Mercury is about to enter his retrograde shadow in Sagittarius and will station retrograde at the end of the month. This year he’s been going retrograde in fire signs when it’s a good time to rethink your ideas about the future and how you channel inspiration, creativity and intuition. This pattern continues into 2025 but the cycle starts to shift into water signs. So this final cycle of 2024 provides an excellent opportunity to have a good rummage in the Sagittarius part of your chart.

Here are the dates for your diary:

• 7th November: enters retrograde shadow at 6° Sagittarius
• 26th November: stations retrograde at 22° Sagittarius
• 6th December: inferior conjunction with the Sun at 14° Sagittarius
• 15th December: stations direct at 6° Sagittarius
• 3rd January 2025: leaves retrograde shadow at 22° Sagittarius
• 9th February 2025: superior conjunction with the Sun at 20° Aquarius

With Mercury in Sagittarius you can expand your mind with optimistic thinking and philosophical ideas and explore other cultures to feed your imagination. Your thinking may be excitable, intuitive and future-oriented with a desire to find truth and deeper meaning in your interactions with others. It’s a good time to study subjects that you’re interested in and share your knowledge with others.

But you may also feel restless and struggle to stay focused on one thing at a time so could miss important details. Your ideas and plans could be too idealistic and impractical, possibly even grandiose, and you may lack the discipline to follow them through. There may be a lot of talking but not much to show for it at the end of the transit.

When Mercury stations retrograde in Sagittarius he descends into the underworld with great enthusiasm for the adventure ahead, ready to search for meaning and find creative solutions to problems. This gives you an opportunity to rethink the Sagittarius part of your chart and how it affects you will depend on the house that Mercury is transiting.

You may feel restless and confused in this area of your life and a lack of focus could make you more accident prone than normal. Mercury will be firing off arrows all over the place without thinking and who knows what you’ll end up hitting by mistake! So you may need to make an extra effort to slow down and think things through before doing anything major.

This is especially important because Mercury is going retrograde while opposite Jupiter in Gemini. The aspect enters an 8-degree orb on 11th November and forms three exact aspects, remaining in orb for the rest of the year and fading out by 2nd January 2025.

Mercury in Sagittarius and Jupiter in Gemini are in mutual reception so this aspect reinforces the energy of both planets. That means they’ll be egging each other on and you may need to make an effort to bring out the positive sides of both. Your mind may be highly energised and open to new perspectives but this could also increase your restlessness and scatter your attention.

There could be a lot of hot air and pontificating but very little action – all mouth and no trousers. You may struggle with the practical details or become distracted by too many options and possibilities. Or could be overconfident leading to poor judgement and bad decision making.

But this aspect also contains great potential for expanding your mind and it could be a creative time when you have many breakthroughs and grow in wisdom and knowledge. You can learn more about whatever you need to improve your life and develop a new philosophy that opens up your future. This may involve letting go of old ideas from the past so you can embark on a fresh adventure.

Not all Mercury retrograde cycles are the same and some are more disruptive than others because of the aspects made by Mercury during the transit. The opposition from Jupiter could be disruptive but the energy can also be beneficial if you work with it consciously so the results are up to you. Mercury is also forming other aspects that will either help or hinder your approach.

Here are the main exact aspects for this cycle:

• 12th November: Mercury square Saturn at 12° Sagittarius/Pisces
• 18th November: Mercury opposite Jupiter at 18° Sagittarius/Gemini
• 4th December: Mercury retrograde opposite Jupiter at 16° Sagittarius/Gemini
• 7th December: Mercury retrograde square Saturn at 13° Sagittarius/Pisces
• 13th December: Mercury retrograde sextile Venus at 6° Sagittarius/Aquarius
• 26th December: Mercury opposite Jupiter at 13° Sagittarius/Gemini
• 27th December: Mercury square Saturn at 14° Sagittarius/Pisces

The Mercury opposition with Jupiter also forms a T-square with Saturn which may help to keep your feet on the ground and stop your mind from expanding too far. But there’s another aspect that isn’t included on this list because it doesn’t go exact which could cause some problems. Mercury stations retrograde while square Neptune which could increase your idealism and lead to disillusionment when the bubble bursts.

The Mercury Neptune square fades into an 8-degree orb on 18th November and then fades out again by 2nd December. It also forms a T-square with the Jupiter opposition which could increase your confusion and leave you feeling bewildered by events. You may discover how unrealistic your ideas are when Mercury goes retrograde but you might have to wait for Saturn to burst your bubble instead.

The Mercury Saturn square fades into an 8-degree orb on 6th November and goes exact on 12th November before fading out again by 20th November when Mercury is still direct. It then returns on 30th November after Mercury has gone retrograde and goes exact twice more before fading out by 3rd January 2025.

This leaves Mercury swimming in the Neptunian depths for 10 days at the end of November without Saturn and this is when you may be most prone to self-deception and grandiose ideas. When the Saturn T-square returns, it will help to steady your mind and slow things down and give you the discipline you need to make the most of the Jupiter opposition to Mercury.

This is important because this retrograde cycle is happening at the same time as the intense and highly disruptive Mars Pluto opposition. Mercury will also be trine Mars during the retrograde so it will be easy to get triggered if you’re not thinking straight. A tendency to speak before you think could get you into serious trouble.

The Mercury Mars trine doesn’t go exact because Mars goes retrograde too. The aspect fades into an 8-degree orb from 6th December when Mercury retrograde is conjunct the Sun and then Mars stations retrograde the same day. The Mercury Mars trine gets to within 43 minutes of exact before separating again on 15th December when Mercury goes direct, and fades out by 25th December.

This aspect energises your mind and eases the flow of communication but while both planets are retrograde this could increase confusion and mistakes if you don’t stop to think before you speak or act. The positivity of Mercury in Sagittarius may help to keep you buoyant even with Pluto breathing down your neck. Use your imagination to channel the intensity of the Mars Pluto energy into something creative. And remember to stop talking and listen to others – you may learn something!

You can make the most of this time by using the Mercury Retrograde Workbook available here! This is a comprehensive guide to working with Mercury retrograde transits that includes worksheets to track your experience. Click the image to find out more!

Image: Fire Torch

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