipse challenges us to bring our lofty philosophical or spiritual ideas into dialog with the mundane facts on the ground of our lives, and speaks to a search for the deeper sources of our will to achieve and to create.
Note that the planet of expansion, Jupiter, is in a dynamic square relationship with the May 26 eclipse, bringing a potential for exaggeration and excess. Look out for people making promises they cannot keep—including the danger of overcommitting ourselves!
Mercury square Neptune
Neptune’s influence on this retrograde can add a great deal of confusion, and occasionally deception. Avoid rushing into agreements without careful consideration, checking facts and details--but especially interpretations. It could be that we make an agreement with another but have incompatible understandings of what that arrangement means, and the obligations it entails. Ensure that everyone has compatible understandings, before finalizing an agreement. Otherwise, Mercury retrograde’s classic manifestation of “doing something over again” is likely to make a grand appearance.
Jupiter in Pisces
In addition to watery Neptune’s blurring effect, we may feel a little ungrounded if not uplifted with Jupiter entering visionary Pisces on May 14, where he will float until July 29. This can actually be experienced as a relief, because Jupiter’s expansive, far-seeing qualities have escaped Saturn’s constraining grasp for the first time since Dec. 2019. For many, there will be a sense of greater freedom and lifting of restrictions—if not externally, then on a more internal level. Mixed in with Mercury’s retrograde squaring Neptune’s dissolving qualities, it may be difficult to trust that things can be different or that it’s safe to open up to new possibilities. Our hopes and dreams for the future may be variously positively stimulated and frustrated within Mercury’s retrograde period. But Jupiter in Pisces on the whole will stimulate our intuition and awaken our sense of compassion, faith and hope in the future.
Art by Daniel Martin Diaz
Mercury Retrograde Mini Survival Guide
Mercury, the planet of communication, analysis and ideas will stand still in the sky on May 29 and appear to move backwards against the background of the zodiac until June 22. Mercury’s location in its home sign of Gemini makes this retrograde period especially potent. An ongoing stressful square aspect to Neptune (exact May 22, June 5 and July 6), the planet of dreams and delusions, can also add a heap of disorientation. Mishearing or misspeaking may be blown out of proportion, so beware of being consumed by anger and frustration in communicating with others. If this arises, try taking a break and come back to the interaction later when things may make more sense the second time around. It is very possible to do real damage to relationships over a relatively minor issue, which we may later regret.
Mars opposite Pluto
Particularly since Mars is beginning his opposition to Pluto (exact June 5), we may find ourselves all too willing to fight and to push for our point of view or side of a disagreement. This may be appropriate, but it is good to check in on what is driving us—are we fighting a ghost from our past? What is really happening in this present moment, with the present situation in front of us? Old emotional pain can stand between us and clarity about the risks we actually need to take. Pluto intensifies Mars’ impulsivity as well as supercharging the willingness to take risks. There may be emotional risks or physical risks that we need to take, but see if your heart is open and vulnerable to the present moment, or locked down in some old story from the past.
Saturn square Uranus
In this regard, almost everyone can expect the breakthrough energy of the longer Saturn square Uranus transit (2020-2023) to show up during this Mercury retrograde. Saturn is also standing still on May 23, turning backwards for his retrograde until October 11, intensifying our powers of discernment as well as negative judgments. Mercury retrograde periods are very useful for reviewing and going over our plans and projects, fine tuning and editing or trimming. Many of us will get a very good look at what is no longer functional in our lives and blocking our forward momentum. So in a very simple way, past actions may need to be repeated (like our new toaster breaks and we exchange it for a new one), but on a deeper level, we may have to step back from the life trajectory we are on and evaluate: is this still the right direction for my life energy? What is within my power to alter or improve?
Mercury Retrograde Key Dates
Mercury enters shadow May 14, 2021
Mercury SRx 24 Gemini May 29, 2021
Mercury SD 16 Gemini June 22, 2021
Mercury exits shadow July 7, 2021
Cosmic sightings by astrologer Erica Jones
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