Aeolian Heart ASTROLOGY

MERCURY
RETROGRADE
HOROSCOPES & SURVIVAL GUIDE

DECEMBER 2023
 MERCURY
RETROGRADE
DATES

STATIONS RETROGRADE
13 DECEMBER 2023

INFERIOR CONJUNCTION
DECEMBER 22, 2023

STATIONS DIRECT
JANUARY 1, 2024
Hello Stargazer,

It’s here. The final Mercury

retrograde of the year.

This Mercury retrograde is

both an ending and a
beginning.

Since December 2022, Mercury

has been retrograde
exclusively in earth signs.

But this year is the last time

Mercury retrogrades in an
earth sign until 2029.

Because while this Mercury

retrograde begins in
Capricorn…

…it ends in Sagittarius. And

for the next two years,
Mercury will retrograde
exclusively in fire signs!

This Mercury retrograde gives

you the chance to look back
at how high you’ve climbed to
achieve your goals and
ambitions…

…and offers you the

opportunity to take aim so
that you can finally hit the
bullseye.
Calling this a “Survival Guide”
is a bit of a misnomer.

Because I don’t want you to

just survive despite the
Mercury retrograde—I want
you to thrive because of it!

That’s why in addition to your

Mercury retrograde
horoscope, you’ll also find
esoteric teachings and
magical exercises…

…so that you can experience

an alchemical transformation
this Mercury retrograde!

Much Love,
Rachel
HOROSCOPES
On the following pages, you’ll find your
horoscope for the Mercury retrograde
along with some transit dates.

Remember to read for your Sun Sign

AND Rising Sign!
 DATES
The Mercury retrograde lasts from
December 13, 2023 to January 1, 2024.

Mercury stations retrograde at 8 degrees

Capricorn on December 13.

On December 18, retrograde Mercury will

trine Jupiter in Taurus.

Mercury makes his inferior conjunction with

the Sun on December 22.

On December 23, Mercury retrogrades into

Sagittarius.

Mercury stations direct on January 1.

 ARIES
You’ve set your sights high.

Mercury’s retrograde in Capricorn will

examine the foundations you’re building on,
digging deep into the roots of your true
motivations.

Mercury retrograde in your 10th house of

career will begin shifting the ground upon
which you’ve built your success.

The plateau you’ve settled into will start to

feel uninhabitable.

And Mercury’s trine to Jupiter in your 2nd

house of money will open your eyes to a
way to increase your income and your
influence.
 TAURUS
You’re ready to stand up for what you
believe!

Mercury retrograde will inspire you to

examine your beliefs more deeply. As the
ground shifts in your 9th house of
philosophy, anything that’s been built on
false premises or faulty assumptions will
crumble. Only the enduring strength of
truth will remain.

Mercury’s trine to Jupiter in your 1st house

of identity will bless any calling to be a
teacher or guide. Your words will resonate,
earning you great respect and recognition
for your willingness to stand up for what
you believe, question authority and speak
the truth.
 GEMINI
You’re ready to take a big risk and win!
Mercury retrograde will dig into your issues
with sex or money, the most vulnerable and
primal wounds.

This retrograde in your 8th house of

alchemical transformation will be a wake-up
call. Alchemy is about transforming
darkness into light.

This is when your past wounds become

wisdom. And you willingly risk the
consequences of love, win or lose.

Mercury’s trine to Jupiter in your 12th

house of the unconscious will inspire your
dreams to guide you through this healing
process, transforming suffering into
compassion.
 CANCER
You’re ready for a marriage of true minds!

Mercury retrograde will inspire you to

examine your most important relationships.

As the ground shifts in your 7th house of

relationships, you’ll become more severe in
how you judge the quality of someone’s
mind and heart.

Drawn to people who can demonstrate

excellence, loyalty and respect, you may cut
ties with those offering dull conversation
or any reason to mistrust.

Mercury’s trine to Jupiter in your 11th

house of friendship is a blessing to your
sense of connection and purpose.
 LEO

Your health is your true wealth!

Mercury retrograde will inspire you to

reassess your work habits and health
routines to support your wellbeing.

As the ground shifts in your 6th house of

health and routines, you’ll confront your
resistance to healthy habits.

As Mercury trines Jupiter in your 10th

house of career, there’s BIG opportunities
for acclaim and recognition coming to you.
In order to welcome your success and avoid
burnout, take a little time now to support
your health.
 VIRGO

You’re ready to open up and share! Mercury

retrograde will inspire you to resurrect an
abandoned creative idea or project.

As the ground shifts in your 5th house of

creativity, you’ll see how much you’ve been
holding yourself back from exploring your
full creative potential.

And as Mercury trines Jupiter in the 9th,

your creative ideas will be blessed by
divine providence. You’ll prosper more by
expressing yourself authentically. This is
how a chance meeting can turn into a
lifelong friendship or a small blog article
can turn into a book deal.
 LIBRA

You’re ready to learn from the past.

Mercury’s retrograde in your fourth house

of home will test the strength of your
roots. And loving who you are and
respecting where you come from will
nourish your future growth and prosperity.

As Mercury trines Jupiter in your 8th house

of alchemical transformation, you’ll feel the
seeds of future success and prosperity
germinating. All you have to do is
surrender to divine providence and trust
that you’ll be supported.
 SCORPIO
You’re ready to do my own research.

Mercury retrograde in your third house of

communications will inspire you to think
more critically and get the bottom of
something. As the ground shifts in your
third house, new information will come to
light. You might change your opinions, your
thesis or your message. Your grasp on truth
will empower your language, making your
words and ideas more magnetic and
evocative.

As Mercury trines Jupiter in your 7th house,

you’ll be blessed by mutual reciprocity and
great conversation. And when it comes to
making important decisions, you’ll be open
to receive excellent advice.
SAGITTARIUS
You’re ready to enjoy the fruits of your
labors.

Mercury retrograde in your second house of

money is a time to rethink some of your
strategies about money. Going over your
budget and accounts may reveal better ways
to save and invest. You’ll be inspired to
increase your streams of income, becoming
more resourceful, efficient and prosperous.

As Mercury trines Jupiter in your 6th house,

a path of prosperity will be discovered in
your devotion to service.Developing good
character and integrity will be rewarded
with wealth. Put your whole heart into
whatever work you’re given.
 CAPRICORN
Mercury retrograde in your first house of
identity will ask you to critique the way
you’ve been showing up and presenting
yourself. Whether you’ve been trying to
appear more important than you are or less
important, the weight of any pretensions
will feel like a heavy burden.

You’ll be shedding an awkward layer of

personality, an immature idea of social
expectations.

As Mercury trines Jupiter in your 5th house

of creativity, you’ll be uplifted by a spirit
of spontaneity. Instead of striving to
achieve specific outcomes, joy and
expansion will follow your willingness to
take a risk and express yourself
authentically.
 AQUARIUS
With Mercury retrograde in your 12th house
of the unconscious, you’re going to sleep
through this retrograde, guided by Mercury
through vivid dreams. You’ll get to rest and
heal.

As the ground shifts in your 12th house,

you’ll be made aware of how much life itself
is like a dream. As your waking life
becomes more synchronistic, you’ll realize
that you’re in a greater dialogue with the
world soul.

As Mercury trines Jupiter in your 4th house

Taurus, you’ll be most blessed by your time
in quiet places of sanctuary. This expands
your home and property. And you’ll also
benefit from time away spent at retreat
centers, the wilderness, and opening to the
infinite.
 PISCES
Mercury retrograde in your eleventh house
of friends will turn your community upside
down and your network inside out. It’s time
to reevaluate promises you made and the
oaths you’ve taken.

As the ground shifts in your 11th house of

friends and community, you’ll be faced with
your intentions with your wider social
networks. Because when the retrograde
ends, your social structure will look very
different.

As Mercury trines Jupiter in your 3rd house

of communication and local networks, you’ll
find prosperity when you keep it local—
between siblings, close friends, your
neighborhoos.
SURVIVAL GUIDE
POWER OF THREE

Hermetic cosmology sees three worlds—

heaven, earth and the underworld (divine,
human, animal)—all connected by the axis
mundi.

The axis mundi has been depicted in

mythological traditions as a tree (Yggdrasil
of Norse mythology) or mountain (Mount
Olympus of Greece).

It’s the pillar that holds up the entire

universe and connects the human world to
one that is at once animistic and divine.

It’s through Mercury that we learn our

ancestral wisdom and divine origins in
equal measure.

Mercury’s Grecian counterpart Hermes was

the only god granted the power to travel
the full range of the axis mundi...

...from the heights of Mount Olympus to the

depths of Hades.
When he turns retrograde, Mercury
descends below the horizon...

...and he transforms from the Winged

Messenger into the psychopomp, the guide
who carries departed souls into the
underworld.

The astrologer Gary P. Caton describes the

visual phenomena of the Mercury
Retrograde as a “disappearing act.”

Caton writes that, to the naked eye, it looks

like Mercury is

“...switching skies, appearing in

the same degrees three times:
first as evening star, then
becoming invisible and making
the inferior conjunction, and
finally crossing for the third
time as morning star.”1

The Mercury retrograde is an invitation for

you to switch selves—to transform from
ordinary consciousness to unconscious
reverie, from a rational being into an
irrational creature.

You’re being asked to switch patterns and

change perception, lest you become a
victim to the alteration of consciousness
naturally underway during the Mercury
retrograde.

1. Gary P. Caton, Hermetica Triptycha

(Aukland: Rubedo Press, 2017)
You may hear an invitation from Mercury
the trickster to switch worlds.

It’s an invitation to go within to discover

the source of your discontent with others
and the world-at-large, rather than point
your finger like a heat seeking missile at an
easily identifiable enemy.

You’re being called to break free of

rationality, to embrace the irrational and
see reality as it truly is...

...or as it seems to be.

 IN THE HEART
OF THE SUN
THE SOLSTICE CAZIMI

Taking place on the Solstice (December 22),

Mercury makes his inferior conjunction with
the Sun at 0 degrees Capricorn.

This transit is also known as the Cazimi,

which translates to “In the Heart of the
Sun.” The image is of a messenger entering
the throne room of a great monarch.

The Cazimi is a great seed moment. In this

cosmic temple beyond the limits of space
and time, you make contact with the divine
so that you can bear witness to a greater
plan for your destiny.

The mythos of Capricorn is the story of the

spirit’s descent into matter, when light was
condensed into physical form and bound to
the earth by the forces of space and time.

The traditional holidays of this season

(including Christmas) correlate with the
symbolism of the winter solstice, the day
that the Sun returns to its path of ascent.
Manly P. Hall once said that the birth of
Jesus Christ represents the “day when
divine love was made flesh.”

The Son of God is the divine Sun.

The story of the Christ was blended with

previously existing solstice festivals.

Historically, the date of December 25th

originally belonged to an ancient Sun god
called Mithra, the Lord of Light.

Mythologically, the births of both Christ

and Mithra both took place in a cave among
the goats (Capricorn).

Joseph Campbell writes that the cave is

“...associated particularly with

the winter solstice, when the
sun has traveled to its farthest
point away from the tilted earth
and the light is in the nadir of
the abyss. That is the date of
the birth of the god Mithra, who
is lord of light. He was born—
we recall that his mother is the
Earth…” 2

2. Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That

(Novato: New World Library, 2001)
This cave at the nadir of the abyss is also
referred to in ancient mythology as the
Cave of the Nymphs, the place of the soul’s
generation into physical being.

In ancient writings, human souls in heaven

were described as being like clouds, wispy,
vaporous and floating.

And like clouds, these souls condensed

through desire and poured themselves like
rain upon the Earth.

And to complete the cycle, these souls on

earth would eventually evaporate back up
into the heavens.

In esoteric philosophy, the entry point for

the soul was found at the Tropic of Cancer
on a map, in a mythic soul nursery called
Cave of the Nymphs.

But the Tropic of Capricorn represented the

ambition of spirit to rise to new heights.

Both the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic

of Cancer represent the exact latitudes
where the Sun or sol reaches its solstices.

The Cave of the Nymphs illustrates a kind

of distillation process for souls: the soul
(sol) descends from Heaven into Earthly life
and then from Earthly life back up to
Heaven.
In ancient cosmology, Capricorn season
represented the soul’s desire to leave the
Earth and ascend back up to Heaven: to
return to divine origin.

As Heraclitus said, “a dry soul is the

wisest.”

Capricorn is just that: a dry soul, ready to

leave behind sentiment and clinging desires
for a wider vision and a greater purpose.

Thus, at the winter solstice, the soul begins

moving away from Earthly desire, concerned
now with its ascent back into the realm of
the divine. This is illustrated by the
mountain that Capricorn is always
envisioned climbing.

Capricorn season will offer you the instinct

and the tenacity to push the soul towards
its ascent back into the light of divinity.

As the Neoplatonic philosopher Porphyry

says, the pathways opened in Capricorn are
filled with

“...souls ascending to the Gods.

On this account, the poet does
not say that they are the
avenues of the Gods, but of
immortals; being also common
to our souls, which are
essentially immortal.” 3

3. Porphyry. On the Cave of the Nymphs.

Translated by Thomas Taylor. Watkins, 1917.
The season of Capricorn opens a gateway
for your soul’s journey of ascent.

The Romans honored this with the name for

the month of January, derived from the
word janua meaning gateway.

The gateway of ascent was also the sole

purpose behind the Roman celebration of
Saturnalia.

Saturnalia was notorious as the holiday in

which slaves were served by their masters
and great feasts were shared by rich and
poor.

The wisdom in this festivity was to uplift

the souls of the enslaved by letting them
taste freedom and to uplift the souls of the
masters by letting them taste humility.

Capricorn is the sign that honors the hard

work undertaken by each soul that is
incarnated upon earth.

Like the goat that’s also a fish, Capricorn

ranges from spirit’s heavy descent into
matter and onward into matter’s ascent into
spirit.

This is the season where struggle becomes

strength.
 M E R C U R Y
RETROGRADE
A L C H E M Y
Mercury has an affinity for alchemy.

That’s because alchemy comes to us by way

of Ancient Egypt, straight from the mouth of
Mercury’s Egyptian equivalent, the language
god Thoth.

Alchemy is both an art and science.

It is descended from a lineage that can be

traced back to the mythic figure Hermes-
Trismegistus (or the Thrice-Great Hermes).

Legend has it that Hermes-Trismegistus

received alchemy from the language god
Thoth and wrote it all down in a mysterious
text called The Emerald Tablet.
The Emerald Tablet is most famous for its
opening lines which state:

“That which is below is like that

which is above and that which is
above is like that which is below
to do the miracle of one only
thing.” 4

This usually gets shortened to:

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW
AS BELOW, SO ABOVE

This is known as the Principle of

Correspondences.

It observes the corresponding relationship

between heaven and earth, or macrocosm
and microcosm.

According to the Principle of

Correspondence, the processes that created
stars and galaxies and universes...

...are the same as the ones that create cells

and molecules and babies in their mother’s
womb.

But the Principle of Correspondence doesn’t

just observe the relationship between
heaven and earth.

It also observes the relationship between

alchemist and experiment.

4. Isaac Newton translation

In other words, the same transformation
taking place in the alchemist’s laboratory
was taking place in the alchemist himself.

And this relationship is symbolic of the

transformation that awaits you during the
Mercury retrograde.

Because while Mercury is making his

retrograde dance across the sky (AS
ABOVE)...

...you have the power to catalyze potent

transformation within the depths of your
soul (SO BELOW).
Alchemy happens in three phases.

black
white
red

And the Mercury retrograde follows these

three phases.

It offers a time to let go of what no longer

serves you, reconnect with your soul
purpose and transform into the light of the
True Self.

On the following pages, you’ll get a general

outline of how the different phases of the
retrograde will affect you.

Plus, you’ll get recommendations for

magical practices you can do to empower
your transformation.
 BLACK PHASE
DECEMBER 13 TO DECEMBER 21

The Black Phase of Mercury retrograde will

be from December 13 to December 21.

This represents a time of death and loss.

Roles you’re no longer meant to play will
die. Old desires that no longer inspire will
die. No matter how necessary some of these
deaths may be, times of loss and change
bring fear.

Recommended Practices: Purge your

shelves and closets, giving away items
that no longer spark joy. Fast from
negative thoughts or words about
yourself or others. Engage in deep and
contemplative shadow work.
 WHITE PHASE
DECEMBER 22 TO DECEMBER 30

The White Phase of Mercury retrograde will

span December 22 to December 30.

This begins with the Cazimi, when Mercury

enters into the heart of the Sun in
Capricorn. Your heart will be purified of
unworthy desires as the poisons of apathy
and ignorance are burned away. Following
the Cazimi, Mercury will begin his rise as
morning star, symbolizing the emergence of
the light of your true Self.

Recommended Practices: Commit to a

new schedule or routine that inspires
you to breakthrough to your greatest
potential. Join a vision quest or
medicine ceremony. Visit a sacred site
or place of power.
 RED PHASE
DECEMBER 31 TO JANUARY 1

The Red Phase of Mercury retrograde will

span from December 31 to January 1.

Mercury stations direct on January 1st and

will continue to increase in brightness as
Morning Star, reaching his climax of
brightness on January 12th. This symbolizes
the transmutation of death into new life:
the darkness of the ego into the light of the
True Self.

Recommended Practices: Create a

talisman that captures the energy of
your transformation. This could be a
traditional talisman like a charm bag, a
piece of jewelry or a magical tool. Or
you can be creative and write a poem,
sing a song or paint a portrait.
 VISIT
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