Sun Quintile Mercury

(Transit Sun → Natal Mercury)

Avesalom Podvodny. Aspects

Sun quintile: As the Lord awakens life within a person, He cares not only for the individual. Initiatives arising in the person within the spheres of the Planet will attract through their freshness and novelty, proving especially valuable in situations of stagnation and inertia (it is important, however, to understand that these initiatives may not necessarily arise within the Planet’s spheres, since the quintile is a minor aspect). If the Sun is afflicted, these initiatives will clash too sharply with established stereotypes, and the person, encountering prevailing resistance from the environment, may sincerely suffer, feeling how their life and sincerity are being extracted and trampled underfoot—though usually with substantial justification: they may be perceived as inadequate or outright hostile by the environment. A harmonious Sun, on the contrary, brings exceptionally appealing expressions within the Planet’s spheres, and life itself seems to smile upon the person; their initiatives become interesting to others, and they are capable, if they wish, of revitalizing other people and circumstances within the Planet’s domains—though this will encounter great difficulties if the Planet is afflicted. If both the Sun and the Planet are well-placed, and harmonious aspects are entirely unworked, they may ultimately dry out the vitality of the quintile through laziness and boredom; the defeat of the quintile will then set vitality as a condition of survival, giving the person the strongest impulse for its activation and development. Mercury quintile: Mental flourishing hinders the blossoming of thought. This aspect grants liveliness of thought and speech within the Planet’s spheres, which, if the quintile is defeated, may cost the person dearly, as their words could provoke sharply negative reactions from backward forms. At a high level, this is the aspect of the satirist; with major harmonious aspects of Mercury, it indicates the humorist, whose expressions may not be particularly humane (“for a sharp word, he’d sacrifice even his father”)—this is how the quintile differs from the decile. Affliction of Mercury brings difficulties in adequately verbalizing the natural liveliness of thought, observable in the person within the Planet’s spheres; expressed ideas will initially appear inappropriate or outright foolish, though sometimes unconventional and amusing, which the person will find hard to bear, even if they do not necessarily show it. If both the Planet and Mercury are afflicted, creating difficulties in working through the Planet, the quintile will carry a heavy burden: either the person adapts their lively mind to the Planet’s heavy problems and learns to resolve them, or their intellect loses inventiveness, freshness, and natural talent fades. In the harmonious variant, this quintile grants great mental abilities within the Planet’s spheres—when the person chooses to apply them, ingenuity and constructive thinking emerge, but also a general passivity that will gradually drown them out.