Mercury enters Sagittarius on November 17th, leaving behind Scorpio’s piercing and probing mentality for the wild and wooly intellectual byways of the centaur’s pastures.
In Sagittarius until December 6th, Mercury undertakes varied cheerful side quests, often losing the trees for the forest, as it were.
Not following? No worries! Comprehension isn’t the name of the game when Mercury is in Sagittarius. What does it matter if your jolly word salad leads to a serious case of foot-in-mouth disease as long as everyone around the table is laughing?
Welcome to Mercury in Sagittarius season, which promises an extra jolt of potent long-windedness and mangled metaphors thanks to an opposition from retrograde Mars in Gemini, spitting off tweets or toots or whatever they call them now in the midst of a ghost-in-the-machine meltdown frenzy.
Late Night Dorm Convos
Ruled by jovial, big picture Jupiter, Mercury in Sagittarius is like a klatch of college students, talking late into the night about The Meaning of Life, assisted by some free-flowing cheap wine.
They’re enthusiastic, passionate, and ready to lead a movement to storm the gates of academia/government/institutions/whatever. But the details? Fuzzy, at best; wrong, at worst.
This is because Sagittarius is one of two Jupiter-ruled signs, along with Pisces, in which Mercury experiences its detriment.
Opposite Gemini and Virgo, where Mercury is at home (and exalted as well in Virgo), Sagittarius and Pisces aren’t ideal environments for Mercury’s skills of information gathering and sorting, clear communication, and accounting.
So Many Words
Sagittarius, an extroverted mutable fire sign comfortable changing its mind, is motivated by Jupiter’s expansive contemplation of philosophy, history, politics, religion, travelogue, you-name-it.
But Mercury is about details, dollars and cents, and data. You can see how there might be a mismatch here.
People with Mercury in Sagittarius, like their more introspective Mercury in Pisces counterparts, can find themselves cheerfully floundering with mercurial tasks and functions.
Yet, because of Jupiter’s eternal optimism, this generally doesn’t slow them down. Quantity over quality is the jupiterian way. At least Mercury in Sagittarius is never at a loss for words.
No Filter
In fact, there is often an excess of words and a need for some saturnian editing or biting one’s tongue for Mercury in Sagittarius. They can chronically blurt out the proverbial wrong thing at the wrong time, and have usually never met a secret they didn’t promptly forget was secret.
Of course, they don’t intend to spill the beans about someone’s surprise party/STI; it’s just that they have such a thin filter, if they have a filter at all, that the beans just spill out, as though of their own volition.
They don’t mind being an open book, so it’s hard for them to understand others with more scrupulous or tidy mercurial approaches.
Long-winded Vampires
One of my favorite examples of Mercury in Sagittarius is Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, a Scorpio Sun (and probably Scorpio Moon1), hence the dark, occult storyline.
I remember eagerly starting to read the famous vampire novel as a teenager, in the vampire-crazed 1990s, and being puzzled by the long-winded epistolary style of the book, which opens, memorably, with. . . a train schedule as recorded in a diary:
3 May. Bistritz. — Left Munich at 8:35 P. M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late.
The not-exactly-riveting opening lines notwithstanding, Dracula manages (barely?) through a meandering and unbelievable plot to mostly not go off the rails, a jupiterian pitfall, and stands as an example of successful Mercury in Sagittarius storytelling.
Its continual reinterpretation in each era as a Rorschach test of ideas about sexuality and power, among other things, underscores its enduring appeal. (Though I’ll always prefer the 1987 California vampire movie, The Lost Boys.)
In Stoker’s chart Mercury in Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter in Cancer, the nurturing sign of Jupiter’s exaltation. Jupiter, associated with publishing, is overcoming his Scorpio planets in a lovely trine, expanding their influence. Saturn in Pisces forms the final leg of a grand trine in the water signs, showing staying power and a long imaginative game.
The Merry Quest This Time
Mercury in Sagittarius has a lot going for it in these few weeks. . . and one big challenge.
On the plus side, Mercury is part of a fun grouping in Sagittarius that begins, in mid-November, to change the tone from paranoid and explosive (thanks, eclipse-o-rama Scorpio season) to gregarious and expansive.
First Venus, then Mercury, and then the Sun enter Sagittarius in the second half of November, lightening the mood. In Sagittarius, all of these planets are ruled by Jupiter, recently reentered into Pisces and strong in its nocturnal domicile.
This suggests a lively jupiterian flavor to this Sagittarius season, broadcast in celebratory style by Mercury, but also a potential for excess.
Mercury’s conjunction with Venus in Sagittarius on November 21st is a highlight, leading up to the new moon in Sagittarius on November 23rd, when the Moon joins the party in early Sagittarius.
Look for loud, wide-range conversations with a dash of fantasy or confusion, as Neptune in Pisces, amplified by Jupiter nearby, squares the planets in Sagittarius.
Discord strikes around November 29th, however, as Mercury opposes retrograde Mars in Gemini, suggesting philosophical (or political) arguments with an unpredictable opponent.
Soon after, on December 1st, Mercury squares Neptune, adding confusion to Mercury in Sagittarius’ already possibly garbled reasoning. Venus also opposes Neptune, suggesting that relationships and social ties are involved in the confusing arguments.
Yet, Mercury’s spin through Sagittarius ends on a high note, with Mercury squaring Jupiter in Pisces on the 6th just before entering Capricorn. Mercury reconnects with its ruler in high-minded, talkative fashion.
It’s like the college kids bring their late night conversation to a professor. There’s frisson in the square aspect, a challenge, perhaps, but between two big picture, ultimately tolerant and optimistic signs. What would it look like if our big ideas had follow through?
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