Hello and welcome. Thank you for joining me today, I’m so glad to be back at it. I want to thank everyone who has booked a tarot reading; it’s been an absolute pleasure to work with you all and get to know you face-to-face. It often feels a bit one-sided sometimes, this podcast gig, but doing readings and spell work consultations has been such a change of pace. I love reading your emails and messages, don’t get me wrong, but the energy that we get from interacting in real time and looking in each other’s eyes and souls has just been everything. So I thank you. And if you’re interested in a reading or a consultation, I’ll drop the link in the episode description.
We are also cresting into Taurus season, and this is going to be a nice reprieve from the fiery, somewhat chaotic Aries season. Taurus is a mild and calming influence, although starting Taurus season with a solar eclipse is going to really encourage big changes and big revelations. So it’ll be interesting to see how we use that energy to make some needed adjustments in our lives. And of course, Mercury retrograde begins tomorrow and that’s kind of the impetus for our whole discussion today.
Although It has been in its shadow for several days already, beginning tomorrow Mercury is officially retrograde. And today, we are going to take a look at our Mercury placements and see what this will mean for us.
We have already covered our sun signs, moon signs, and rising signs here on the Middle-Aged Witch podcast, and I will link to those episodes in the show description, if you’d like to go back and get a refresher on those. But this week, we want to get a little more in-depth in our birth charts and tease out some of the more obscure information that there is to be gleaned. So hopefully, you have already pulled your birth chart, or maybe you’ve already got it memorized, but if not, you can go onto any number of sites to download a free copy of your birth chart. I always recommend cafeastrology.com because it’s free and they won’t spam you with a bunch of junk mail. And in the show notes I’m going to link a whole slew of free online astrology resources that were emailed to me from a witch called Ava, and I am so grateful for this absolute wealth of information.
So go ahead and pause me if you’re not sure where your Mercury placement is, and we’ll wait for you here while you look up your birth chart real quick-like. Ok, everyone got their Mercury placement?? Excellent. Well the cool thing about those Mercury placements is that, because Mercury is so close to the sun, our Mercury placement will always be either exactly the same as our sun sign, or it’ll be the sign just before or just after our sun sign. My sun is in Libra, and my Mercury is Scorpio, which is the sign that immediately follows Libra in the Zodiac.
Okay, so before we go through the placements themselves, let’s talk about what precisely Mercury placement means for us and why we should care. Mercury rules communication, it governs our intellectual processes, how we make decisions, how we react to outside stimuli, to changes in our environment, and even our learning styles. So understanding our Mercury placements can go a long way toward understanding ourselves, and especially how we interact with others. And this is why, beyond the big three placements, sun, moon, and rising signs, I think it’s important to know the Mercury placements of our partners and our loved ones. It’s a lot easier to communicate with people when we understand our own communication style as well as the person with whom we are communicating.
So that’s why sometimes, oftentimes, a person doesn’t communicate the way we assume they should based solely on their sun sign. And if you’re a Libra, like I am, your communication style can vary wildly depending on whether you have Mercury in Virgo, Libra, or Scorpio. Because those influences are going to be so different.
So let’s see how Mercury can influence us depending on where we find it in our charts. So if your Mercury is Aries, you can expect that Aries deliberate bluntness to make itself known. When people talk about a no BS type of person, the kind of person who doesn’t believe in telling little white lies, they’re probably talking about Aries. If you’re dealing with a Mercury in Aries, give them a little grace when they say things that hurt your feelings; there’s a good chance that they didn’t mean to be hurtful. If this is your placement, you would do well to understand that about yourself. That even though you may not mean any offense, sometimes you may unintentionally give it.
This is also a placement that doesn’t like to deliberate too long; Mercury in Aries has an idea and wants to put it into action right away. This means that Mercury in Aries is very quick to make a decision, and very quick to put that decision into action, but unfortunately can also be very quick to lose interest and drop it before they’ve really given it a chance to come to fruition.
Now Mercury in Taurus is going to communicate very differently. Let’s think about all those quintessential Taurus characteristics, the deliberate manner, slow to anger, slow to rile, they are very calm in general when communicating. They are very committed to their opinions though, to the point of stubbornness, if they’re not careful, and this is one of the great caveats of Mercury in Taurus.
Also in contrast to Aries, Taurus can be slow and methodical in their decision-making processes, but once they do make up their minds, they will see the project through to the end. But it may take a while.
Mercury in Gemini, this is an interesting one. Mercury actually rules Gemini, and Virgo too, in fact, and those with Mercury in Gemini placements are a lot of fun to talk to, to spend time with. These are quick-thinking, creative types. And they’re those people who seem to know a little about everything. They’re always a joy to talk to. Very fun conversationalists, and they’re funny.
Mercury in Gemini is quick to make decisions or develop opinions, but they’re not so married to their own opinions that they can’t be swayed. If you can present a logical argument to a Mercury in Gemini, they will easily and happily change their stance on a particular issue. Because they don’t like to be wrong.
Folks with Mercury in Cancer speak from the heart. These are very sincere communicators. Mercury in Cancer may come off as aloof or withdrawn, but they’re really just observers, they’re feeling you out. Once you get through that shell, once you find yourself in their inner circle, they are happy to confide, happy to have deep conversations. They live for emotional rawness. Mercury in Cancer is very intuitive and they read the emotions in a conversation as much as they listen to the words that are spoken.
Mercury in Cancer will take their sweet time before making a big decision, because they’re not only looking at it from a logical perspective, but also from an emotional point of view. They’re going to weigh a given situation on its merits, yes, but they’re also going to balance how the outcome will make people feel.
And then we have Mercury in Leo, with the biggest opinions. But hear me out: that’s not who they really are, it’s just how they come across. Mercury in Leo can occasionally tend to bulldoze other people’s opinions, but it’s actually not from a place of malice at all. Mercury in Leo will happily yield to a better argument, it’s just not that often that they come across one. And that’s the Leo way, so just accept it.
I kid, I really do. I am surrounded by Mercury in Leo. My bestie, Mercury in Leo, just found out yesterday, not a bit surprised at that revelation. Both of my daughters Mercury in Leo, my brother in law, Mercury in Leo, my other brother in law, Mercury in Leo. When I tell you how loud it gets at the family cookout. Sometimes I come home afterward and my ears are ringing. But there are never any hard feelings, because that is not how Mercury in Leo rolls. It’s really not about being right, it’s about being heard, it’s about boisterous discourse, and they honestly love a lively discussion, they live for it. And one other thing that everyone can love about this placement is that you will never find a better hype man. Mercury in Leo sees the best in you, they see all of your potential, and they won’t shut up until you see it too.
And then we come to Mercury in Virgo. Virgo is also ruled by Mercury, remember the other sign was Gemini. And where Gemini is flirty and flippant and irreverent, Mercury in Virgo is super detail-oriented and will happily get lost in research. In fact, I hate to admit this, but my husband is a Leo sun with Mercury in Virgo and we can’t buy anything without him doing hours of vigorous research, reading reviews, consumer reports and on and on and I do use that knowledge of his learning style to my own advantage.
And not to make light of it, we always manage to get the absolute most bang for our buck when we make a significant purchase. Computers, TVs, our cars, appliances, it takes him some time to weigh all the pros and cons, but when he finally does pull the trigger on a decision, you can bet your sweet ass we are gonna get our money’s worth. I texted him a couple weeks ago and said, ya know, I really need a new microphone. I can do the research myself, but if you know offhand of a quality, mid-range mic… Well it took a little time, but I’m happy to be speaking to you now from the absolute best mic you can buy in the mid-range price point.
Mercury in Virgo loves details. Sometimes it can take them so long to tell a story because they get so caught up in all the insignificant details along the way that they never actually make it to their point. But they’re also very good listeners for that reason. If they find themselves in a conversation with a willing participant, they will gobble up every little scrap of information that person will part with. You never get the feeling that Mercury in Virgo doesn’t want to hear what you have to say.
Mercury in Libra is obsessed with seeing every side of an argument, and this can make them wonderful intermediaries, but infuriating conversationalists. Don’t even try to get them to commit to one side if there’s a disagreement among a group. They’re going to spend so much intellectual energy convincing everyone, or at least trying to convince everyone, to come together and just agree that everyone’s points are valid. This is also because Mercury in Libra hates to be the villain in anyone’s story.
This often causes Mercury in Libra to be unfairly characterized as someone who can’t just make a decision, and this is actually a problem for Libra suns, a major one. But the problem is not that they can’t make a decision, it’s just that they’re so adept at seeing all the positives and negatives to every possible outcome, that they can find it difficult to commit to one, because they understand better than anyone what it is they’re giving up by making that choice.
Mercury in Scorpio is kind of the opposite to Mercury in Leo. Where Leo wants to make sure everyone knows what they think and how they tick, Mercury in Scorpio is intensely private, to the point of coming across as secretive. But this isn’t really their intention, they’re just so reluctant to be misunderstood, that they’d rather not be understood at all. But under all that brooding is a person who is deeply incisive, and who can get at the root of an issue with surgical precision.
Mercury in Scorpio is a penetrating conversationalist, and of all the placements, Scorpio is one that you can and should seek out when you want to really understand the heart of a problem. They’re going to tear you open to find the problem, but then they’re going to know just what to say to put you back together again, better than before. Scorpio can lay you bare, it’s their gift. But they’re terrific counselors.
Mercury in Sagittarius is kind of the anti-Virgo. They’re so disinterested in the little details that it can sometimes be maddening. But they are unmatched at being able to see the bigger picture and making decisions and setting opinions based on end results. They’re very free thinkers, and this can make debate and discussion with them take you in unexpected directions. They are incredibly optimistic and passionate about justice and they love to take up for the little guy.
On the not-so-great side of things, they have such a disinterest in detail that it almost borders on contempt for it, and this can make them pretty unorganized, in general but also when it comes to planning. But if you’re willing to take the good with the not-so-good, Mercury in Sagittarius is a lot of fun to talk to, they’re wonderful when you need someone to hype you up, and they’re always ready for an adventure.
To contrast with the devil-may-care nature of Sagittarius is Mercury in Capricorn. These people can come across as super rigid and very bossy. Merc in Capricorn considers themselves the ultimate authority, and this can really rub some people the wrong way. They can seem unyielding and at their worst they may have a my-way-or-the-highway outlook, but at their best, Mercury in Capricorn holds themselves to a really high standard and tries with all their might to make sure that their decisions and their opinions are well-founded and solid and fair.
Mercury in Capricorn can be really hard on themselves and it’s important to remember this if someone you love has this placement. They may have a tendency to beat themselves up on those rare occasions that they turn out to be wrong. This is really difficult for them. So show some understanding and help them to lighten up and give themselves a little grace.
And next we have Mercury in Aquarius and this placement loves to stir the pot. Aquarius, as an air sign, lives for logic and debate. As a fixed air sign, they have neither the desire nor the ability to change that. Mercury in Aquarius, then, gives us someone who gets so stimulated by lively discussion that they will often contradict other people just to get a rise or to keep the debate going. This is absolutely not from malicious intent. This is how they feel alive, this is how they get to know a person.
And although all of that can make a Mercury in Aquarius placement seem like kind of an ass, the other defining characteristic of this placement is that they are fully committed to social justice and the advancement of society at large. They are idealists. And because they’re so quick on their feet in a conversation, they’re really good at getting others to see their perspectives. So yes, they’re going to drive you nuts, but they’re also committed to positive change.
And finally, Mercury in Pisces. This is a very gentle communicator. They’re very sweet, very understanding, very warm, they’re impossible to pin down. It is a real joy to talk with Mercury in Pisces unless you’re trying to get them to commit to a position. This is a sign that loves harmony and hates friction and they will sometimes say whatever you want to hear just to keep the peace. It’s not about being deceitful or anything ugly like that, they’re just not super interested in arguing.
If your Mercury is in Pisces, you may find that a lot of the communication issues that you tend to have could be resolved by just saying exactly what you mean in a very straightforward way. If someone you love has Mercury in Pisces, you probably realize that they’d almost rather die than do such a thing. This is a tricky placement, and unfortunately Mercury in Pisces kind of wears their heart on their sleeve, so if they’re dealing with someone who’s careless, they can be hurt really easily.
And I know that I’ve kind of gone in on just about all of these placements, but my hope here is that we can recognize ourselves and our loved ones in these really broad descriptions and hopefully we can use this information to help to foster better understanding, and deeper, more meaningful communication.
So, as we head into another fresh Mercury Retrograde, let’s try to bear this information in mind and give ourselves and those around us a little room for misunderstanding and miscommunication. It’s so important during this time to remember that we are all at greater risk of putting our foot in our mouths and making an ass of ourselves. So we need to be ready to extend some sympathy and some understanding. We are going to be riding this wave until mid-May, so there’s plenty of time to piss each other off. So let’s try to pace ourselves.
And that’s my time today. Next week, we are going to talk about our Venus placements, and we can use this information to understand how we love, how we choose to prioritize our values, and also to understand our relationship with money. So keep that birth chart handy for another week because we aren’t finished with it yet. If you have questions, concerns, comments or criticisms, please shoot me an email at eli@middleagedwitch.com, or message me from the website, middleagedwitch.com, or os social media at @middleagedwitch. Thank you so much for joining me today, and we will talk again next week.
Sun signs episode: https://middleagedwitch.com/sun-signs/
Moon signs episode: https://middleagedwitch.com/moon-magick-2/
Rising signs episode: https://middleagedwitch.com/rising-signs/
Online Astrology resources: https://www.mysticmag.com/psychic-reading/free-online-astrology-resources/
Online tarot readings/consultations: https://middleagedwitch.com/liveservices/
