People love to talk about planetary heavyweights, but don’t let this magician escape your understanding: MERCURY! This article focuses on the sign of Mercury in your natal chart.
Mercury is the planet responsible for putting words to what the Sun perceives. It communicates our perception of reality It is language we use when we talk to ourselves; it’s the words we think and the words we speak.
Have you ever felt like you and the person you are talking to are speaking different languages? Have you ever felt like you couldn’t get on the same page with the person you’re talking to, no matter how hard you tried? On the other hand, have you ever experienced telepathy and the ability to communicate without words? Have you ever felt like you could complete their sentences effortlessly?
All of these experiences can be traced back to the symbolism of Mercury in your natal chart.
Mercury is the fastest moving planet and is never more than 28° from the Sun. Its phasal relationship to the Sun, its speed, and its sign each say something important about you and your communication style.
Mercury Through the Signs
Mercury in signs ruled by the Sun and Moon
Mercury in Leo is ruled by the Sun. This placement here can be brilliant and intellectual with the ability to communicate clearly and succinctly what one perceives. This communication style can be dogmatic and obstinate in communication, unable to pick up on nuances. Mercury in Leo speaks with authority and may dominate discussions believing that their way is the only way.
Mercury in Cancer is ruled by the Moon. Its mode and method of communication waxes and wanes. At times they can be talkative, others mute. These natives can be intense and forceful in their language if their emotions precipitate such a response. Because Cancer tends to take things from one extreme to another (just like the Moon’s light), Mercury here is dramatic, running hot then cold.
Mercury in Mercury Ruled Signs
Both Mercury in Gemini & in Virgo are concerned with the symbols that hold the space for the thing itself. Mercury in Virgo’s symbol can be number and image, Gemini’s word and mannerism, sound.
Mercury in Gemini is air. It can be a ‘say anything’ kind of communicator because they are detached from the meaning of the words they say. The epitome of “don’t shoot the messenger”, it’s another placement where nuance and subtlety can be lost. Remember, when a planet is in its own sign—like Mercury in Gemini and Virgo—it’s its own boss. That authority equals power and responsibility.
Mercury in Virgo is earth. Earth is concerned with what is tangiblee. Here, Mercury is its own boss. It’s concerned with both the technical and practical aspects of communicating. Mercury in Virgo can be quite literal. A messenger too, Mercury in Virgo is precise and seeks accuracy over “perfection.” It translates using symbols, bringing down to earth what is perceived.
Mercury in Venus Ruled Signs
Mercury in Taurus is ruled by the earthy Venus. Rather than speaking to be understood, Mercury in Taurus speaks to be accepted. It uses its faculty of communication in order to find social validation via race, class, gender, and sexuality. Mercury in Taurus often says what they feel people want to hear in a tone that will elicit a particular response, for good or ill.
Mercury in Libra is focused on using language as a tool of reason, one that unifies and finds consensus. Mercury rules all air signs (by triplicity/element) at night so it has some dignity (authority) here. Striving for consensus and an honest appraisal, Mercury in Libra brings detachment, seeking fairness, equally acknowledging the various ways to communicate. Communication is a function of connecting people and ideas.
This detachment can be problematic when an empathetic or personal approach is needed.
Mercury in Mars Ruled Signs
Mercury in Aries is fire. Fire is the will and the light of conscious awareness. Don’t sleep on Mercury in Aries as an intellectual who can speak with clarity and willfulness. think. Still their word cut, burn, explode. Words as an axe that chop right down to the essence. Distilling and delineating difference. Being the exaltation of the Sun, Aries Mercury brings unification of perception and word.
With Mercury in Scorpio language is used to conceal and protect rather than to reveal. It’s more about what isn’t said. Mars is always about separation and division, though not always in a negative way. But with Scorpio expressing the watery side of Mars there is this feeling that words are creating closeness, but they are really creating division, maintaining boundaries of separateness. Mercury in Scorpio uses language to guard. It doesn’t want to reveal what it perceives.
Mercury in Jupiter ruled signs
Debilitated (lacks authority) in both Sagittarius and Pisces, their ruler Jupiter is indifferent and somewhat hostile to Mercury’s agenda of using symbols to communicate what one perceives. Words often get in the way of what Mercury in Sagittarius and Mercury in Pisces really means,
Mercury in Sagittarius may have issues with hyperbole or saying what they really mean. Mercury here can get caught up on controlling how others interpret them leading them into paralysis, saying nothing at all. Words limit their ability to articulate their intention so they may speak in story or myth rather than succinct concise language.
Mercury in Pisces seeks to give word to the unspeakable. It’s language as a means to connecting to something bigger than the individual self. Pisces is the exaltation of Venus. With Mercury there it can be poetic and prone to soliloquy. Mercury in Pisces speaks in images. It communicates by creating pictures rather than quantifying specifics. Mercury in Pisces wants to say things perfectly rather than precisely. Perfectly as in articulating the meaning even if the words don’t literally translate.
Mercury in Saturn Ruled Signs
Saturn is the planet of death, loss, fear, anxiety. But it is also the planet of conceptual reality and reimagining what is.
Mercury in Capricorn is the earth side of that power. It uses language to express competency. Communicating methodically, efficiently, and concisely, Mercury in Capricorn uses words as a tool to establish order and impose structure.
Where Mercury in Capricorn uses language to manage the world and people around them, Mercury in Aquarius is the word as self-determination. Mercury in Aquarius uses words to conceptually reimagine the self and the world. Mercury here can be quite technically adept in writing, the sciences, and music.