Astrology with Alice: The final fire initiation

Mercury is going retrograde from Nov. 9-29. You might be thinking, "Again? Didn't we just do this?" And, guess what? You’re right. This is the third Mercury retrograde of 2025, and they’ve all happened in fire signs.

This fire thread isn’t a coincidence. It’s a pattern, and the rule in astrology is that patterns always tell a story.

This particular retrograde starts in Sagittarius but backtracks into Scorpio, which makes it a bit of a double feature. We're being asked to examine our beliefs (Sagittarius) by going back into the emotional and psychological territory that shaped them (Scorpio). But before we get into the specifics of this retrograde, we need to zoom out and look at the big picture because this Mercury retrograde isn't just another weird and wonky couple of weeks. It's the final chapter in a year-long initiation into fire.

The year of fire

This year has been a year of fire activation. All three Mercury retrogrades have occurred in fire signs—Aries in the spring, Leo in the summer, and now Sagittarius as we head into winter. But the fire theme goes even deeper than just Mercury's shenanigans. Earlier this year, both Saturn and Neptune made their ingresses into Aries, which is the first fire sign that represents initiations and new beginnings. Saturn and Neptune are slow-moving outer planets, and their ingress into Aries signals something significant. They're setting the stage for their conjunction in Aries in 2026, an event that happens roughly every 36 years. (Spoiler alert: This is the big astrological event of 2026, and we’re already gearing up for it energetically.)

When the planet of structure and discipline (Saturn) meets the planet of dreams and dissolving boundaries (Neptune) in the sign of the divine spark (Aries), we're being asked to build something real from our visions. But you can't wield fire if you haven't learned its nature, which is both life-giving and destructive. And that's what 2025 has been about—learning to work with fire consciously, in all its forms, and this last fiery Mercury retrograde is part of our preparation leading up to the 2026 conjunction of Saturn and Neptune.

The three qualities of fire

Fire isn't monolithic. The three fire signs express fire energy in distinct ways, and each Mercury retrograde this year has asked us to reclaim a specific quality of fire:

Aries is cardinal fire—the divine spark, explosive and initiating. It's the moment of ignition, the lightning strike, the first breath.

Leo is fixed fire—steady, sustainable, like a healthy fire burning in the hearth. It's the fire that warms the home that provides light through the long night.

Sagittarius is mutable fire—wildfire, unpredictable, changing direction in real time. It's the fire that spreads and transforms landscapes. Wildfire can either clear away dead undergrowth or consume everything in its path. This month’s retrograde in Sagittarius is asking us to reclaim something more complex: the wisdom to know when fire serves and when it destroys.

The Sagittarius paradox and Temperance

Sagittarius is the sign of optimism, adventure, and expansion. It's the sign of the seeker, the philosopher, the traveler who's always chasing the next horizon. And while all of this is true, if we stopped there, we’d overlook the deeper wisdom of this sign.

Sagittarius is associated with the Temperance card in the Tarot, which is the card that shows an angel mixing water between two cups, one foot on land and one in water. Temperance is about moderation, integration, and the alchemical mixing of elements to create something new. It's about finding the middle path and knowing when to add heat and when to let things cool off.

This seems almost contradictory to Sagittarius's reputation for excess and "more is more" vibe. (I’ve been guilty of declaring that if “YOLO” was a sign, it’d be Sag…and I still stand by it. #sorrynotsorry) But that contradiction is exactly the point. The lesson of Sagittarius isn't just to seek truth and meaning, it's also about learning tempering and finding the right intensity. The Sagittarius lesson is about understanding the nature of wildfire and learning that it becomes useful when it's a controlled burn that clears away dead undergrowth. But uncontrolled? It's pure destruction. And that’s why people with a lot of Sag energy have the potential to turn into either the wisest gurus or the ultimate hot messes.

Sagittarius is all about belief and the assignment of meaning, and this is crucial when we're creating something new. Without the Sagittarius piece, the things we start with Aries energy and create with Leo energy are ultimately meaningless. We need to believe in what we're doing. Things need to matter. But here's the shadow side of belief: when our beliefs become rigid, when we're so attached to our version of truth that we can't hear anyone else's, when we seek intensity for intensity's sake—that's when we become the wildfire that destroys indiscriminately.

As I wrote in my previous article about Sagittarius, the shadow of this sign is dogmatism. It's the voice that says, "I know what I know and you can't tell me any different." It's the belief system that's calcified into something that won’t bend, won’t grow, won’t integrate new information. And when Mercury—the planet of the mind, perception, and communication—goes retrograde in Sagittarius, we're being invited to examine where our beliefs have become too rigid, too hot, too all-or-nothing.

Working with the fire: Sign by sign

So how do we work with this energy? As with all retrogrades, the advice remains consistent: slow down, reflect, reassess. Don't launch new projects or sign contracts if you can avoid it. Back up your data. Allow extra time for travel and communication mishaps. Be crystal clear in your messages. These practical tips still apply.

But this retrograde is also asking for something deeper than just avoiding technological snafus. It's asking you to examine your beliefs, to go back into shadow territory, and to retrieve the wisdom you need before you can move forward with clarity. The retrograde is doing preparatory work—clearing away the undergrowth so that when we're ready to build something new in 2026 (hello, Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Aries), we're doing so with tempered fire rather than wild, unexamined intensity.

Where you need to do this work depends on your sun sign. Below, I've outlined where this retrograde is asking you to seek clarity through shadow work before renewal can happen. Just remember—the descent into the retrograde fog isn't punishment. It's a chance to reframe and retrieve meaning.