think again
by Jill Kirby | 7 november, 1999

Do you ever think about how you think? Have you ever contemplated how you communicate your thoughts?

Astrologically, the planet Mercury tells a great deal about your way of perceiving the world and your mode of conceptualizing and expressing your ideas. For most of us, it is difficult to get a perspective on how our minds work. Just as Mercury is never very far from the Sun (as we see it), so our thinking is virtually inseparable from our ego-consciousness. Mercury, in the chart, acts like the planetary switchboard. How well your switchboard is wired up to the other components (planets) has a great impact on your ability to handle information input and output.

In mythology, Mercury was messenger of the gods, the god of commerce, manual skill, eloquence and cleverness. He was also a trickster (does your mind ever play tricks on you?). Sales people, artisans, comedians, politicians and con-artists (the last two sometimes hard to differentiate) all rely on their Mercury skills for their success, and Mercury is generally prominent in such charts. We refer to someone who is quick-witted, changeable and fickle, as "mercurial".

Quicksilver, is another name for the paradoxical metal, mercury, which registers the temperature and barometric pressure much as Mercury, in our charts, registers the social climate and measures our responses to it.

Mercury in your natal chart will be in the same sign as your Sun-sign or in the sign immediately preceeding or following your Sun-sign. Understanding your Mercury placement can be very helpful. In relationships, communication is always of utmost importance, and a chart comparison of the Mercury placements can go a long way to explaining the level of communication in any relationship.

Each sign is categorized by element (fire, earth, air or water). If you visualize the compatibility of the elements, you will have some idea how planets in those elements interact. Two planets in the same element automatically have something in common - fire understands fire (although they may not agree, they can enjoy a heated debate). Air and fire are a fairly compatible combination; fire needs air in order to burn, and air, heated by fire, rises to greater heights. The combination of earth and fire, however, will result in scorched earth or a smothered fire.

Consider the example of two people, one with Mercury in pracitical, earthy Taurus and the other with Mercury in fiery Leo. Taurus is likely to see the creatively-inspired Leo ideas as being impractical, while Leo will probably think the Taurus ideas are boring and conservative. Both signs, being fixed in nature, will stubbornly defend their own viewpoints. If there is no mediation in such a case, then the Leo (fire) ideas may be stifled, or the Taurus (earth) will feel hot under the collar - and possibly both. If sufficient awareness is brought to bear on such a situation, then, rather than both parties digging in their heels and negating the other's ideas, they might be able to find a positive resolution wherein the praciticality of earth gives form to the creative inspiration of fire.

All aspects of our lives are affected by our ability to communicate effectively. However, miscommunications are a common source of problems in or society. It is easy to see eye-to-eye with someone who shares your point of view. A great deal more effort and tolerance are required in dealing with someone whose fundamental way of perceiving the world differs from yours. This is true whether we are talking about two people or nations. Couples get divorced, nations go to war, often simply because of differing points of view.

Three times each year, for about three weeks each time, Mercury is retrograde. That means that, from our earth-bound perspective, the planet nearest the Sun appears to move backwards against the backdrop of the constellations. Retrograde Mercury, astrologically tends to exhibit the trickster aspect associated with the winged messenger. During these periods, communications get garbled, plans meet with unexpected complications, commercial enterprises run into glitches. It is a good time for reviewing, reconsidering and revising plans, but a poor time to enter into contractual agreements or make important decisions. If you find yourself in the position of signing important papers during a Mercury retrograde period, be sure to read and reread the fine print (even then, you may find yourself having to redo something once Mecury turns direct). Likewise, major purchases, especially cars, computers and other Mercury-ruled items, are better delayed until Mercury is moving in a straight-ahead fashion.

As I write this, Mercury is retrograde, having stationed on November 5th - it will station direct on November 25th (just in time for Christmas shopping!) The first retrograde-Mercury period in the year 2000 will begin on February 21st.

The problems encountered during the Mercury retrograde tend to be fairly minor and more annoying than catastrophic. One of the myths about Mercury is a story about the god when he was just hours old. Having become bored with playing in his crib, the mobile little fellow goes off and steals the cattle of his big brother Apollo. He accomplishes this by making the cattle walk backwards, thus leading those searching for them in the wrong direction. Sounds like a Mercury retrograde to me!