Mercury Retrograde – The Xmas grinch and how to handle it!

MERCURY RETROGRADE OVER CHRISTMAS

ARIES

The mental energy you have been investing in particular areas of your life may be put on hold over the Christmas holidays. This is no bad thing, but because you feel most alive when you can feel the blood pumping through your veins, you’re not always the most patient of people. Taking a few steps backwards can feel uncomfortable for you but Mercury wouldn’t be urging you to do this unless there was an opportunity to fully redeem yourself. Listen to your heart and you’ll hear why you need to take deeper look at your mental motivation.

Mercury retrograde through your 10th then 9th houses
In the 10th house of your horoscope Mercury retrograde wants to explore the messages you’re sending out regarding how you communicate through your job, career or how you assert your authority over others. Is the way you’re expressing yourself through these areas just out of habit? Or do you need to re-think how you communicate with the world at large?
In the 9th house, your beliefs and what you choose to study and learn from will be called in for a review. This is a chance for your faith and beliefs to be brought into the open, and for you to decide whether your belief in something, or someone, is truly good for you.

TAURUS
From 10th December Mercury’s backwards steps through your horoscope is a message for your to check that you’re definitely happy with the path you’ve chosen. Christmas can be a time when obligations and fun collide, when doing what you always do can make you wonder why you ever chose to do it in the first place. As a Taurean you don’t like to initiate change, preferring instead to grow what you already have. If you treat the coming Mercury retrograde as second chance to see where you can makes changes, you’re more likely to see it as a chance to make long lasting positive changes, rather than just sticking with what you know.

Mercury retrograde through your 9th then 8th houses
The 9th house is concerned with the bigger picture; of learning, exploring and travel. Are you educating yourself in a productive way? Are you learning what you need to move yourself forward, or are you scared to try something new? Perhaps this Christmas you need to explore your motivations and perhaps open your horizons a little more.
The 8th house can be an intense place and Mercury revisiting here wants you to think more deeply about what you share with others: money, possessions, even secrets. Are you communicating clearly with the people you share your resources with?

GEMINI
As Mercury is your ruling planet you often feel his retrograde phases more intensely than the other signs. You’re usually just a boisterous, witty person and you can give yourself a hard time if you’re not feeling lightning quick or have the energy to juggle your social life, partnerships, and work responsibilities.You can fritter away your nervous energy and wonder why by Boxing Day you are left feeling like a squeezed-out toothpaste tube. Over Christmas you’ll need to cultivate the art of relaxation, without beating yourself and feeling guilty about it. Just because you’re not handling five projects at nice doesn’t mean you’re not doing anything – this time the work needs to take place on the inside.

Mercury retrograde through your 8th then 7th houses
When Mercury moves into your 8th House you’ll want explore what it means to share your resources with others. Do you trust those you share with? Are you being open enough with them? Your precious resources – including your time and mental energy – should be looked at in more detail.
When Mercury dances backwards in your 7th house your relationships on all levels will become illuminated and take on special significance. You will be able to use Mercury’s analytical, honest energy to peer beneath the surface of your relationships and take time to unravel what’s really going on.

CANCER
The festive period can feel particularly important to you because you feel more whole when you’re surrounded my your loved ones. Your home becomes a nurturing, loving escape for the people in your life to relax and be themselves.You are an emotionally mature person and the people close to you feel wonderfully understood by you. This Christmas Mercury’s move backwards will ask whether you’re as comfortable receiving love as you are at giving it out. Are you putting up defences unconsciously? The only way through fear is love, and you need to decide where you can let more of it in!

Mercury retrograde through your 7th then 6th houses
From the 10th – 19th December you’ll get a second change to think about how you’re communicating your feelings with the people closest to you. Are you being entirely honest with yourself – and are they being true to you? Mercury will lend you the logical talents to explore any tension in your relationships in a practical way.
From the 19th December to the end of the month, Mercury will shine his torch over your 6th house. How are you communicating with your body? If you’re unhappy physically then maybe you need to take some time out to think about any unhelpful messages you might be sending yourself unconsciously – send some of that love and nurturing usually reserved for others straight to your self.

LEO
You’re a very giving, generous person, showering the people you care about with your generosity, love and passion for life. For you the festive season is about making people smile and reminding them that they’re the centre of your Universe. When the planet of communications wants to stop, reverse and take another look at something in your personality it can make you feel a little uneasy, especial at Christmas, when your natural childlike enthusiasm just wants to come out to play. Treat the 10-30th  December as a time when, if you can get the message right, you won’t need to change it again for a while.

Mercury retrograde through your 6th then 5th houses
The 6th house describes how you respond to the daily needs and requirements of your body and how you deal with day-to-day existence. You are being given a golden opportunity to fix anything that’s not quite balanced. Maybe you’ve lost a bit of enthusiasm fro your routine but not communicated that message consciously? Is your body in tune with your mind?
Mercury moving through your 5th house will give you the chance to rediscover what’s really working for you creatively – what you an bring to life – and what brings you to life.

VIRGO
Mercury’s your ruling planet so you’ll feel its ebbs and flows more keenly than most but you are also better equipped to deal with its analytical, logic. When the lord of communication turns backwards it’s a time for you to recuperate and to work out where your energy and talents can make the biggest difference. Christmas can make you anxious as you what everything to be perfect, but if you’re left drained by Boxing Day, perhaps your ideas of perfection need to be addressed. Nobody is harder on you than you are on yourself.

Mercury retrograde through your 5th then 4th houses
By stepping back a gear in your 5th house, Mercury wants you to rethink how you enjoy your life. Are you spending too much, or too little time on making your world vibrant and colourful? Can you let go of a couple of obligations or projects to make more fun in your life? This is also the house of children, and Mercury retrograde may see you working out how to prevent the relationships with youngsters in your life from getting stale.
In the 4th Mercury retrograde would like you to think carefully about your home: where it is, who you share it with and what it means to you. The 4th house symbolises what it feels to be mothered, and perhaps you will want to spend time thinking about your own mother and how you experienced her – what bearing does this have on your current homelife?

LIBRA
You’re a very skilled communicator in your relationships, always balancing, mediating and refining your skills. From the 10th December through to the 30th you could become very busy playing piggy in the middle, or negotiator, while everyone around you barks and howls at one another. You’re very clever at finding ways for others to get along, but this Christmas you need to focus on your own emotional needs just as much. Mercury retrograde will give you a chance to see where you are changing and gives you keys to previously unlocked doors.

Mercury retrograde through your 4th then 3rd houses
In the 4th house Mercury points to your family and your home environment. You’ll be pulled back for second thoughts on your domestic arrangements. What messages you need to communicate to your family? Are you talking about the things that really matter to you, or are you chatting to fill in any awkward gaps?
In the 3rd house – and  Mercury’s natural home – it’s your mental processes, your very words, thoughts and ideas that will find themselves in the spotlight. You need to ask yourself if you are making yourself clear. Misunderstandings can be cleared up as long as you’re willing to do the work on yourself.

SCORPIO
You’re a very self-sufficient character, often finding it hard to completely trust or give yourself fully to another. Over the Christmas holidays Mercury will gently persuade you to question your motives; perhaps you are acting defensively just out of a habitual response? Mercury will give you the analytical power to stare your monsters in the face and to ask them if they can actually harm you. Over the next few weeks you’ll have the courage to face your fears, to analyse them down to their bare bones so you can find effective solutions to blow them out of the murky water for good.

Mercury retrograde through your 3rd then 2nd houses
In the third house the way you think will be probed, are you creating fears or problems where none exist? Are you behaving as though you were being criticised even though nobody has deliberately offended you? How do you communicate with your neighbours, colleagues and the people outside of your closest relationships?
In the 2nd house you will come to re-examine how you communicate your thoughts on what you value most in your life. Are you teaching others to be as penetrating and insightful as you can be, or are you happy to let someone skim over the surface without stopping to see what’s bubbling underneath?

SAGITTARIUS
You like to keep the channels of communication open, honest and as broadminded as possible, because limiting your ideas or beliefs would be to limit your horizons. For you Christmas is a time to immerse yourself in as many different experiences as possible and to catch up on your friends and family’s thoughts for the future. You’re not much of a planner, preferring just to let things happen, but perhaps a little more attention to detail and organisation could get you where you want to be a lot quicker!

Mercury retrograde through your 2nd then 1st houses
In the second house Mercury wants you to revise what you hold dear and urges you to make sure those values are still in line with what you really believe in. Are you concentrating too much or too little on your own personal talents and not enough on the practical side of life?
In the first house Mercury’s retreat could become quite apparent in your personality, you may feel uncharacteristically quiet or timid. This self-consciousness is Mercury’s way of making sure you’re completely aware of the messages you’r sending to others.

CAPRICORN
You are a naturally elegant and authoritative communicator; when you speak the world takes notice. While the communications planet goes backwards through your horoscope from 10th – 30th december you may find it harder work than usual to say what you really want to say. This is not because you’ve lost your confidence, but because Mercury wants you to make sure that what you say is truly flowing from your soul and not just what you think you ought to say.

Mercury retrograde through your 1st then 12th houses
Mercury retrograde in your first house could make you feel a bit like you’ve forgotten something important but not very sure what it was, or it could make you feel defensive or more self-critical than usual. This is Mercury’s way of making you ask yourself if you’re projecting an entirely honest version of yourself – and giving you time to work on a more authentic message to project into the world.
In the 12th house, a backwards Mercury could cause a certain amount of confusion. You’re apt to grasp the wrong end of the stick. You might read things into a situation that simply don’t exist. But what’s happening here is that Mercury is making you aware of all the undercurrents in any situation, so your psychic senses will be running overtime. This may cause you to see far more in simple situations that others are willing to admit to.

AQUARIUS
Your style of communication is to challenge the status quo, to make people think differently and to ask yourself difficult questions. You have an un-quenchable curiosity. At Christmas you welcome the social variety and the chance to see people you’ve been out of touch with. This year Mercury retrograde could make you want to press people’s buttons a bit more than usual, but you’re not keen when they do it to you! You’re fascinated by other people’s emotional reactions but when it comes to examining yours, you’ll usually find a way of wiggling out of it. This year you’ll feel the need to delve into a foreign world – your own real feelings‚Ķ to discover it’s not so alien after all.

Mercury retrograde through your 12th then 11th houses
In your 12th house a backwards Mercury could make you examine your psychological make-up much more than you’re usually comfortable with. But when you start thinking about what’s making you behave in the way you are – you’ll be delighted with that you find. Perhaps the inner ‘you’ isn’t as scary as you thought‚Ķ
In the 11th house Mercury wants you to put your mental energies into examining the organisations and groups you belong to. Do you still believe in the messages these clubs and societies are giving out? Have you changed how you think but not let the people around you know of your new thoughts and feelings?

PISCES
Communication with you is sometimes a psychic experience. You pick up on others thoughts and feelings without them having say a word. The only problems with this occur when you might absorb information that other people aren’t that comfortable with you knowing. Sometimes you even pick up on others subconscious thought and feelings. This Christmas you’re determined to stick with the facts and take a more logical approach to the people and experiences that come your way.

Mercury retrograde through your 11th then 10th houses
In your 11th house Mercury retrograde will present you with an opportunity to understand more fully what it means to be part of a group of people with the same goal. Any social or community decisions or action you need to take will become a source of much introspection, to make doubly sure you’re certain you’re happy committing yourself to something it might be hard to get out of again.
Having Mercury backwards in your 10th house will make you question how you are seen in a professional or more impersonal way. Are you happy with the signals you’re putting out via your career or job? What an you do to become more comfortable with the the way you present yourself at work?