Mercury

Mercury is the smallest and the fastest of the classical planets, and the only one to which tradition grants no nature of its own. That is not a shortcoming — it is what it is for.

What it means

Thinking, speaking, writing, calculating, dealing in the sense of trade. Everything that mediates between two things: word, money, road, messenger.

It rules two signs, Gemini and Virgo, and in Virgo it is exalted as well — the only planet that is both ruler and exalted in the same sign. It is in detriment in Sagittarius and Pisces, and in fall in Pisces.

It takes the colour of its surroundings

This is the decisive trait. Mercury is neither benefic nor malefic, neither masculine nor feminine, neither of the day nor of the night — it becomes what its connections make of it.

In practice this means: Mercury with Jupiter thinks broadly and generously; Mercury with Saturn thinks slowly, thoroughly and with suspicion; Mercury with Mars thinks sharply, quickly and combatively. Anyone who wants to interpret Mercury must first see whom it is dealing with.

Its sect too follows from this: as a morning star, east of the Sun, it belongs to the day; as an evening star, to the night.

Its closeness to the Sun

Mercury never moves further than about 28 degrees from the Sun. It is therefore combust more often than any other planet — and that is a condition to be examined in its case with particular care.

A combust Mercury describes thinking that is outshone by something larger: hard to put into words, hard to make heard. If instead it stands cazimi — within 17 arc minutes of the Sun — tradition reads the opposite: extraordinary clarity.

A few degrees lie between the two conditions. See the Sun.

Retrograde motion

Mercury is retrograde three or four times a year, for about three weeks. In classical interpretation this weakens its accidental dignity: what it stands for takes detours, comes back, has to be repeated.

What popular talk has made of this is another matter — and a poorly founded one. See retrograde planets.

As significator

Mercury is the natural significator of profession — more precisely, of the activity itself. In a question of profession it is read together with its dispositor and with whatever stands at the midheaven. See profession and vocation.