Liz Greene and Howard Sasportas continued their lectures on psychological astrology to discuss “The Inner Planets,” Mercury, Venus, and Mars. They refer to these planets as the “building blocks of personal reality.”
Howard Sasportas covers the myth of Mercury, his role as a trickster, as a conduit between the gods and humans, as one who can craft, tell tales, enact trades, and do anything which comes to hand well. The planet Mercury wears many of these hats in our charts. We look to its sign, house, and aspects to define how we think, communicate, move about the world, and transact business. But Mercury has a deeper meaning for all of us, Sasportas writes. Mercury is our reminder that we can change our lives by changing our thoughts. A new perspective can unlock years of frustration with our lives and the people around us, freeing us from a perpetual loop of unhappiness. Studying Mercury’s position in our chart gives us the key to opening up our minds to a new, more fulfilling life.
The concept of re-writing the stories we tell ourselves to release guilt and shame has been brought into our culture recently by lecturer and writer Brené Brown. A strongly placed Mercury in her chart indicates clearly how this could be Brené Brown’s path. A first house Mercury indicates that she could find her identity through learning, writing, and teaching. In Sagittarius, Mercury struggles with information overload as vast amounts of information get picked up by an expansive mind. Brené for years researched and gathered stories on the topics of shame and human vulnerability until she was able to amass the information into a coherent thesis which she presented at her first very well received TED Talk in 2010.
Mercury also applies to a square to Brené’s 10th house Pluto-Uranus conjunction in Virgo, indicating the profound depth of her message – and the electricity which would send it out to the masses. Virgo’s position in her 10th house shapes her message to the world of how critical and hard on ourselves and each other we can be. Mercury’s square to Saturn in Pisces in Brené’s fourth house reveals the fullness of her message. It is only when we become vulnerable and share our struggles that we build connection with others – and we begin the process of healing. And once we no longer numb ourselves to painful emotions, we are then free to feel joy and companionship with others, and inner peace. Mercury, then, is a very hard-working apex of a T-square in Brené Brown’s chart, and we are all richer from hearing the hard-won lessons Brené Brown shares with us.
If we go back to The Luminaries and the role of the Sun in our chart, we can see that Brené Brown’s call to adventure was to plumb the emotional depths (Scorpio) that constrict our inner life (12th) house. Her life path is to become a beacon (the Sun) to show us a way through and out of the underworld of our own guilt and shame.
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