Mercury, Messenger of the Gods! Mercury rules the signs of Gemini and Virgo and, in mythology, carried messages for Jupiter. He is therefore driven but with a light and skilful touch, able to adapt to circumstances, versatile... a communicator! Orbiting the Zodiac in around 87 days, clad in a helmet and winged sandals, this swift factotum of the gods will endow the individual with discerning and analytical ability, the ability to use the medium of language to transmit everything he knows, to teach, decode and ultimately, understand... This rapid-moving planet powerfully stimulates communication and teaches us ...how to learn, reason and express ourselves clearly. But it often speeds up processes and can therefore cause us to lose our nerve, leading to various incidents which will force us to channel our energy...mental energy!
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All You need to know about Mercury
As an intermediary between heaven and earth, constantly going back and forth between the gods and humanity, and its constant stimulation of our neurons, Mercury protects travellers, who like him will work tirelessly to establish connections between here and elsewhere; intellectuals who pass on their knowledge by vocation; and sometimes the thieves that make the world go round... in their own way... by using the planet's cunning and ingenuity!
Mercury also rules neighbourly relations and represents our brothers... those who are younger than us. It is by the grace of Mercury that we are able to write books... and learn to read them. Learning and literature are therefore naturally encouraged by the presence of a strong Mercury in an individual's chart.
Mercury in our charts
Mercury thus tells us about the intelligence of a person, the way in which this person will use language to make him or herself understood, certainly, but more obviously, to talk about his or her deepest feelings, focus on them, identify them and ultimately... give them a name! Mercury is a somewhat neutral planet and tends to absorb the influence of the stars in the same area of our charts. Therefore, Mercury conjunct Jupiter in a person's chart will be likely to reflect quite an optimistic outlook and concern for the law. As Jupiter generally amplifies everything it touches, an individual with this aspect in their birth chart will often be by nature ... broad-minded!
If the moon represents infancy (and old age), Mercury relates to our adolescence, the age of adjustment... but also the period in life when we frequently encounter difficulties... in communicating! As the ruler of both Gemini and Virgo, Mercury has different ways of expressing its multi-faceted nature. Whilst in Gemini, it teaches, transmits and sometimes over-diversifies, in Virgo, it analyses, dissects and rationalises, but can also get lost ...in conjecture!
In both cases, a well-aspected Mercury encourages writing ability, nurtures teaching skills and endows a person with a lively and agile mind, as well as a hilarious sense of humour in many cases. However, if blocked by opposing forces, it can also lead to language impairment, slowness in grasping issues, and push the individual along the road of manipulation and dishonesty.
Mercury with negative aspects in a birth chart will block communication, restrain our enthusiasm and create mental confusion... Or send us off down side-roads, inviting us to use our mental faculties to play for time (but at what cost?) or encouraging us to lose our way... in welters of detail! Therefore, a dominant Mercury greatly encourages mental fulfilment, academic success, writing, negotiation, and more generally all activities and talents connecting us with others and making the most of our sound mental prowess. But, a Mercury that has lost its way can throw us into great confusion, or lead us to play games...using our mental faculties to manipulate those around us and achieve our ends...which could be dubious or otherwise. God of negotiators, but also the god of thieves, Mercury, with his dual nature, conceals the best... and the worst...of us.
Whilst you can often find Mercury dominating the charts of intellectuals, major players (more or less) on the commercial scene, gifted teachers and travellers (commercial or for pleasure), you can also sadly rely on this unstable and unsettled planet (where its aspects are negative) to foster hyperactivity, anxiety and even depression, leading the person to wear themselves out mentally, going round and round in circles rather than achieving what would seem to be their destiny : making connections and enabling all kinds of exchanges, aimed at making our beloved planet and all its precious inhabitants go round... in the right direction!
Physically, Mercury rules the arms, respiration, the lungs... and the nervous system! If Mercury is exalted in your chart, you will be in control of yourself and have few problems in getting the message across or taking action without further ado! If Mercury provokes you, it can cause asthma, language difficulties and sleep disturbances, making you more inclined to make a noise than communicate, and remain silent instead of establishing conversation.
Depending on its placing in our charts, Mercury inspires and galvanises our self-expression, fulfilling its mission as a winged divine inspiration. Alternately, it makes us rush headlong, flippantly, nonchalantly, impatiently, sometimes unscrupulously, in a spiral of confusion and clips our wings! Fortunately, in line with its versatile nature, this star mostly bustles around in all directions and offers us the possibility of successively, simultaneously and jointly expressing the different sides of its multi-faceted temperament... lively, sometimes elusive and often something of a magician!
