Dispatches from Mercury In Sagg

Do you keep thinking that Mercury is Retrograde already? I do and it’s not just my recent early A.M. inability to scan a Q.R. code at an emergency vet hospital for an event that turned out not to have happened.

Mercury is still in the shadowzone phase of the actual legit Merc-Retro – Nov 25/26 until December 15/16 – so what’s with the outbreak of wyrd?

(a) You, like me, may be on your own private wyrd tangent?

(b) This is an advance alert to streamline tech, admin, routines, data etc before the actual retrograde?

(c) We’re druids or alien shamans and this is an activation – do admit there has been magic amid the chaos?

(d) All the above?

But the battiness may not be so much a retrograde phenom as simply a side-effect of Mercury in Sagittarius for so long. The Magician God is in the sign of the Archer/Mesopotamian Warrior-God Pabilsag/Centaur for nine and a half weeks all-up, the longest non-stop Mercury in Saggo phase since this time in 2017.

For astute yet annoying (but bankable!) insights, muse on your most potent mood and impulses from Nov 2017-Jan 2018. Never mind material gains/losses or linear timelines – in terms of plot, something about now is looping back to your late 2017 storyline and once you grasp that, everything opens up.

This extended stay also means that stress-test alignments like the Mercury-Saturn square (Nov 12-14) will recur – once during the retrograde (Dec 6-8) and again when Mercury is Direct (Dec 26-28).

But emotionally and metaphysically, while the aspect is exact at those points, it’s effectively ON the whole time. If this were a goo-goo sensual cryptic love scenario or intriguing new discovery, cool. But Mercury square Saturn is too annoying for an absorbing fun dalliance.

It’s not just squaring the current Saturn in Pisces  – it’s agitating the natal Saturn of many people born in the mid-1960s and mid-1990s, the Uranus and Pluto of practically every Gen X-er, the natal Neptune of Seventies-born Millennials, the Sagittarian Uranus of most 1980s born Millennials and Gen Z people’s Pluto in Saggo.

If you have a Mutable planet or point between 6° and 22° of any Mutable sign, this extended play Mercury phase will be zapping away at it until early January 2025. So what to do?

Ascertain the point of any merde since early Nov, integrate the lesson and turn it into a triumph. The only alternative is to make it an epic justification/denial statement but then you’ll muffle your magic so why bother?

You can tell a lot about the tone of an upcoming Mercury Retrograde by looking at the things and people born with the phenom in that very same sign.

Previous Mercury Retrograde in Sagittarius periods have given us Ben “Zoolander” Stiller, novelist Margaret Atwood and children’s book author/illustrator Lauren Child – “This is rule 32: Tell one lie and get ready to tell a whole lot more.

Think also Gael Garcia Bernal – the most Sagittarius man in the world and French President Emmanuel Macron: “I believe in a form of transcendence, that’s why I thoroughly respect the role of religions in society.”

That does sound Sagittarian, non? He also says that “identity is never built on narrow-mindedness, or on first names or crampedness.

Previous Mercury Retro in Sagittarius phases saw the invention of Kirlian Photography, the first time someone said “fuq” on live television and Polish Piscean Casimir Funk’s discovery of ‘vital amines’ – now condensed to ‘vitamins.’

Thoughts?

Images: Eva Grimaldi – Les Anges Gardiens
Carlo Caduff

60 thoughts on “Dispatches from Mercury In Sagg”

  1. Catching up on posts as the Sagittarius sun transits my natal Neptune. Interesting insights MM!

    If only i could work out which year was which whilst separated from my diaries. 2017 – 2018…? 🤔 I think that was the bit before things started to turn bad… and didn’t really stop 🤷🏻‍♀️

    As for the why-so-weird energy – a contributing factor may be Mercury being Out of Bounds from Nov 7th through 30th… (If you don’t know about OOB planets, i’d recommend a google). Venus has also been OOB from Oct 26th til Dec 3rd (as i write this, that’s tomorrow!), tho Venus has traversed Sag and Cap over that time. As i write, the moon is also in Sag and also OOB. Needless to say… life is unpredictable, weird, intense, and just a little overwhelming..! (As a Sun-Neptune transit generally is, to be fair). We have also been having a lot of space weather. On that note, i for one am zapped and going to take a wee nap to restore my equilibrium…🕊💫⚡️

  2. Saturn 3 Sag
    Mercury 7 Sag
    Uranus 19 Sag
    Venus 21 Sag
    Sun 28 Sag

    lmaoooo I for SURE was looking at the ephemeris last nite wondering wtf was going on

  3. you know what I hope the Pluto opposite Leo era will do? bring about the end of Marketing. the concept, the practice, the profession.

    there I said it. bye

    1. I have Jupiter in Leo 2 degrees (conjunct Venus In Cancer 29 degrees) 5th house. I wonder what the Pluto in Aquarius opposition will mean for me.

      Venus and Jupiter are part of a Grand Water Trine with Neptune in Scorpio 9th house. I am a Pisces Rising.

      Any ideas Sam or anyone else? Thoughts or feelings greatly appreciated.🙂💖

      1. Hey wish
        for the extended transits like Pluto, & for someone as deeply intuitive like yourself I reckon the first step is to go within and attune to the information at your (cosmic) fingertips.

        then, do a quick google and triangulate that with your understanding of the house and sign that Pluto is transiting, in relation to your other astro placements x

        pluto is never /rarely what we think it is, imho, because this guy by definition find the things that have been hidden or concealed from ourselves, one way or another.

        Pluto through 11th though would to me signify a gradual, but very lasting & personally Real, shift in our social circles, community at large, who we are among them, social media etc.

        pluto opposite Jupiter (Leo!! 5th!!) transit – a breakthrough digital presence for your timeless self? maybe the world needs your gentle wisdom, and depth-perception right now, wish? or maybe even just a little online as for your services? it’s hard to call but you’ll know it when you feel it

        1. Pluto is also learning to recognise enemies – within and without. I’d spend some time contemplating the meaning of personal strength, identity, self belief, and just trusting the power of your own legendary awesomeness.

          I remember in a past post I talked about you getting a fabulous pair of oversized sunglasses. I reckon this is the (extended astro) season to bust them out

          1. Recognise enemies…. yes this is necessary. I can’t sugar coat shit anymore.
            Within…. stop ignoring my feelings.
            Sun glasses✔️

        2. Oh Sam, thank you so much for your input💖. Right now I’m grissling about the people I am surrounded by and the community and then I read your replies. Pluto transit my 11th house) I’ve just got to call a spade a spade and move on.
          It just shows how far I have come.

        3. mmmm. maybe time to start my memoir.
          I don’t have any social media presence, I’m too private.
          But I get it with the ad. Especially if I want to advertise my services in the future.

  4. Great post & comments, thanks everyone, yep it was an intense weekend, I’m just waiting for Pluto to get off the opp to my mercury at 29 Cancer … and never come back yay!!

  5. Dear Mystic, I wanted to start a complain process and the whole year I was delaying cos of astrology protocols or private circumstances, and now when I am ready to do it, I am wondering is it right time to start considering Mercury retro in Sag and I am Sagittarius, please advise 🙂

  6. This full moon had me in existential crisis mode. I’m a 57-year-old visual arts grad student and I’m giving my thesis proposal on the crone this Wednesday. The prep has me digging deep as to what the crone means to me and the world right now. I’d love some intel on this from an astrological viewpoint. Virgo in the 1st house, with Venus, sun, Mercury, Pluto and Uranus in my 12th house last week almost broke me. Feeling rejuvenated today though. Thank you for all this Mystic.

    1. SO interested in this I would love to read your thesis.

      mind if I do a thought download..?

      hecate transit / in your chart,

      chiron – imho radically under rated re Chiron return as menopause or thereabouts (other forms of sharing wisdom and life transition, moving into greater self-possession, addressing some forms of loss and pain,

      moon /lunar, transits to 4th house if any un-addressed family / home of origin matters, or an evolution/revisiting of such,

      what a mega download you must have had from 12th house, also fyi squaring your 9th house of academia, big ideas and ahem dissertations

      be well x

  7. Just wanted to remark that for me personally, Saturn in Pisces since March 2023, has been like an emotional truth serum. Cannot repress and cover up painful feelings anymore. With Mercury now in outspoken Sagittarius square this Pisces Saturn, it is like the truth-speaking is amplified 📣

      1. Hi Wish, yes Saturn crossing your descendant, that is a tough one! Hang in there, Wish! 🤗
        Another thought. Neptune through Pisces has caused a lot of unclarity regarding feelings. Everything re feelings was diffuse, misty, unclear. Saturn in Pisces is making things clear and much more defined. It’s very necessary, imho

        1. “Everything re feelings was diffuse, misty, unclear.’
          Thanks for describing this. This is hard for me. Saturn put up the goal posts for me. I needed the structure.

    1. yaass so true

      TLDR: agree

      also it finally somehow clicked (like DUH sam) I’ve had saturn on my sun Mercury all year no wonder I’ve felt like a bag of gravel filtering all the crap in a garbage tip drain.

      so like you Calci, a LOT of “yeah.. nah.” going on about some personal truths and honestly coming to a fuller and more honest appraisal of what actually makes sense for me across a few key things. well, arriving at a less hazy picture in any case

      1. Hi Sam, you may not read this anymore… but if you do, yes, Saturn on your Sun / Mercury (in Pisces?) is really heavy. You have the best metaphor there, ‘feeling lik a bag of gravel filtering alle the crap in the garbage tip drain’ 😄 Especially since the mutable signs do not like being dragged down by matter

        1. thanks calcifer I so appreciate this & you

          like I def don’t need any more Saturn energy rn with Pluto moving off my moon FINALLY

          but I guess the extra transit is one way to really get the lawn trimmer out to demarcate the edges of where my own personal crap ends and other people’s crap starts (& being their crap and not mine, is therefore not my problem).

          1. Yes, I need that lawn trimmer (= Saturn square my Sun) too!
            After Uranus on my Moon and Neptune square my Sun for years

            1. ahhh wow ok
              moon Uranus will CHANGE THINGS UP no doubt about it… Neptune square sun would be interesting? I just thought of the movie Memento (an early Christopher Nolan piece, I’d put money on him having some kind of Neptune Saturn nexus given his oeuvre)… always under time pressure but having 0 idea what’s happening or having to figure it out intuitively or on the fly

              my Jupiter Lilith must be similar degree to your moon. no wonder you feel like such a benevolent advisor x

              1. A late reply Sam, but maybe you’ll read it still. I think Memento is an interesting reference for Sun-Neptune, the complete ‘lostness’ of it. For me it was like ‘Cast Away’ with Tom Hanks alone on his island, also completely lost… Thank you for the advisor compliment, much appreciated ☺️

                1. Wish Upon a Star

                  🤗 Hugs to you Calcifer. I too can relate to Cast Away in the past, not sure what transit it was.

  8. Asc 9 – Virgo Ac 13 Sag . Natal Mercury 0 aq. conjuct pluto for soooo long Natal Sun Aq and North Node and Chiron 0 Aries. Neptune, Moon and Mars all conjunt scorpio and I am a 60s child.
    This last week has been a nightmare from tech and just general angry / bolshy. I would say 2024 has been my year of fury I feel like I have become the dragon.
    This week the mobile phone died, a lightning strike blew my surge protector, modem and computer and that was the easy stuff. Finding replacement technology that met my ethics was hard but did it.
    Told by the Dr’s wife sister-in-aw to be silent about certain political events in ME etc because don’t want to upset anyone. Was told to remember to be polite and talk about nice things like food and travel holidays, we don’t mention that G word. Let’s say not happy and explained that I didn’t shut up during Apartheid,Bosnia etc, and advocated then and was not going to play nice now that I am older and much crankier.
    As to the medical profession and allied health (discussed above) do not start me. Have found some gems but as discussed above deeply unimpressed with where the health profession is going with chitty chat rather than actual skills. As a person who has studied and practiced law and also in the Allied Health field I can say that the current university system is rubbish and producing rubbish health practitioners. It is like all our higher institutions from health, University to international laws have been undermined or diminished to the lowest levels of mediocrity.
    Dealing with all of this is producing a frenetic energy. I am trying to stay calm but find the energy to master my words for the right fight. I have mastered the letter-writing campaign in the last few days.
    Good luck to you all and let us hope the furies are with us all.

  9. Just loving these comments. Virgo 1st house, Mercury Leo 12th, oh you did so well to navigate that crap. I laughed, in empathy, with the after angst too. Beautiful. I had also been getting a hefty dose of ‘dudebros’ (that cracked me up!), for days, and despite all the timely warnings to glide on through this weekend, this 50 something also snapped with all the misogynistic bla bla I had done so well to ignore up until that point. Fuq ’em I say! Well done girls and best wishes to all who have had to endure the pain of it. Lalalalalala!!!

  10. If you have a Mutable planet or point between 6° and 22° of any Mutable sign:
    Pisces Rising 10
    Gem Sun 14 degrees 4th house
    Libra Mars 16 degrees 8th house opp Saturn in Aries
    I am a Gen X born 1967 with Uranus and Pluto conjunct 7th house.

    Any more granular advice would be appreciated.🥺🌸

    1. Hi Wish, you must be feeling Saturn in transit (now at 12’42” degrees Pisces and freshly direct as of Saturday) square your natal Sun at 14 degrees Gemini! Not an easy transit, sobering, asking you to make choices and taking responsibility for your former choices, maybe a bit lonely. It can also be very constructive

      1. “taking responsibility for your former choices”. You hit the nail on the head there. Not lonely. But had horrific nightmares last night.
        I am a Taurus Moon and this supermoon was intense. Also came with a sore throat.

        “It can
        also be very constructive’ I will take that and run with it.

        Thanks 🙏 for taking the time to answer my question.
        💕✨⭐🌸

        1. Hi Wish, I also have a Taurus Moon and the full Moon last week hit me hard. Even if it was exact on my Moon. The whole Uranus in Taurus business since 2018 has completely turned my life upside down. Good to know that the biggest part of it is behind us.
          Very best of luck working with Saturn (the good thing is, it is possible!)

          1. You too hey? I thought it was just me.
            I hope you feel better?🙂
            I just woke from a four hour nap and I feel better.
            Uranus in Taurus, well it really needed to happen for me.
            Thanks Calcifer.
            😊💖⭐

  11. Natal Mercury in Sagg & finding health professionals being unprofessional or maybe i expect too much?
    Forms lost… physio appointments where no touch & one exercise given & that will be $80 thank you.Could have looked that up on you tube.
    Chaos addict god daughter has left her pit bull with me, my Daisy’s pup that’s a pup no longer & has thrown my routine into her chaos.Left an abusive lover-house sharer that i tried to help her leave a year ago.
    Just can’t walk 2 strong animals, so have been housebound for 4 days an anathema to a Sagg =loss of freedom. This dog doesn’t like children or other dogs & poos on the lawn instead of tiles…nasty to collect. Yes am irritable.

    1. No you are not expecting too much from health professionals.
      I have experienced a of of that. One treating me like I’m her counsellor.
      One Osteopath (esteemed apparently) held my head for 5 mins and said I just need to exercise more. $100 thanks.
      Another Osteopath talking about his mummy issues. A homeopath screaming at me. Some are just tedious. Some have a God complex.
      And others I do not want to speak of.
      The trick is to believe yourself, walk out if you can so you don’t pay and encourage their behaviour. Don’t take it personally. Sometimes it’s just a numbers game. Stay positive and hopeful. Find the good ones and stick with them.
      I live in a Regional town and it is slim pickings. Occasionally you find a gem.
      People are people and they do what they do.

      I wish I could walk your dogs for you Pegs. I’m thinking of you and sending you 💕 love⭐✨

      1. p.s. Don’t bother reporting them to APRA , waste of time. One smuck spoke to me very disrespectfully about a very serious issue.

        I think and feel that the Pluto in Aquarius era is a time to cut your losses, learn from your losses. Don’t make the same mistake. Embrace the new and positive, understand and reinforce your standards and boundaries and let the rest fall away.

        We are in the final stage of Pluto in Capricorn and the weirdness is out there for sure.

        1. Frankly I am keeping my head down because at the moment I find most people annoying. I like my peace and quiet and I find most people talk to much. I know that I sound like a contradiction as I am ranting. But this is cathartic for me. Thank You.
          I know it is not easy for most people to avoid people as they work and have family.

          1. Howdy Wish……true professionals that are clever at diagnosis are a rare breed. It’s physician heal thyself isn’t it. In ’67 i was an organic earth mother, naturopaths all the way forget allopathic. It changed when diagnoses with COPD & inundated with big pharma prescriptions & their horrid side effects.
            Owner of dog coming of collect her after panicking she would leave her with me forever. All’s well that end’s well.
            Finding myself quoting a lot of Shakespeare lately…lol.
            Look after yourself StarShine xx

      1. Your comments had a profound effect on me. I love Shakespeare.
        I will comment more tomorrow, I’m fading, need to sleep 😴✨💕

        1. I’m glad the dog situation worked out well. I’m a bit fractured today, nightmares last night. My occipital is jammed.
          Will get on you tube and find remedy to release it.

  12. I’ve just checked the alignment of this Mercury Retro in my chart because, I went to a work event on Friday and it was weird. I found myself to be the only woman there and being a classic Virgo 1st House introvert with Mercury in my 12th House, its usually painful for me to speak out, voice my personal opinions or socialise with people I don’t know very well. But during the formalities, my boss mentioned me (sadly only one female) and there was a sudden upsurge of toxic masculinity – comments floated around about women and kitchens, and a co-worker said, “Actually, what is a woman doing here?” Guffawww gufffaw. I found myself in a sea of dudebros, having to defend my right to have rights. Which then, through a trickle effect, led to me publicly disavowing the patriarchy (built on violence, physical domination and suppression of women) and at one point when challenged by a co-worker I know to be very religious, on “natural” gender roles, I lost my attempt to keep it polite and described the “big three” religions as “God Gangs for Guys”. My boss, I think, heard this phrase from across the room and came to “rescue” me. Which kind of made things worse. I told him I am a 59 year old woman who has had plenty of time to work out what I think about a lot of things and some 25 year old mysoginistic upstart isn’t going to out-lad me. Doing any of these things is so far out of my comfort zone. I have spent the whole weekend in an existential crisis LOL – what the hell happened to my mouth? I can usually keep it clamped and stay safely in the background, keeping any quiet judgey thoughts to myself.

    So I checked – and Mercury is in the shadowzone of this upcoming retro in Sadge opposite my Gemini North Node, square my Saturb in Pisces and trining my natal Mercury in that Leo 12th House. Things could get really messy?

    1. Good on you for letting them have it I say. I think that finding it increasingly difficult to not articulate one’s views might be related to age/menopause. At 56 I’ve noticed that I’m becoming ever more bolshy, where once I’d not have dared to say anything, especially when it comes to toxic masculinity, which thrives in Australia. Gumpy old woman syndrome? They can call it what they like, but I’m calling a spade a spade, tough if they don’t want to hear the truth.

    2. Go you.
      Don’t let them get away with their pathetic brainless crap. Stick it to them.
      They sooo deserve it, and you deserve so much better.

    3. Impressive, your unexpected assertiveness, Virgo One. Though I understand it could cause anxiety in the aftermath. It’s good to have spoken your truth, though. Wishing you strength and clarity 🌟

    4. Good on ya as they say. Entering our Crone phase is quite a ride but once we commit it’s fun. I am also Virgo 1st house and Mercury 12th and this sounds exactly how I would react. I remind myself to recognize when it’s not worth the energy to try to educate the lads. I might need to move to a farm and surround myself with women for the next four years in the US.

    5. Wow. The only people who should be ashamed of their behaviour at that event are those effing dudebros..! It’s bad enough being the only woman in a group of any kind – the solitary Smurfette – but to have to put up with those comments?? That’s appalling. No wonder you reacted. They deserved to hear it! We are all cheering and applauding, albeit weeks after the fact and from many distant lands… but GO YOU!!! 👏🏻🙌💐
      Bouquet for you and brick bats for them.
      I hope you survived the aftermath intact – hold your head up high! 😘

  13. LOVE THIS: “identity is never built on narrow-mindedness, or on first names or crampedness.“

    particularly as that is *exactly* the way that power-mongers would like to be able to define, contain and manage Other People’s Identities. Rows of Procrustean beds in a metaphorical orphanage, metaphorical in that the parents signify our individual connection with forebears & ancestors, our personal and general histories etc. raah!

    anyway love that “list” and because this retro is my 6th house on Neptune, and it ends with an immediate conjunction to my DSC / opp ASC/ square sun Mercury,.. ok I need to actually think about this.

    remembering that mercury is also MONEY (mercantile… mercenary..) I am going to make Wednesdays (Mercredi) sacred until Jan/Feb… that 2017 phase was when I was making decisions about work, and my worth, that undervalued my abilities to a ridiculous extent… this sadge activity trines my other fire placements/ houses soo… ok. thanks mystic. you’ve done it again xx

  14. Grazie mille for this reflection on Mercury in Sagittarius square Saturn, it puts things in perspective!
    My natal Mercury is at 13 degrees Sagittarius and has been right in the middle of this aggravating square this past week. Have had intense discussions with colleagues on a daily basis and – as the cherry on the cake – a fierce clash when the Full Moon conjunct Uranus was building… Feel exhausted 😶‍🌫️

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