Mercury is considered the messenger of the gods, responsible for the elementary functions of the intellect. In its glyph, the crescent above the circle symbolizes receptivity to higher perceptions. In astrology, it is the planet that makes it possible to communicate our ideas, bringing together the superconscious, conscious, and unconscious as we relate to each other. It also governs the activities and transportation of everyday life, the daily routine, and the associated obstacles and this routine.

It is a star with an adaptable and multifaceted connotation, which expresses itself depending on the connection it has with other factors. In its mode of operation, when the circle below the crescent is under stress, we can become intellectually arrogant. If the crescent is too strong, we can become too idealistic. If the Cross (which is below the circle) is very strong, it may indicate a more calculating, manipulative, and materialistically motivated way of communicating.

Awareness of the universal laws of cause and effect and the management of harmonic energies positively empower Mercury, thus causing us to communicate in a precise and balanced way to convey our ideas.

The messenger of the Gods

Mercury is associated with Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, responsible for bridging the gap between ethereal and matter. The way we reason, speak, write, our motor coordination, and our nervous system, in general, reveals how Mercury functions within us as correspondence from the heavens in our personal universe.

Mercury travels about 1 degree and 20 minutes a day, a little less when it is retrograde. It takes the planet well under 1 year (88 days) to move through all the signs of the zodiac, taking between 2 weeks and 2 months in each sign. With that, it manages to make about 4 laps around the Sun per year.

Houses 3 and 6 are associated with Mercury, which rules Gemini and Virgo, has its fall in the Pisces sign, and has Wednesday as its day. The Sun and Venus are stars with an affinity for Mercury’s energy, while the Moon is already more hostile to it. Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are neutral to Mercury.

The planet compels us to think, differentiate things and express ourselves in a unique way. It is the force behind our mental activities and is associated with our nervous system, i.e. the communication and transportation system within our bodies. Depending on their birth chart positioning, Mercury tends to make a person talk or write too much, become too critical or be a good speaker.

Making a comparison, the way we feel about a given situation is the role of the Moon, whereas the way we resolve, rationalize and intellectualize about the same situations to act later has to do with Mercury.

What Mercury can bring to your birth chart

Mercury is the celestial correspondence that allows us to use intelligence and rationality to address problems and other issues in our daily lives. If we were governed only by our instincts (Moon), brute action (Mars), and affection/social impulses (Venus), we would look much more like animals in the way we act. Mercury is what makes men rational.

A well-placed positioning of Mercury in the birth chart makes a person understand, process, and store information in a pragmatic, orderly, and fluid way. As such, such a situation can do very well for academics or students of any subject. Mercury is responsible for using our senses to reason and communicate correctly in different situations.

However, Mercury completes and balances our instincts, giving us the ability to use logic in our experience. It allows our minds to become aware of our surroundings and transform everything into information. This communication capability then allows us to transmit information in a coherent way.

The positioning of Mercury in each sign and its elements is what will determine how our organization works and our ability to collect and catalog information acquired through our experiences and senses, and how we will process and transmit it. It is what activates our curiosity and our desire to know and learn about something.

In addition to all this, it also symbolizes the many people around us, such as schoolmates, work colleagues, neighbors, friends we make in childhood and adolescence, children, brothers, and cousins. The main functions dealt with by it are attention, curiosity, learning, communication through speech and writing, manual skills, physical locomotion, sensory perception, and basic knowledge.

The astrological house where Mercury is found in a birth chart is the area of life where a person finds it easiest to express itself.

The positive side of Mercury, i.e. when it is not strained by some aspect or used well, brings versatility, practicality, intelligent speech, eloquence, good persuasion, success in public speaking, a shrewd mind, ingenuity, intellectual and manual skill, refined intelligence and objectivity. It also brings a general culture that comes from the ability to assimilate ideas and information, the pleasure in communicating, curiosity, the drive to discover, and wit that helps us adapt to the environment in which we live. A “good Mercury” can make a person have a brilliant mind, be a good manager, salesperson, and communicator, positively influencing manual and artistic skills as well.

The negative side of the planet can bring physical problems of locomotion, restlessness, excessive criticism, sarcasm, excessive superficiality, nervousness, cheating, lying, fraud, and irresponsibility. In an eventual Mercury tension, the person becomes sarcastic, a liar, and uses falsehood, deceiving, defaming, and having a “harmful tongue” at times. It opens doors to calculation, skepticism, to the belief in absolute and indisputable truths from their point of view, in addition to influencing communication problems. The good communicator starts to talk too much and without objectivity, taking a long time to explain things, the perceptive and sharp-witted person becomes distracted, with a scattered mind, etc.

Children with weak or poorly aspected Mercury may start talking late, for example. An afflicted Mercury can also influence panic or stress attacks more often.

The planet still offers important clues about the concerns that occupy our minds and position in signs is crucial because it reveals what kind of psychological tendency motivates and determines a person's ability to make decisions and convey their ideas. It also tells us a lot about what kind of information and facts a person observes and considers important, which ones they ignore, and which ones will always be on their mind. For example, the thinking of someone with Mercury in Taurus can be strongly influenced by the material importance or practical usefulness of certain ideas, as well as greater stubbornness in debate.

Thinking and communication

Mercury tends not to do very well when positioned in water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces), as it usually makes a link between emotion and logic/rationality, which obviously might not be a good combination (although it can make a person more creative and imaginative). As far as the astrological houses are concerned, Mercury has the power to increase intelligence and communication skills when placed in houses 1, 3, 5, 6, and 10. Mercury does not generally apply such effective and harmonic energy in houses 4, 8, 9, and 12, although communication will always be more fluid in matters governed by the house where Mercury stands.

For example, if Mercury is in house 5, there can be good communication with children and the children themselves, also making the native gain more interest to talk about creativity, movies, entertainment, sports, romances, and the various topics that house 5 represents. The person tends to know and be very interested in the things of the house and sign where Mercury is.

Mercury is also a very flexible and adaptable planet, so any planet in conjunction with it can cause it to “absorb” this other planet's mode of action. For example, if Mercury is conjunct Saturn, then communication can become harsher, colder, direct, short, or serious.

Interesting information is: In a birth chart, Mercury can only be positioned in the same sign as its Sun, in the sign before it, or in the one after it, as it is never more than 28º from the Sun. (each sign has 30º). For example, if your Sun sign is Pisces but your Mercury is in Aries, you tend to have a lot of creative ideas and a “traveling” essence, but when it comes to communicating them you may be too impulsive, talking like a machine gun, without giving others time to absorb what you want to say.