The 22 days of Mercury retrograde are not all the same. There’s a stark contrast between the first part of the retrograde cycle and the second part.
The division between these two parts occurs when Mercury has an inferior conjunction with the Sun. This means that Mercury retrograde conjuncts the Sun in the middle of the transit.
But what’s the difference between these two parts of the Mercury retrograde cycle?
The first part of Mercury retrograde is the Epimethean phase. After the conjunction with the Sun, the second part is known as the Promethean phase.
In this text, I explain the details of Mercury’s retrograde phases. I’ll do so with the aid of Erin Sullivan’s book Retrograde Planets: Traversing the Inner Landscape.
This is the table of contents:
Let’s go.
Sources of the Terms Promethean and Epimethean
The sources of the terms “Promethean” and “Epimethean” come from Hesiod’s work.
Prometheus and Epimetheus were brothers of Atlas and Menoitios. All of them were the offspring of Ocean and Iapetos.
Hesiod describes Prometheus as “brilliant and shifty.” In contrast, Epimetheus is seen as the foolish one.
Prometheus was so witty that he even tricked Zeus. Twice.
He offered Zeus a choice between two piles of sacrificed meat. One of the piles had the best meat hidden inside. The other had bones covered in fat, and it looked more appealing.
Zeus chose the second pile. But when he discovered the truth, he made Prometheus pay.
For this transgression, Prometheus was chained and bound. He was punished by having an eagle pick out his liver each day. The liver was regenerated by night, extending the punishment indefinitely. Heracles unbound him.
In further retribution for Prometheus’ act, Zeus had withheld fire from mankind. But Prometheus stole and escaped with the fire, presenting it to humans to help them survive.
Fire theft is universal among cultural mythologies. It’s a clear analogy with mankind gaining the essential powers of reason but through trickery. Therefore, Prometheus stands for independent, forthright action based on personal thoughts or ideas.
Roused to action, Zeus sent a gift to Prometheus’ brother. Epimetheus was warned about accepting gifts from Zeus, but he took it. The gift was a woman named Pandora.
Zeus gave Pandora a jar (or box). He gave her explicit instructions of not to open it. But she opened the jar in the presence of Epimetheus. By doing so, she released all the world’s evils, such as sickness, death, sorrow, and other afflictions.
However, hope remained inside the jar.
Prometheus translates as “forethought”. Instead, Epimetheus translates as “afterthought.” These two meanings are reflected in the myth about the Titan brothers. It can also be seen in Mercury’s phases.
Mercury’s Promethean and Epimethean phases have a direct and retrograde period.
The Promethean cycles of Mercury are for gathering resources and information, exercising skills, and decisively implementing action. The Epimethean cycles are for reaping experience rewards, researching ideas, comprehending meaning, and refining raw materials.
Next, I’ll focus on the Epimethean and Promethean retrograde phases.
Keeping the myth in mind, we will examine the Mercury retrograde cycle.
Mercury Retrograde Phases
The following delineations of the cycles are written for Mercury retrograde by transit. However, they also offer insight into Mercury retrograde in the birth chart.
If you were born with Mercury retrograde before the conjunction with the Sun, you have an Epimethean retrograde Mercury.
If you were born with Mercury retrograde after the conjunction with the Sun, you have a Promethean retrograde Mercury.
You can find the dates of Mercury retrograde and its conjunctions with the Sun in this calculator from Astro Seek.
Mercury Retrograde Phases: Epimethean Retrograde
In Greek mythology, Epimetheus is portrayed as foolishly attacking humanity with all the world’s evils. This is reflected in Pandora opening her jar (or box).
Metaphorically, the action represents the problems that are manifested when we go beyond ourselves and overreach our boundaries.
The Epimethean phase demands careful consideration and retrospection. The first half of the retrograde phase is especially introspective to analyze our actions from the past. We often only perceive our results on reflection.
When Mercury turns retrograde, the cosmos offers an opportunity to reduce direct action. It’s best to wait. Allow the results of the last month and a half to come to the surface instead of pushing.
Related: Mercury Retrograde in Fire
Signals from the environment will begin to alert you to inner conditions that need reflection. If you tend to force results, you will be more frustrated during the initial phase of the retrograde cycle.
Struggles during the initial stage of the retrograde cycle can be profound. Your mind may show a strong resistance to change.
A liminal phase begins when Mercury starts retrograding. It is a time of suspense and uncertainty. The unconscious is given a greater range of participation. The mind embarks on a journey without a specific itinerary. But what is discovered cannot be forgotten or unseen.
The retrograde phase begins a time of introspective attention. This attention becomes an overall awareness that may be nonverbal and nonlinear.
Lessons learned during Mercury retrograde relate to your capacity to be flexible. They help you face stillness and a change of plans.
This gift can be disguised in many forms, including trickster activities, frustration, and snafus.
As Sullivan says, “Learning to let go can result in a creative surge of power. By allowing the horizons of possibility to expand, new information can come in that had been previously sublimated.”
The Epimethean retrograde phase lasts for approximately eleven days. Its most significant characteristic is the forced review of your environment. The reflection upon the inner landscape is equally intense but not as dramatic.
Disconcerting events could occur in this phase. They are a direct signal to analyze the signs you have been too occupied to notice. Reviewing your motivations and perspectives becomes necessary.
The entire Mercury retrograde phase is transitional. You’ll need to uncover issues related to the house that Mercury is transiting during this phase.
The information that surfaces or the confrontations with unresolved issues are a blessing in disguise. They frequently take the form of trickster jokes because the unconscious employs this technique to catch your attention.
Related: Saturn Through the 12 Houses of the Zodiac: An Introduction
The Epimethean phase of Mercury retrograde is the initial stage of the journey. Our reference points are unfamiliar. It is the descent phase, the early cycle of reflection.
The beginning of the retrograde phase is marked by an abrupt departure from daily experiences. It is frequently disorientating.
There is a tendency to reject the signs indicating that it is best to cease forced activities and reflect.
Flowing with this brief journey into the unconscious will serve you well. Allowing messages to surface in symbols, images, and signals will heighten your intuitive powers. Heightened intuitive powers result in greater freedom of choice.
You should devote the first part of Mercury retrograde to engage in reflection and review.
A form of loosening is taking place. A solution to a stuck situation is brewing. This solution disengages you from what was to prepare you for what will be.
The characteristics of that solution remain to be seen.
Mercury Retrograde Phases: Inferior Conjunction
Mercury is metaphorically coming home to check on its status as it approaches the conjunction to the Sun.
As Mercury reconnects with the will of solar energy, a seed is planted at this dark time. The conjunction is a “new” Mercury phase.
This conjunction marks a time to rest and rejuvenate. You should scale down initiatory action and allow the unconscious to work. Right now, progress is only measured by reflection. By looking back, you’ll see how far you have come.
A fertilization happens at the end of the Epimethean phase, marked by Mercury’s conjunction to the Sun. This fertilization gestates throughout the last half of the retrograde cycle. The birth occurs shortly after Mercury turns direct, about ten days later.
The retrograde journey is half over at this stage. The re-orienting process is about to begin, slowly and unconsciously at first.
The Epimethean retrograde phase invites you to let go of the past. The Promethean one propels you to begin to gather new resources. There’s a clash between these two forces mid-cycle when Mercury conjuncts the Sun.
Symbolically, opposing forces at work operate like driving with the emergency brake on. One of these forces is the exciting energy of new beginnings (Promethean phase) combined with a sense of restraint (Epimethean phase). The clash creates inner tension.
Ultimately, you’ll need to dialogue with these apparent dichotomies. Developing a dialectic with which to birth a new idea is required. That idea can only come from gathering new information, testing new territory, and exploring fresh alternatives.
The exploration starts slowly in the second part of Mercury retrograde.
Mercury Retrograde Phases: Promethean Retrograde
The one feature common to the latter half of all retrograde cycles is hope for the future. This comes from Greek mythology. After Pandora opened her jar in front of Epimetheus, letting loose all evil, hope was the only thing left. Prometheus had to come to the rescue of his brother.
The Promethean phase of Mercury retrograde is the time when risk and adventure are the primary motivating forces.
The second half of the retrograde phase, after the conjunction to the Sun, is infused with an urgency to move away from introspection. This urgency could cause reckless experimentation based on inner guidelines.
This phase of the journey is more familiar. The retrograde phase is now well established. The mind is more comfortable with the lack of known boundaries. The adventure of liminality is clear.
You may feel more impatient at this stage. You could want to move forward based on the reflection done in the first part of the retrograde.
But rushing the process simply will not work. However, you could find a middle ground.
The best use of your energy in the second part of Mercury retrograde is to move forward and backward simultaneously. This means being experimental yet cautious. You can actively lay the groundwork for the future by being passively receptive to the current conditions.
You can do some things over the ten or eleven days between the conjunction with the Sun and Mercury turning direct. You should have some wiggle room for new potentials, options, and opportunities to develop. Don’t overfill your calendar with obligations.
By not making major decisions and resisting the impulse to intervene, you’ll contain your anxiety. Doing so will build a more appropriate method of operation.
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In these ten or eleven days, the mind acquires the information the will should exercise when Mercury turns direct.
The second part of Mercury retrograde is a time for surveying the scene and scanning the horizon for new tools. These new tools might be helpful in the near future, hence the association of this phase with research. The unconscious is busy acquiring input that will surface more concretely when Mercury is direct.
This final phase of Mercury retrograde is very educational and intensely creative in an embryonic way.
It’s a time when the full power of executive action is held back. However, it is still highly stimulating in a “research and development” fashion.
The Promethean phase might be experienced as frustration due to the inability to formulate fully matured ideas or situations. This is where trust and letting go become deep lessons.
When circumstances demand that something be completed during this phase, prepare for future revisions. Take everything with a grain of salt. If you are ready for change, though the details of the change are unknown, flexibility becomes an asset.
Mercury retrograde cycle acts like a Zen master. It teaches graceful movement through cosmic obstacles. After all, the rocks are also part of the path and can’t be avoided.
I hope this text was useful! Let me know your thoughts in the comments and until next time.
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