There’s a lot going on this month, including the first Mercury retrograde of the year! The little dude does his apparent backwards dance from February 16th through March 9th, beginning at 12 degrees of Pisces and back to 28 degrees of Aquarius.
Mercury is considered weak in the sign of Pisces because it is opposite Virgo, a sign he rules. In Pisces, Mercury loses his precision focus and gets scattered. Be aware of this during the retrograde period and also when he moves forward over those degrees through the end of March. Mercury is in Pisces until April 12th, so this is a fairly long period of debility, almost 2 months!
Mercury is the conscious mind, the intellect, how we communicate, short trips and mechanical objects. We all have our Mercury Rx stories and while this time can be annoying it is not devastating or to be feared. Any planetary retrograde period is a time to do things over, review progress and revise action. Things generally work themselves out as he begins forward motion again.
Venus is transiting Pisces, her sign of exaltation, through February 8 and then she enters Aries, a sign of her debility because it is opposite Libra, a sign she rules. She is still highly visible in southwestern sky after sunset. Check out that luminous brilliance while you can. May all beings be blessed by this vision.