Astrology in December 2023 and January-February 2024 - Mercury In Capricorn

by Robert Wilkinson

At 6:31 am PST on December 1, Mercury temporarily leaves Sagittarius and enters the practical sign of Capricorn, slowing to go retrograde at 9 Capricorn, beginning our review of the Capricorn themes of 2023 to see how well we’ve “aligned” with our angels and the invisible world.

This is the next phase in Mercury’s long dance between Sagittarius and Capricorn which lasts until early February when it finally enters Aquarius. Mercury in Capricorn now brings Cardinal Earth to the forefront of any planets or houses we have with Gemini or Virgo prominent.

Mercury’s entry into Capricorn shows it’s slowing rapidly, preparing to go retrograde at 9 Capricorn on December 12, just after the New Moon at 21 Sagittarius. Mercury entered its “shadow zone” at 23 Sagittarius on November 25, so use the next few days to get all your ducks lined up, your purchases made, and your paperwork straightened out and submitted or be ready to postpone this for a few weeks, whichever works for you. Once Mercury goes retrograde, we’ll get a new look at the entire year of 2023 which has had the themes related to 9 Capricorn front and center since Mercury went SD on that degree in January 2023.

The themes of the Aug/Sept Mercury retrograde are still in play until the next SRX. That recent retrograde helped us take a new look at our “venerable standards,” as well as our health on all levels. We were emotionally and/or socially educated and found some bottom lines in what we stand for. Since then we’ve had our Mercury experience of Libra, Scorpio, and its initial foray through Sagittarius, leaving us here at a “double pulse” of Sagittarius and Capricorn.

This continues a slowing of all things related to Mercury in our charts. Take a little more time to evaluate and plan things, and take your time as you coordinate things, discover things, give and receive information, and see things from multiple points of view.

Mercury is now ruled by Saturn in Pisces, showing Mercury will be more intuitive, more empathic, and more “in tune with the collective” even as the challenge is to find a way to protect ourselves against “aggressive social elements” en route to knowing our “indestructability” in late December. While in the first decan of Capricorn, Mercury also has a Jupiter sub-influence, and with Jupiter ruling Saturn, we should continue to enjoy life in easy and grounded ways.

As I noted when Mercury entered Sagittarius and had Jupiter as its primary dispositor, Venus was its final dispositor as long as She was in her home sign of Libra, which brings balance and elegance in the Taurus backdrop. Now that Mercury in Capricorn has Saturn in Pisces as a dispositor, the Jupiter influence will shift when Venus enters Scorpio just 3 days after Mercury enters Sagittarius, indicating December will be far more intense than November when it comes to all things influenced by Mercury!

After Mercury goes retrograde, it will continue to slow until the Inferior conjunction of Mercury and the Sun at 1 Capricorn on the Galactic Center. After that, it slips back into Sagittarius and begins to increase in speed, finally going stationary direct at 23 Sagittarius on New Year’s Day. Once Mercury and the Sun make their Inferior conjunction, Mercury will again the planet which “leads the Light,” showing that a prerequisite to “enlightened action” at that time will involve discovering the new information or perspective we need to make things real

While Mercury’s in early Capricorn, it heralds all the aspects that the Sun, Mars, and Venus will make between late December and late January. Now that it’s in Capricorn, Mercury will make a lot of very favorable aspects to Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn which will last through the Solstice Galactic Center Inferior conjunction.

One of the major events of the coming retrograde and its aftermath are the last two conjunctions of Mercury with Mars! Yes, this year and next we have THREE Mercury/Mars conjunctions. The first was 12 Scorpio on October 29; The next one’s with Mercury retrograde at 25 Sagittarius on December 27; the third will be after Mercury’s direct at 18 Capricorn on January 27. Each of these set a different type of energy in motion in the houses in which they fell.

While in Capricorn, Mercury is in its own 8th house relative to its Gemini qualities, and in its own 5th house relative to its Virgo qualities. So it’s very regenerative and aware of shared social values and resources, as well as more creative-expressive in Capricorn. I explain more about how Mercury functions in various signs in my pioneering work A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. Since it’s been retrograde in all three Earth signs this year and about to shift patterns into a combo of Earth and Fire, if you want to know about Mercury retrograde in various signs and houses, as well as how it functions in worldly events, please get a copy. It’s both fun and informative, and will give you “a new look” at all things related to Mercury retrograde! (Just make sure you get the 2nd Edition with the award on the cover published by 5th Ray Publishing rather than the much older 1st Edition published by Weiser.)

Mercury in Capricorn organizes the scattered ideas and plans of Mercury in Sagittarius into a grounded power of action. However, because Mercury’s going retrograde, those ideas and plans are going to have a slight delay as we rework them during the retrograde period. We have now opened new perspectives, adventures, truths, and visions which require some discipline, training, and/or organization.

From here it’s onward to the Inferior conjunction at 1 Capricorn, which will helps us claim power in a different realm than we’ve been dealing with. It may be a return to the past, or a renewal of an old power, but we’ll definitely be seeing life differently after the coming Solstice. After that, Mercury slips back into Sagittarius, making late December and early January more late like November than the first three weeks of December.

© Copyright 2023 Robert Wilkinson

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