Mercury in Uttara Ashada ~ Easy victory second-time around

Mercury, planet of intelligence and communication, is retrograde in Uttara Ashada from January 22^nd.

It goes direct in motion on February 4^th, though remains in Uttara altogether until February 19^th, in the Capricorn portion of this nakshatra. Your plans and thinking go back to an earlier stage, or you find a new mental approach to a long-standing problem.

You are lively and curious, but don’t mind a patient build-up when there’s the prospect of ultimate success, and can also offer good advice to a friend in need. Uttara’s Shakti for ‘Uncontested Victory’ favours careful negotiation, and it may be that you need a second chance to achieve this asterism’s promise and to find your easy win.

Still, the usual Mercury retrograde considerations apply, where you investigate and gather data, but wait until the phase is over before committing to buy or decide. Uttara’s fixed quality brings hard-earned rewards and a lasting legacy, and its mythical rulers are the ten Vishwadevas, which bring a positive and spiritual quality into focus.

You make friends and alliances, and win respect for your tact and diplomacy: letters, articles and debate give your campaign energy and publicity, and you can make a real difference to an important issue. Mercury favours reaching out to people and asking the right questions – but again, it may pay to defer your final call until after February 4^th.

Uttara Ashada’s symbol of an elephant’s Tusk is linked to Ganesha, and chanting a mantra for the Remover of Obstacles gets any work, plan or journey off to an auspicious start.