page_title: Planets in astrology
section_title: Mercury
hierarchical_section_title: Planets in astrology / Classical planets / Mercury
caption_attribution_description: English&#x3a;&#32; Full-color image of Mercury from first MESSENGER flyby.Русский&#x202f;&#x3a;&#32; Полноцветное изображение Меркурия, полученное во время первого пролёта космического аппарата «Мессенджер».
context_page_description: Planets in astrology have a meaning different from the ancient astronomical understanding of what a planet is. Before the age of telescopes, the night sky was thought to consist of two very similar components: fixed stars, which remained motionless in relation to each other, and "wandering stars", which moved relative to the fixed stars over the course of the year.
  To the Greeks and the other earliest astronomers, this group consisted of the five planets visible to the naked eye and excluded Earth. Although strictly, the term planet applied only to those five objects, the term was latterly broadened, particularly in the Middle Ages, to include the Sun and the Moon making a total of seven planets. Astrologers retain this definition today.
  To ancient astrologers, the planets represented the will of the gods and their direct influence upon human affairs. To modern astrologers, the planets can represent basic drives or urges in the unconscious, or energy flow regulators representing dimensions of experience. They express themselves with different qualities in the twelve signs of the zodiac and in the twelve houses. The planets are also related to each other in the form of aspects.
context_section_description: Mercury () is the ruling planet of Gemini  and Virgo and is exalted in Virgo. In classical Roman mythology, Mercury is the messenger of the gods, noted for his speed and swiftness. Echoing this, the scorching, airless world Mercury circles the Sun on the fastest orbit of any planet. Mercury takes only 88 days to orbit the Sun, spending about 7.33 days in each sign of the zodiac. Mercury is so close to the Sun that only a brief period exists after the Sun has set where it can be seen with the naked eye, before following the Sun beyond the horizon.
  Astrologically speaking, Mercury represents the principles of communication, mentality, thinking patterns, rationality and reasoning, and adaptability and variability. Mercury governs schooling and education, the immediate environment of neighbors, siblings and cousins, transport over short distances, messages and forms of communication such as post, email and telephone, newspapers, journalism and writing, information gathering skills and physical dexterity. The 1st-century poet Marcus Manilius described Mercury as an inconstant, vivacious and curious planet.
  In medicine, Mercury is associated with the nervous system, the brain, the respiratory system, the thyroid and the sense organs. It is traditionally held to be essentially cold and dry, according to its placement in the zodiac and in any aspects to other planets.
  In modern astrology, Mercury is regarded as the ruler of the third house; traditionally, it had the joy in the eleventh house. Mercury is the messenger of the gods in mythology. It is the planet of day-to-day expression and relationships. Mercury's action is to take things apart and put them back together again. It is an opportunistic planet, decidedly unemotional and curious.
  Mercury rules over Wednesday. In Romance languages, the word for Wednesday is often similar to Mercury (miercuri in Romanian, mercredi in French, miercoles in Spanish and mercoledì in Italian). Dante Alighieri associated Mercury with the liberal art of dialectic.
  In Chinese astrology Mercury represents Water, the fourth element, therefore symbolizing communication, intelligence, and elegance.
caption: The planet Mercury
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