In a previous blog entry, I explain mercury retrograde post-shadow and you might want to go back and read that entry before you read any further.
The Mercury Retrograde pre-shadow occurs about two weeks before Mercury goes retrograde. This is the period in which Mercury starts slowing down to come to a complete stop. This is called stationing. The point where Mercury starts moving backwards is the actual period of Mercury Retrograde. At some point it will station, or slow down again in anticipation of moving forward again (station direct)
Determining the Pre-Shadow Period
First we need to determine the exact period of Mercury Retrograde. To do this we look at the ephemeris. If you have a hard time seeing the images below, you can see the online ephemeris here or you can open the image in another window and they will appear bigger. However, keep in mind the ephemeris at the link provided is set to Universal Time and the one below is set to Pacific Time
Looking at the ephemeris, locate the column for Mercury which is the fifth one from the left and then we see that Mercury begins the month of July in Leo. We then run our finger down the column until we come to July 8th here we the following "4°R28". That "R" stand for Retrograde and this means that mercury retrogrades in 4 degrees 28 minutes of Leo.
Now we continue running our finger down the column and see that Mercury enters Cancer on July 20th. Finally on August 1st we see 23°D57. That "D" stands for Direct and this means that Mercury has started moving forward again.
Knowing that Mercury stations direct in 23° Cancer, we then look backwards through the ephemeris to see when Mercury was previously in that position and this will be the beginning of the Pre-Shadow.
Examining the ephemeris, we see that Mercury was previously in 23° Cancer on June 20th and so this date marks the beginning Mercury Retrograde Pre-Shadow.
Now, in order to determine the post shadow, we look to the ephemeris again and see that the post shadow will begin on August 1st in 23° Leo (where it stationed direct after the retrograde period) and it will ends on August 15th in 4° Leo. How do we know this? Because Mercury originally went retrograde in 4° Leo so this is the point where it picks back up from where it all started.
This is probably a little confusing so let's look at the time line like so:
- Pre-Shadow 6/20/19 in 23 degrees Cancer
- Retrograde 7/08/19 in 04 degrees Leo
- Post Shadow 8/01/19 in 23 degrees Cancer
- Post Shadow (ends) 8/15/19 in 04 degrees Leo
Looking at it this way, it probably makes a lot more sense right?
The pre-shadow period is where we first feel the initial beginnings of mercury retrograde. Any events or changes may be small, almost imperceptible but can become more prominent as we get closer to actual Mercury Retrograde. To better understand how Mercury Retrograde will affect you, it is necessary to investigate the natal houses where Mercury Retrograde will take place, in this case Cancer and Leo.
Carolina Dean
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