Mercury in astrology

Mercury is the way you think and speak: the part of you that moves through when it is given room. What it is ultimately after is to understand and be understood.

It is at home in Gemini and Virgo, so the affairs of Gemini and Virgo tend to be where it has the clearest hand.

The sign tells you the manner: the same mind looks bold in Aries and careful in Cancer without changing what it wants. The house tells you the arena: the part of life where you will actually meet it, whether that is money, partnership or reputation.

Aspects then tell you who it has to negotiate with. A Mercury squared by Saturn and a Mercury trined by Jupiter behave very differently even in the same sign.

Moving overhead, Mercury puts words to whatever it touches, for 88 days for one full circuit. Slower bodies make chapters, faster ones make days — which is why a Moon transit is a mood and a Saturn transit is a re-write.

Astro Nox reads your own transits against your birth chart rather than against a Sun sign, so a Mercury pass is dated to your degrees.

The Golden Dawn ties Mercury to the cards below — the trump that carries the planet, and the decans it rules among the pips.