I like to think of the planet-energies as our psychic organs.

If we were studying anatomy, we would start learning about things that are true for every human being. For instance, whatever we may learn about the lungs and the human respiratory system would be valid for anybody. At this level of knowledge, we are all the same, and that's great. I could be hospitalized in China and be taken proper care of.

Now, we are also all different. Some people may have a huge respiratory capacity and others may suffer from asthma. Similarly, everyone has Mercury in their chart, but mine is in Libra, connected by aspects to Venus, Jupiter and Saturn and in the fourth house.

However, understanding what is true for everyone is absolutely necessary before getting into particularities.

Planets can be summarized by key verbs.

Mercury says:

I think- I communicate

If you remember only two key verbs, remember those!

If you're ready for more, Mercury also says:

I speak - I analyse - I imitate - I move - I serve - I pass on the message - I learn - I study - I reason - I read - I write - I trade - I exchange - I walk - I run - I speed up - I drive the car! - I do the DIY - I talk- I lie - I trick - I joke- I sing - I play music - I observe- I classify - I pay attention to details - I multiply - I divide - I count - I adapt - I adjust - I know - I repair - I link - I connect - I go get the info - I explore - I am curious about everything - I heal - I collect - I make lists....

Mercury symbolizes our mind! With Mercury however it is not a case of the mind and nothing but the mind though. Mercury has a lot to do with our ability to reason, to use words and numbers and to apply common sense. We'll try to define the mind another day.

Mercury is also our ability to move.

Sometimes Mercury is the monkey mind. Sometimes it is the awakened mind with an ability to heal.

When we talk about mind-body connection, we're talking about the magic of Mercury, the connector.

Planets can also represent people who appear in our lives. Mercury can represent a sibling, a young person, a peer or a neighbour.

It is associated with the age of 10 or 12, before puberty. At that age, children are interested in learning and knowing. They may know, for instance, every kind of dinosaur that once existed, and look at you with pity if you don't know the difference between a Stegosaurus and a Pterodactyl. Later on, when boys become the main focus of girls and vice versa, the dinosaurs will lose their aura of prestige...

Do you get the spirit of Mercury?

At school, a child with a strong Mercury will be... Wait a little bit and try to guess before reading the next lines.

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They will be good at school indeed, unless they are so clever that they get bored and distracted.

The Mercury child could become the one that disrupts the class, cracks jokes or plays tricks, whilst being able to answer the teacher’s questions correctly. Which, in their mind, entirely justifies the cheeky behaviour! They can also make a fortune selling sweets to their classmates.

When in love the Mercury teenager (or adult) will not be the most passionate and faithful, as curiosity for all that exists is their main motivation.

For the Mercurial individual, feelings are a very interesting subject to observe, their expression in others are great to imitate in order to make everyone laugh, but being immersed in them… not too much thank you!

The energy of Mercury makes you like things and people, but when you fall in love, it's not Mercury anymore, it's Venus or Mars. Now, when it comes to the business of the heart, Mercury can help a lot, as this energy knows how to communicate. Need a chat-up line?

What kind of jobs, what kind of hobbies would a Mercury person most enjoy?

I will let you guess this one...

If Mercury was an animal, which one would it be?

A squirrel maybe? Not a rhinoceros. A rhinoceros would rather make me think of a combination of Mars and Saturn. (Saturn gives the heavy, armoured twist to the Martian aggressiveness of the beast). Little birds, swallows, robins and carrier pigeons are indeed Mercury in animal form. Let’s not forget the bees either.

When I was young, I read The Adventures of Tintin. Do you know him? He is quite Mercurial.

He is a reporter, always on the move. You don't see him expressing an interest in women, he loves his best friend, Captain Haddock and Milou (or Snowy), his dog. He is very clever. He is curious about everything. He always finds a way to get himself out of the most complicated situations. Mercury is your inner Tintin!

Let's now go for a walk along the street and look at the buildings. Which ones are we going to tag as Mercury?

The post office is a typical one of course. All the shops will be tagged as Mercury because Mercury is a trader.

Yesterday I noticed two shops sitting right next to each other: one was a music shop and the other one a wine shop. I was thinking: it's a Neptune spot! Neptune, the planet of Pisces, is relevant to both music (music expresses feelings without words and connects us with other dimensions, or just offers a way to escape reality) and to wine (drink like a fish; it's liquid and also a way to escape reality!) Now both shops deserve the Mercury tag - simply for being shops: places where exchange takes place. As you see, astrology, like life, has many layers.

Mercury, by the way, is also a musician: you need to be skilled and nimble-fingered to play an instrument. You need to be able to articulate well to sing. It’s communication.

Another shop that expresses Mercury is the stationary shop. Here you will find all you

need to write and do the accounts. The vet, the pet shop, that's Mercury again. The chemist, the dentist, the bus garage, the bus stops, the metro station, even the individual buses and trains, the pavements and roads... Everything that allows movement and communication is an expression of the energy of Mercury. Great journeys are usually associated with Jupiter, the sign Sagittarius and the ninth house, but short trips in the neighbourhood are ruled by Mercury.

The schools where young people attend lessons and mix with their peers are Mercurial places.

The physiotherapist and the health food shop express yet another side of this multifaceted energy.

In the body, Mercury rules the nervous system. It's all about communication, whether of orders from the brain to the muscles, or information from the senses to the central nervous system where everything is stored and interconnected.

It also rules the lungs (breathe in, breathe out, exchange with the environment) and the intestines (break down food into smaller constituents and sort out what to keep and what is rubbish). The collarbones, arms and hands are also under Mercury's rule.

We could look at life as a double movement. A movement from source towards the

multiplicity of things and beings, and a movement from multiplicity back to source. Mercury expresses the movement towards multiplicity. It turns its back to the temple and looks at the world. In philosophy, he is all with Aristotle, and probably sarcastic about Plato. Mercury values observation and experimentation over speculation and metaphysics.

We know all the energies intimately as we have been living them since we were born. All we need is to be able to recognize them and differentiate between them. Recognizing and differentiating are Mercury at work.

I leave you here to meditate...

Enjoy!

Jean-Marc Pierson
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Blog posts written between 2017 and spring 2021, including this one, have become a book: Magical Doors.

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