Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio Survival Guide

Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio October 31- November 20

Mercury, the messenger and translator, has been spending many weeks of this year in water signs. Mercury relies on very different skills in constellations associated with water signs. Though this planet is ever the capable navigator, planets in water signs primarily have to do with our emotions and felt sensations. Mercury in water signs favors non-verbal communications, like having a “feeling” about something, “just knowing,” and body language.

As I wrote in earlier blog posts, Mercury Retrograde in Pisces was about trusting the process of change that was opening for you in 2019, while Mercury Retrograde in Cancer was about coming to terms with your childhood patterns and self (and choosing self-care). 

Now, with Mercury in Scorpio, it is time to mourn the past and celebrate the joyful essence of the present moment. For me Scorpio is about coming to terms with the wheel of creation— the process of birth, life, death, and transition to another state. In Scorpio, we learn to express our emotions that arise, accept them, and let them be. Scorpio is often associated with desire, attachments, and obsession, but I would argue that these associations have to do with what happens when we are unable to accept that life is a continual process of change.

Mercury Meets Hecate at the Crossroads

On October 30, Mercury stations retrograde at 28 Scorpio, meeting Venus at the same degree. The retrograde station is the point where the planet appears to stop and then turn backward (note: Mercury retrograde is an apparent phenomenon). Before considering what this Mercury Retrograde might mean for you, it would be helpful to review what happened during Venus’ retrograde last fall. Venus, the planet of loving connection, has been retracing her own underworld journey from 2018— her retrograde in Scorpio which lasted from October 5 until November 17, 2018. What information, people, or events from the past rose to the surface and asked to be acknowledged? What revelations did you have about yourself and your beliefs about your ability to give love and be loved? 

For the past month or so, Venus and Mercury have been journeying through Scorpio, quickly retracing this territory. With everything else going on, you might not have noticed the connection between October 2018 and October 2019, but there definitely is one. Taking a moment to identify common themes in your life between these two times will help bring to your awareness possible themes of this Mercury retrograde. 

Venus in Scorpio fulfills the archetype of the underworld goddess; in this case, I have chosen to highlight Hecate since it is also Halloween. In the ancient world, Hecate developed an association with magic and mystery rites due to her role protecting brides, women in childbirth, as well as childless women. Hecate isn’t so much a scary witch or an angry crone, but rather the goddess who gives you the knowledge and support to handle liminal spaces— the moments of life in between stages where you pass from one phase to the next. She was honored at crossroads, entrances (symbolized by the key in her iconography), and in the evening— places and times when the veils between worlds might thin.

As Mercury and Venus meet on October 30, we can imagine Venus/Hecate handing Mercury the keys to working with Scorpio’s emotional realms. They will part at the crossroads and Mercury will turn back for another go at making sense of Scorpio’s emotional challenges. 

Mercury Rx in Scorpio: Dead Can Dance

On Halloween, Mercury begins its retrograde journey in the last degrees of Scorpio and moves backwards through the sign until November 20. Then, from November 21 to December 8, it will move forward through Scorpio.  

Scorpio teaches us how to change, mourn, and find joy in impermanence. To move with the dance of life and draw energy into our own life force. Mercury here is helping strip us of emotions and attachments that may be familiar but are blocking us from moving forward. 

One way to work with this energy is to think of Mercury as the ritual mourner— a role found in many traditional societies. Traditional song culture always combined song, dance, and ritual to help mourners move through grief and honor the dead. You can dance alone in your bedroom or you can find a crowd, but moving your body can help release stuck emotions and pent-up anxiety from overwhelming emotions.

I recently encountered several examples of song and ritual together to honor the dead: first, at a funeral for my beloved Uncle, the service concluded with a slide of clouds and a song about honoring the deceased. It was cheesy, but timed perfectly for our modern, secular mourning ritual and got me thinking about how important a well-timed song can be for grief. Next, a colleague who is Cree First Nation in Manitoba, Canada recently told me about a ritual to honor the grief of elderly women who had lost their grandchildren. The other women of the community gather together on the death anniversary to bathe the women and comb their hair. They are treated as if they were children needing to be cared for in the depths of their grief. 

Both of these examples show that grief requires expression, time, and community support. I encourage you to find support to express whatever comes up for you during this Mercury retrograde and move through it.

Hecate Triodos: Goddess of the Crossroads, or the Triple Path

Just like three-faced Hecate, Mercury goes through the same ground of Scorpio three times. This fall, we have three opportunities to let go and be in the present moment with your emotions. What are the keys to your challenges? What emotions from the past need to be acknowledged? How can you surrender to the present moment? Let us sing, dance, and mourn together and feel into these questions.