Monday, August 25, 2008

Odd Thoughts: Rulerships, Virgo, Mercury

I don't understand why Mercury doesn't rule all the Air signs (Gemini, Aquarius, Libra), as Air is thought to be the most mental of the 4 astrological elements, Earth, Water, Fire and Air.

In an obtuse version of astrological rulerships, Saturn could rule the Earth signs, Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn. Fire signs(Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) would be ruled by Mars. Water signs (Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces) by Venus. But then, what would Jupiter do? Jupiter would have to rule over-all, in true Jupiterian expansionist fashion. I think it would be acceptable for Sun and Moon not to have rulerships, they are different from the planets. The outer planets, Uranus Neptune and Pluto are too far away to rule anything, they simply make themselves felt in transit.

Planet Mercury, ruler of mental processes, really does have influence over everything in human life. It travels so fast, no time to make its individual transits felt, but it very frequently touches everything in the charts of all of us. Mercury's journey around the Sun takes 88 days, whereas Saturn's takes over 29 years.

Everything we humans do is initiated in the brain, even what seem like emotional responses, though colored by Moon and the Watery element, actually do begin in the mental realm. As I see it we ought to pay more attention to Mercury in the natal chart - equally as much as to Sun, Moon and ascendant.

The Sun has now moved into the zodiac sign Virgo, one of the two signs traditionally ruled by Mercury, the other being Gemini. I think Mercury's rulership of Virgo rather strange. To my mind strict, structure-loving Saturn would seem more compatible with perfection-seeking Virgo, but I'm probably missing something at a deeper level.

Mercury's rulership of Gemini seems obvious - the consummate communicator, teacher, the all-round information collector. As ruler of Virgo, Mercury must be reflected as less abstract, more tangible. Virgo seeks and usually achieves near perfection in just about anything undertaken. Gemini roves around in the world of words and ideas, gathering them together, regurgitating them, sometimes in light-weight haphazard fashion, offering them back to an enthusiasic audience. Virgo is quite capable of doing this too, but with a far greater emphasis on accuracy and presentation, and a serious approach.

There's more on the Virgo/Gemini subject from a book by Carl Payne Tobey in my last year's post Mercury's People.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Huh! You're just trying to make us Geminis feel inferior to Virgos, if you ask me. "Regurgitating....in a light-weight, haphazard fashion", indeed!

;-)

Twilight said...

Well now, RJ - I think that (speaking of writing in particular)Gemini's productions are easily digested by a wide audience - that can't be bad. Pre-digested, easy to read, attractive, fun - like a delicious sundae.

Virgo is more likely to produce carefully organised, deeply researched material presented in scholarly fasion - more akin to steak and two veg.

:-) Me? I'd go for the sundae any time.

Anonymous said...

Aw, shucks! Yer know yer jus' sayin' that....

;-)

Call me Mike said...

Mercury does rule the Air signs, via night triplicity according to Ptolemy. I would think the Moon is more watery than Venus, but it's supposed to be participating ruler of water; though as Jupiter is the fruitful planet and the water signs are the most fruitful, Jupiter works there too (but it could work many other places too as you say).

Mercury isn't only a ruler of Virgo, it's also exalted there. Though it doesn't really work psychologically, everyone agrees on that, though both are information gatherers. There's a better ruler for Virgo out there, maybe Pallas.

Twilight said...

Hello Benefic Brilliance :-)
Nice screen name!

Thanks for your thoughts on this - Yes, I agree, Venus isn't really Watery, the Moon really can't be bettered for Water - heck it affects the sea visibly so we can't argue with that!

Virgo - I can't make up my mind about it. It smacks of Mercury and Saturn to me, Earthy Air ;-)