When Mercury Passes The Sun -- in Virgo 2018

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Mercury passes the Sun.

In its eternal game of tag with the Sun, Mercury caught up and passed it again last night. So, once more Mercury has taken the lead, and will stay out in front for a few weeks. Mercury next retrogrades in Sagittarius, starting November 16 (the same day Venus goes direct again in Libra.)

Mercury will pass behind the Sun again on November 27. (Sorry, not soon enough to keep your relatives from annoying the daylights out of you over Thanksgiving dinner. But we still have a while to prepare for that.)

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When Mercury leads ...

When Mercury leads the Sun, your intellectual shift moves gradually out of the pensive, reflective, "planning mode" you've occupied for the past several weeks, and you're ready to talk, write, and share ideas openly and freely again with "strangers."

This is the stage in the intellectual cycle where you consult with others, gather in new information, offer the ideas and plans you've come up with from your most recent background efforts, make decisions "out in public" instead of in the quiet, pensive moods that have prevailed lately.

Now, you want to feed your mind with the fertile tidbits of interest and "logic" you find in the outside world. Your focus is more public and assertive. You're ready to talk, think, and act instead of dithering and mulling ... which again has been your preference for a while.

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The times are not usually so equal.

This stage of mental expression doesn't ordinarily last as long as the other. Mercury, in its cycle, usually spends about 45 - 50 days leading The Sun and about 65 - 70 days "behind the curtain." This time, it will be out front for 67 days and backstage again for 61.

Why the disparity? Because in one case, The Sun is trying to "catch up" to Mercury, who part of the time appears to slow down, preparing to retrograde again, and part of the time they're moving toward each other after retrograde begins.

In the other, Mercury is retrograding away from the Sun -- behind The Sun, creating more distance he'll have to cover when he finally turns around and moves direct again. And The Sun never moves to meet him during this phase; it's always moving forward. So catching up again ... often takes longer.

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This means something.

This says something interesting about the amount of planning, research, preparation, visualization, and creative building "in the background" that goes into the more public production of your ideas.

It could also say something worth hearing about the need to dream, reflect, listen, integrate, and imagine -- when it comes to working with the products of your own mind.

We could all take to heart the wisdom that it's important to think, watch, process and listen as least as much as you talk. That might literally create a quieter, more thoughtful world all around.

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Summing up.

The theme of this pattern
Paying close attention to your work, service, lifestyle and health.
Streamlining life to be easier, more efficient, more cost effective.

The benefits of this combination?

• A more extroverted, dramatic attitude in how you talk about -- and feel about -- your knowledge and views.
• A strong sense of "ownership" regarding your beliefs and ideas.
• Unusual respect for what you know ... and how you share that bounty.

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A word of advice?

When The Sun conjuncts Mercury, willpower, self-image, your sense of purpose, and your intellectual ambitions unite with your ability to think, reason and analyze, and use what you know. You're focused on thinking, speaking, writing and learning about things that interest you ... things you want to examine further.

This energy does invite people to get wrapped up in pride issues ... and personal views ... and treat disagreements like personal attacks.

The close bond between ego and opinions hinders objectivity, but the mental brilliance, stamina, and opportunities to use knowledge and information productively, combined with your ability to make your point is truly awesome.

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In closing

Both Mercury and the Sun will be moving into Libra in the next few hours, so that will bring more focus on working with partners, being cooperative, and accommodating other people's needs and desires.

But it could also invite you to think you know what's best for everybody ... especially "the other guy." So, try to also keep this in mind.

Thank you for stopping by!

If you've always known there was more to Astrology than Sun Sign material and the three line daily horoscope in the newspaper, climb aboard and follow this blog. You'll find a world of wisdom detailing how you were designed to work with life ... and why you are the way you are -- all in quick-to-read, easy-to-digest-and-remember, written-in-plain-English essays that offer plenty of food for thought.

Little by little, I'm doing a set of articles that talks about all the elements in your horoscope and what they have to say about you. If you "know something" about Astrology -- or know something about your chart placements, that will help you get more from this material.

If you don't ... well, this is one place you can learn. We all have to start somewhere ... because we aren't born knowing this stuff. Meanwhile, if you've never seen your horoscope ... and don't have a clue how to work with it, maybe it's time to find out. There are lots of "chart services" on the internet -- some of whom produce decent, readable charts "for free" and some are so awful and confusing that even I can't read them easily -- and I've worked with charts for decades.

One extremely user-friendly chart site is here: AstroLabe. I recommend them if you want a simple, easy-to-read chart. I think they even give a reasonable little interpretive reading of your horoscope as part of the package. You'll need to know your birth information -- day, month, year, time and geographical place. Without all that your chart will have limited accuracy.

Or, if you want to get serious and really talk about this, upvote this post and start a conversation in the comments section sometime in the next six days from the time of publication. We'll go from there depending on what you want to know.

Questions about any of this? -- Upvote this post and talk to me in comments. It's a terrific way to build value for yourself and the community ... and it will give me ideas of what to write about in future posts. Believe me there is lots to say about the way The Sun, The Moon -- and all the other elements in a horoscope, all the other components of Astrology -- work together to interpret you and your story -- and what it all means to the person you've become.

This is who I am.

About the art in our visual essays ...

Although sometimes the background pictures in our visual essays support the topic and text, they don't always. Sometimes the connection is clear. Sometimes it's symbolic and subtle. Sometimes, there's no connection at all.

The scenes depict landscapes and natural features, buildings and wildlife. They were chosen because they show something lovely or interesting ... or simply because the photo appealed to me.

Our spectacular and remarkable planet is changing at astonishing speed. Rarely are these changes for the better. Few people seem to know ... or care ... or have the will and power to do anything about this. It may not be long before the world humans have known and lived in for centuries is forever lost. We certainly won't be able to make repairs as fast as we destroyed it.

So a few years ago I began collecting pictures of the way things were ... and still are for now, a record of the beauty we have while it is still ours to love and honor.

The photos here are part of that collection, with sincere thanks to the artists who saw these moments ... and with their cameras ... preserved them. All of us at Enchanted Spirit are profoundly grateful to them for their generosity and skill ... and for the added grace, depth and dimension their art brings to ours.

Original images used under this Creative Commons license or this Creative Commons license and modified by added text.

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