personal planet
Mercury concerns exchange: speech, writing, calculation, curiosity, dexterity and the way one thing is translated into another.
Mercury is neither automatically clever nor deceitful. Its condition, house and contacts describe how the mind and its instruments are being used.
40 sourced claims: 38 traditional , 1 modern , 1 contested
The chart meaning above and Agrippa's magical names are different kinds of information. Read the Mercury planetary-magic page for its nature, numerical-square intelligence and source-specific angel lists.
Square intelligence: Tiriel
Agrippa's first-list angel: Michael
In Hermetic Qabalah, Mercury is assigned to Hod (Splendour). Follow the name to see the sources for that place on the Tree.
Mercury concerns exchange: speech, writing, calculation, curiosity, dexterity and the way one thing is translated into another.
Mercury is neither automatically clever nor deceitful. Its condition, house and contacts describe how the mind and its instruments are being used.
Lilly gives Mercury scholars, scribes, merchants, mathematicians and skilled crafts, while stressing its changeable alliance with neighbouring planets.
Historical language is paraphrased rather than silently modernised.
Agrippa places Mercury images in Mercury's hour, with the planet rising in Gemini or Virgo. His figures show a serpent-wound rod, wings, a cock or a flame.
He says they were made for knowledge, clear speech, memory, trade and agreement.
Agrippa connects Mercury with speech and quick thinking. His Mercury list favours mixed, varied and changeable things, including clever or swift animals. Mercurial images are meant to help with knowledge, memory and trade.
Summarized from Agrippa's account of the planet and the things he places under it.
Tiriel
Printed at 260, the square's line constant.
Michael
This is Agrippa's first list. He gives another list in the same chapter; neither list names the square intelligences.
Raphael
Agrippa gives this alternative name a few lines after his first list. These are not the names printed with the squares in Book II.
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and never appears far from it in a geocentric horoscope.
Astronomical description, not an astrological meaning.
| Relation | To | First attested |
|---|---|---|
| Metal | Iron | 175 CE |
| Metal | Quicksilver | 1249 CE |
| Metal | Silver Marcasite | 1509 CE |
| Metal | Tin | 1509 CE |
| Day of the week | Wednesday | 211 CE |
| Planet of | Hod | 1509 CE |
| Ruled by | Gemini | 130 CE |
| Attribution of | The Magician | 1888 CE |
Opinions, not this study's and not findings. These were published around 1900 by astrologers writing for a Theosophical readership, and most English astrology since has been reading them. They are quoted rather than restated so the distance stays visible, and each one names its astrologer and its page.
Mercury in the first house gives noble thoughts, graceful elocution, and love of art and science; in the second profit by intellectual work; in the third mathematical skill, swift and prosperous journeys;
Rosa Baughan, The Influence of the Stars, p. 267 — T. Fisher Unwin, London, fourth edition, 1889 · Project Gutenberg, ebook 42889
Mercury in the fifth house tends to bring anxiety in connection with love affairs, and shows that the mind is liable to become absorbed in feeling and emotion. It denotes some fatalistic affair in connection with children, with much worry and perplexity of mind concerning their affairs.
Alan Leo, How to Judge a Nativity, p. 175 — Modern Astrology Office, London, this printing 1928 · The 1928 printing, scanned
Mercury in the sixth house denotes mental troubles, and danger of nervous breakdown. This position affects the health when the nativity shows much worry or anxiety, and the native is always liable to be overstrung or easily affected physically by his surroundings and environment.
Alan Leo, How to Judge a Nativity, p. 181 — Modern Astrology Office, London, this printing 1928 · The 1928 printing, scanned
Mercury in the eighth house indicates a liability to brain and nervous disorders, which may be either the direct or indirect cause of death; this is an unfavourable position if Mercury is much afflicted by either Mars, Saturn, or Uranus. It generally denotes the consciousness to be active and fully awake at the time of death, but does not appear to be the direct cause of death, the afflicting planet being the cause according to its nature and aspect.
Alan Leo, How to Judge a Nativity, p. 199 — Modern Astrology Office, London, this printing 1928 · The 1928 printing, scanned
Mercury in the ninth house denotes a love of knowledge, an enquiring and studious mind. Unless well aspected this position is not altogether favourable, but if the horoscope indicates power to concentrate, the position is improved. If afflicted it denotes a tendency to worry, and to become engaged in too many things ai one time, also to wander and take aimless journeys.
Alan Leo, How to Judge a Nativity, p. 204 — Modern Astrology Office, London, this printing 1928 · The 1928 printing, scanned
Mercury in the eleventh house denotes friends who appeal to the mind more than the feelings, also in a general sense those who are younger than the native; but if afflicted, deceitful and false friends are shown. The sign Mercury occupies will show the nature of the friends.
Alan Leo, How to Judge a Nativity, p. 229 — Modern Astrology Office, London, this printing 1928 · The 1928 printing, scanned
Mercury in the twelfth house denotes a peculiarly subtle mind, one loving risks and dangerous adventures of a secret nature ; if well aspected the native has ability for occultism, and is well able to investigate mysteries or to follow unusual modes of thought. If afflicted, the native, although possessed of undoubted ability, will lack opportunity ;
Alan Leo, How to Judge a Nativity, p. 228 — Modern Astrology Office, London, this printing 1928 · The 1928 printing, scanned
Leo's house book does not delineate every planet in every house, and this study refuses any passage whose scan has a word no dictionary holds. Where a house is not listed above, one of those two is why.
Two astrologers, both writing around 1900: Alan Leo, whose How to Judge a Nativity is the only one of these books arranged as a lookup table — a paragraph per planet per house — which is why everybody copied it; and Sepharial, who arranged the same material by the question a reader brings rather than by placement, so only a few of his judgements stand alone well enough to quote.
William Lilly is not here, and not because he was not asked. Christian Astrology (1647) is the most important book in English on the subject and this study holds it as a text already — but every scan of it is long-s blackletter, and the OCR renders the title of its own first book as “An Introduci ion to Aftrologje”. There is nothing in it a reader could trust a quotation from. Ripley's Compound of Alchymy and Anderson's Constitutions get the same answer elsewhere in this study, for the same reason.
Opinions, not this study's and not findings. These were published around 1900 by astrologers writing for a Theosophical readership, and most English astrology since has been reading them. They are quoted rather than restated so the distance stays visible, and each one names its astrologer and its page.
Mercury in Gemini makes a person fond of change and travel. He is always ready to investigate some new thing, or go to some other place for a change; in short, almost anything that is new appeals to him.
Max Heindel and Augusta Foss Heindel, The Message of the Stars, p. 199 — The Rosicrucian Fellowship, Oceanside, this printing 1919 · The 1919 printing, scanned
Mercury in Cancer gives a clear intellect, a good memory and superlative adaptability.
Max Heindel and Augusta Foss Heindel, The Message of the Stars, p. 199 — The Rosicrucian Fellowship, Oceanside, this printing 1919 · The 1919 printing, scanned
Mercury in Sagittarius makes the person fond of travel to see the sights and scenery of nature and to investigate the customs of strange people. He is also fond of animals and pets.
Max Heindel and Augusta Foss Heindel, The Message of the Stars, p. 205 — The Rosicrucian Fellowship, Oceanside, this printing 1919 · The 1919 printing, scanned
Leo's sign book covers the Sun and the Moon and no other planet, so there is no Mercury in Aries here. Inventing one would be the only way to fill the gap.
Two astrologers, both writing around 1900: Alan Leo, whose How to Judge a Nativity is the only one of these books arranged as a lookup table — a paragraph per planet per house — which is why everybody copied it; and Sepharial, who arranged the same material by the question a reader brings rather than by placement, so only a few of his judgements stand alone well enough to quote.
William Lilly is not here, and not because he was not asked. Christian Astrology (1647) is the most important book in English on the subject and this study holds it as a text already — but every scan of it is long-s blackletter, and the OCR renders the title of its own first book as “An Introduci ion to Aftrologje”. There is nothing in it a reader could trust a quotation from. Ripley's Compound of Alchymy and Anderson's Constitutions get the same answer elsewhere in this study, for the same reason.