I’ve returned from vacation and just in time to crawl into the shadow of next month’s Mercury retrograde!  Before we get into that, let’s talk about transits, the Sun, and the Moon.

Last night, I was talking to my friend from the 8th House Spark Breaker.  I was telling her about a rough period I had a few months ago and then suddenly said, “I wonder what was going on in the sky during that time.”  So, I pulled up my chart on astro.com and went to check out the sky during that time period.  I was astonished to see how much was going on during that time (including a Mercury retrograde!).

I’m a newbie to astrology, so my friend explained a lot of the things that I didn’t understand.  For instance, one of my transits was Chiron (“the wounded healer”) and my natal Mercury (communication) in the 10th house (public image).  At the time, I was dealing with some real internal problems.  I was in a situation that had me feeling really shameful.  Communication in this area was pretty bad.  I ended up shutting out a lot of friends from my life to “save face”.

Seeing what was going on in the sky with relation to that period in my life was pretty interesting to see.  If you’re curious about what was in the sky during a specific time, you can get a free transit chart by visiting astro.com.  Once you have your natal chart, visit the section of “My Astro” called “Extended Chart Selection”.  After that, the chart that you want to select is “natal chart and transits *”.  Very cool!

Also, I’m going to do a quick plug for my friend and tell you to visit her site: 8th House Spark Breaker She’s doing chart readings again and is excellent at explaining things.  I love talking to her, I always learn a million different things.  Check out her site!

Speaking on transits, as I write this post the Sun (ego) and Moon (emotions) are in the mighty sign of Leo.  This is double the Leo power!  Right now, the Sun and Moon are transiting my natal 4th house (home and sense of security).  However, what does the heck does that mean?  We think of the sign Leo – the sign of creativity, warmth, hospitality, a fiery and bold attitude! (and on the flip-side, showoff-ish, and dominant).  I’ve been trying to figure out all evening how this transit affects me, until I realized, I really did have a productive day.  I got a lot of paperwork done, filled out some things for some job training,  looked through finances… and I’ve always thought of the 4th house as more of a “homely” type of house, but I forgot that it also dealt with a sense of security.  All of these things affect having a sense of security – financially stable, having a steady job, etc.  In other words, I was very actively pursing these things.

Now, let’s talk move onto something more fun. Yesterday, August 18, 2009 – we entered the shadow period of the Mercury retrograde.  Now, the Mercury retrograde won’t occur until September 7, 2009.  It will be with us for almost the entire month of September, when it ends on September 29, 2009.  Even though it’s still weeks away, in the “shadow period”, it’s when we begin to feel the effects of the storm.  For most, the Mercury retrograde means, technical problems (computers in chaos- hard drives crashing), car and travel problems/delays… basically, this is usually a time for delays, frustration, and not a good time to sign contracts unless you really really read the fine print.  However, it gives us time to stop (while trying not to go crazy), look around, and reevaluate what’s going on in our life.

As the construction signs say on the Pennsylvania turnpike, “Expect Delays”.

In preparation for it, I recommend reading:

• Important Transits to Lead up to Merc rx Fall 09 by 8th House Spark Breaker
• Mercury Retrograde Sep. 7 to 29, 2009 by astrogrrl
• Mercury Retrograde by Astrology on the Web