Mercury through the Places in a Natal Chart | and a bonus haiku
Mercury travels quickly, is never separated more than 28 degrees from the Sun, and retrogrades three, sometimes four, times per year. His overall condition will describe whether he lends a more fortunate or infortunate nature to the native.
Mercury is changeable and highly influenced by the planets he’s with, including the condition of those planets and of Mercury himself. The numbered place and zodiacal sign he’s in also must be factored in — AND whether he’s a morning or evening star, his proximity to the Sun (e.g., under the beams, combust, cazimi, or phasis), and whether the nativity is a day or night chart and his relation to it (whether he’s of the same sect or not; i.e., is this a day chart or a night chart?). And this, of course, is translated through the numbered place and zodiacal sign he occupies and the places he is responsible for managing, i.e. Gemini and Virgo.
That’s a lot to see, calculate, interpret, and understand, which is precisely MERCURIAL! Astrology is a mercurial practice — as is math, science, and all of divination — which astrology is a part of.
Mercury is flexible in nature and is considered dry and cold. It is associated with technical tasks and jobs, such as measuring and calculating, all forms of communication, travel, markets, exchanges and interchanges, buying and selling, research and investigation, debate, humor, sport (e.g. wrestlers, boxers, tennis), competition, hermetics, healing professions (and more!). Due to condition, he can bring leadership, obedience, truth, and loyalty, or deception, theft, injustice, and falsehoods, for example.
If you’re familiar with astrology, you’ll know that a natal chart has 12 places (or houses), and each place contains topics related to life in the material world. In the modern era, places are called houses but, historically, houses referred to the zodiacal sign in the numbered place.
This haiku is a generic, minimal representation of Mercury through the twelve places of a natal chart, and was written just for fun. The significations do not account for sect, signs, aspects, or condition of the planets, and are severely limited to syllables. (I may have broken haiku rules using punctuation, but the syllables conform to 5–7–5.)
Hermes in the first
native is mercurial
witty, wise, crafty
second, skilled in life
in teaching, writing, trading
banking profession
third, siblings smart, skilled
town clerk, local priest, healer
neighborhood fabler
fourth, parents well-read
education important
family business
fifth, coach, satirist
plays on words, competitive
gambler, gambit, thesp
sixth, illness of speech
interpreters, sculptors, thieves
covetous, petty
seventh, direct, guide
business, affairs of others
negotiator
eighth, gains through malice
squanders resources, foolish
trickery, scammers
ninth, mantra, chanting
written teachings, skilled priesthoods
academia
tenth, benevolent
manages great business, town
writer, orator
eleventh, staunch friends
trustworthy alliances
intelligent peers
twelfth, anxiety
busy body, researcher
malicious mindset
Read the full story on Medium.
I am a traditional astrologer in contemporary times. I use a combination of traditional and modern techniques in practice and consultation. If you’d like to learn more about Mercury in your own natal chart, schedule an astrology consultation at astrologyrhapsody.com. I help my clients understand their charts beyond impersonal apps and social media forecasts and offer individualized examination and explanations specific to their unique charts and timing periods.