Mercury Conjunct the Sun: Work Together

One of my favorite aspects is Mercury conjunct the Sun. There are two kinds of conjunctions — when Mercury passes between Earth and the Sun during Mercury retrograde, and when Mercury is to one side of the Sun and the Earth is to the other, as is happening now.

Technically this is called the ‘superior conjunction’, though a few years ago Melanie Reinhart and I conducted a vote to change the name to the ‘exterior conjunction’, which carried unanimously 2-0. (This would correspond with editing ‘inferior conjunction’, as happens during the retrograde, to ‘interior conjunction’, which has a nice ring to it.)

I associate this aspect with good news. This may be a personal bias, though (for example) at the moment that then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan announced that he had freed everyone on that state’s corrupt Death Row, it was during the exterior conjunction at around noon, with Mercury and the Sun high in the sky. This event is overlooked because it doesn’t feed the blood lust of politics and media however: by signing his name (and state lawyers preparing lots of documents), Gov. Ryan commuted 156 death sentences in a state where fully half of those convicted of capital crimes may have been innocent. (A bunch of journalism students at Northwestern University helped clear the names of at least five Death Row inmates.)

There are generally six Mercury-Sun conjunctions a year — three interior (during Mercury retrograde), and three exterior (marking the midpoint between the Mercury retrogrades — lots more to say about the next one, which starts on U.S. Election Day).

It seems, at least, like there’s interesting news on the day that this happens, in the sense of learning something constructive. The event happens in Virgo, of which Mercury is the traditional ruling planet. Here we have Mercury in his/her/its role as Hermes, the alchemist and one of the ‘founders’ of astrology, as referenced in an ancient text recovered by Project Hindsight. Who was this Hermes guy? Atlantean? Extraterrestrial? The god who as an infant taught himself lyre by noon of his first day alive, and who that evening stole the sacred cows of Apollo, killed them and skinned them?

Who could argue like a trial attorney on the morning of his second day on Earth, who was threatened with relegation to being the lord of Felons and of Dead Children if he didn’t come clean about those prized cows, and who ended up making amends with the other gods and being put in charge of just about everything our society is based on (trade, communications and the organizing of knowledge)?

Yes, it’s a little weird that the clever, androgynous, and eminently lawyer-like criminal Hermes rules Virgo, an Earth sign associated with the Goddess, with the agriculture of grain and dairy, and with young women. You will encounter a lot of mysteries as you study astrology. We might imagine Virgo co-ruled by Ceres and Vesta, though those planets were either not known or not noted by the ancient (founding) astrologers. Is it the frisky angel who made love to the young Virgin Mary, or is it Osiris encountering his sister-wife Isis?

While you’re taking your flights of imaginative fancy pondering those and other themes, the aspect is exact at 8:43 am EDT Monday morning. It happens with the Moon in Cancer, and it feels productive and a bit bold. It looks like a day to accomplish great things from your desk, depending on our superior communications magic, with which we’re surrounded.

The conjunction takes place in degree 19 of Virgo, which has the image (Sabian symbol) of a swimming race. That image is delineated by Dane Rudhyar as being about operating in a new element with mastery, and “the stimulation that comes from a group effort toward a spiritual goal”. It’s a reminder that we accomplish new, different and brilliant things by working together, even if it has a few shades of competitiveness. He cautions against dedication to ego-centered, individualistic accomplishment (a challenge for the Sun, but possible in the true humanitarian spirit of Leo).

Also of note, Transpluto has ingressed Virgo for the second time in its three-year transition from Leo into its new sign. Transpluto is a hypothetical planet, not often used in astrology, but which I happen to track carefully. By hypothetical, I mean that it doesn’t exist, though there’s a calculated orbit for the thing (which is so long that it’s been in Leo for about 80 years). It takes three years to change signs, as it retrogrades back and forth over the imaginary line.

Transpluto is a caution against narrow thinking and self-criticism. I believe that what it represents is one of the key things we need to master in order to be psychologically balanced. Perhaps we’ll get some messages about how to do that today.

Note to readers: I cover these events sign-by-sign in my weekly and monthly horoscopes, which are available by subscribing to Planet Waves.