Mercury in the signs

What Mercury means

In a natal chart Mercury stands for the mind in motion: perception, speech, writing, learning, bargaining and the small daily decisions that add up to a life. Traditionally it rules Gemini and Virgo, and it is exalted in Virgo, where its taste for detail and order works most comfortably. It is in detriment in Sagittarius and Pisces, signs that prefer the big picture or the felt sense over exact facts. Mercury was also the messenger and the trickster, so it covers wit, trade and a certain amount of mischief.

Mercury spends about two to three weeks in a sign, longer when it turns retrograde. Because it never strays more than 28° from the Sun, your Mercury is always in your Sun sign or one of the two signs either side of it. A Leo, for example, has Mercury in Cancer, Leo or Virgo. That small range is useful: two people with the same Sun sign can think in noticeably different ways depending on which of the three their Mercury fell in.

The sign shows the style of a mind rather than its quality. Mercury in a fast sign does not mean a sharper person, only a quicker one, and a slow, thorough Mercury often remembers more. To know which sign yours was in, you need your birth date; a free birth chart will show it, along with the house Mercury occupies and the planets it talks to.