Keywords: Mind, language, learning, communication, trade, short trips
- Rules
- Gemini and Virgo
- Full cycle
- About 1 year (never more than 28 degrees from the Sun)
- Retrograde
- 3 times a year, about 3 weeks each
Dignities: Exalted in Virgo, in fall in Pisces, in detriment in Sagittarius and Pisces.
Mercury describes how you think and how you speak. It shows not the amount of intelligence but its style: some people think quickly and in scattered bursts, others slowly and systematically.
Mercury can never be more than 28 degrees from the Sun. This means Mercury is either in the same sign as the Sun or in one of the two neighboring signs; there is no other option. That is why the Mercury sign works like a shift in tone right next to the Sun sign.
Whether Mercury rises before or after the Sun is a classic distinction. Mercury rising before the Sun (morning star) is read as a quicker, bolder mind; Mercury rising after it (evening star) as a more cautious mind that works by digesting things.
In the houses
House placement: the area that occupies the mind most and where learning flows most easily.