We often mention the big three as the main indicators: the Sun, the Moon and the Ascendant, with its ruler, aka “Chart Ruler”.

The Sun and the Moon are the King and the Queen, the Chart Ruler is their Prime Minister.

I have never heard anyone make a big fuss of Mercury, unless Mercury happens to hold a special position as Chart Ruler for instance, or as a dominant planet.

It’s absolutely normal actually. Mercury is a servant. When you go to the restaurant, the waiter is supposed to be there when you need them and to disappear into the background when you don’t. At home, as long as everything is working, you don’t think of the electrician or the plumber; your life doesn’t revolve around the cables and the pipes.

Same with Mercury in the chart. Its best role is to remain invisible.

(Please keep in mind that what I am describing in terms of outer life is also a metaphorical description of how the energies combine within ourselves. As within so without and vice versa.)

The Gemini side of Mercury’s role is to connect, interpret, translate, pass messages etc. It’s a plumber or an electrician “in the air” so to speak. Words are pipes in which meaning flows.

If you read Dostoevsky you know the author: it’s Dostoevsky. The ideal translator gives you Dostoevsky in your own language. He himself is transparent. You can forget you don’t understand Russian.

The author himself disappears behind the world he describes. You don’t read Dostoevsky to learn about his health, but to be told a good story about life and people.

Mercury wants to be invisible. But this of course is an ideal. A translation may be better than another. Various translations may have various qualities: one may stick closely to the original, but the style suffers. Another one is really delightful to read - but at times betrays the intention of the author. One may evoke the feelings of the characters wonderfully, and be rather approximative when it comes to facts… You see where I am coming.

In the chart, the co-authors are the Sun, the Moon and the other planets. Mercury gives them a voice. Its Virgo side gives them hands.

You’re going to tell me: “Wait! Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are Gemini! They are not of the discreet kind, if you ask me!”

We should never confuse energies and people.

Nobody, not even Boris Johnson, is a pure Gemini. Gemini is an energy that facilitates. If you mix ninety nine per cent of Gemini powder and one percent of sand, this one per cent is going to benefit from such a power of communication that it will make you believe that this grain of sand is a Great Oasis in the middle of the Sahara, with caravans of camels coming and going, and storytellers to entertain one thousand and one nights. You will be talked into the Oriental Magic. When it works well, you don’t see that it’s mostly Gemini powder.

Ideally, Mercury should be odourless and colourless. In reality, intermediaries and servants twist the messages and carry out orders in their own style. If you know how to speak to the receptionist, you increase your chances to meet the boss.

The Ascendant is also an intermediary: it is the interface between the inner and outer worlds. In traditional astrology, the First House is where Mercury rejoices.

To explore Mercury’s role further, an example is the clearest way to go. I’m thinking of someone who has Gemini Rising and Mercury in Pisces.

As Ascendant ruler, Mercury becomes a Very Important Planet. The translator or the interpreter are supposed to be as invisible as possible… except when the time comes that we need them!

Gemini Risings play a role of connector and facilitator in their environment, and within their own mind. You may go to them for information and news. If you’re not too quick, they will come to you.

So here is Mercury coming forward and greeting you in Pisces style. She says Hello and you feel an atmosphere. With some people, you need to break the ice. With Mercury in Pisces, the ice melts effortlessly. You get a feeling similar to a cat rubbing its head on your leg. It’s sweet. You try to grab the animal and it escapes. But then it comes back. The boundaries are not too clear, and may change from a moment to the next. You need to feel to know what’s going on. It’s mutable energy all the way down.

André Barbault says there are two types of Gemini, one moving around with his thinking, the other with his sensitivity. Mercury in Pisces will incline the Gemini Rising to express as the latter type. It has what it takes to flirt around if in the mood.

A Gemini Rising with a solid Mercury in Capricorn would be much more formal, in whatever codes apply. You would be clearly shown how things work.

Mercury in Pisces feels you. You may not know you’ve been communicating your own psychic atmosphere. The cat may sit on your lap, stay in the room or disappear. It looks like the guardian of an Egyptian temple. You’ve got a message from the Gods. Don’t be stupid, understand without being told.

Mercury in Pisces can talk though. It may love to picture what it’s telling you with sensitivity. It may sing songs and write poetry. Mercury is said to be in exile in Pisces. Poetry is the art of using words to evoke what can’t be said with words, which is precisely the world of Pisces. A planet in exile is confronted with a challenge to its own nature. But it’s not doomed. It might succeed!

I know a Gemini Mercury who spent most of her professional life translating scientific texts. It’s not an easy job, but it’s much more like home for Mercury.

Mercury’s analytical tendencies are challenged in a fluid world. It’s easy to know the difference between a blue pill and a red pill, but what if you get an infinite variety of shades of violet and so many pills scattered on the floor?

Listen to the intonations of a voice, observe the non verbal cues when someone is speaking… What do they convey exactly? Mercury in Pisces knows, and it may be able to interpret your dreams. At least they may understand them.

Exploring the beautiful potential of a placement shouldn’t make us forget that if the placement suffers from difficult squares or oppositions, is ruled by a planet who is itself challenged, rules over planets with issues… we may get the flaws instead of the qualities, until the lessons are learned. Instead of poetry we may get nonsense, sentimentality, suggestibility, confusion. The double nature of Gemini combined with the double nature of Pisces may become somehow incoherent. Feelings may pretend to be logic, and two plus two may be five after all.

But no worries, lessons are there to be learned.

If we were reading a whole chart, the next question would be: what is this Pisces Mercury, in charge of interpreting?

The urge to take action and get things moving forward of an Aries Sun in the tenth house? Such a Sun is likely to give orders, how will a Pisces Mercury tell you that you’ve got to do as you are told? And what if it’s an Aquarius Sun, with great ideas to share with you in the seventh house, how will Mercury in Pisces interpret them? What is there is a Libra Moon in the mix, with a diplomatic but non negotiable need for fairness?

But these are other stories…

Jean-Marc

On this blog, you can find a special post: How to read a chart as a whole.

I crammed twenty pages with essential principles and illustrations to explain as clearly as possible, and hopefully be entertaining.

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