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Mercury in Fall and Detriment (or is it?)

This is your Horoscope Highlight for the week of March 7 – March 13, 2022, with world-class astrologer, historian, and author of The Cosmic Calendar, Christopher Renstrom.

This week, Mercury enters emotionally fluid Pisces, where the planet of information and communication is often left misunderstood, but in the deepest of ways. Christopher encourages us to be receptive to this intuitive energy come March 9th, which may end up speaking to us in a manner we never would’ve dreamed.

If you’d like more personalized guidance from Christopher, make sure you subscribe to receive your free Weekly Horoscope so you can read what the week ahead will bring for your sun or rising sign, delivered to your inbox every Sunday!

✨ Time Stamps

0:00 The Cosmic Calendar

1:42 Mercury’s Dignity

6:21 Agatha Cristie – A Mercurial Example

7:49 Fall in Ancient Astrology

9:16 Pisces and Mysteries

13:41 Mercury in Pisces & Misinformation

15:47 Speaking in Tongues

23:06 Modernism & Dada

29:36 Prophecy

Get Your Weekly Horoscope at astrologyhub.com/horoscope

Transcript

This transcript is automatically generated. Some miswording might be present.

Christopher Renstrom 0:04
Astrology is not a science. Astrology is not a religion. What astrology is, is a calendar. That’s why every major civilization on the planet, whether it was Middle Eastern, Chinese, Indian or Mesoamerican created some form of astrology, it was in order to tell time. The cosmic calendar with me Christopher Renstrom, is now open at astrology hub.com/cosmic calendar. In the first chapter of the course, you will learn all about the history of astrology as a calendar in civilizations across the globe. And the second chapter will cover the signs and seasons and why it’s so important to know where the sun is in your birth chart. And in the third and final chapter, you will learn how to turn your birth chart into a personal calendar. For each chapter, there will be a live q&a, where you will have the opportunity to ask me your questions. And don’t worry if you can’t make it to the live sessions, you’ll have access to the recordings within 24 hours, go to astrologyhub.com/cosmic calendar, and inner circle members. Be sure to check your membership portal for your own discount code. I am so looking forward to seeing all of you in class.

Christopher Renstrom 1:42
Hello, my name is Christopher Renstrom. And I’m your weekly horoscope columnist here on astrology hub. And this week, I wanted to talk to you about Mercury entering the zodiac sign of Pisces on March 9. Now Mercury in pisces is a unique placement. It’s a unique placement because in my opinion, there’s nothing at all like it in the rest of the astrological chart where Mercury goes when it enters the zodiac sign of Pisces is very different, almost alien from where it goes in the other 11 signs of the zodiac and this is sort of emphasized or underlined, if you will, by the anxious decisions regarding planetary dignity. Planetary dignity refers to particular zodiac signs where planets are most dignified or undignified where they’re most celebrated or where they are just abysmal their their fallen, and these regard to their states of power, or ability to influence in the astrological chart. All planets in astrology, the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Basically the seven ancient planets all of these seven ancient or classical planets experience essential dignity or experience planetary dignity. That same idea doesn’t really lend itself to the modern planets there. There have been some attempts to try to come up with planetary dignities for them, but they don’t really quite. But anyway, with with the ancient planets, yes, the planetary dignities absolutely, absolutely hold. Now, what makes mercury and Pisces so exceptional, is that if you follow Mercury’s planetary dignity, you’ll see that mercury is in domicile or at home in the astrological signs of Gemini and Virgo, okay. These are signs that are known for that are known for their communicative abilities. They can be very analytical, they can be very studied. They’re good at problem solving. You know, these are basically the Mercury ruled signs where Mercury is in domicile. Mercury is then in detriment meaning not doing as well. It’s not doing horribly but it’s not doing as well. Mercury is in its detriment in the opposite signs, to Gemini and Virgo, and the opposite signs to Gemini and Virgo Of course, our Sagittarius and pisces. These are the signs that are naturally ruled by Jupiter and so Mercury is in detriment it doesn’t do as well in Jupiter ruled signs and that’s that’s a story in and of itself. Then we get into exultation and falls Okay. exultation is when a planet is most celebrated. You know, where it’s like, has on this planet is most glorified. Its most exceptional. Its most celebrated in this particular zodiac sign. Okay, so exalted is like, really special. Imagine staying at a five star hotel where it’s all been paid for by somebody else, and they treat you like royalty and that is basically an exaltation a planet that is in its exaltation a planet that is in its fall is basically a planet that was forced to stay at like a Motel Six overnight, okay, it it enters the room it doesn’t really know like, if it’s been cleaned who slept on this bed before it’s like, was I better off just leaving my car overnight or or renting this room? You know, there’s something about it that that that the planet is really like, beyond not comfortable here. It’s kind of like doesn’t really want to be in the zodiac sign. Okay, so what’s interesting with mercury, is that mercury is exalted in the zodiac sign of virgo. So Mercury is not only at home in Virgo, but it is exalted in the zodiac sign of virgo so so people who’ve got Mercury in Virgo get a double pump on the scorecard, if you will, okay, you’re not only have mercury at home or domicile in Virgo, but it’s exalted in Virgo. So it’s like really, it’s really good at being clever and communicative. And solving problems figure its way out of having been painted into a corner in some way. If you want an example of Virgo in this type of thinking, I like to share a very famous Virgo,

Christopher Renstrom 6:21
Agatha Christie, maybe you’re familiar with her Agatha Christie wrote, I think Agatha Christie wrote more crime, mystery novels, then then then then then anyone else on the planet, I think she’s got like a Guinness World Book of Records, you know, holding or, or something like this. She created Miss Marple and Hercule perot and, and wrote all of these wonderful crime mysteries. And the other reason why is sort of like to cite Agatha Christie, as as a sort of example of a Mercury in Virgo, or what we can expect with with basically the Virgo and temperament in general, is that it’s a very cunning mind. And so it’s the idea of a mystery as a riddle that needs to be solved. Okay, you’re going to follow these clues, you’re going to pick up on these hints of things. And you’re going to figure out that the footsteps lead here. And, you know, dust on the table isn’t completely over the table because there’s really two thumb prints. And you’re going to be able to deduce all of these clues and put together the fact that it was Colonel Mustard in the living room with the candlestick. Okay, so so this this is the sort of mystery solving that we see in Mercury ruled signs, all right. What’s what’s unique? And I always kind of find myself wondering what, what were they saying here?

Christopher Renstrom 7:49
What’s so unique about Mercury in pisces, is that mercury is not only in detriment, and Pisces, okay, it’s struggling in Pisces, it’s having a difficult time and Pisces Mercury is in fall in Pisces. So so ancient astrologers really went out of their way to say like, Mercury is really the worst. It could possibly be the zodiac sign of Pisces, which is kind of like, oh my god, like, what’s up with that? Right? It’s like, what do you have against Mercury in pisces? I mean, they really had something against mercury and Pisces Mercury was not only in detriment in the zodiac sign of Pisces, it’s in fall. So it’s like, so this was the older astrologers way of saying worst place ever Okay. Was Was Was Mercury in pisces, which of course, you know, if I was someone with Mercury in pisces, I would, you know, be offended. I would be like, Oh my god, like, what’s the problem? You know, like, Get over yourself or whatever. But but but but this is what was decided, okay, that mercury is in its absolute worst position. In the zodiac sign of Pisces? Like there’s there’s no argument, there’s no discussion, there’s no conversation. That is it. And so, it it leaves one to sort of speculate, well, why? Like, what’s, what’s so prohibitive? What’s so verboten about mercury and Pisces that it really has become the target of such ire?

Christopher Renstrom 9:16
You know, and, and the first thing that comes to mind when I think about it, is that Pisces has a very different understanding of mystery than Virgo does. Okay? If we go back to the Agatha Christie model you know, there’s a there’s been a murder or crime or whatever we need to solve this you know, not only is there an expectation that that the crime will be solved okay that there is an explanation in the crime will be will be solved the adventure is in the solving of it it’s it’s an uncovering those clues, and then and then going back and and gathering all the suspects in one room and walking them through, you know, the brilliance of the detective and then and then exposing them The criminal that everyone didn’t think was the criminal and, and there’s lots of this sort of like, you know, a pointing and Miss direction, you know, they think it’s just one person and then another person and that number. And then finally, it’s, you know, Aunt Bee, who did it with, you know, ampie, who’s collected nothing but crockery over the years or I don’t know, something like that. I don’t know where MP came from. But anyway, like, it’s a MP, okay. And so she’s like the villain that she’s, you know, the person who, who, who who did this, okay. What I’m really trying to say is that there is a solution that can and will be figured out, no matter how absurd or ridiculous the twists and turns, there is a puzzle that can be solved. And this is something which Mercury signs and mercury in most signs really believes it’s really comfortable with this idea, okay? That it can be figured out and that it will be figured out, not only can be figured out, it will be figured out. That is not the case of Mercury in pisces, not at all.

Christopher Renstrom 11:02
In Pisces, a mystery isn’t a whodunit. Mystery, or mystery isn’t is an experience of the universe that is unfathomable. There is no explanation. It’s not going to fit into easy to understand descriptions. What it leaves the person with, when they’ve experienced this, this mystery is wonder. And, and oftentimes, it’s an awestruck wonder awestruck wonder means you’re, you’re full of all you’re moved profoundly by what you witnessed, and there are no words, there are no words, there’s no way that you could describe this if you tried. And there is even a sort of like unwillingness or a natural psychological reluctance to describe it. Because you, you’ve been struck by this experience of awe and wonder, you’ve been struck by this experience of God and it has left you speechless, it has left you with with with a reverberation, you can you can you can feel the presence, you know, something inside of you reacted to to this, this larger you and and you know that, that there is a connection, that there is meaning and and that you are full of on wonder, and there is just no way that you could possibly explain that to another human being on the planet.

Christopher Renstrom 12:40
And added to that is if you try to, they’re not going to believe you anyway. Okay. His example is think of UFO abductions were which were happening, you know, on a regular basis, I think in the 1980s and 90s. Everyone was getting abducted by a UFO or something like that, and people would come back and they would describe these sorts of things. And people are like, You’re crazy. I don’t believe you are, they would be in hypnosis, they would be in hypnosis and therapy, and all of a sudden, something that was about a submerge memory turned into a UFO abduction, you know, and, and, and all these sorts of things. And so people are like, Oh, my goodness, you’re crazy or whatever. But nevertheless, it moves like a ripple effect through society through the world. People are like, there are UFOs I mean, we had a television series, X Files, the truth is out there somewhere. Okay. So so there was still that sort of insistence that something could somehow be explained. But it was so far out there that that it defied explanation, it defied language itself.

Christopher Renstrom 13:41
So So Mercury in pisces has this kind of hallucinatory or this altered state flavor to it. But oftentimes, you know, it’ll show up in astrology books and things like that as misinformation you know that that that if you have Mercury in pisces or you’re under a mercury and Pisces trend, transit that there’s missing information. And there we go to George Orwell. He’s always really reliable for these great phrases like I’m doublespeak, or memory hole. I love memory hole. It’s so descriptive. It’s so says it. And of course doublespeak and George Orwell’s 1984 is saying one thing and then saying the contradictory thing in the same exact sentence, okay. Something we’re used to with politicians on a regular basis. George Orwell called it right. And then there’s memory Hall, which is whatever the history the recorded history is, it’s it’s being thrown by Big Brother, you know, the agency of Big Brother down these chutes and shafts where it’s burned so that there is no history there is no memory people can’t remember from one day to the next in this Orwellian Society of 1984 what happened? You know, you’re at war with one country one week and then you’re at war with another country the next and then your, your your best friends with the one means that you are at war with and at war with an enemy and then best friends with the enemy and then at war with what used to be the friend, you know, this sort of total shifting and this has been ascribed or sort of served up as as as being examples of mercury in, in Pisces, but I’ve done a lot of thinking about Mercury in pisces, and, and, and, you know what I keep sort of coming up with as this idea, you know, like, why were they so insistent that Mercury was in detriment? And in fall in the zodiac sign of Pisces? What did they why was the so anti mercurial you know? So anti mind. And I think what it sort of gets back to something that came to my mind was the whole idea of speaking in tongues.

Christopher Renstrom 15:47
Speaking in tongues, I think we’re, we’re familiar with here in the United States with with Pentecostal churches, where someone is infused with the Spirit, and they begin to speak, and it’s completely Jibberish. It doesn’t make any sort of sense at all. But people in the room are struck with the presence of God, that that that this person has been possessed by a spirit by a godly, divine spirit, divine itself, and it’s trying to speak, and no one can understand that, that so instead of people like, wow, I really don’t get what, you know, Bill’s going on about, you know, it’s more like Bill is like, possessed with the divine. And this is like extraordinary bills, like speaking in tongues, okay. And so this is this, this experience itself is a holy experience this, this experience itself is a testament to the divine. And what this speaking in tongues refers to, is, is the Pentecost, I mean, it’s Pentecostal churches because it refers back to the Pentecost. For those of you you know, in which Catholicism might be a little rusty, you know, Christ rises from the dead on Easter, spend some time hanging out with the apostles, on the 40th day after he’s risen from the dead, Christ descends into heaven, you know, the Christ full body just, ASCEND just rises up into into heaven. There’s some wonderful paintings of this with the apostles looking up, you know, when they’re around a mountain on the mound, or just like, the the footprints, and then like, at the top of the painting, or just like the feet of Christ, as he’s ascending up into the heaven, I forgotten who the artist is, but it’s brilliant, I just love that painting.

Christopher Renstrom 17:28
So I’m so on the 14th day Christ ascends to heaven on the 50th, day after after Easter, you know, Christ just said, I will send the Spirit, the Holy Spirit to to bless you. And on the 50th day, they’re hiding, they’re being persecuted by Romans. And, and, and they’re hiding, or having a secret meeting secret mass. And all of a sudden, there’s this roar of wind. And these tongues of fire come down, and they, they land on the forehead of each apostle, and the Virgin Mary. And, um, and they begin to speak in tongues, okay, they begin to speak in tongues, they, they begin to speak in this language that no one can understand. Because the idea of speaking in tongues, actually is older than the Pentecostal church, it goes back to ancient civilizations is probably even older than ancient civilization to, to be possessed by a spirit of Divine Spirit and to speak. And for it to be incoherent, was something that was really quite understood and created great marvel at and, and so and so this is what takes place. And then the apostles then go out and, and, you know, it’s ironic, they spread the word of God, but they’re speaking in tongues that you know, so so so they’re spreading this word that’s not being believed. And that people are finding foreign and alienating, and all these sorts of things. But this is their mission.

Christopher Renstrom 18:48
This is this I find fascinating with the kind of Mercury in pisces, it sort of helps to explain how mercury and Pisces at times can have a sort of rambling, or diverge quality or, and what it comes from, they’re not like rambling or gibberish because they’re speaking in tongues necessarily, but when it comes from is that mercury and Pisces is very associative. One idea reminds them of another idea which reminds them of another idea and which reminds them of another idea. It’s almost like, at times that can be narrating a waking dream, you know, because the mind is stream of consciousness. It’s not an intellectual. These go in the boxes and definitions type of mind or speech but but it’s almost like an unconscious stream of consciousness type of speech. But this brokenness, I find really intriguing and appealing. When I think of Mercury in pisces, this brokenness. And what that puts me back in mind of is the Adamic language. I don’t know how many of you are familiar out there with the phrase the Adamic language that’s actually Adam, as an Adam and Eve A.D.A.M, and then it’s an adjective. I see. Okay. So it’s a dynamic language, it’s in reference to Adam. And it’s in reference to Adam, because there was this belief that before the fall of Adam, that Adam spoke the language of God, okay, Adam, we some of the pieces that we have in Genesis is Adam is is is told by God or given permission by God to name all the animals and to name all the creatures. And I think that’s basically about how in depth they get into it in the book of Genesis although and in apocryphal texts and Gnostic texts, and other texts gets much more, you know, Enochian texts, I think it gets much more elaborate, okay, but it’s this idea that Adam could speak the language of God. And so in that essence, Adam had the power of God, you know, God says, Let there be light, you know, Adam had this built, let there be light, he, he could do this, okay, this is all before the fall, then that business happens with, with with Eve and and, and the serpent and the apple, and there’s this this fall. But one of the things that also falls here is the language, the language of God, the Adamic language, the language that Adam spoke before the fall is forever lost. Okay? It shattered like, like glass. It’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, there’s no way that you can possibly, reconstitute reconstruct it. There’s no way that Adam could remember it. Okay, it’s gone down the memory hole of George Orwell’s 1984.

Christopher Renstrom 21:38
Okay, so this language is lost. Okay. And so the Adamic language lives on as this kind of great pursuit. I think it was pursued by holy people and mystics, and alchemists and magicians and, and all sorts of things down through the centuries this this pursuit for this great Adamic language that if you could speak, you could you could be in the presence of God. So even though we don’t understand it, when it comes up with something like, like speaking in tongues, nevertheless, the rhythms, the sounds, the fervor of it, puts us in mind of the presence of God. Okay, so, so, so what I want to sort of share with you is, here is is a mercury that is incoherent, that it’s not making any sort of reasonable sense. But by its speaking, it’s uttering it’s putting people in the room in the feeling and the soul space of being present in the presence of God. Okay, this is this is the sort of idea. Now I’m going to go off on a on a kind of crazier tangent. What I like to sort of connect here, you know, this, this, this broken language, this this language, that, that doesn’t make sense, but you still respond to in a very soulful, or very, very deep way.

Christopher Renstrom 23:06
It put, I was kind of liking the idea of mercury and Pisces as being incoherent. And that incoherent is dangerous. Okay. So so there’s an incoherent I don’t understand this. But there’s also sort of dangerous quality to it. There’s, there’s, there’s what’s being said, you know, what’s, you know, am I being cursed out in a foreign language or something like that, but you know, what’s what’s being said with this language. And what it put me in mind of, was actually, the data exists. And the, and modernism, the modernist artists and the surrealists. Now, dada, and modern modernism is late 19th, early 20th century, then you’ve got data, which is the 19 teens, and then surrealism, which is following very much on the heels of that, and put me in mind of them, because I’m, basically these were artists, who were coming from the assumption that language was broken, especially when you get into data ism, which was a visceral response to the horrors of World War One. daata s didn’t try to paint paintings that depicted the horror of World War One, you know, or anything along those lines, they went in the opposite direction. They, they, they, they took collages, or worked with mixed media or mixed art form or whatever, to really create these bewildering images. And these images were meant to strike people as being incoherent. And that was basically a lot of people’s responses, which is like, Harry, what am I looking at? You know, it’s like, you know that. And one of the great examples here, of course, is Marcel Duchamp’s new Descending a Staircase and new Descending a Staircase sounds like oh, you know, like, let’s take Look at that new descending the staircase. And what it is is, is this, I think it’s based maybe the idea is before silent movies they had, you know film and they would show images kind of like moving very slowly and it’s almost like Duchamp took the idea of each frame, almost like animated cells and separated them to create this movement that almost seems clockwork or mechanical. Um, but it’s not a person or it’s a person that looks more like an automaton in this world of motion, but there’s a sort of sterility of it. And maybe if you’re lucky, on a good day, you can make out the staircase.

Christopher Renstrom 25:41
Okay, but what Duchamp was playing with here, I mean, there is a nude and there was a staircase, okay. But what Duchamp was playing with here was our expectations. We hear like new Descending a Staircase, and we’re like, Oh, let’s see, you know, and then our bewilderment, which is like, what am I looking at Marcel? Okay, so there’s this bewilderment. But that was the point. That was the point of the Martin modernists and the data S, which is this experience of horror of war, this experience of horror of where the world is going, because they just there’s a prophetic quality to, to the.is some modernists, which of course is also going to be wrapped up in in mercury and Pisces. There’s a kind of like looking down the road, and they’re saying, you know, we’re heading into a sort of nihilism in which, or chaos in which words aren’t going to hold, they’re going to have mixed meanings, they’re going to be dropped down memory holes and then repurposed to something else. And images are going to be the same thing. Two images are broken and mixed up together, like collages, you know, to really sort of underscore that the pieces of the puzzle don’t fit the world and civilization is broken. I mean, that’s basically what they were saying. But they couldn’t say, and this represents the brokenness of it. And you can find by the textures over here that there’s really an ironic comment. Now they were defying the art critics and presenting something truly bewildering. They were presenting something truly inexplicable, something that sort of outraged and outraged the censors, they could slip past the censors because the censors didn’t know what they were looking at. And it bewildered the public.

Christopher Renstrom 27:30
But this also gets this plants, the seeds for surrealism, it intrigues, the public. All of a sudden, the public is like, what am I looking at? And why can I not walk away from this picture? You know, and this is something that is then picked up by the Surrealists, the Surrealists, you’re going to know them Salvador Dali, Magrite. The Surrealists are mixing images with each other. They’re juxtaposing these absurdist images that absolutely don’t make sense, but are astonishingly intriguing and beautiful, and what they were going for what makes the Surrealists different from everyone else, is that they were going for the unconscious mind. This is the period this around the period that Carl Jung is writing about the collective unconscious. And so the Surrealists are very much drawn to astrological imagery, occult imagery to row imagery, you know, the mixing of media’s and symbols, but here, what they’re trying to do is communicate through the collective unconscious, okay? So they’re also picking up old totemic images from from you know, South Pacific civilizations or, or African art becomes all the rage under Picasso and then transformed into Cubism. So so there’s this kind of drawing on the memory of our species and and reworking it in such a way as to create this this bewilderment in the person that’s looking at but instead of just dadas bewilderment, which could be kind of like fun and off putting and clever and all these sorts of things so realism was actually trying to like move your unconscious Okay, into a direction like a dream like a half remember dream from last night. And if you think of the way that we use the word surrealism in our day to day conversation, this is what this is exactly what they were after, you know, this kind of like, moving of the dream imagery and moving moving out the unconscious really the moving of the collective unconscious.

Christopher Renstrom 29:36
So so this I wanted to share with you as being another sort of variation on speaking in tongues, another variation on a broken language that we speak, but in its jibberish or in its stream of consciousness, can actually link us up to something divine. What’s what’s interesting here is the defiance. In interpretation, okay? Mercury in pisces, you know, if we get into sort of dadas thinking surrealist thinking, there’s a defiance of you cannot explain me and you cannot interpret me, but you can feel me. And that begins to enter into the whole idea of prophecy. You know, what are the things that we always hear in prophecy, whether it’s the Bible or Greek mythology, or prophets are never believed? It’s like, they can go on about things or they speak in fantastical language, whether it’s St. John the Divine, or whether it’s Nostradamus, you know, they leave behind these fantastical images that we tried to deduce or figure out what it is, and we’re still like, Huh, you know, and so, but but, but they speak in such a way that it’s captured our imagination. It’s, it’s, it’s spoken to our soul, we know that we’re standing in the presence of something divine, and, and unexplainable. And we’re struck with awe, and we’re struck with wonder. So on one level, a Mercury in pisces can confuse and confound, it can mislead and it can miss direct, it can make me sound like someone is just, you know, going on and on and on about things, you know, or speaking gibberish or things just don’t make sense. But then on another level, Mercury in pisces has has has an ability to access the symbolic realm, which is not the realm that we live in. And we can be struck and bewildered by that symbolic realm. But that symbolic realm can defy things like sensors, or critics, or people trying to explain it, it can actually defy governments it slips in underneath. And, you know, Surrealism was anyway, that’s, that’s a whole art history thing. But

Christopher Renstrom 31:48
anyway, um, it can defy governments, you know, because because people can’t really recognize or explain it. But yet, you know, you as a person can respond to it so powerfully. So I know that in some way, my description of mercury and Pisces might annoy some people who are like, well, what’s the point of it? Or, you know, can’t it be interpreted like a dream? Or, you know, what’s the point of just something that’s incoherent or, or incomprehensible? And that’s the that’s exactly why I would say to you, is the reason for Mercury being in detriment and Pisces and being in fall in Pisces, okay, because it, it looks completely pointless, looks completely incoherent. But, but for those of you who who can look at a data as to work or surrealist work or, or for those of you who can stand at the presence of speaking in tongues there’s nothing like it, you know, that something which is larger and more fantastical than you is reaching out across the divide, and that it is making its presence known. And this This is the remarkable hallucinatory prophetic surrealistic realm of mercury and Pisces. And it’s something that try it on for this for the next couple of weeks that that mercury is here in Pisces, try giving yourself over to the absurdist point of view of the universe. You might find that it’s not to your taste, or, or you might find that it’s speaking to you in ways that you never ever dreamed of before. And finally, Mercury leaves Pisces and enters the zodiac sign of Aries on March 27.