Astro4Business Intersections

Mercury, the messenger of the gods.  In Roman times, Mercury was regarded as the god of merchandise, merchants, and commerce.  He is often depicted as holding a purse to signify his rulership over profits.  Today Mercury is regarded as the thinking faculty, and rules all types of communications, information, inquiry, and investigation.

In a personal natal chart Mercury indicates

• The reasoning mind
• Communication, conversation, writing
• Assimilation of information from the environment
• Analysis and discrimination
• Concentration and focus
• Respiratory system, nervous system

How will we define Mercury as used in astrology for business?  Remember, there are three different options in the business use of astrology. 

1. The first is reading a person’s standard natal chart from the point of view of business.  What does your chart say about you as a business person?  What are your strengths and weaknesses as applied to your professional life?
2. The second is reading the chart of a business itself.  It is fairly easy to find the date of incorporation of publicly held businesses, and many small business owners can say the date they first opened their doors or made their first sale.
3. The third option is to view the vocations that have been found to be good expressions of certain planetary energies.

Mercury in a Businessperson’s Chart

Let’s look at Mercury in a businessperson’s chart.  Extrapolating meaning from the personal definitions, we can say that Mercury in a businessperson’s chart describes their conscious thinking and intellect, how shrewd they are.  It also describes their conversation style and their aptitude for spoken and written communications.  It can describe their facility with information technology and analytical tools.  As the general ruler of commerce, Mercury can describe the person’s approach to business, and their natural facility in purchasing, sales, and negotiating.

Mercury in the Chart of a Business

When we look at Mercury in the chart of a business, we take the essential meanings of Mercury in a personal chart and combine them with the meanings of Mercury in a mundane chart.  A business is an entity in that it has a birth, a life cycle, and an end, and it has meaning and purpose like any other being.  It is like a child of a person’s imagination and desire.  But it’s also impersonal, in that it doesn’t carry its own conscious evolvement even though it passes through phases and cycles like everything else on earth.  In this way it is more like a mundane chart and the meanings from that branch of astrology apply.

In a business chart, Mercury describes communication and information systems, merchandising and inventory control, news, electronics, publications, and machinery, especially electronics and transportation.

Vocations

Much thanks for the following vocational information to Noel Tyl.  As my first astrology teacher in the 1970s, his work continues to influence my thinking to this day.  He has recently published Vocations, the New Midheaven Extension Process, which outlines the various vocations that are connected with each of the planets.

Some of the vocations associated with Mercury include communications, sales, travel, broadcasting, accounting, and media.  Do you see how these are connected to the other descriptions?  The essential energy of Mercury takes slightly different but related forms in the different expressions.

So, in chart form, we have:

Planet or Luminary	In personal chart	In mundane chart	In businessperson’s chart	In business chart	In vocational expression
Mercury	The reasoning mind  Communication, conversation, writing  Assimilation of information from the environment  Analysis and discrimination  Concentration and focus  Spinal cord, respiratory system, nervous system	The literary world  Newspapers  Publishers  Ambassadors  Trade and commerce  A nation’s communication and telecom industries.  Local transport issues.	Intellect  Conversation style  Aptitude for spoken and written communications  Facility with information technology and analytical tools  Approach to business  Facility with purchasing, selling, negotiating	Communication systems  Information systems  Merchandise & inventory control  News  Publications  Machinery	Communications  Sales  Travel  Broadcasting  Accounting  Media