Maybe this has already been a topic, but what are your thoughts on Rx significators? Barbara Watters says "judgment about the things the planet rules is poor. The course of events becomes abnormal, beset by difficulties, and if the whole matter doesn't collapse, the querent is led into a blind alley where he can go neither forward nor backward."

What do you think? Have you all found this to be true?

Yes, this could be the case. Bonatti certainly makes a case that retrograde planets are weak and not as effective. But I suppose it depends a lot on the situation. I think that sometimes with retrograde planets, you will find that the situation asked about will change again when the planet turns direct. If a retrograde significator is applying to the other significator it is probably important to check whether the aspect will perfect before the significator turns direct again. I did a horary for someone a couple of years ago who asked whether he will get back with his partner. His significator, Mercury, which was retrograde, was applying by conjunction to her significator, Jupiter. However, Mercury would turn direct before the aspect perfected. I told him he would most likely change his mind and move on and so he did.

A retrograde significator for the querent could also mean that she/he has to go back and deal with something from the past regarging the issue being asked about.

Thank you Sue, I think it's particularly apropos since right now Venus and Saturn are Rx. And of course recently, we experienced a Rx Mercury and Mars.

What I have noticed consistently is when Mercury is Rx. Then it almost doesn't matter how good the other aspects are: it usually means someone changes his or her mind or that the project will have to undergo some major revision or be cancelled.

I agree. Here's a few more chart where I learned what retrograde can mean.

I had a friend ask me how his love life will be in the near future. He made it seem like he had been in a slump for a while. I looked at the chart and saw no applying aspects, so nothing was in the offing for him in the near future. But his significator had just separated from a contact with Mercury retrograde. So I told him that there's nothing coming up in the future, but that he had had a brief encounter with someone very recently. He said yes and added that it was an old BF who had recently come back into his life and then vanished just as quickly. I totally missed the retrograde = old BF part coming back, but the other thing that retrograde can mean is that the event it signifies comes into your life very fast and leaves very fast. Think of is as the difference between passing a car that is going the same direction as you on the road (a regular aspect), and a car whizzing past you in the opposite direction (a retrograde aspect). This is what he said happened too. He said that after not hearing from this guy for a long time, the guy calls him up again, and after a few meetings asks him to move in with him. Then after about a week of this, the guy vanishes again. So a retrograde contact can mean something like a hit and run accident, involving someone from your past who has turned around to come back to you.

I had another chart for my cat who was at the animal hospital. It was a routine physical but the doctor felt a large tumor inside her and wanted to do more tests. The chart showed that the cat's 6th house was very, very strong, much stronger than her ASC ruler. BUT... the 6th house ruler was retrograde. After surgery the vet told me that the cat had inoperable cancer and that she would only live a few weeks or months. But remember, I brought her in on a routine physical. She didn't act sick at all. That was almost 2 years ago and she still doesn't act sick. What did I learn? Significator of cat's cancer is retrograde = cancer is in remission, not growing any more. Sure it may turn direct again, but the cat is almost 18, and still is healthy, lively and full of life.

It all depends on the chart. If you meet someone for the first time and their significator is retrograde, it sure can't mean that you knew them before and they have come back to you. It could just mean that they are weak in the situation. But you also might not know their whole story. In some way they could be reversing their own course by meeting you. Or a bit confused, I think that applies to being retrograde. Or like Sue said, it can mean that a person will change their mind when it goes direct.

One myth that I want to dispel that I hear a lot from modern astrologers, who usually say that nothing is bad (i.e., Mars in its detriment? No problem!) is that Mercury retrograde is the worst thing imaginable. I've seen it written a lot where someone will tell about some woe in their life and they chalk it all up to Mercury being retrograde at the moment. First, I don?t' rely a lot on current transits to my natal chart. But for some reason people have latched onto this idea that Mercury retrograde means that nothing will go right ever. This makes no sense at all because Mercury is retrograde all the time and the whole world doesn't simultaneously break down. Part of the world is broken down all the time, but not the whole world. Even in the midst of WWII, a lot of the world saw no fighting, such as Switzerland, Spain and Portugal, Sweden, South America, Africa, etc. It seems that this idea of Mercury retrograde has become a catchall excuse to explain away something bad.

Mark,

I think the observations you wrote about the man's old BF coming back and leaving just as quickly and the cat's tumor being in remission as signified by Mercury Rx, are excellent.

But as for the times transiting Mercury is Rx, I for one, never thought it meant things would go bad in a major way, but more than likely a lot of niggling little things, like, you lose your keys, your car breaks down, your mail gets returned, you lose an important book, your phone gets turned off, or you miss an important message. Basically, everything to do with communication and travel. I have found that work begun when Mercury is Rx often has to be completely revised; basically starting from scratch. (Of course this is when I worked as a writer!)

Other than that, Mercury Rx can have some very positive effects: I have found that when Mercury is Rx I hear from old friends and that's always nice.

I agree with Sue on this one. Retrograde planets definitely seem to relate to a change of position on the matter by the person signified by the retrograde planet.

I was in fact sceptical about this until this year when I have encountered a number of horaries where this has been the case. 2 of them were my own questions when my significator was retrograde, and at the time of asking I was totally "in to" the things asked about and tried every possible alternative explanation for the interpretation! It did not seem possible that I could change my position. But in both cases within a matter of weeks I had completely changed my mind. One was about a potential relationship which I thought I really really, wanted then one day I just found I no longer cared anymore about the object of my affection. I couldn't/don't understand what prompted my change of heart, but the horary was spot on.