Three Definitions of Poetry – Mercury In Transition

“A system of punctuation.” — T.S. Eliot

“The clear expression of mixed feelings.” — W.H. Auden

“The shorthand of beauty.” — Mel Brooks

Early next week, Mercury will conclude its brief tenure in Aquarius with aspects to the Galactic Core in Sagittarius and retrograde Saturn in Libra, before entering Pisces in hot pursuit of an ideal. Taken in order, Mercury’s final two aspects from Aquarius followed by an ingress to Pisces will serendipitously correspond to the three definitions of poetry quoted at the top of this piece. In your life, it means that sometimes you have to let go of what it means and enjoy what your beautiful mind can do for its own sake.

Planets in astrology function as archetypes for things in your life. Among the things that the multi-tasking Mercury represents is what Arthur C. Clarke once referred to as the rarest thing in the universe — mind. Poetry, like higher mathematics, is something the mind produces for its own sake, leaving any determination of usefulness to pragmatic posterity. The challenge of poetry and higher mathematics is alike, to do something original using ancient tools. When it comes to language, one of those tools is punctuation, or the lack of it.

Punctuation is often crucial to meaning, which is undoubtedly part of what T.S. Eliot had in mind. Yet, a pan-cultural scholar of Mr. Eliot’s erudition was surely aware of that some languages, especially ancient ones, have prolifically produced great poems devoid of discernible punctuation, relying on the proficiency of the practitioner to arrive at a precise understanding. So it is that Eliot’s definition of poetry is not as clear-cut as it would appear on first reading, very much like Mercury’s current placement in Aquarius.

Mercury’s archetype of mind wears an interesting outfit in Aquarius. The association with elemental air is a relaxed fit for intellect, but the fixed quality is rather confining. Instead of encouraging thought, Mercury in the confines of Aquarius more closely resembles an admonition of how to think. The discrepancy between the intrinsic quality of mind and the Aquarian quality of sign is even more readily accounted for by an implied affiliation with the 11th house.

The tropical zodiac is often construed to begin with Aries, which in turn is often identified with the first house, and the second house with Taurus and so on around the circle. The eleventh house and its sequential relation to Aquarius is where the individual encounters what Eric has called “the larger community, in the context beyond family.” It is in the arena of the collective where rules and means of order, including punctuation, become important, to make sure that people go along willingly and get along smoothly. Yet when people gather for a spiritual purpose, the structure of social regulation only serves to inhibit the encounter. Mercury in Aquarius reaches a sextile aspect to the center of our galaxy this coming Sunday, revealing a means to overcome the inhibitions imposed by group mind.

A sextile between two objects represents support and encouragement for growth. From the quick mind of Mercury in Aquarius to the still point of the Galactic Core in Sagittarius the type of growth being encouraged entails pushing out on the boundaries and breaking the rules that hold our thinking and expression back. Perhaps the highest service of poetry is that it pushes out on the boundaries of thought and expression set by the collective. That includes the rules of punctuation repeatedly broken by T.S. Eliot himself in an effort to expand the system to fit what his mind had the courage to apprehend. When Mercury goes on to form a trine with Saturn on Monday, of all days, we will get a sense of of just how important that sort of courage can be.

Saturn is the traditional ruler of Aquarius. Consistent with that association, Saturn represents the energy, somewhere in each of us, that is not comfortable with rule breakers and boundary pushers. After all, that could create mixed feelings, a subject W.H. Auden learned about the hard way. 

Auden was an eyewitness to the Weimar Republic and Spanish Revolution. He saw first hand what happens when people will not or cannot resort to their own beautiful minds to process and express mixed feelings in a creative, clear and constructive manner, either privately or in collaboration. That allows those who are only too happy to tell others how to think and express themselves to prevail. Mercury’s air trine to a backwards Saturn will be short, but enough to give us a glimpse of the attractive suck of codependency as an alternative to the more difficult path of independent creativity, a theme that Mercury in Pisces will further explore.

For many reading this, Mercury’s ingress to Pisces will take place overnight Monday. Pisces is directly on the other side of the zodiac from Virgo, where Mercury rules. That means Mercury will be something of a strange fit in mutable waters, very much like Mel Brooks in the company of Eliot and Auden, but mind knows only the limits it will accept. A sure ticket to free the mind is the pursuit of ideals, especially truth and beauty. With a conjunction to idealistic Neptune just hours after entering Pisces, followed hours later by another conjunction to asteroid Pallas Athene (astrology’s best expression of both truth and beauty in one object), the circumstances will be satisfied for Mercury, and by inference your own mind, to overcome any mixed feelings about its placement to clearly recognize and concisely express the beauty there for the finding.

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14 thoughts on “Three Definitions of Poetry – Mercury In Transition”

  2. “Make no mistake, all over the world the structure of authority is afraid and that fear has gone over into the irrational, and that paranoia is expressing itself in reckless and empty exercises to reassure themselves that they can still do what they want, when they want to, but those days are numbered. Please write a poem today and make them tremble in their Platonic jackboots. Yes, you can. Yes, they will.”

    Dare I say it, Len dear — this makes me hot! Yes, I’m laughing. Yes, I’m serious. Thanks for such a juicy notion!

  4. be, Sarah, Burning River, Jann: Thank you.

    A court in China sentenced Zhu Yufu to seven years in prison today because he wrote a poem. A poem! The great Chinese empire, with its rich economy and powerful military feels it necessary to defend itself against a poem. Make no mistake, all over the world the structure of authority is afraid and that fear has gone over into the irrational, and that paranoia is expressing itself in reckless and empty exercises to reassure themselves that they can still do what they want, when they want to, but those days are numbered. Please write a poem today and make them tremble in their Platonic jackboots. Yes, you can. Yes, they will.

  9. Thank you Len, for a special tribute to Mercury’s finer side and just in time too. Tuesday is Valentine’s Day and here in the Eastern Time Zone that happens at 1:47 AM. You have just enough time to create a lovely poem for us by Monday at noon!

    But if that’s not your style, it’s okay; that’s what I love about Mercury. . his ability to adapt to whatever situation he finds himself in. He’s quick-as-a-wink and silver-tongued too, and with my Venus in Gemini, he can thrill me with words every time.

    Authors Ariel Guttman and Kenneth Johnson in their book Mythic Astrology say “Uranus is the archetype of the inventor, the bohemian, the rebellious spirit ~ and it is also, according to esoteric astrology, the ‘higher octave’ of Mercury.” So next month when Mercury conjuncts Uranus on Monday the 5th, you might be writing to us about our rebellious spirit. However, less than 2 weeks later, on Sunday the 18th, when Mercury again conjuncts Uranus, you could completely re-invent and reverse yourself and it would be just fine. Thus is the nature of quicksilver Mercury, and also the one who has mastered Mercury’s gift.

    For here and now though, I anticipate with bated breath the arrival of another Valentine’s card with the words. . Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet and so are you. It just never gets old for me, you know?
    be

  10. I want to share a poem with you if I may. No punctuation gives this sense of flow…like water, so:

    Broken Seabed

    …ancient stones scattered adrift shifting faces broken apart the seabed lays in stillness awaiting planted abstruse among a torrent remaining unmoved as a thousand voices yelling allowing the water’s returning to a deepness absolving among ancient oceans sleeping in you most ferocious river running returning to peaceful shores breathing carving only wisdom engrained facades upon boulders who know you as Friend from older quieter eons in fathoms deepest end…

    D Palmo

  11. Eliot is probably my favorite of the poets from the first half of the 20th century. A couple more quotes about poetry:

    From the romantic perspective, William Wordsworth wrote that “poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquility.”

    T. S. Eliot, in the essay “Tradition and the Individual Talent” from the then modern view, disagrees . He write that “the more perfect the artist, the more completely separate in him will be the man who suffers and the mind which creates.”

    Much like astrology – there are opposite views, whether quoting Eliot, Auden or Mel Brooks. From the opposites one can find a “unified sensibility, a synthesis of emotion and intellect” (Eliot). Then again, there’s Elbert Hubbard’s definition from “The Roycroft Dictionary”: “Poetry: 1. A substitute for the impossible. 2. The bill and coo of sex.” Hmm…reminds me of the discussions here at PW.

    Thanks, Len, for the romp back down the memory lane of when I once studied poetry, and the means to see it through an astrological perspective.

    JannKinz

  13. Len you are fine-tuned yet poetic in your substance. Your art of word-work inandofitself is educational for me; today’s post is one of your more finely-tuned – or perhaps I am just better tuned-in.

    With natal Merc in AQ I learned a finer point of this placement, and with Pallas just passing over said Merc territory – transiting Merc hot on her trail – I learned something more.

    Well then, I may need to wrap up my day with poetry and no punctuation, just because I can.

    xo

  14. A really lovely comparison to poetry Len. I enjoyed this thoroughly.

    “the type of growth being encouraged entails pushing out on the boundaries and breaking the rules that hold our thinking and expression back.”

    Just a thought too to add, that Mercury joining Chiron may assist one in the desire to express these ideas or thoughts in directly experiential ways, making the process a deeper focused articulation of the energy that Venus eluded to as she passed through the same degrees a few weeks ago.

    Thanks Len!
    HS

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