Mercury Rx-North Node Conjunction Square Mars in Virgo

Mercury, moving retrograde in the sign of its detriment, Sagittarius, is busy this weekend. A retrograde through already uncomfortable territory for Mercury means communication is tricky, sluggish, even painful, but what does slide through comes at us on a magic carpet ride of sparkling Sagittarian pixie dust - crinkling, crackling, potent with meaning, and with just the right amount of telling-it-like-it-is sass. 

Mercury retrograde in Sagittarius is a transit related to how people really feel coming through loud and clear in their communications and tone - whether they like it or not. It will be difficult to hide it. If someone is speaking your language, piping up in ways you can get behind, this retrograde can seem victorious and pitch perfect. And if someone is coming at you from a philosophical angle or belief system that annoys or disgusts you, it will be almost intolerable to withstand another word. Dogma, cliche, and rhetoric are fingernails on chalkboard, and since so many will be clamouring to have their voices heard, we're at full saturation point.  

A symbol: The defriending of an acquaintance on Facebook because her "Be the change you wish to see in the world"-esque status updates provided just one inspirational nugget too many. 

Today marks Mercury's second conjunction to the North Node in Sagittarius, and if we aren't letting our own full-on blazing truth be the tour guide, this transit will irritate us with enough loudmouths and blowhards spouting off about what they believe that we soon get there. 

The third pass over the North Node, as Mercury is moving direct, happens December 27. 

The Sun in Sagittarius also squares Mars in Virgo today, and this is the challenge to put personal beliefs (Sagittarius) into practical action (Mars in Virgo). With Mars in Virgo, spouting off about high-minded ethical issues (Sagittarius) without applying them practically down to the very last detail in our personal lives is hypocrisy, and hypocrisy with Mars transiting Virgo is NOT HOT. 

Mercury backs into its retrograde conjunction with the Sun December 4 as both bodies square Mars in Virgo. We're carefully picking our way through mottoes and cliches, dogmas and creeds, carving and refining our own hot little track out of belief-based trajectories that don't speak our language. We pare away the rhetoric here and very precisely apply, put in motion, what we know. 

This is about getting in and getting out, cleanly, in verbal and written word and in action, removing ourselves from heated philosophical battles and bloated top-heavy causes that don't get us anywhere. 

We apply ourselves only where we are most directly (Sagittarius) effective (Virgo). With the Sun-Mercury in Sagittarius square Mars in Virgo, what we don't say and what we don't participate in are as important as what we do, though we're also required to speak up when we get a clear (Virgo) chance, providing a different perspective from the accepted ideologies of the day, including accepted alternative ideologies. 

Mercury is retrograde November 24 to December 13 (20 degrees Sagittarius to 3 degrees Sagittarius). 

Mercury in Sagittarius squares Mars in Virgo again January 1, 2012, and this aspect carries us into the New Year.