Progressed Mercury/MC timing issues

[The_Sundance_Kid]

Hello, in the past few weeks, I would say from October, I have suddenly had this burst of intellectual enthusiasm, which includes astrology, and have been reading all manner of books. It is almost as if out of the blue I realised that there is so much I still have to learn! It has been three months now and I feel that this is a more permanent change in my outlook.

The other day I took a look at my progressed chart and found that Mercury was soon to progress into Sagittarius. It was on 29.something Scorpio, so I took a look at when it would change and to my surprise it doesn't actually enter Sagittarius until July of 2009. It moves slowly in my chart as it is coming out of retrograde.

Now I understand the effects of the progression, so my question is really about timing. My mother is very sure of my birthtime, she was there. I was wondering if these effects could become apparent this early before hand. Or if people think I should try and rectify my chart... If I were to rectify my chart so Mercury changed signs in and around October or November, it would change my birth time by more than 30 minutes, which seems highly improbably as my mom says she is certain.

Now if my normal birth time is correct, then my MC should also be changing signs from Virgo to Libra at about January 1st 2009.

I was hoping people might help me figure out how to figure out this conundrum. Maybe my intellectual change has nothing to do with progressions? How would I even know?

If people would like, I could post charts?

[Gogolesque]

It is possible that you start feeling the effects of a planet sign change a year before the actual progression into the next sign so I dont think you should change your MC/ASC; To rectify your chart, you'd better look closely to solar arc aspects especially conjunctions to and by the angles.

[natasa812]

Dear Sundance, maybe you should not look at Mercury by himself but the ruler of your 9th for example and his progression.
For example, my 7th is ruled by Mercury and whan Mercury was in progression and in conj. with my natal Venus I got married. Also, an additional information: North Node was in exact conj. with my natal N. Node and my Natal Sun was in conj. with progressed Jupiter in the same time.
So, the conclusion is that maybe Mercury is not the only important planet for learning but the planet that rules your 9th and its aspect.
Best r
Natasa

[Gogolesque]

Natasa,

what about solar arc aspects to/by the angles? were there any?

[natasa812]

Dear Gogo, I don`t know anything about solar arc aspects... sorry...
I am very very new in astrology...

[The_Sundance_Kid]

Thanks guys that's been very helpful. So it is ok for these progressions to be felt so far in advance. At least this makes me sure I have the right birth time. I will look at solar arcs, but I've never really studied those before.

And I did look at the ruler of the 9th and you were right Natasa- my 9th house ruler is the moon and a few weeks ago it crossed into Aries, beginning a new zodiac cycle. That might not be very strong on its own, but I think that is certainly a trigger for me to feel the Mercury progression. Also in my progressed chart houses, the moon just touched my IC, and my progressed IC is on 0 degrees Aries. I feel like all of these indicate a turning point for me, in my way of thinking- 9th house and Mercury! And all of this happened in November, so the timing is more accurate.

That only leaves the MC, but I think that will be a separate issue.

Thanks again :)