Newsroom

“Bad” Planets, Good Results: Mercury In Sagittarius, Mercury In Pisces

More than any other planet in astrology, Mercury rules thinking and communication. It’s the part of your birth chart that you use when doing a puzzle or playing along with a game show at home. The Sun may keep you alive and the Moon makes you enjoy it — but Mercury is the planet that knows you exist (and can prove it when asked for ID).

If you know much about the astrology of the people around you, it’s not going to be much of a surprise that Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo. Those Signs both have a reputation for being able to communicate well, and for being able to spot details. And if you’ve studied astrology (or if you’ve followed this series), you know that a planet in the Sign opposite the Sign it rules is generally considered to be “debilitated.” That, in theory, is bad news for Mercury in Sagittarius or Pisces.

The key to understanding Mercury in Sagittarius or Mercury in Pisces is keeping in mind that both those Signs are traditionally ruled by Jupiter. Jupiter may not have a reputation for detail work, but it certainly understands “the big picture.” In other words, Mercury in Gemini or Virgo know how to read a map and how to find a location on it, but Mercury in Sagittarius or Pisces understand why you’re going there in the first place.

Besides: Mercury in Sagittarius never let Emmanuel Macron, Jay-Z, Beethoven, Marie Curie, or Sir Isaac Newton down, did it? And Mercury in Pisces seems to have done a lot of good for Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Cayce, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Johann Sebastian Bach. In astrology — just like in life itself — things get complicated once you dig a little deeper. Remember that next time you get hung up on any one placement in a birth chart as being “good” or “bad.”