This is an important topic and rarely (if ever) discussed in life or in astrology.
no⋅tion
/ˈnoʊʃən/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [noh-shuhn] Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. a general understanding; vague or imperfect conception or idea of something: a notion of how something should be done.
2. an opinion, view, or belief: That’s his notion, not mine.
3. conception or idea: his notion of democracy.
4. a fanciful or foolish idea; whim: She had a notion to swim in the winter.
5. an ingenious article, device, or contrivance; knickknack.
Mercury which rules the mind is given far less weight in astrology then it deserves. There are exceptions to this.
Most notably Lois Rodden wrote a book: Mercury Method of Chart Comparison. She explained how important Mercury was when comparing charts to judge compatibility. Basically if there can be no meeting of the minds, the relationship is going to fail over time.
Common sense tells you this is correct. It ought to tell you this planet and its functions are in fact undervalued because you never hear this kind of thing. Virgos and Geminis? Who needs ’em? Mercury? Who needs Mercury when we’ve got Pluto to focus on? I mean to show you that Mercury can readily take out Pluto…
When my husband and I met as teenagers, he worked in missiles. Specifically, he programmed the missile. My husband performed the calculations that would direct the missile, by hand, with a pencil and a piece of paper. I’m not kidding about this.
So if the missile was a powerful, deadly explosive (Pluto) then it could easily be wasted by the tiniest mental error.
This might also interest you:
Discount the mind and communication at your own risk!
Thank you for bringing this topic up. It made me look at my synastry with my guy. My mercury is square his venus. Does it mean I’m the one who is to blame everytime we have a communication problem?
Do you have merc afflicted in your natal (hard aspects)? Does his venus in his natal? Which signs are the planets located in?
I have natal Mercury opposing Pluto. So this is interesting…
Mercury is essential in synastry. I can’t stand guys who have their Mercury in Virgo squaring my Sun and Uranus. Mercury sq. Mercury sucks too. Then if my Venus trines or conjuncts a guy’s Mercury, I love their voice and love to listen to them and talk with them. Essential. This is coming from someone with a packed 3rd house so I’m biased.
About Mercury kicking Pluto’s butt, I suppose it’s entirely possible. Personally I have Mercury aspecting Pluto, Mercury in 3rd and Pluto in 1st, all I can say is power of mind and thoughts makes all the difference in one’s life. Mercury is indeed CRITICAL for one’s sanity.
Agreed. Mercury rules modernity. Ignore it at your peril.
The pen is mightier than the sword. I have pluto trine mercury in Sag on my MC. My blurts can cut like a knife. I have to watch it.
The urban dictionary says it well:
“The pen is mightier than the sword” means a person can cause people to change their opinions(e.g., to fight a war)and on a large scale whereas a sword can only change a peron’s opion by force and then often only results in the person’s death.
I have many planets in gemini including my sun sign, chiron and part of fortune. Therefore I love everything about Mercury! Six in fact! Bring it on sista! lol.
Well I think there are people who know my intellectual powers and prowess and those who overlook it bc they lack their own. I have been told I can do anything I set my mind to.. And this is true. It was pretty ridiculous someone said I should be the next president they were totally trying to inflate my head or tease, seriously who wants that job?! The problem is I liked so many darn things at once that I couldn’t figure it out until recently and things are starting to get better this year. As a gemini it is very healthy to engage your mind not only your heart. One needs balance. I would have to say though that I think Virgo’s are much more capable of getting things done than Gemini’s. And you know I don’t know why? Its not that I don’t get things done oh I have about 12 stickies to do a week! But, its they do it better and more efficiently.
If you look at it this way Hermes in Greek Mythology could see and know all by traveling around and gathering information and dispensing it to whom he pleases. And knowledge is power as they say.
Lastly, I think the most important planet is Mars believe it or not. Cause that is where you act. If it is afflicted your pretty much in trouble, and if it looks good you got good things going for you. Oohh how I wish I had Mars trine Venus or Venus trine Mars then all my musical projects would come and be completed in a day!
I can go on really. But anyhow I wondered what it would be like to have Mercury in Pisces but I have mine in Gemini. And in regards to communication and partnerships of course it is, I love speaking with Leo personalities the most because they most appeal to childlike qualities that I fancy 😉
I’ve got both Pluto and Mercury in their ruling sign. Pluto in trine with Uranus and Neptune, Mercury opposing Saturn and conjunct Chiron.
I guess Virgo and Scorpio could be the two prominent signs in my chart, with 4 planets in them in total, including the Sun, plus Chiron and the North Node.
(Off topic: I also don’t know if I’m more influenced by Libra (where I have Venus) or by Taurus (my rising), both being related.)
Well now, say there are two people and their houses are destroyed by an earthquake.
One sits there, in total confusion. Lays down and dies.
The other has figured out or will figure out how to get food and shelter, how not to build in this area or how to build successfully, how to obtain insurance or government help, how to deal with looters, how to move on.
Of course, Mercury.
I used to discount Mercury’s influence, despite being my ruling planet because I thought it didn’t mesh well with all the Saturn and Pluto energy in my chart. Then I learned that in mythology, Mercury was allowed everywhere, even the Underworld.
In fact, he was the only one of the gods that Pluto allowed to cross into his territory, at will, and without paying a price to leave again. Not only that, but Mercury was often the one that met you after death and escorted you to the Underworld.
I don’t discount Mercury anymore. He fits right in because making himself welcome and a participating wherever he is? That’s his thing.
Mercury is how you think.
What makes you think Saturn and Pluto are such Big Bad Guys who will control you?
My Mercury laughs at that.
If you really think about it, how can there be anything more intimate that someone wanting to be inside your mind? When someone truly wants to listen to you and can’t get enough of your mind …nothing compares to feeling as though you can express yourself naturally without hesitation to someone that you love.
Your Libra is showing!
Sure is, hahahahahehe😈😄
Could it be because Mercury exposes Pluto?
I read an article about the astrology of 911 (wish I could find it). Anyway, if I remember right, Pluto and Uranus were aspecting each other, but it was Mercury that set it off.
Here here
Mercury’s main problem (and ally) is Neptune – not Pluto
The boundary between Self and not self is in the immune system which falls under Neptune’s domain. Pluto/Mars is much less of a problem when Mercury and Neptune relate.
It seems with all of these modern communication technologies that Mercury has been over emphasized. As a consequence we are being disembodied and becoming less able to navigate instincts in a wholesome way.
This is smart.
Neptune plus Mercury is quite the package. By the way, I don’t think it is Mercury that has been over-emphasised, Mercury wants the details and the facts. It is Neptune with its no boundaries and feel what you feel. That is why we have makey-uppy facts on the net and internet stalkers. 🙂
Yes to Neptune/Pisces being over emphasized. The body has a deep intelligence of its own that often rejects the immune system that is possessed by Neptune
Want to know what happens in a relationship? Look at Mercury in the Composite Chart.
Wow that is really something – directing a missile by hand using math. I am incredibly impressed. I have a lot of Mercury so of course I am. Third House stellium. Venus in Gemini. Married to a Virgo. I need sharp minds around me and stories about them too 🙂
Yes, it’s a trip. Life has changed so dramatically. We have common core now, lol.
Oh, wow… My natal Mercury at 7 degrees Scorpio is squished (ambushed? barricaded? reinforced?) in house 8 between (Lord have (no) mercy!) Pluto on one side (1 degree Scorpio) and Saturn (16 degrees Scorpio), exactly sextile Jupiter at 7 degrees Capricorn. Ridiculousness by default… And this knot is being electrocu… “activated” by Mars and Uranus`s current opposition. Considering what is constantly pouring from my mind (and beyond) and spewing out my mouth, I`ll be lucky if I survive this absurdity unscathed. But what is one to do?!
Welcome, Radostina. 🙂
Thanks! Your blog and the insight you offer is a great comfort in hard times 🙂
I’m glad!!
Mercury is a bit like a mosquito. Always buzzing around and difficult to catch.
I say this in spite of the fact that Mercury is my final dispositor, and I kindof like the way my mind works.
But transits are a whole nuther story. In the last few years, I’ve barely survived some Mercury retrogrades. Most of the others, I was barely aware of – except that there’s always ONE nasty incident that I can add to Mercury’s account!!
Incidentally, Linda Goodman puts Mercury aspects ahead of all the planets in her book about synastry (‘Relationship Signs’).
Ok, if Mercury is like a mosquito, Pluto is like the deep rumble of an earthquake – chances are he’ll pass you by. He’s my ruling planet and maybe that’s why I quite like him.
The point of view that I like most here – or should I say I agree with it strongly – is what Charlee says. Interpretations of Mercury always seemed superficial to me, and they are often the shortest ones in any chart analysis. Of course Mercury IS about being superficial – but he’s also about many other things. Like everything astrological, it all depends on signs, houses and aspects how you experience both Mercury and Pluto. Mercury is always THERE, in your face, but Pluto keeps rumbling and grumbling under your feet…
Interesting. Me and my partner have Neptune sq Mercury (1 deg, gasp!) and Mercury sq Mercury (4 degree orb) and it really causes problems if we don’t deliberately communicate well. We have lots of Jupiter and pluto but still… good communication is what keeps things afloat so it’s a lot of learning. Mercury is my chart’s ruler (Virgo rising) so I have developed a love of learning communication styles as a result.
In the composite Mercury is not closely aspected at all.
Mercury matters a great deal! End of story 🙂
Welcome, Ang. 🙂
I’ve always been amazed by my parents marriage. Despite being very different people who often bump heads (capricorn and Aquarius) they’ve been married for almost 50 years. They have Sun / mercury conjunction double whammy, very close one, zero and one degrees.
Also, my husband’s Mercury conjunct my chart ruler Mars and that usually means he can push my buttons 😁
I remember reading about hades and persophene and also recall mercury was the only one who could rescue Persephone.
I have been checking my horoscopes for a number of years and it has never failed me. I always know when it’s going to be a good day or when I need to expect some tough times ahead.
Yo, check this out- if mercury is so important – why are geminis dismissed in astrology as superficial, two faced, idle chatterers and the dumb, ditzy sister of virgo? 😋 Yea, I know this is a stereotype that has been used against us, like other signs have theirs but I had enough of it already. Gemini is the first ‘human’ even two of them -sign of the horoscope. They say geminis are all over the place and cheangeable – and I don’t say it’s not true. But so are thoughts. So are words. We don’t say the same thing and think the same thing over and over again with no variation. Breathe-lungs- gemini ruled. God, world- first was the word.
in the past couple weeks i saw Boris Johnson just barely scraped by, being unseated, and he’s Gemini sun with Gemini mars. i think a stellium too and he’s been found out he had a birthday bash under restriction times. He apologized. I didnt like him for a while and it colored my experience when my good friend in UK who lives there was always complaining about him on a daily basis. lol But then when he went to Ukraine i felt a little moved by what he did, and a few other things. Politicians are not perfect for sure. and my good friend didnt like that he always had so many wives and women lol.
Also, with the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard fiasco, he’s got a gemini sun AND stellium in Virgo. Yeah he’s got that broken cap moon. but he won one of the cases. I dont know why but, those mercurial people are fighters when it comes to communication and when they want to stand up for something, they will word it out. to the people. hear their truth kind of thing.
I do think mercury is stronger than pluto. Mercury can cut to the quick and soothe in a quick silver flash when he wants to. I agree that mercury doesn’t get enough spotlight.
IT took me years to see clearly how my Cap Mercury (retrograde) had saved my life – literally – many times, being the only planet in earth in my 4th house and conjunct the IC. I saw it clearly when I traced the retrograde progression from birth and found that Mercury stationed direct for about 6 years on the degree of my Sag Sun – between age 17 and 23. That was easily the time when I was most in danger to derail my life – but got it right somehow.
I got interested in Mercury and found that nearly all textbook descriptions of retrograde Mercury in Capricorn conjunct the IC did NOT apply to me. That made me dig deeper 🙂
Progressed Sun and much later Pluto conjunct natal Mercury also shed light on the meaning of the inconjunct of Mercury to Uranus in Leo, one of my tightest aspects with only a few minutes apart on the same degree.
Now I look at Mercury transits and always know what’s coming, what’s possible and when to wait. For me, this is even more enlightening and worthwhile then looking at the spinning of the Moon.
I adjust quickly to mood, bounce back easily from emotional upset but really need to use Mercury to time my mental focus and discipline.
Thank you pointing out the importance of Mercury, Elsa. My late hubby and my son have Mercury in Pisces aspecting my Moon in Scorpio. My Aquarian daughter has hers in Capricorn near my own and the other daughter – ROFL – has hers conjunct my Uranus in Leo. My daughters had extended times not talking to each other much – but both kept contact to me – always. It was exciting to watch how they slowly resolved their synastry.
Hmm my Mercury in Scorpio trines his Venus in Cancer…is that good enough?!
His mercury is in an air sign Gemini…not compatible with the emotional depth of Scorpio. I have questions & concerns!
Mercury is about communication. About how we get anything – anything – done with anyone. So, unbelievably important.
Myself, Mercury in Aries, 7th house, I often have a surgeon’s kind of attitude : wanting to cut quickly to the essential.
By the way, often not the most effective approach… diplomacy, and feeling, are needed to smoothe the way to mutual agreement.
Mercury represents a function we use every day – asking someone for something that matters in a way the askee will understand, e.g. Making an effective plan of action, e.g. – in every part of every day. Knowing another person, and wording what we say to best convey our meaning to them, is using Mercury’s power, effectively.
Anyhow, just a few thoughts… about the planet representing how we use thinking.
Thoughts about Pluto, and Mercury. In my chart, they aspect – out of sign, so. Pluto in Virgo – deep need to be of help – with Mercury, connections.
Mercury in Aries has an innate connection to Pluto in Virgo (Mercury ruled sign), and both of them dynamic plants. In my chart, they connect, by opposition.
What I’ve come to understand, they work together, these parts of me. Eleventh house Pluto: I get to choose to whom I extend that fellowship. By the way, difficult pairing, Mercury and Pluto.
Interesting, wouldn’t have guessed your husband a rocket man, thank him for his service please. Following his work is now an endless computer programming, nothing touches AEGIS & CIWS except maybe power outages and hackers. Never would’ve figured you an alcoholic. Your Mercury direct, energetic, active and compassionate. Jupiter on MC, you certainly can do work for God.
That is good.
Me: Aqua Mercury in 3H, conjunct Jupe, grand trine Gem Saturn 8, Lib Ur 11, I can talk all day, when I was young I told lies, stopped by high school, my lies caused real damage. So much air. Neptune 1H minor grand trine Pluto Sun, there’s a kite, learning triangles, eye, a wicked t-square, yod setting, still nothing in that chart as dangerous to me as Poseidon conjunct Antares, so I do not lie.
I am rife with satire and sarcasm however.
Mercury is strong no doubt, but Pluto chart ruler in 10H compels me to be a straight shooter, by my teenage years I was done fantasizing, dreaming or even believing in dreams, crossed by PL transit 1H, sure the grand trines distracted me, took me off course, never really lazy, I pushed all this esoteric down and drowned it in Sag fire, waking up was easy, 50 years to see it was there all along.
Hermes may be bigger to some, to me a courier, escorting souls to Hades, not so much a trickster always having to work alongside Zeus. Hard reality dissolves all delusion, dreams.
I consume everything.
I like reading your blogs, others’ comments, don’t forget to tell your husband I thanked him for his service.