On 11th November there will be a rare event. Mercury is eclipsing the Sun. Mercury is passing through the disk of the sun, seen from Earth.
Mercury (as well as Venus) transits over the Sun have a similar effect as total solar eclipses. The difference is only that instead of the Moon, who has the same size as the Sun (seen from the Earth), only a tiny black spot travels across the solar disk.
The Sun is the source of light and of live for all live on Earth. Mercury is the mind, how we think, how we communicate with others. Mercury-Sun transits combine thinking and consciousness, they accelerate the possibility to connect us with the source of light and live and to create new ways of thinking and communicating.
The “mini” eclipse on the 11th November (19° Scorpio) is asking us to bring our creative communication into a new balance. We can observe the function of Mercury in its purest form on that day, gain access into our mental processes when the Sun illuminates Mercury in deep, intensive, passionate Scorpio.
Mercury in Scorpio intensifies our passionate thinking mind. Especially when being retrograde (which it did on 31st October (27°38′ Scorpio), going direct again on 20th November (16°06′ Scorpio)). With Mercury in Scorpio we can find out what really interests our mind, what is most existing, what has most energy, what turns us on, what is most juicy to spend time with, to reflect upon, to investigate.
And while we figure that out we have to realise what of our communication and thinking methods are already dead, outgrown, boring, inappropriate. With Mercury in Scorpio we can make our mind die and be reborn fresh and alive and new and more intense.
the only “problem” is that most of us are afraid of death. Death in our society is misunderstood, has been made into a demonised figure, something dangerous and evil. We were taught to run away from death. We have developed various control mechanisms to ban death. All entirely unjustified. Death is ever present and our constant companion. That which we were educated to run away from is in truth our greatest teacher and ally.
Every season dies into the next, every day dies into the night and a new day is born out of the darkness, every moment dies and another moment is reborn, every outbreath is like a death and a new inbreath is born out of the stillness between exhalation and inhalation, every heartbeat dies and out of the stillness between the two heart beats a new heartbeat is born. We constantly live in the midst of death and live, both happening simultaneously.
With Mercury in Scorpio we are reminded by some outer events and experiences that it is time to stop, and to turn around, and to look death into the eye, so that we can embrace death, and so that we can receive its presents. Mercury in Scorpio is not afraid but has an intuitive feeling about what is important, no matter how deeply hidden. If we trust and follow him, we can recognise the gifts of death and of transformation. No matter what the outer circumstances, if we see them as the beginning of an initiation process, we can gain deeper access to our emotions, we can deepen our understanding, we can learn more about that “place” where we have to accept, surrender and to trust that whatever is happening is coming into our lives so that an initiation can take place.
It (only) needs courage and trust to turn around and look death straight into the eye. From a scorpion point of view this is the moment of greatest magic and greatest self empowerment.
Nearly five and a half hours Mercury does travel through the sun. At 12.35 UTC Mercury touches the outer ring of the sun and two minutes later he travels over the sun’s disk, slowly moving further into ints centre. The whole transit lasts till after sunset. But despite not seeing it to the end we can use all those hours to meditate, to dive into our metal processes and into new realms of consciousness, and to receive fundamental insights. The stiller we become and the more time we provide, the more we can find out about our mind, our consciousness how to enlighten our thinking faculty.
Our thinking navigates and dominates nearly everything in our lives. This Mercury transit is ideal to find our if and where this is right and helpful for us and where our thinking has stopped to serve live but rather controls live and death.
Some information about Mercury-Sun transits: they either happen in May or November. November transits occur every 7, 13 or 33 years, May transits all 13 or 33 years. The last time such a “mini” eclipse happened in November was 8th November 2006 (16 Scorpio) and the next time will be 13th November 2032 (22 Scorpio). The next May transit will be 7th May 2049 (17 Taurus).
November transits happen when Mercury is closest to the Sun (Perihelion), May transits when Mercury is furthest away from the Sun (Aphelion).
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Image credit: JAXA/NASA/PPARC – taken by Japan’s Hinode spacecraft (8. Nov. 2006, using the spacecraft’s Solar Optical Telescope instrument)