Mercury Trine Neptune: Diving in Deep

Throughout each month transiting points create dynamic relationships with your natal chart points.  Often times two transiting points will relate to one another in a way that affects us all, depending on the points involved. 

This article will look at one of these dynamics happening between two points this month, Mercury in Scorpio trine Neptune in Pisces, both retrograde. Mercury will actually trine Neptune twice this month, once while it is retrograde, and a second time after it goes direct again.  This first article will address the Retrograde Mercury trine Retrograde Neptune aspect.

When two points trine with one another, they support one another.  The point of communication will give to and get support from the point of dreams, surrender, and spirituality.

The Trine, and Retrograde Mercury and Retrograde Neptune

This month, when the faster moving Mercury goes back to 15 degrees 58 minutes (15d58m) of Scorpio, it will trine with Neptune at the same degree, but in Pisces, at 5:28 pm EST on November 13^th.  The impact of this relationship begins to be felt up to 3 degrees before and 3 degrees after the exact aspect and is known as the orb of influence.  When the faster moving body approaches, the aspect is said to be approaching and is building energy.  Once the exact aspect has passed, the aspect is said to be separating and is losing energy.  The duration of this particular aspect will run from November 9^th to November 17^th.

Mercury (retrograde)

Mercury represents our way of communicating, interpreting the world around us, and our learning style.  Mercury rules two signs: Gemini and the 3^rd House of Communication and Virgo and the 6^th House of Service/Health.  The 3^rd House oversees communication, short distance travel, siblings, and the interactions of daily life.  The 6^th House oversees skills needed for day-to-day work, how you prefer or are “asked” to serve, and the nature of your health.

With Mercury moving through Scorpio at this time, there is a focus on communicating the truth, revealing secrets, creating secrets, and keeping secrets.  Scorpio rules dark places and Mercury is like a navigation tool to be used while traveling through the dark and hidden realms.  This action by Mercury is even more pronounced when it is retrograde; it really wants to “dive in deep”, psychologically speaking.

The Sabian Symbol is 16 Scorpio, “a girl’s face breaking into a smile”.  From the book, The Sabian Symbols, author Marc Edmund Jones says, “this is a symbol of the need to share any true essence of selfhood, as here brought to an immediate actuality in everyday living”.

He assigns the keyword as AQUIESENCE. Further, he says, “when positive, the degree is man’s ingratiating gift for employing the simple things of life for surmounting any momentary obstacles to his self-fulfillment, and when negative, self-betrayal through a lack of all discrimination” (195).

• Understanding Retrograde Motion in Astrology

Neptune (retrograde)

Neptune represents the spiritual energy, dreams, and the collective unconscious; it is the ocean of consciousness.  Neptune rules mystery, the unknown, and spiritual connection through the sign of Pisces and the 12^th House of Spirituality and Soul Purpose.  It is a water point that is generational, spending around 17 years in a sign.  Currently, Neptune is moving through the sign it rules, Pisces, which it entered in 2010 and will leave in 2026.

With Neptune moving through Pisces at this time, the entire planet is getting spiritually awakened.  Neptune’s influence is never direct, never even easy to assess.  A simple joke describes the essence of Neptune: two young fish are swimming along, and older fish approaches them and says, as he swims by, “hey boys, how’s the water?”  The young fish respond, “fine” and keep swimming.  Not long after, one of the young fish says to the other, “what’s water?”

While retrograde the spiritual energy is profoundly internal and even more difficult to assess, like a fog at night on a New Moon. We simply have to feel our way through and wait for time to pass to see what energy manifested within us that is meant to “come out” when Neptune goes direct again.

The Sabian Symbol for Neptune at the time of the trine is 16 Pisces, “the flow of inspiration”. Jones says, “this is a symbol of the spiritual power which the development of civilization has brought to a point of practical potentiality, and on which each person may draw in meeting any and all critical issues of everyday living”.

The keyword is INGENUITY.  Further, he says, “When positive, the degree is exceptional capacity for meeting the unusual developments on every level of human experience, and when negative, delusions of cleverness and contempt for real effort” (315).

Retrograde Mercury Trines Retrograde Neptune: Diving in Deep

The trine aspect creates a powerful flow between two points. If a sextile aspect, also a flowing aspect, is a straw’s diameter, then a trine is the glass or cup diameter the straw would be sitting in to extract the liquid.  Mercury and Neptune in trine in water signs represent a powerful psychic/emotional event.  With both points retrograde, this event is going to happen internally as a form of revelation, insight, epiphany, and divine download!

The connection to spirit and dreams will be particularly intense during this six-day stretch so you might find it very useful to have a journal near your bedside, especially if you decide to set an intention before you go to sleep.  You can ask to speak with or share a dream with someone that has passed on or even try to make a dream connection with someone in your life by asking them to join you in the dream state and seeing if they would like to try to use the energy to share a dream with you.

This energy will be even more intense since Venus will be exactly square Neptune the very next day (so I strongly suggest reading the Venus Square Neptune article after reading this one).  The general effect of the aspects of Mercury and Venus to Neptune (one a trine and the other a square) simply indicate tremendous intensity at the psychological and relational levels.  The insight will come easily (Mercury trine Neptune), but the way the insight works in your relationships will bring considerable challenge (Venus square Neptune).

The speed and depth of entering a meditative state will be enhanced, as would past life regressions through hypnosis.  The boundary between spirit and reality will be open and intense.  It will also be a time when mind-altering drugs or substances can be particularly strong, so it would be wise, if use them, to do so properly and with support.