Mercury Retrograde April 24’
Mercury will be retrograding through Aries this month from the 1st through the 25th and will bring a new meaning to the saying, “April showers bring May flowers.” Mercury in Aries brings fire and passion to our mindset and thought process, but untempered, it can easily burn anything it touches. Aries shows us where we are leaders in our life and how we take action towards creating new beginnings. This mercury retrograde is going to call into question everything that is blocking you from doing so and will show you exactly how you play a part in that, whether that’s intentionally or unintentionally. Mercury is accompanied by the sun, Chiron, and the North Node in Aries with Venus joining them on the 5th so this energy is going to be very triggering to our ego and inner child in order to highlight unresolved emotional ties to our deepest wounds in life, especially around how it hinders your self expression and flow state. This is intended to highlight where your ego may be holding you back toward taking action or causing you to think or act impulsively as well. This retrograde will highlight where you are still holding unnecessary judgements, criticism, and resentment toward yourself and others and how it’s fueling competition, stagnancy, lack mindset, fear, and insecurities. The recent Lunar Eclipse in Aries sister sign, Libra, gave us a taste of this upcoming month’s energy by reflecting back the subconscious wounds that are causing us to undervalue our true selves, not the self we present to the world. While the moon tends to work with use through our intuition and our emotions, Mercury will present a similar energy through our mindset and thought process which will then lead us back to our heart space, subconscious, and our true emotions. With the fire influence, our emotions could be hidden under a layer of irritability, frustration, and impatience, so taking time to slow down and recenter before reacting will allow you to connect to the true nature of what your feeling will keep you from acting impulsively. You may find that you’re struggling more with your self-sabotaging behaviors through this retrograde period which may flare up feelings of shame, guilt, and resentment you have for yourself. Those emotions are going to illuminate where you hold limiting beliefs and unresolved wounds around that behavior and where it stems from. This is where you will be asked to reflect on where these beliefs and emotions originate from in order to find clarity and understanding for yourself and others and ultimately heal your relationship with yourself in some way.
Any stagnancy we experience our life is usually do to something going unresolved that we aren’t able to carry forward with us, so this retrograde period will highlight what you need to let go of in order to create a fresh start in your life. Resistance or deflection of this energy will only allow it to grow until it’s tended to, especially considering the fact that it’s highlighting emotions and beliefs that have already gone unresolved. This could present as irritability, short tempered, impulsivity, and anxiety as a way to get your attention to turn inward and connect with yourself. You benefit more to opening up to what your situation and circumstances are trying to teach you about yourself and how you view the world. You can do this with breathwork, meditation, journaling, and shadow work prompts for self acceptance, trust, and love. Creative projects may slow down or may experience a lack of motivation through this time, but this intended to help you slow down and focus on your self care. An important lesson through this retrograde is going to be tempering your masculine energy and learning how to flow so practice lowering your expectations to the energy you have, not the energy you wish you had. Be ready to dive into some of your deepest wounds to see how they still may be affecting you, whether consciously or subconsciously and make a plan on how to comfort and ground yourself through that. Healing and growth are rarely easy but finding power from the pain your carrying is the key to your liberation and stepping into your personal power. As difficult these cycles and habits can be to heal, these are the lessons that support our spiritual growth and evolution. This energy is meant to support you and your goals but that’s only if you stay dedicated to your healing and growth in the heat of it all. That’s when it’s important to really lean into what your heart is trying teach you and there is no healing without feeling so get comfortable with your emotions and allow them to be guides through this retrograde and life in general!
Themes can include clouded judgment, lack mindset, impulsivity, irritability, impatience, lack of motivation/discipline, perfectionism, self criticism, triggered inner child, and epiphanies especially around your unique self expression.
Signs most affected are Aries, Libra, Gemini, Aquarius Risings, and Virgo.
ZODIAC INTERPRETATIONS
Here’s my interpretation of how each zodiac sign could experience this retrograde based off of your rising sign. If you aren’t sure what yours is, you can use this website to find out or you can use your sun/moon sign.
1ST HOUSE / ARIES RISING
Focus: cultivating personal freedom, healing relationship with self
For those having this transit through the 1st house of self image, expression, and personality, you will be addressing the limiting beliefs that are hindering your authentic self expression, specifically around your self image This will highlight any shame, resentment, and judgement you may be holding for the way you express yourself that could be fueling you to not trust yourself or recognize your value. This will also highlight where your ego and insecurities are causing you to box yourself in or reduce yourself for others and could amplify feelings of low self esteem, self doubt, and perfectionism. Miscommunication and disagreements can arise within your relationships through this retrograde but this will be a sign to turn inward to recognize where you are particpating in your own pain and chaos. Don’t allow anger and impulsivity to get the best of you and use this time to connect to emotion hiding behind the anger. Focus your self care and use grounding practices like breathwork and meditation to support you through this energy.
2ND HOUSE / PISCES RISING
Focus: addressing ego, healing toxic coping mechanisms, reassessing priorities
For those having this transit through the 2nd house of personal values, money, and material wealth, this highlights beliefs and wounds around how you value yourself, others, and your possessions. This retrograde could amplify cycles of materialism, substance abuse, impulsive spending issues to gain freedom from them and could highlight where you could undervaluing and undervaluing others as well. Self sabotaging behavior could cause issues witin relationships, so be mindful of how you are communicating to yourself and others. Be wary of getting caught up in perfectionism and allow your mistakes to fuel your growth and healing. Explore using spiritual practices like meditation, breathwork, and grounding as healthy coping mechanisms to use in replace of the toxic ones and allow yourself to be supported by those around you.
3RD HOUSE /AQUARIUS RISING
Focus: addressing restrictive thinking, releasing self judgment, creating inner peace
For those experiencing the transit in the 3rd house of communication and self expression, this retrograde will highlight where self esteem issues are causing you to restrict yourself from expressing yourself authentically. This retrograde will highlight where you are practicing perfectionism, competition, and comparison so you can gain clarity and freedom from those habits. Addressing the limiting beliefs developed through projected insecurities and judgments will allow you to step into your personal power and begin sharing your unique thoughts and ideas with your community more freely. Reflect on where shame or judgment may have been created around your unique expression and be mindful of reacting or saying harmful things out of anger. Journaling and music can be healthy coping mechanisms for your emotions through this retrograde period.
Shadow Work Prompt: Where am I holding resentment for myself and/or others for judgment or criticisms around my unique self expression? How can I practice more self-acceptance for those pieces of myself?
4TH HOUSE / CAPRICORN RISING
Focus: prioritizing family, addressing generational cycles, gaining emotional clarity/stability, remothering the inner child, connecting with feminine energy
For those experiencing this transit through the fourth house of family, traditions, and emotional intelligence, you will be addressing how your mother wound and generational cycles are hindering your feminine flow. This could look like struggling to feel or express your emotions, lacking compassion or acceptance for yourself and others, and struggling to connect to your creative expression or intuition. This retrograde will bring up lessons around hyper independence and perfectionism and will highlight your emotional triggers (frustration, anger, numbness) so you can gain clarity around them and learn how to nurture yourself through them in a way that you were never taught to. You would benefit from journaling about your emotional triggers, intentionally connecting to and releasing your emotions healthily, and reconnecting with old interests and hobbies that your inner child enjoyed like drawing, dancing, and singing or listen to the music you used to enjoy and watch your favorite movie as a child.
5TH HOUSE / SAGITTARIUS RISING
Focus: reassessing priorities/desires, healing creative blocks, reconnecting with the inner child
For those experiencing this transit through the 5th house of joy, desires, creation, and expression, this retrograde is going to highlight where your hindering your inner child’s expression. Your responsibilities and need for expansion may be causing you to exhaust yourself, leaving no time for fun or play. Frustration, anxiety, and feelings of defeat will show you would benefit from lowering your expectations of yourself and others and will also indicate when your in need of fun in your life. This retrograde will highlight where projected fears, insecurities, and judgements from others have caused you to put a box around your self expression and will amplify low self esteem issues and feelings of unworthiness, specifically around feeling like you and your actions are not enough in some way. You would benefit on reflecting where these limiting beliefs originate and who may have played a part in them forming. Self love affirmations will help you take your power back from those beliefs and grounding practices will help you stay even tempered and settled through this period.
Address the fears, judgement, and resentment you may be holding back from expressing yourself authentically and chasing adventure in your life.
6TH HOUSE / SCORPIO RISING
Focus: establishing daily routines, prioritizing health and self care, reassessing prioritize/values, healing self esteem
For those experiencing this transit through the 6th house of health, routine, and responsibilities, you will be focusing on the beliefs that are fueling high expectations and hindering you from finding flow in your daily routine. This will highlight where unresolved wounds are causing you to not prioritize yourself or where your expectations are causing you to burn yourself out and will show you where you can practice more self love, understanding, and acceptance. You would benefit from seeking to understand the needs of your unique mind, body, and spirit and then building a routine to tend to those needs regularly, but the key here is valuing yourself enough to prioritize it over your other needs, wants, and responsibilities. Be mindful of resenting yourself for your needs and be open to meeting yourself where your at. Grounding practices, mediation, journaling and allowing emotional releases to flow will support you through this period.
Shadow work prompt: “Where do I find my worth and value in this world and how is it affecting me from tending to my other needs?
7TH HOUSE / LIBRA RISING
Focus: establishing and maintaining boundaries, healing relationship with self, prioritizing personal needs
For those experiencing this transit through the 7th house of relationships, romance, and love, you will be focusing on creating physical, emotional, and mental boundaries with yourself and those around you. Communication issues (heated discussions, misunderstandings, etc.) can arise to trigger the inner child wounds and ego issues that are rooted in perfectionism, people-pleasing, and abandonment issues. Allow these triggers to show you where you need more mental and emotional boundaries with your loved ones and resist taking the actions and opinions of others personally. Prioritizing time alone and self care will be supportive through this retrograde as well as journaling and shadow work prompts around self love and acceptance.
Shadow work prompt: What is keeping me from nurturing and loving myself the same way I do for others? Where did I learn this behavior?
8TH HOUSE / VIRGO RISING
Virgo Risings are going to be especially affected considering mercury is your ruling planet.
Focus: uncovering secrets, addressing emotional/mental burden, reconnecting with intuition, creating a sense of safety, building self trust
For those experiencing this transit in the 8th house of transformation, destruction, and darkness, this is going to highlight where you may be holding onto resentment or pain from the past that is hindering your rebirth process. Unresolved trauma and may be fueling cycles of perfectionism, rigid thinking, and hypervigilance that are keeping you from creating long lasting transformation in your life. Your expectations may be keeping you boxed in and limiting your options on how to create change in your life so allow yourself to be more open minded and allow your intuition to lead you over logic. Don’t be to critical of yourself and others through this period and focus on grounding practices and self care to give your intuition the space to thrive.
9TH HOUSE / LEO RISING
Leo Risings will be especially affected by the upcoming Solar Eclipse (4.8) and Mercury Cazimi (4.11)
Focus: realigning morals/values, healing limiting beliefs around self, reassessing traditions, addressing generational cycles
For those experiencing this transit through your 9th house of philosophy, belief systems, and higher thinking, you will be focusing on assessing your personal understanding of yourself and the world. Miscommunication and disagreements with others may be highlighting where you have limited or outdated beliefs and will call your traditions and generational beliefs into question. This is intended to give you the opportunity from projected insecurities, fears, and judgements that are fueling ego issues and hindering you from expressing yourself authentically. This could amplify issues with perfectionism, hypercritism, and any ego issues connected to being right whether struggling to accept your mistakes or holding your mistakes against yourself to harshly. Be mindful of holding other people to your standards and assuming your way is the right way for everyone as well. This paired with the energy of the upcoming Solar Eclipse and Mercury Cazimi will offer you the opportunity at a sense of renewal and knowing of oneself which will allow you to confidently step into your personal power and create flow within your life, especially within your self expression.
Shadow work prompt: “Where do I allow the opinions and beliefs of others to restrict my unique self expression?” - “Where am I judging others for their self expression and where do those judgments or beliefs originate from? *Remember that how you judge others is a reflection on how you judge yourself so start there when you’re seeking to be more accepting of yourself and others.
10TH HOUSE / CANCER RISING
Focus: ego issues, reprioritizing values, healing lack mindset, connecting with feminine energy
For those experiencing this transit through your 10th house of business, public image, and social status, you are going to be addressing what you find pride in and the ego issues that are fueling competition, self esteem issues, and judgement more than most. You may find what you are priding yourself on is keeping you in a loop of inflating and crushing your ego, so you would benefit from reprioritizing what you value and where you find your worth. Your current job or business venture could be amplifying these issues so you may find that issues arise in this area as a way to trigger growth. It will be important to call your energy back from jealousy or a lack/scarcity mindset around yourself and your situation. You may also move on from any dead end jobs that won’t provide anymore personal or professional growth, but don’t act impulsively. Allow this to happen naturally and focus on staying grounded in the present moment, connecting with your emotions and intuition, and tending to your self care.
11 HOUSE / GEMINI RISING
Gemini Risings will be especially affected by this retrograde considering Mercury is your ruling planet.
Focus: establishing boundaries with self and others, nurturing inner child, addressing personal needs
For those experiencing this transit in your 11th house of community, service, and networking, you will be reassessing how you present yourself and create change with in your community. You may be someone who is used to being a leader in many peoples lives, but this could distracting you from your own needs and wants. This retrograde will show you where you’d benefit from more mental and emotional boundaries on your energy so you have enough for yourself and your own needs. Frustration and irritability will be a sign that it’s time to tend to your own needs and to allow others to learn how to help themselves. You may find that there are easier ways to help others with less effort on your end through this period, if you allow others to take the reigns for their circumstances.
12TH HOUSE / TAURUS RISING
Focus: integrating the shadow, aligning with spiritual beliefs
For those experiencing this transit in your 12th house of spiritual beliefs/values and the subconscious, this retrograde is going to highlight where you could show more acceptance for your darkness. This retrograde is going to bring up how old wounds and traumas may still be subconsciously causing you to hold resentment, shame, or judgement for the way you express the pieces you hide or consider “darker” or harder to love You may find that situations you thought you had healed from resurface to tended to again. This is so you can view it from a different perspective and find clarity on how it affected your relationship with yourself. This clarity will allow you find love and acceptance for pieces of you that you couldn’t before and help you feel more at home within yourself. You could experience more confusion, lack of clarity, and "head up in the clouds” energy than the rest, but this will pass near the end of this retrograde period, if not soon after. Take time to intentionally connect with yourself and your emotions and trying journaling about your triggers and using shadow prompts to help you find clarity through this time. You will want to balance this with joy and self care as this process can be very uncomfortable but through that you will create more comfort on the other side of healing.
Shadow work prompt: How have situations of the past created resentment, shame, or judgment for myself that caused me to undervalue or hide my unique expression?
