Moon, Mercury, & Mind
Mapping the mental landscape.
I was inspired to wax lyrical on this topic because of my previous post, The False Dichotomy Between Psychoanalysis and Prediction. I am also especially excited about this topic because Mercury and the Moon have a lot more functional similarities than most people would like to believe. My exploration of the different schools of astrology revealed that some of the conflation of Mercury with the third house may explain the association of the planet with communication, siblings, and neighbors. However, in learning that the planetary joy of the Moon could account for these things it made me want to do a deep dive into the two fastest moving planets and their relationship to our capacity for thought and sharing those thoughts with others.
Mercury, The Mentalist.
Mercury, planet closely aligned with the messenger god Hermes, is the first thing that we often think of our minds. In spite of also being animals, what sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom is for a more complex capacity for developing language. Due to its proximity to the Sun, Mercury is often likened to a scribe or a page to the monarch, who relays important decrees to the masses. While the Sun is our intellect or the ideals that we hold, Mercury speaks to our ability to put those ideals into language and disseminate them to others. I would argue that Mercury, and to a lesser extent Venus, are the only planets that are not severely harmed by combustion. Both of these planets speak to strategies by which we can assert that which we take pride in and hope to identify with someday. Those who have Mercury co-present with the Sun in the same sign actually have the greatest capacity for communicating in a way that aligns well with their highest self. In fact, this configuration is called Budha-Aditya Yoga in the Vedic system, and is considered an auspicious combination for outwardly displaying your intelligence and benefitting from this materially as a result.
It’s no wonder that Vettius Valens writes that Mercury symbolizes people who occupy a diverse range of occupations such as “sculptors, doctors, secretaries, legal advisors, orators, philosophers, architects, musicians, prophets, diviners, augurs, dream interpreters, braiders, weavers, systematic physicians, [and] those in charge of war and strategy.” Furthermore, looking at the length at which Valens spends describing Mercury, it is clear that this planet does involve the capacity to take intelligence and apply it in some meaningful way.
Here, it is helpful to invoke the fact that Mercury is said to rejoice in the first house. For a deeper dive into this topic and an introduction to the planetary joys in general, I recommend listening to the Mercury episode of the Fixed Astrology Podcast! In this episode we discuss the unique position of this planetary joy in that it is the only angular house where a planet rejoices. The first house is one of two houses that is both above and below the horizon, speaking to the duality between the body and the soul. Mercury is associated with deities that have the capacity for travelling between the spirit realm and material realms— carrying messages and goods from one realm to the other. It makes sense then that Mercury would rejoice in a house that describes the struggle of being an intangible entity confined to a body that is forced to have a material experience. In using our mental faculties to manipulate the material realm in a way that is evocative of the divine spark that lies within each of us, we are embodying the Mercurial principle of versatility.
Moon, Mother of the Mind.
In last week’s blog, I ventured into the role that the Moon plays in serving as the gateway to the psyche. It’s helpful to see the parallels between the big three and the layers of consciousness. This would make the ascendant the Ego, the Sun the Superego, and leave the Moon as the factor that closely mirrors the Id. Unlike Mercury, which I would argue acts as the Ego due to its associations with the first house, the moon represents a more shadowy layer of conscience that colors our responses to the world around us. In the “Ages of Man” scheme, the Moon is said to describe the first four years of life. During this stage, infants and toddlers are not only under the care of a maternal figure, but achieving developmental milestones that will impact their ability to navigate their inner and outer world as they grow.
Whether discussing early development through the lense of neuroscience and psychology or using an astrological lense, it is clear that the care one receives in these early years can affect social and cognitive development. Children learn language but also how to model appropriate behaviors from the people they encounter on a frequent basis. Therefore, it’s not surprising that Sahl ibn Bishr dedicates many lines of text to describing how the Moon and its condition can speak to the upbringing of the individual and the impact that has on their temperament. While the Moon in the Western astrological condition does have more bodily connotations and describes how our innate constitution can affect our life experiences, the context in which the Moon lies can map out how early life experience can play a hand in shaping our mental landscape. This means that the Moon speaks to the ways “nature” and “nurture” helps us develop our psyche.
The Third House - Mercurial or Lunar?
For those of you who favor the natural house associations, which draws parallels between Mercury and the topics of the third house, I have news for you! The meanings of the third house actually have little to do with Mercury in spite of the resonance with the topic. That being said? I will make concessions here, because the association can be useful. Since Gemini would be the third sign, it corresponds to the third house. Twins are co-borns, which are siblings! Undeniable logic there. With the third house also speaking to education, close friends, and short journeys, it makes sense that we would want to attribute these things to Gemini and Mercury. Indeed Valens, Porphyry, and other authors often attribute brotherhood to the planet Mercury.
However, there is compelling evidence that non-angular houses gained a lot of their significations from the planetary joys. In the Hellenistic astrological tradition, the Moon rejoices in the Third House, which is referred to as the place of Goddess. Due to her association with messengers and wandering, this house gets those significations as well. The short distances travelled by the Moon are meant to contrast the long steady journey of the Sun, which has its joy in the 9th house. Furthermore, the cyclical nature of the Moon aligns better with the “daily routines” signification of the 3rd house that gets applied in more modern contexts. The practical or applied knowledge depictions of the 3rd in contrast to the 9th house also parallels nicely with Abu Ma’shar’s description of the Moon and her significations. If the significations of the Third House derive from the Moon, why is there resonance with Mercury? The Egyptian God, Thoth is a Lunar deity who gets associated with sciences, scribes, mathematics, and sacred texts. Thoth was later syncretized with the messenger god, Hermes, which may partially explain this overlap in significations between the two planets.
Constellations of Familiarity - Gemini & Cancer
One way to settle this dispute over ownership of mental faculties and communication is to see the connections between the signs Gemini and Cancer. Not only are these signs neighbors, but they have a special relationship in the Western astrological tradition. The concept of antiscia is a valuable one, because it highlights the relationship signs have to each other across solstice points and equinox points. Signs that are equidistant from the solstice points are said to be in antiscia with one another. They are said to operate as if they were forming a conjunction in shadow, because they share the same proportions of darkness and light. I think viewing them as sharing traits that mirror each other is more of a helpful way to think about this relationship.
Many moons ago, I noted some traits shared by signs having antiscia to one another. In the case of Gemini and Cancer, I suggested that both are concerned with the principle of familiarity in some way. Gemini achieves familiarity by gathering information. Cancer achieves familiarity by seeking out certain emotional patterns no matter what context. The signs opposite to Gemini and Cancer are Sagittarius and Capricorn, respectively. Sagittarius and Capricorn are not only antiscia to one another, but carry connotations of distance and foreignness due to the fact that they are ruled by planets that can signify distance or foreignness in some way. Compared to Jupiter and Saturn, the Moon and Mercury move a lot quicker, and are a lot more reflective of the transient nature of the human experience.
Therefore, through the ownership of signs that carry these connotations of familiarity, it would make sense that Mercury and the Moon could describe things in our immediate surroundings that influence our thoughts. This portion of the zodiac may be concerned with creating controlled conditions that can allow us to discover new ways of being. Reinforcing this idea is the theme behind the middle decan of Cancer, which Austin Coppock calls “A Walled Garden.” This decan is ruled by Mercury in the Chaldean system, while ruled by Mars in the Triplicity system. Themes of cultivating safe spaces to exchange ideas is embedded into the symbolism here. The mind can be thought of like a “walled garden,” where we attempt to share internal experiences with other entities that will never fully be able to understand the totality of it. This slice of the zodiac serves as the clearest indicator that there is room for Mercury and the Moon to speak to our internal world and our attempts to interface with everything outside of it.
I consider the consultation room to be a safe space where the delicate topic of fate can be discussed in a constructive way. If you enjoyed this deep dive into the parallels between two of the fastest moving planets in the sky as much as I did, you may also enjoy exploring how these themes may show up in different parts of your life. You can book a consultation with me at the link below if this is really speaking to you. For 2023, I will be taking all clients, and not just those by referral!
Loved!!! Super beautiful perspective, rly got me thinking