“Refining what you consume to center your heart

August 4^th through August 27th^, 2024.

The following post was provided to all paid subscribers on Patreon and Substack on August 4th. To celebrate Mercury Cazimi, I am now making it available for free here.

Introduction

During this retrograde cycle, Mercury will station retrograde at 4º Virgo and then slide like a hand into a smooth silk glove back into Leo. It will go direct at 21º Leo. Because this Mercury Retrograde will revisit a second sign while motioning backward, by whole sign two houses will be affected in your natal chart. There will be a time when the indication of the first house will be reviewed regarding its relationship with the second house Mercury goes into.

As Mercury courses retrograde, we will review our own experience of refinement, language, ideas, what we take into ourselves, and how we process information. As Mercury retrogrades through Virgo, these themes become dominant in our experience, and we move into a more reflective mind frame, which is not a bad thing. Take advantage of this time to rework your own thoughts on projects that have stalled out, which may need refining or a new approach to move forward.

Once Mercury retrogrades into Leo, we are no longer talking about rethinking matters; rather, we are talking about coming into a deeper resonance with who we are at the center of our being. Fundamentally what do we want to do in the world, and how do we accomplish that? This question becomes prominent. Ideally you should take time to contemplate alone what is in your heart. During the modern social media-driven lifestyles of the rich and famous constant commercials we all live in, it can be difficult for us to really understand or settle into what it is that brings us happiness, true joy, and peace. This is a great opportunity to look deeply into that.

This retrograde will have you thinking about what you no longer need in your life. How you are overwhelmed by media, and then who you really are and what it would take for you to be feel fulfilled and happy in your life. You should come out of this Mercury retrograde cycle with a greater sense of focus and purpose.

Intention

For the upcoming retrograde write down the following questions and contemplate them throughout the retrograde.

1. What supports me in experiencing a fulfilling, joyous, and happy life?
2. What mental distractions take me away from accomplishing my intentions?
3. How can I change number 2 to feel more settled into number 1?

Now I would like to introduce general tips for the upcoming three weeks.

Survival tips for your finances

The number one question for astrologers during Mercury Retrograde is, should I buy this or that mechanical or technological piece of hardware? Considering this as an individual question that cannot be resolved through a general interpretation is important. Many automobiles, computers, and electronics will be purchased during Mercury Retrograde, and they will all work fine. If you purchase a vehicle or electronic/ computer item during Mercury Retrograde, I highly recommend at least getting a warranty for it. Mercury Retrogrades can be hard on finances, and we have seen the market go down often during a Mercury Retgrograde. This will be especially true if Leo or Virgo are your second house sign.

It is a great time to get refurbished equipment or a used car as Mercury Retrograde rules redoing something. Be careful of impulse or stress buying between the 13^th of August and the 20^th of August. During that time Mars and Jupiter will be conjunct creating an impulsive need to purchase items to satisfy emotional or mental hardships.

Survival tips for your relationships

Mercury retrograde does not hit the same way that Venus retrograde hits in terms of relationships, still one can and often does receive messages from people who were important to you in the past. This can be revisiting your caretaking for others as Virgo is about caring for others. It can also serve to remind you of people who no longer serve your life, or who are overly demanding of their own needs. You may let boundaries down as Mercury ingresses back into Leo letting someone into your life, but then decide they are not seeing you for who you are, and then letting them go. If you find your revisiting of past matters in your relationship, particularly in the house ruled by Leo or Virgo, are not in your favor, then by all means, close the doors again when Mercury goes direct on August 27th.

It is a time, though, when the waters of communication and the needs of self and others will be tested. How much energy are you giving to maintain a relationship that is past its prime. Are you being seen for who you really are. These are questions you could ask yourself if you have Virgo or Leo ruling your 7^th or 8^th house.  

Survival tips for your work

Virgo is symbolic of duty and regularity. This transit calls for refining your routines and reviewing what works about them and what does not work for them. What kind of changes do you need to make to be successful? In particular, you should be looking at how to arrange your work and health routines to keep you in the flow of your own creative and joyous life. No matter who we are or what we do there is a fine line between letting our work dominate us or dominating our work. It is our routines that help us master this within the context of life. This is what is to be examined during this retrograde.

If you are a solo entrepreneur re-examine your routine. Mercury retrograde is the perfect time to introduce new habits that will put you over the edge and get your productivity to where it is needed to reach your goals. Remember it is far more effective to change one habit at a time than it is to rewrite all your life in one fell swoop. It is a life hack to start a new habit as a way of changing a bad habit. During Mercury retrograde, you can apply this hack to both work and health.

Expect a call to change your routine in relationship to work to be heard, the question will be are you going to answer the call? To answer the call can be challenging, but the way to success will be revealed as Mercury enters Leo then you have until the first week of September to integrate it. If you succeed in that the habit will stick.

Survival tips for your health

Because Virgo has to do with what we bring into our bodies, this is an ideal time to shift some habits for better health. Are you exercising, are you over drinking, are you eating well? These are foundational levels of health maintenance, and I highly suggest you take the time to review them. With Mercury retrograde in Virgo and then Leo pay attention to digestive and heart issues that might arise right now, especially if Virgo or Leo fall into your sixth house. Boosting the body with fresh vegetables, digestive enzymes, and beneficial digestive bacteria are a good idea right now.

During this retrograde cycle, it is a great time to cut out anything that you think is cramping your digestion. This even includes distracted eating. Mercury retrograde is always a great time to reduce social media consumption habits. Especially with Mercury moving into Leo, helping us to focus on our own creative purpose and expression. We all have creative purpose and expression so it is terrific that we will get this time to grow and express it like the Sun rising over the horizon.

Notable transits Mercury will touch on during that time are:

On August 7^th Mercury conjuncts Venus in Virgo

• Retrograde Mercury and Venus conjunct in Virgo is a creative burst coming forth into our world and the establishment of good relationships and communication. Take time with your loved ones to reminisce. Going over old memories is a method of helping us develop strong bonds. A relationship where everyone involved sees their purpose as serving a greater good, as symbolized by the relationship, is one where strong bonds are maintained. 

On August 18^th Mercury will conjunct the Sun in Leo.

• This day will highlight communication and the need to express who you are to the world. Do not shy away from asserting yourself, but you may also receive communication that you are not who you thought you were. If so, be open to the feedback and take it as encouragement to grow and develop.

On August 23^rd Mercury will Sextile Mars in Gemini

• This will be an energetic day with very fast-paced news. You can use this energy to your advantage. Get it done and communicate with decisiveness. Ideas abound and words are fast. The communication can be aggressive but it is not personal.

What to expect by rising sign

Aries

Virgo rules your sixth house, focusing on routine and work until August 13th, when Mercury enters Leo. What good is all that energy if you are not structured in your expression of it? I said the words structure, which are anathema to the Aries rising, but really, it would do you a world of good. It is the best way to take care of those ADHD tendencies of starting things and never finishing them. Create a Routine in your life.

When Mercury enters Leo it is time for you to cook up that party. Backyard BBQs are highly recommended. Throw on good music and be the life of the party. You could find yourself visiting an old relationship or two but only temporarily for the fun. Be careful with athletics as this combination of retrograde could be the cause of a sports injury.

Taurus

The Taurus rising is known for being steady, indomitable, and sensual. With Virgo in your 5^th house, it will be a time of pleasure and refining your aesthetic joy. You may have a dramatic change of tastes during this retrograde period about what it is that you enjoy. Routines of meditation and spending time with loved ones in leisure experiences will be really helpful during this transit. Send out images, words, or photos to past loved ones and friends to reconnect with joy you once shared.

As Mercury enters Leo on the 13^th then you will be focused on family and your home. It is a good time for a little remodel work. Also, if you have a family member you have fallen out of touch with, reach out to them now. I would be cautious about purchasing or moving into a new house during this time period.

Gemini

For the Gemini rising your home is very important. It is the place where you have the ability to control the environment in a way which allows your mind to relax. We all know that for the Gemini rising, being able to relax the constant thinking and turmoil of the ever curious mind is a very important practice. Now is a great time to remodel or to clean up clutter that is getting in the way of that relaxed mind. Expect to go over some family matters and adapt yourself to new information about the family that you may be learning for the very first time.

When Mercury moves into Leo on the 13^th,

is a time to crack open the dream journal to help us recollect past events, whether they are dreams or childhood memories, and putting them down in a journal is part of the conscious experience of reclaiming your soul. This will help you move forward into the new year with clarity.

Cancer

Cancer rising will start retrograde with the ability to have reminiscent dreams and communications with kin who you have not seen or heard from for a while. It is an excellent time to reach out to siblings or friends who feel like siblings and to reconnect with them in conversations. Spend time opening up the bottles in the sea that float ashore upon the beach of your life and read the messages. Nighttime will be your best time for clear thinking. Be sure to take a little time to yourself in the evening for meditation. Calming the nerves is essential for good rest.

When Mercury moves into Leo on the 13^th of August, you will reexamine your values and your financial status. As a Cancer, you are certainly likely to spend a little bit on self-love and self-care which you understand as very important qualities of living a good life. But hey, we all have to reign it in sometimes, and Mercury retrograde in the second house is when you are called to throw that line out and rein in the output. Reexamine your financial goals for the year, and you will find this Mercury Retrograde will serve you not only this year but also far into the future.  

Leo

Leo Rising takes the reins of this Mercury Retrograde by looking at spending habits and your values during this retrograde period. I know your favorite thing to do is look in the mirror and admire the beautiful personality and body that you were born into. Still, at this point in the cycle of Mercury, it would be good for you to take a look at how you relate to possessions, wealth, and abundance, or the universe is going to do it for you. This brings me to the ever-so-interesting topic of how Mercury Retrograde a function of karma on a certain level is. What we have been doing comes back to us, and we work through it during this time like a boomerang, unless you are hunting a kangaroo, in which case you better have good aim.

Once Mercury moves into Leo then you are going to work on your body, your image. Stand up and face the mirror, chant three times, “Who is the fairest one of all.” The mirror is going to give you some feedback from August 13^th until Mercury looks direct. It might say you are not the fairest one, but if it does, it will give you a clue or two about how to handle the situation so that you can put a thing or two together and then, indeed, be the fairest one by the time Mercury goes direct.

Virgo

Virgo Rising, it is your turn in front of the Mirror as Mercury starts its retrograde motion. This is the type of transit where you have to slow down your neurotic energy and be present with yourself. While it might not always be visible to you that your analytic and critical mind is a deep quality of your personality. Well, Mercury is here to communicate to you directly that it is so. That is your greatest strength when it is turned into a relentless pursuit of perfection and your greatest enemy when you expect that from others or do not practice love and compassion on yourself in your pursuit.

This leads into a very nice segway when Mercury enters Leo, your 12^th house. Here Mercury is going to need you to drop into some deep soul work and extract your hidden spiritual chill. I am not sure how you are going to do this, but I don’t recommend drugs or alcohol. What about yoga, tai chi, prayer, or personal spiritual rituals? You could even do volunteer work. You might find all of this necessary as Mercury retrograding through your 12^th house can have you feeling like you are going mad as you take a deep look at your own self-sabotaging tendencies. Ok, I got you; that might have been harsh; for some, it will just mean chilling out at the spa. May you be one of the lucky ones. Make that spa appointment.

Libra

Libra Rising, you have Mercury and Venus in your 12th at the same time, and this is going to be some nice icing on the relaxing cake you love to eat so much. Mercury in Virgo retrograde in your 12^th can have you reanalyzing your mind and how you approach your own mental process. It is a time to take a practical look and come on, we all know Libra rising is very rarely accused of being practical, but you must do it, at your mind and how you undermine yourself. The best way to do this is to slow down and sit a lot more without any distractions on or around you.

Did you do it before August 14^th? Good, because now you are about to get social as Mercury Retrograde makes you the life of the party. The 11^th house is where you find your Leo, and you are going to be called to don the best set of clothes and have a little bit of social time to recover from that introverted experience you slogged through like mud soup over the previous two weeks. Talk about things in the past, visit old friends, throw a dinner party, and serve some dishes from your childhood, just don’t hit the beer bong; you are probably too old and too mature for that kind of behavior now.

Scorpio

Scorpio Rising you are going to love the first two weeks where you get to throw the party you have always dreamed of. Actually, I take that back; you might instead get embroiled in some near-public relationship dramas within your own friendship circles. Don’t shy away; you are a Scorpio rising, after all, and if there is anything you do well, it is to dive deep into the heart of a person’s soul. Now do it for an entire group of people, and you will be stunned at your power to play with their energies and help them all go through a catharsis of healing.

After which, by the 14th of August, all eyes will turn on you in a very public way. The attention should be dramatically played to its upmost. Think of yourself as a leading actor in a movie where you are not the NPC. Now get out there and cause some havoc because you love moving the pieces around, and they need to be rearranged while you have the Mercury Rx power on your side. If you do this well you will come out with a public reputation for being a good communicator. Now, how often is that said about Scorpio Rising?

Sagittarius

Sagittarius Rising will find that Mercury Rx starts out with work drama, or at least drama, where everyone knows what is going on in your life. You can’t hide from the limelight, and the shadows have become public, but you can handle it. You are good about putting on the get it done face and working through whatever needs to happen to make it all work in the end. That is why you were hired right: your indomitable attitude, sense of fun, and unprecedented reserves of energy. Well, you may need to tap into that over the first two weeks.

By the time Mercury hits Leo August 13^th you are ready for a break. This would be an ideal time to take a trip and do a little summer traveling (Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere please replace the word summer with winter) If you can’t get out there into the world, then maybe it is time to reread one of your favorite novels from the past, perhaps rewatch Game of Thrones, we all know you love that FIRE.

Capricorn

Capricorn rising, I am proud of your stoic nature to endure. But alas, everyone needs to take a break, so how about you dig deep down inside your heart and crack it open with some expanded learning and exploration of ideas that are not your own? You can be really stubborn, and the antidote to that is to learn how others feel, think, talk, and live. What better place is there to do that than in a foreign culture? Take the leap; I don’t care where it is or how you do it but expose yourself to something other than your ongoing steady habits. You know where those lead.

As you move into the second half of the month with Mercury sliding into Leo, the spotlight is on your ability to work with other people’s emotions or their money. This should be a relief because no one is as cautious and careful with others’ values as your practical goat-footed self. But it is not likely to be easy; after all, you are not known for being empathetic, and others’ values are their emotions and souls. You may be exposed to the depths of another’s soul in a way that will have you looking at your own values by the end of this transit.

Aquarius

Aquarius Rising, the time has come to let down the barriers of your ever so cool mind and leap into the heart of what others think and listen to them. The value of your collected and rational mind is beyond compare. Still, sometimes you have to revisit what others are going through, wade into the messes they created, and have the patience to look at them with doey soft eyes of love rather than stare at them like they are cryptic Aliens from Xenon. We all know that you are the Alien from Xenon in all actuality.

This brings us to August 14^th, when Leo goes into your seventh house, and your weird Alien self is going to be focusing on your partner or significant other for a couple of weeks. This is not a bad thing because, honestly, you need their warmth, affection, and love to keep your heart from reverting to being three sizes too small. They are there for you all the time, and for a couple of weeks here, you are going to have to be there for them.

Pisces

Pisces Rising, this Mercury retrograde is appearing in your dreaded 7^th house. That place where you find your nit-picky partner or significant other who can’t seem to let you go with the flow. Well, if you were smart, you would pay attention to what they are saying over the next two weeks. It turns out that Virgos have sharp minds and long memories. Pay attention to the details and be ready to recall them at a moment’s notice as you work through some things with them.

After that, you might be a little bit physically or mentally worn out by the processing. Pisces are great at emotional processing because you all are deep, like the ocean, containing multitudes like the ocean. But that ocean sometimes needs to tend to its body. It is vital that it is not too acidic. The ocean needs to clean out the floating plastic to maintain its routine of waves rhythmically crashing on the shore. That body needs cleansing to keep going in its required regularity, so take salt baths, visit the holistic doctor, and take care of yourself if any work issues you thought were dead return or if your body demands it.

Conclusion

Like all Mercury retrogrades, this one will seem like a big deal, but in the end, it will just be calling for you to slow down and look at what is happening around you and in your life. Adjust where you need to and move forward, empowered, for having taken a little time for self-reflection. If you have any questions about your chart in particular, book a reading with me at Heartastrology.com

Ó2024 Dorje Kirsten