Sun – Mercury Conjunction
Het Monster: Activity in Mercury’s sphere – new ideas, work, friendship. Inability to objectively assess oneself. If the conjunction is in Gemini, Aquarius, or Libra, there are great intellectual abilities. All efforts usually meet with success, though frequent obstacles arise from strong individuals. Burnt Mercury – subjective thinking, stubbornness, and often speech impairment. A wide conjunction (approx. 10°) – sharpness of mind and speech, talent in language and writing. Mercury after the Sun – constant difficulties with work, civil service, and if the 10th house is empty or afflicted, no career is possible; service will yield no benefit.
Kathrin Obé: Sun – Mercury Conjunction
A harmoniously aspected conjunction: the union of consciousness and prudence, the assertion of personality in intellectual communication and the exchange of ideas. A poorly aspected conjunction: the element of instability, nervousness, and suggestibility. Note that in astrological tradition, Mercury in conjunction with the Sun is also described as being burnt by the Sun. This should be interpreted as follows: the closer Mercury is to the Sun, the more the ego obscures mental abilities, creating a tendency toward subjectivity. Mercury positioned far from the Sun (in a semi-sextile aspect, i.e., a 30° aspect) conversely indicates objectivity.
A. Podvodny: Sun – Mercury Conjunction
Sun conjunction: If you call yourself a mushroom, you must climb into the basket. A planet’s conjunction with the Sun gives its manifestations an imperative tone – at a high level of processing the aspect. At a low level, the imperative pertains more to the necessity of processing the planet. The Sun highlights the lower expressions of its principle and actualizes it, primarily through direct pressure. At a low level of processing, the Sun acts through rigid imperatives imposed on the planet, suppressing its creative essence and forcing its principle to manifest within narrowly defined limits that it cannot truly inhabit, resulting in excessive internal tension and outbursts. Moreover, creativity is absolutely revealed in the form and trajectories of the fragments. If the conjunction is unprocessed but stands harmoniously, these outbursts will be more dangerous to others, and the planet’s creative essence will manifest only in the pursuit of rigidly egoistic consumption within spheres corresponding to its principle. For example, an unprocessed Sun–Mars conjunction produces great but futile activity that, to the person themselves, seems extraordinarily important and useful, while on the other hand, it involves the ability to completely drain another person’s energy, leaving them literally without strength or even a hint of gratitude.
Processing the conjunction (and the Sun) enables a shift to a higher egregore, where solar initiative operates not as a rigid command but as an indication of the desired direction of activity and, most importantly, attention. Then the interaction between the Sun and the planet is significantly eased, and the planet receives from the Sun a kind of weak magnetization that serves as guidance in complex (for the planet) conditions when the optimal choice is not obvious.
Mercury conjunction: Troubling both in the absence of thought and, in many cases, in its presence. Mercury imparts a strong mental coloring to the planet it conjuncts, even when this is entirely unnecessary or undesirable. For instance, a Mercury–Venus conjunction in romantic relationships will involve so much calculation and deliberation that any direct feeling or living sensation will last only briefly, especially if Mercury is stronger than Venus. Unfortunately, mental coloring is not synonymous with intelligence, as it most often reduces to commonplace, flat notions and clichés of collective consciousness and the subconscious, which actively influence the planet’s principle, schematizing and profaning it. The person will naturally sense this, but all attempts to escape this dead (each time in its own way) influence of Mercury on the planet by expanding the sphere of its expression (e.g., seeking new lovers in the case of Venus) are doomed to failure, since the mind, though crude, is flexible and can adapt somehow.
Processing the conjunction begins first and foremost with working through Mercury – that is, recognizing the role and meaning of mental activity as an energetic flow and planetary principles that provide general direction but do not replace them. This processing is complex, as it requires a restructuring of thinking, abandoning rigid, linear social clichés, and transitioning to working with lighter and more flexible thought-forms capable of adequate interaction between the Cosmos and the planet’s principle. For example, a Mercury–Mars conjunction with a strong Mercury at a low level of processing produces not a person but practically a machine: any active action must first be modeled in the mind, with no ability to trust the feeling or logic of immediate energetic expression. Processing the aspect grants great creative abilities expressed as subtle and inventive indirect mental control over the planet’s principle at moments when it is necessary.
