Astrology

Mercury meets the sun at the midpoint of its retrograde

Mercury and the sun reached the same zodiacal degree on November 4 at about 7:07 p.m. IST, The Times of India reports. The meeting marks the midpoint of Mercury's retrograde, which began on October 24 and continues until November 13.

The alignment is a conjunction, a point at which two objects appear close together in the sky, according to Wikipedia. Mercury is in retrograde, meaning it appears to move backward from Earth's perspective rather than actually reversing its orbit, The Economic Times reports.

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Western and Vedic readings differ#

Western astrologers call the close meeting a cazimi, a term meaning that a planet is in the heart of the sun, according to The Times of India. In that tradition, the paper says, a planet at the sun's core is considered stronger. Mercury is associated with thinking and speech.

Vedic astrology treats Mercury's closeness to the sun differently, The Times of India reports. In that system, the planet is considered combust, a condition associated with diminished strength. The paper places both planets in Libra, or Tula, in the Vedic sidereal zodiac and at about 12 degrees Scorpio in the Western zodiac.

The Times of India describes the cazimi window as lasting only a few hours. Outside that window, the paper says, Western practice considers Mercury to be under the sun's beams, another condition associated with weakness. The retrograde continues beyond the conjunction.

Mercury's retrograde continues into November#

The November meeting is an inferior conjunction, the name The Times of India gives to this kind of sun-Mercury alignment during retrograde. A meeting during Mercury's forward motion is called a superior conjunction. The paper says Mercury joins the sun a few times each year.

According to The Economic Times, astrology links Mercury to communication, thinking, messages, travel and decisions. The outlet describes the retrograde in Scorpio as a period traditionally linked with revisiting conversations and unfinished matters. Those associations are part of astrological interpretation, not established effects of the planet's apparent motion.

Ruby Slipper Astrology also identifies a November 4 sextile, an astrological aspect, between Venus in Libra and Jupiter in Leo. It describes the aspect as the second in a series of three, following one on August 17. The final sextile is dated November 28.

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