When Mercury is Retrograde, It's A Good Time to Think About Our Communication Style.

Mercury is the planet that represents thinking and communicating. The sign it posits in your chart shows how you think and communicate and what information you pay attention to.

Mercury is never far from the Sun. It falls in the same sign as your Sun, or the sign before or after it.

Mercury in the Signs

Your Personal Style:

Are you analytical and objective or do your emotions overrule your better judgment? Are you intuitive or are you much more likely to make common sense appraisals.

The sign which the planet, Mercury, posits in the birth chart defines our mental outlook. While the planet, Mercury, rules logic, reasoning, objectivity, and the ability to discriminate as well as thinking, there's no guarantee that each of our mind's works in a logical or reasonable way.

Mercury can never be more than twenty-eight degrees away from the Sun. And the closer it falls close to the Sun, the more difficult it is to separate the ego or sense of identity from the thoughts. This makes it difficult for to observe oneself, because the observations are so tied to the self-image. Mercury in a sign other than your Sun sign helps with an open-mindedness in examining ideas differing from one's own.

Mercury in Aries

If your Mercury is here, you think rapidly and learn quickly. You make up your mind decisively and have little patience for those who cannot do the same. You're honest, direct, and straightforward. When others ask your opinion - or even if they don't - you'll tell them the straight-forward truth as you see it. You don't sugar coat what you have to say, and you respect the same type of straightforwardness from others. You'd rather be told you're a jerk by an honest person than be placated by a less than honest one.

Mercury in Taurus

Your thinking is practically, materially, and financially oriented. You possess a great deal of common sense and a good deal of business sense. You learn better by doing rather than by reading books, and you prefer to learn only what's useful. When it comes to decision making, you proceed slowly so that you can take all the necessary information into consideration. Once you make up your mind, you rarely change it.

Mercury in Gemini

Since Mercury is the ruler of Gemini, this is a "good" placement, which brings out the best of Mercury's qualities. You possess a sharp mind, quick wit, and a talent for anything relating to logic. Your thinking is objective and impersonal. You were born "curious;" you question everything, wanting to know why things are the way they are. You display impressive communication skills--you can talk almost anyone into almost anything. You enjoy a wide variety of intellectual pursuits and cerebral challenges and never tire of learning. Because of this, you get bored quickly and can jump from one idea to another. This satisfies your immediate curiosity, but gives you trouble in completing what you start.

Mercury in Cancer

Your thinking is instinctive, intuitive, and colored by your feelings. This does not necessarily mean that you come to erroneous conclusions, but that you find it difficult to explain how you know what you do. Because of this, you can feel threatened if others question your conclusions. When emotionally involved in situations, taking a step backwards and becoming analytical or your emotional concerns outweigh the facts before you. Your retentive memory helps you to learn from the past, but it also allows past experiences--conscious or unconscious--to strongly influence present decisions.

Mercury is Leo

You're verbally self-expressive; you communicate dramatically, and you love to dress up a story to make it entertaining. Your sense of humor, combined with your enthusiasm and dramatic flair, make you good at teaching or training others. You know how to turn the ordinary into "fun," and you excel in getting others excited about your ideas. You exude self-confidence and exhibit executive abilities. You enjoy being the boss--having others listen to you and telling them what to do. While you form opinions slowly, you can be overly attached to these opinions once you have formed them. Your reluctance to change your mind can lead you to stubbornly disregard information that's not in line with your thinking.

Mercury in Virgo

This is a "good" placement as Mercury rules Virgo. It combines analytical thinking with the objective of putting ideas to work. You have common sense and a very practical mind, which focuses on how to get the job done, whatever the job may be. Since you naturally think in sequential order, i.e., this is step 1, this is step 2, you excel in teaching or training others and in writing how-to manuals. You are detail oriented and see the fine points that others overlook, but you can go overboard emphasizing details that only you care about.

Mercury in Libra

Your mind is logical, intellectual, and analytical, yet you are concerned with human relations. Socially you are diplomatic and believe in doing and saying "the right things" and you expect others to do the same. While you dislike arguments or any type of conflict, you excel in negotiations where you easily win other people over to your way of thinking while they believe the thoughts are their own. Social approval means a great deal to you--so much so that you can tell others what they want to hear instead of what you really think.

Mercury in Scorpio

Your thinking is deep and profound. You delve into, research, and have to know all about any topic that you're interested in. You have the instinctive ability to look directly into situations and ideas and perceive their underlying meaning. When it comes to people, you quietly psychoanalyze why they are the way they are and where they're "coming from." You do all of this without much forethought; it takes place naturally. Your own communications are direct and forthright or you say nothing at all. When you are angry or upset, you should be careful of being overly sarcastic. Your instincts show you just where to strike, making it hard for others to forgive your caustic utterances.

Mercury in Sagittarius

It is in the most intellectual of the fire signs. You combine a brilliant mind with extraordinary curiosity. You value education highly, and you perceive learning as an adventure. You're interested in ideas and ideals, whether they be social, religious, or philosophical. Your quick mind and direct speech make you an excellent debater, but being blunt does not always endear you to others. You must remember that your opinions don't necessarily constitute the truth, that you can hurt others by what you say, and that the opinions of others can be as valid as your own.

Mercury in Capricorn

Your thinking is down to earth, pragmatic, businesslike, and success-oriented. Your methodical mind gives you outstanding organizational skills. You focus on what's useful--what it will take to get a particular task done. When it comes to education, you study what will further your career, your income, and your social status. You think conservatively, looking back to traditional ideas. Practicality carried to the extreme may foster negativity. You should try to approach new ideas or new ways of doing things openly, rather than avoid them, regardless of their merit, because they are unfamiliar to you.

Mercury in Aquarius

Your thinking is free and liberated. Your interests lie in what's new, unusual, or out of the ordinary. You dislike and distrust tradition, which you view as entrapping. Instead, you seek an unbiased, objective way of looking at the world. You believe all people should have equal opportunity. You approach life intellectually. Aquarius' symbol, the waterbearer, dispenses knowledge with the belief that knowledge sets one free. Yet, you can become rigidly attached to your ideas. You make up your mind objectively, but once you've done so, you don't change it easily. This can greatly prejudice you against those who disagree with your position.

Mercury in Pisces

Your mind and your instincts work together. Your thinking is sensitive, intuitive, and psychic. You make decisions about people and situations by how you feel about them. Your vivid imagination makes you creative and poetic. Having creative outlets is of prime importance. You have tremendous powers of concentration for studying whatever interests you--you can get lost in what you're doing. However, if you must concentrate on anything that you're not interested in, you're more likely to find yourself daydreaming than paying attention to what you're doing. When judging other people, be careful of being overly sympathetic. Your dislike of seeing what's "wrong" with others when you can see what's "right" allows them to take advantage of you.


Joyce Levine specializes in helping people recognize their natural abilities and use them to overcome their personal obstacles to success and to take action at precisely the right time to achieve the results they desire.

To discover how all the planets affect you as well as your current personal trends, call Joyce at

617-354-7075
or e-mail for an appointment.

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