Mercury in Capricorn - Postcards from a Profound Mind

Writer Ayn Rand has Mercury in Capricorn. Her novel 'Atlas Shrugged' according to a book club survey is the 'second most influential book for Americans today after the Bible'. With its theme of government control bad versus individual freedom good, this novel exerts a great influence over contemporary American conservatives and libertarians.

On the 31st December, 2012 Mercury moved country from the vast open ‘everything is possible’ expanse of fiery, mutable Sagittarius and now is carefully renegotiating it path uphill through the mountain ranges and foothills of Capricorn. We are in in the craggy terrain of the mountain goat with a load to bear and quite a lot of weight on our shoulders.

Whenever Mercury changes sign, we need to learn a whole new language and adapt to completely different customs to the ones we have become used and familiar. Mercury affects the way we process and deal with information so how we talk, think, chat, how we use twitter, or blog, text, write, read, listen and learn. 

Physicist Stephen Hawking has Mercury in Capricorn'If the human race manages to redesign itself, to reduce or eliminate the risk of self-destruction, we will probably reach out to the stars and colonize other planets..'

Capricorn is highly strategic, ambitious and grittily realistic and likes to deal in facts. Capricorn veritably sighs with deep acceptance and responsibility of ancient knowledge, it just knows that it was born for shouldering the burden, it simply is what it has to do, and do it does! When Mercury passes through such a worldly wise sign as Capricorn, it takes the opportunity to pick up a package of knowledge to help steer a path through to its ultimate goal. Whether that goal is Nirvana, a full blown empire, full health, a happy family or an running an entire nation. Listening to Capricorn's wisdom and following it will certainly go a long way to pushing on through to the end. ‘Endings’ of course contain Capricorn symbolism. Ruled by Saturn the Cardinal Earth sign of Capricorn is strangely comfortable with the whole concept of age, finality and mortality. 
            
Portrayed in Medium Allison DuBois has Mercury in Capricorn
The entrance of Mercury into this wise old sign occurred at the end of the year, 2012. Traditionally in the West this is a time of celebration as the New Year is hailed and welcomed in. We all try to raise a glass to the closing of the old year, whilst welcoming in the next ‘installment’ of our life. During this time of Epiphany we take our Christmas decorations, begin a de-clutter of our stuffed cupboards, set up regimes to cleanse our digestive systems and freshen our sights towards the future with plans and resolutions. We probably all determinedly declare to resolve the  previous years wrongs. We probably all proclaim to trim our waistlines, trim our credit and make ourselves more effective, disciplined and competent. How very Capricorn of us all.

Film Director/Painter/Performance Artist David Lynch has Mercury in Capricorn
It is possible that whilst Mercury was in searching and unbound Sagittarius many of us noticed we had to switch our mental tuning to scoping out the endless possibilities. We would have had a sense of been filled with hope, faith and optimism about ‘all the things we see, go and do’. We had to learn things by trusting our intuition, going on blind faith and jumping in with both feet regardless of consequence, after all it was the hunt for sensation or inspiration that motivated our path. Journeys and communications could have been pilgrimages involving far more than we expected, full of complications we did not anticipate as we pushed on with hope in our eyes and in many cases fingers crossed. We may have found a little bit more faith than we bargained for initially. (Mercury in Sagittarius - Postcards from an Optimistic Mind) However, just as we have got halfway used to this style of speaking and thinking we will suddenly find ourselves in what appears to be a foreign country where everyone asks us to speak more realistically, to face up to what actually is rather than what you actually want to be or may just become. Getting to grips with reality may bring us right down to earth but after all the earth is our home.

Artist Henri Matisse has Mercury in Capricorn
'Icare in Jazz' shows the over-ambitious Icarus in death fall after flying too close to the sun on wings of wax

When carefully picking its way through Capricorn, Mercury will want us to employ our heart and minds to help make something better of ourselves, to groom our goaty beards and get our teeth stuck into what is directly in front of us as a priority. Mercury in Capricorn will not let us shy away from digging in to the tasks ahead if us. In fact we may  really enjoy the fruits of the earth after the nitty gritty and at the end of all the planning and work. Being adaptable is also Mercury's calling and it will adjust to this new terrain. We will all adjust because Capricorn will insist that we find the new angle productive. It may well be with Mercury in Capricorn new empires, both large and small, are designed and established and that we accept that some of our efforts will bear fruit later on down the road. Capricorn is an earth sign and the earth has signs of life and vitality in a myriad forms and often at odd intervals.

Writer J.R.R. Tolkien has Mercury in Capricorn
'Not all that wander are lost'

However, you will notice the difference from Mercury in Sagittarius to Mercury in Capricorn. You know the change between fire and ashes and night and day. Remember that we are all feeling Mercury’s shift. You and others around you will seem more serious and responsible. We all believe that we know the best way forward and have the tough answers and solutions to the difficult questions facing us. All we really need is a dash of self discipline, some metaphorical steel in our spine and just the right helping of clear focused ambition and we are all set. Just know, ahead of time, that during Mercury’s shift in Capricorn all of us on this precious planet of ours will be mentally processing with more caution and resolution and we will also be a bit more serious and sober.

Mercury in Capricorn reaches the summit of any of its climbs at its own steady, deliberate pace and often the winding path can appear counter productive. However, the twists and turns are merely strategies against obstacles and barriers and like the game of snakes and ladders we can sometimes slide back down only to begin again with a better map on a more informed route.

Existential writer & feminist Simone de Beauvoir has Mercury in Capricorn
'Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay'.

Everyone, our children, friends, partners, teachers, bosses, neighbours and heads of state will be a little more stern and business minded during this period. Wanting to discuss plans, agendas, business ideas and developments. With this Mercury our communications are about to get a lot more practical and realistic for good or bad. 

The sign of Capricorn sits somewhere in your birth chart, even if you do not have any planets in this sign. You always have Capricorn somewhere in your psyche. It is this Capricorn house zone with Mercury as a house guest. This is where we will all have to be more accommodating and accept new regimes and adopt new routines who knows we may even enjoy them.

Writer Henry Miller has Mercury in Capricorn

Welcome your mercurial visitor and make 'it' feel at home. If you know where your ‘Capricorn CEO' is then put your full attention to what need attention. It is here that you may be trying to exercise self discipline, or show your ambition or authority. Respect the issues affected in that part of your chart. For instance, Capricorn may be in your 2nd house of ‘Money and Resources’, in which case Mercury will probably prompt you to think about and plan changes that impact your bank balance. If Capricorn covers your 7th house or zone of ‘Partnerships’ your plans could be in for a major overhaul that will impact and concern your significant other. Making the adjustments now will probably go smoothly. If Capricorn is pulling on your Venus these few weeks will get you thinking about deepening, or severing, your commitment to what you have previously valued. Endings and beginnings that sounds like Capricorn again.

Sun sign Astrologer Jonathan Cainer has Mercury in Capricorn
'It is not just a glorious comet that we can look forward to later this year. The global economic outlook should improve faster than most experts expect it to and a new mood of hope will awaken in millions of hearts. The sky's single, simple message for us all is that 2013 is to be a time of great healing. Emotional wounds can be patched up and psychological scars can be soothed in the coming months. Meanwhile, in the world of conventional, physical medicine, we will come to hear about some inspiring new ways to constructively treat infamous ailments.

Make the most of your facility to ‘get real’ and face up to your responsibilities. Say what you need to say with honesty and integrity and temper your words with wisdom and respect. Establish your personal authority and fulfill your duty to others because 'there is no time like the present'….hmm hopefully after our efforts we may all finally benefit from a Cornucopia of well earned rewards and that's a fact.

Singer/Songwriter Leslie Feist has Mercury in Capricorn

credits: liverpool echo & pinterest & philisophy of freedom & nkfu & body & soul
posted by pippa ponton & jphibbs

Mercury in Sagittarius - Postcards from an Optimistic Mind

A 'Fool's Cap' World Map, 1590
'the great secret of the successful fool – that he is no fool at all'.  Isaac Asimov Mercury in Sagittarius 

On the 29th October, 2012 Mercury moved country from the deep, dark and sometimes scary watery Scorpio terrain (Mercury in Scorpio - Postcards from an Intense Mind) and galloped at quite a pace into the 'Big Country', the fire lands of Sagittarius. Mercury as always hops-skips-and-jumps right into Retrograde on the 6th November, 2012 already having experienced a whole lot of major, vital transport problems. By the 14th November 2012 Mercury will ‘re-enter’ the dark watery realm of Scorpio and will station direct on the 27th November, 2012, still in Scorpio. There it will aqua-plane over the deep waters until the 11^th December 2012 when, for the last time this year, it will canter back into Sagittarius and probably issues of a more global, international nature. This is where Mercury will remain until the 31st December, 2012. 
Mercury goes Retro quite regularly, the effects of which can be rattle even the most organized and prepared amongst us (Scribbles & Moonwalks - Mercury Retrograde). 

In fact, key times of acute instability also appear to be when Mercury, acting even more oddly, if thats possible, begins its Shadowland period - the last time whilst in Mercury's shadow America had to endure the effect of an unusual amount of heat (Mercury Shadowlands in a Heathaze). This time the behemoth Hurricane Storm Sandy churned through the Caribbean and then made it way up the eastern seaboard of America mixing with an arctic blast to create 'Frankenstorm', bringing chaos to millions of people and very sadly, tragic loss of life.(Mercury On the Road in the Shadowlands).

So Mercury is in the much needed, optimistic realm of Sagittarius now and Mercury affects the way we process and deal with information. In other words, not just how we talk and chat but it is actually the keynote and flavour of how we think and process and the nuts and bolts of all our communication. Mercury loves being connected up with new technology and so social networks provide fertile ground for 'the messenger'. How we use twitter or write out our impressions in a blog, even texts and mobile phones will concern our Mercury. It indicates the nature of how we learn and in the case of Sagittarius, how we teach and pass on what we know. Sagittarius is highly inquisitive and eager to write, read, listen and learn and Mercury here means a wide area of interest directing it's aim towards freedom of speech and thought. From cheerful conversations, philosophical debate, feeling inspired or just having a laugh, this versatile Mercury wants to be in on it all. It really is a cultural exchange agency of ideas.

Whenever Mercury changes sign, we need to learn a whole new language and adapt to completely different customs to the ones we have become used to and familiar with.
Mercury in Sagittarius will want to continue to push these borders and boundaries of what is known and what is merely accepted. ‘Come on lets go further’, it yells as it charges off into the sunset 'we know the world is not flat now and so there is something new every time we go around' and remember 'dinosaurs died out, so we must develop, adapt and be flexible'.

Artist Wassily Kandinsky & Paul Klee both had Mercury in Sagittarius

The area around the borders may be quite unknown and unmapped but this will only delight and challenge an enthusiastic, Mercury in Sagittarius. Maps are a real source of joy and excitement and of course they are being generated constantly and endlessly changing. Maps tend to mean exploration and maps can also mean adventure. There is so much to feed the imagination, old atlases, political maps, topographic or physical maps, climate maps, historical maps, thematic maps, celestial maps, both ancient and modern, print and digital, animated maps and gif's, maps of the known universe, maps of a planet or the moons, treasure maps, mind-maps of everything and always the ever present road map. Plans of underground systems, drainage, electricity and cables will be vital at this time with the re-construction work involved in the wake of Storm Sandy.
We may even have to chart our own course, discover new ways and start to make our own maps, either physical or conceptual, it makes no odds as we have to move forward. Mercury in Sagittarius is hungry to learn, to expand its knowledge and to gather all the bits and pieces of information together. After all we have to start somewhere, we can then start to form new patterns, make a 360 degree model and we all need to see the

big picture and have the grand vision.

                                                     
It is possible that whilst Mercury was in searing, searching Scorpio we may have noticed that we had to switch our mental tuning dial to ‘let’s get to the bottom of this mystery’ more than normal. We may also have had to hold our noses and dive into the deep dark water to retrieve what was lost or recovered, whether they were other souls or perhaps some information. We let our minds go more often into the dark and scary spaces that we may have kept away from before. We also had to learn by trusting our gut instincts more and following our more instinctive, survival urgings. Journeys and communications could have been full of unknowns and may have involved a crisis of some sort or other or even be a bit scary and fraught. We will need to re-introduce these acquired skills again as jumpy Mercury ‘re-enters’ the darker realm of watery Scorpio on the 14th November, 2012. 

Singer/Writer Patti Smith & Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe both have Mercury in Sagittarius

However, just now as we have got halfway used to the Scorpio Mercury's style of protective, slightly covert thinking and speaking we now suddenly find ourselves in what appears to be this foreign country where everyone asks us to speak out a lot more honestly. We are now being asked to mean what we say and be very open-handed in our dealings. Voicing your truth and yet allowing for the other person to speak theirs is a hard won triumph in understanding and communication and a habit worth maintaining. 'No man is an island' of course, unless you have been led to think otherwise.

Painter L S Lowry had Mercury in Sagittarius (an island of fire with Leo Saturn in his chart)
'I believe every human creature is an island, Had I not been lonely, none of my work would have happened.' Lowry was not a recluse, as depicted he enjoyed a wide circle of friends and travelled a lot

When galloping through Sagittarius, this eclectic Mercury, traditionally seen to be in its 'detriment' will want us to extend our hearts and minds and take in what may appear quite foreign or exotic at first. It will also want us to deploy some speed and a lot of honesty with ourselves and those with whom we communicate. Of course a Sagittarius Mercury will be wanting us to be optimistic, it is always a fan of someone or something or other. Mercury in Sagittarius also likes to have a vision. 
It is not just about what we know. We will also benefit from having a lot more faith in ourselves, faith in others, faith in our humanity and in our world. We may have got used to dealing with some realistic doubts and cautions but maybe it is now time to ditch the suspicion and take things more at face value. Try greeting people with an open mind and a warm handshake and especially employ your sense of humour to it all, especially with ourselves -let's not take ourselves so seriously, maybe it will help for a while. We are all doing our best anyway and we all have different skills and styles to contribute. Being adaptable is one of Mercury's skills so we are bound to adjust and may even find the new angles and viewpoints enjoyable. With this style of Mercury in operation our communications are about to get much more hard hitting in some ways, for good or bad. OK, so we will also have to accept that with Mercury in Sagittarius some of our efforts could ignite someone's furies and stir up the occasional hot headedness and also ratchet up a fair bit of righteousness, especially self-righteousness. Sagittarius is a fire sign after all and likes to generate heat in some form of another, whether fervour, passion or debate - sounds like an election. Mercury in Sagittarius likes to get intellectually 'fired up' and there is a fair chance of a spate of 'foot-in-mouth' from time to time.

Political Satirist Jon Stewart has Mercury in Sagittarius

There is a definite change from the more fixed Mercury in Scorpio to this mutable Mercury in Sagittarius and you know the difference, like night and day and fire and water. You and others around you will be feeling Mercury’s shift. We might have to be more opinionated and outspoken. We may all want to believe we have the right answer and know the best thing to do or say but we may have to compromise. During Mercury’s time in Sagittarius all of us on this precious planet will be mentally processing with more hope and faith and feeling more connected to one another, crossing over the boundaries, flags, religions, race, politics. We will come to each others international rescue. In some parts of the world international bodies like the Red Cross and the United Nations will actually have to come to the rescue in earnest.
We can also be a bit more indignant and convinced just now. Mercury in Sagittarius loves to canter on chaffing at the bit, rubbing against perceived inhibiters on personal freedoms and independence. It chases after rainbows and won’t hear the word ‘No’ if controls threatens to rain on the parade. We all believe that we know best from time to time and often we do, however what is best for us may not necessarily be right for someone else. Yet it is clear that we all need to voice the truth sometimes, to point our finger in indignation or conviction, conversely we don't like what is being voiced to us we may equally use our fingers to plug our ears. 

Author Jane Austen has Mercury in Sagittarius

We may even begin to believe that the truth will solve all the problems. With Mercury in Sagittarius we are searching through all the books, the maps, the philosophies, the faiths and spiritual languages to find the way forward, to search for meaning. Sometimes we may think that we know ‘the way’ but we may have just found an ideal. Because who can really map a rainbow? 'Just give me a chance' says Mercury in Sagittarius because 'I have a vision for the future'.
Your children, your friends, your partners, teachers, bosses, neighbours, heads of state, friends on Facebook or Twitter, the person next to you on the train, bus, plane or traffic jam you will be a little more of a know-it-all right now. Perhaps you will be a lot more casual, certainly a lot more curious and pompous and tactless for sure. 'Why bother with just local concerns they will turn into global matters anyway, eventually' discuss.

Actress Scarlett Johansson has Mercury in Sagittarius

This change and shift of mental energy will affect you specifically where the sign of Sagittarius sits, somewhere in your birth chart. Even if you do not have any planets in this sign you will have a reaction to it, in fact you may have more of a reaction to it. If a certain style or energy is missing from your chart and you have not worked out ways to encourage or incorporate it yet it could be having an unconscious, slightly negative effect as you disown it. We all have the State of Sagittarius somewhere in our psyches. It is this Sagittarius county that welcomes Mercury as its house guest now. This is where you will have to be more accommodating and flexible and get ready to ride out most days towards some sunset or sunrise on the horizon. It sounds hopeful and exciting just thinking about it.

Sculptor Auguste Rodin has Mercury in Sagittarius
'Le penseur' The Thinker

If you know where your ‘Sagittarius Country' is then it is here that you may be trying to gain more freedom and become more independent. Take time regarding the issues effected in that part of your chart. For instance, Sagittarius may be in your 2nd house of ‘Money & Resources’ in which case Mercury here will probably prompt you to consider and plan changes which will impact your bank balance in a positive way. Or is Sagittarius on your 7th house or zone of ‘Partnerships’, here you could be on a major overhaul with your significant other or your business plans may need to be looked over. Making these adjustments will now go more smoothly and possible more swiftly. Is Sagittarius pulling at your Venus just now because if so, these few weeks will get you thinking about deepening or loosening your commitments to something you have previously place great value on. 

Director Woody Allen & Actress Diane Keaton both have Mercury in Sagittarius
Remember that during some of the time Mercury is here in Sagittarius County it will be spending in the Shadowlands. This will be a little more disruptive and disturbing a time than we may have planned for. For instance, we may have to charge off on a last minute mission and oddly lose sight of the way home, or be re-directed and have to devise another way back on the hoof. 

In the main though we all hope to make the most of our facility to ‘say it as it is’ and to fight for freedom for the greater good, whether personal or impersonal. We can use this time to stretch the boundaries of our knowledge. Really try and expand our minds and to expand what we know with an open mind. Really try to be open to surprises and don’t restrict your search either. On the 31st October, 2012, President Obama toured the devastated state of New Jersey with Governor Chris Christie.
           
ABC News Anchor Diane Sawyer has Mercury in Sagittarius
Mercury in Sagittarius has an expansive mind-set and will happily do your bidding and chase off after the merest hint of ‘something'  and then 'something else’. Mercury in Sagittarius sees the world as an amazing place and wants us all try to work out ways to make it a good place for everyone. On that note, kind thoughts and all good wishes go to the many people still in beleaguered places and still enduring the effects of Hurricane Storm Sandy and also for those people just beginning the clearance of the destruction and starting to see a way towards their recovery.

                                                       

Producer/rapper Jay-Z has Mercury in Sagittarius

credits: academiaemporia & bookfinda & richard shepard & NY times & the guardian & wikepedia
posted by pippa ponton & jphibbs