Mercury in Aries - Postcards From A Red-Hot Active Ram Speed Mind

Graphic Artist Saul Bass has Mercury in Aries
 producer of iconic opening film sequences & legendary film posters google animated birthday tribute

Mercury moved country on the 14th April 2013 from the watery depths of Pisces and stepped out onto the bouncy, springy ground of the Aries terrain. We welcomed some fresh cavorting energies in the mind fields and mind games playgrounds of ideas. So lets review all that fresh energy that appeared to rush through our thoughts before Taurus     s l o w e d - i t - a l l - d o w n and chilled it right out on the 1st May 2013.

Writer Harper Lee has Mercury in Aries
She has sued her literary agent 4th May 2013, who apparently tricked her into signing over copyright to her classic Pulitzer Prize winning To Kill a Mockingbird published in 1960, set in the Great depression, selling over 30 million copies and made into a popular film. 'Before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's concience'

With Mercury in Aries we were also able to race around the open urban plazas where we could flaneur even if just in our minds eye. ('Flâneur... a literary type from 19th century France, essential to any picture of the streets of Paris. It carried a set of rich associations: the man of leisure, the idler, the urban explorer, the connoisseur of the street'...an emblematic figure of urban, modern experience')

Pioneer Photographer & Caricature Artist Felix Nader has Mercury in Aries
'an Icarus with replaceable wings' 
Nader was the pseudonym of inventive Gaspard-Felix Tourachon, his 'Pantheon Nader' contained about 300 caricatures of literary and artistic figures. One of the first great French portrait photographer, also the first person to take aerial photographs by building a huge 190ft high 'red-hot'-air ballon called Le Geant (Giant), he invented crowd control barriers to keep people safe while watching his ballon (the barriers are still know as Nadars in Belgium), pioneered the use of artificial lighting in photography whilst working in the catacombs of Paris, erotic photography in Bohemian Paris, promoting any new idea like supporting the group of artists that became the Impressionists. Nadar

Mercury may have acted as the bringer of fresh news in order to kick starts projects or just to herald the opening of another installment in the biography of our lives. So did you 'spring into action'? Did everything seem a little more attainable as you were adrenalised and reinvigorated and became more inclined to start over? Or were you pushed? Mercury in Aries will also have brought in, carried or traded in facts and figures, physical commodities and brave new worlds ripe for exploration. The direct path may have become the road to travel on. Act now! 
Conversely or perversely this could also have heralded head to head confrontations, out and out battles and fierce talking head debates and outright loud and ugly accusations.

                                          
Actor Bill Roache has Mercury in Aries & Mars in Aries Mars in Aries - The Primal Punch
Roache has been arrested 1st May 2013 on two sexual abuse allegations of raping a 15 year old girl. He previously boasted that he has slept with 1,000 women and that he had 'no control' over his sex drive. He also recently disclosed his membership of the Pure Love Movement, ending his relationship with a weather girl 36 years his junior so that he could 'explore a mystic message of love'. A spiritualist and a Druid he has also expressed great interest in Astrology, taking a correspondence course with the Faculty of Astrological Studies and reading Coronation Street cast members astrological charts.
The roads in this land may have sometimes seemed scary and we would have been challenged to toughen up or move on out, either way we may have had to be prepared for action. It may well have been quite a bumpy ride. This could well have become a time that generated a torrent of questions that needed answering and answering NOW! It definitely was a time that fired up communications and exchanges of every nature. We may well have had to be prepared for some challenges and to be robust and forthright because our conversations may have been both blunt and sharp in a hammer and tong sort of way! If we were are waiting for an answer or to be ‘told’ something with Mercury in Aries we could not have expected it to be suger coated. We did stand a chance however of getting to the truth even if we may have previously been professionally employed to cover it up?
                                         
High profile UK Publicist Max Clifford has Mercury in Aries & Mars in Aquarius Mars in Aquarius - Idealistic Battles & Contradictions In the past he has often represented controversial public figure accused of crimes. Most of his professional life is spent trying to conceal stories. He was first arrested under Operation Yewtree part of the Jimmy Savile child sexual abuse accusations in the UK but on the 26th April 2013 he was charged with a further 11 indecent assaults on young girls.
This is the fire space and territory of Aries we have all been in for these past few weeks and it was this language we have become accustom to. Whenever Mercury changes sign, we have had to learn a whole new language and adapt to completely different customs to the ones we have become used to and familiar with. Mercury affects the way we process and deal with information. In other words: how we talk, the way we think, chat, twitter, blog, text, write, read, listen and learn. all this will have been fired up and Aries is already highly opinionated. Aries can also be reasonable and trusting but can get very direct with the facts. It knows that it must say difficult things, deal with tough, full on negotiations, travel through new territories and confront most things head on but the temptation to go with the flow of an idealised picture whilst avoiding the realities can lead to some genuine complexities for Aries that they would rather resolve quickly and cleanly. Consequently, this requirement may lead to rushing in with more than a dollop of courage and bravery but also this can be more than a healthy fair amount of rashness and impatience leading to some regrettable situations and further complexities. 

Australian Artist, Singer & TV Presenter Rolf Harris has Mercury in Aries
A household name in th UK since the 1950's he was also arrested primarily under Operation Yewtree UK Jimmy Savile child sexual abuse investigation. He has been named since on social media by thousands of people and accusations have made their way back to Sydney, Australia on the 2nd May 2013 with a new victim.He has denied any wrongdoing. 'Can you see what it is yet?'

When Mercury passes through such a brave new sign as Aries it realises that something fresh and energetic must be allowed space, that dynamism must be encouraged to spin its magic. Stagnation and indecision can freeze frame even the most restless of souls, and Aries are some of the most restless of souls around. Aries loves to keep moving and they have to keep active. This Mercury in Aries time that we have had was a chance to pioneer and energetically beat out our new pathways because now and since the 2nd May 2013, when Mercury reached the Earth meadows of Taurus, is where we can sit and chew over the new information gathered when Mercury was in Aries and the mercurial journey was all about the forward motion, the ‘getting to’ and the forging ahead...and relax

Baby Masai giraffe Sofie born in LA Zoo & Botanical Gardens April 2013, her genetics from East Africa, where Masai giraffe are under threat of extinction for their meat. Sofie, is guaranteed a very urban experience as a pioneering giraffe flaneur

OK.......... but Mercury is about travel, trade, exchange, communication and busy, busy activity in any sign but in ‘let’s just get on with it’ Aries it can all go off in a tearing hurry, trying to be enterprising, independent and self-reliant. Working for others may seem like being a ‘slave to work’ and we may resist by thinking up ways to be more entrepreneurial, just having more of our own style or at least appearing to be self-motivated and more our own boss. We may not have cowered under anyone elses rules as easily as before, we may even have believed that we can make it on our own and be dammed but change things up we will surely have tried something. The road may be untrodden but at least it is our feet imprinting the soil.

Actor Gregory Peck has Mercury in Aries
Forever associated with Atticus Finch the lawyer in the film To Kill a A Mockingbird
'I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you are licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what'

It is possible that whilst Mercury was in dreamy and imaginative Pisces, many of us noticed we had to rely on a more intuitive mode of thinking, as compassion may have gripped out minds. Under Pisces we may have had to rethink what we imagined the world to be about. Journeys and communications could have been other worldly, escapist, and romantic or they may have been unstable and disorientating. Mercury in Pisces - Postcards from a Magical Mind. However, just as we have got halfway used to this style of speaking and thinking we found ourselves suddenly in what appeared to be a foreign country where everyone asked us to speak more clearly and emphatically, to state what we meant honestly, to be up for the odd challenge and to stand up and defend our views. We may have had to learn by doing, by physical engagement with the subject, by falling down and getting back up again or just getting out. 

Kidnapped as a teenager in Cleveland, Amanda Berry has Mercury in Aries, escaped her prison, 7th May 2013, with her 'neighbour's' help. She also helped two other girls and  apparently Berry's 6 year old child to escape.
When leaping its way through Aries, Mercury will want us to be brave, to pioneer, do go or think of new solutions to old problems. We will naturally incline to lunge forwards, to take the next step even though we are scared, to cut the thrust through to the truth of the matter. In a group of people debating who should lead the group out to find the windmill as they calmly measure the pros and cons of each individual, Mercury in Aries just stands up, pulls on its armour, grabs the gauntlet and winks to the person who has caught its eye then charges off in search of the windmill, possibly in the wrong direction, but by stepping one foot in front of the other, by allowing itself to rise and fall Aries will hunt down that windmill and most probably find it or something equal if not better than it.

Danish Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard has Mercury in Aries
'There are two ways to be fooled one is to believe what isn't true the other is to refuse to accept what is true...our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts'

Being adaptable is Mercury's middle name, it will adjust to the Aries landscape as it has to adjust to Taurus terrain. We will all adjust and find the new angle again and again and quite quickly. It may well be with Mercury in Aries that everything sped up and rushed on a pace, but that is just how we wanted it, for that time, anyway. You will have noticed the difference now as you will have noticed the change from Mercury in Pisces, as you know the difference between fire and water and wet and dry. You and others around you will have seemed more impatient and confrontational, headstrong and excitable with Aries running through our mindsets. We may all have tried to beat a path according to our own internal clocks, resisting outside interference and fiercely defending those we love. We may have to suddenly be seen to openly and defiantly defend our beliefs, actions or motivations. During Mercury’s time in Aries all of us on this precious planet of ours will have been mentally processing with much more honesty, directness and also, you may have noticed, been sliding on the slippery slope of a tad more pedantry, irritation and intolerance. There may have been a few storming off's at a moments notice into high dudgeon! Exit stage left.

New Zealand Film Director Jane Campion has Mercury in Aries Top of the Lake 2013Academy Award Winner for The Piano.'Women often postpone their lives, thinking that if they are not with a partner then it doesn't really count, they are still searching for their prince, in a way and as much as we don't discuss that because it is too embarrassing and too sad, I think it really does exist...I would love to see more women directors because they represent half the population and gave birth to the whole world. Without them writing and being directors the rest of us are not going to know the whole story.'

Mercury in Aries took us all along the pioneering path of ‘Brave New Worlds’. It pressed us to process in ways that seemed naive but sharper and clearer. Your children, your friends, partners, teachers, bosses, next door neighbours, heads of state, Twitter, the person sitting next to you on the bus all this will have been a little more direct, forthright and yes frankly, impatient. With this Mercury in Aries perhaps our musings, mutterings and communications got more authentic, for good or bad.
                
Academy Award Winning Actress Holly Hunter Top of the Lake 2013 new TV Drama
We will all have felt this change, this mental shift but lets review how it affected directly. Aries sits somewhere in your birth chart, even if you do not have any planets in this sign you always have Aries Countyside somewhere in your psyche. It is this Aries zone which had Mercury as a house guest. This is where you will have had to be more accommodating and make those adjustments now in place. It was here that you may have been trying to exercise more imagination and set off some fantastical ideas. Take your time and respect the issues affected in that part of your chart. For instance, Aries may be in your 2nd house of ‘Money & Resources’, in which case Mercury here will have been probably prompting you to think about and plan changes that will impact your bank balance. Or if Aries covers your 7th house or zone of ‘Partnerships’ your plans could be in for a major overhaul concerning your significant other. Making the adjustments will now probably be going smoothly. Or is Aries pulling at your Venus, if so maybe these few weeks have got you thinking about deepening, or severing, your commitment to what you have previously valued.
Make the most of your facility to think with fresh ideas and with a braver heart acquired over this last Mercury in Aries period. You have been taken to some very different places in yourself and fast recently, where actions and decisions have had to be taken quickly and clearly. Things may have become very black and white, with very little patience for grey areas or the boundary-less stretch of open and endless possibilities. We wanted the freedom in order to roam, go about our daily lives unencumbered by too many demands from others as we may have believed that we have very important business of our own to attend to, however, we may have also been easily distracted by the people looking back at us, whatever the climate change we find ourselves in now and wherever in the world,  we may flaneur because we need to connect.

Scottish Composer Craig Armstrong has Mercury in Aries
credits: wikepedia & huffington post & sydneymorningherald & allmusic

posted by pippa ponton & jphibbs