Studies in Astrology
by
Elman Bacher
Volume I
Chapter VII
The Planet Mercury
Part I
To the planet Mercury is
symbolically ascribed the faculty of Intellect by which we interpret,
identify, classify, analyze, and evaluate the things of Earth. As the
principle of Identification it represents "name-giving," "word creating,"
and the objectification of thoughts in spoken and written words. It is the
symbol of conscious communication and perception. It is our awareness when
we are unencumbered by our emotional congestion or sub-conscious-feeling
disturbances.
The substance we call Mercury is heavy, yet
its quality is liquescent; our thoughts, when unorganized or unfocused,
are also liquescent, fleeting, quickly merging from one impression to
another, "up-and- down, "yes-and-no," "now-hot-now-cold." However, when
our thought-patterns are organized we have the faculty of deciding
definitely and embodying them in some sort of concrete definite
out-picturing in single words or in their extensions into sentences. This
out-picturing is what we call "language"--the universal faculty of
embodiment of thought. The liquescence of Mercury is seen in the
many ways by which a specific thing can be identified; its definiteness is
seen in the "solidity" with which it is identified in a specific word or
sentence.
Mercury identifies the
abstract as well as the concrete. It is through Mercury that we
understand the concrete, but it is through other planetary faculties that
we understand the abstract. Mercury, however, is
the basic root of our understanding-unfoldments, from the most literal of
concreteness to the most intangible of abstractness. Let us analyze the
planetary symbol: a cross (matter, manifestation, structure, concreteness,
incarnation) surmounted by a circle (perfection, completeness) which in
turn is surmounted by an upturned semi-circle (instrumentation,
receptivity of instruction or inspiration). Synthesizing these symbolic
factors, we see that by the exercise of the Mercury-faculty we
learn about life principles through their expression in the chemical
region of the universe. This symbol might be called "Venus with the horns
of Wisdom," and Mercury's air-dignity,
Gemini, is the ninth-house sign (Wisdom octave) of Venus' Libra. We are
told that the Lords of Venus and Mercury were the
Masters who instructed infant Humanity in the principles of language, the
crafts, arts, and sciences by which Humanity learned to function with
ever-increasing efficiency in the material world. In short, Mercury is the link
(messenger) between the gods (principles) and mankind. It is through Mercury that we learn,
first, the objective nature and quality of things, and then the awareness
of principles opens our consciousness to the subjective reality; on both
octaves we are learning but on the first we integrate through
identification; on the second we know through experience which yields
Understanding.
Since the symbol of Venus is included in
the symbol of Mercury it may be
surmised that all of mankind's artistic expressions were founded through
the desire to communicate. The up-turned semi-circle which Mercury has in common
with Neptune represents a microcosmic form of the instrumentation which is
one of Neptune's principal meanings. Primitively, man draws a little
picture of something to communicate his thoughts about it to another
person. From that level he evolves a system of symbols to communicate his
"thought-pictures"--ideographs, letters and their combination into words,
thence to sentences. The expression that mankind gives of his concepts,
realizations, dreams, and aspirations--distilled from evolutionary
experience- -is what we call the FINE ARTS; they are all, regardless of
materials or techniques, the Mercury-faculty
extended by Venus-Neptune as
symbolic communications from the resources of consciousness. Not everyone
understands a picture, a piece of music, a poem, or a sculpture; those who
do are sympathetically at-tuned to the consciousness of the artist.
However, everyone who possesses a normal degree of mentation can
understand the relatively "literal symbolism" of language and express
himself--at least in speech--by it. To learn speech is something we have
all done in every incarnation since the beginning; we do it--and learn
it-- instinctively. This instinct is symbolized by the mental realm of the
Moon-vibration--that which we know or learn through subconscious-memory
faculty. Thus speech is seen to be as instinctively natural as walking or
sleeping. Reading and writing, however, are extensions of Moon through Mercury.
The conscious
mind must be trained to understand the symbol-technique represented by the
particular language to which one is born. You learned English in your
childhood, but you may not have known English in any previous incarnation.
You learned to speak in English by instinctive imitation of those around
you as a recapitulation of a faculty you have exercised in every
incarnation; but it may be that only within the scope of the relatively
recent past that you acquired a fluency with the written word and it may
be that English, your birth-language, is the only one that you now have
any ability to read or write. An outstanding illustration of the
"adulthood" of Mercury is seen in the
natural talent of learning to speak, read, and write in other languages.
The possession of this talent is evidence that the person has exercised
his Mercury-potentials for
many incarnations; his mind has acquired a receptivity by which he can
comprehend a variety of symbol-techniques; comprehension of vocabulary,
grammar, etc., have become a specialized faculty that is integrated in
consciousness. The "mercurialness" of Mercury is nowhere
better illustrated than in the "magic" that takes place in a person's
consciousness toward other people when he learns to communicate in
their language--OR when they communicate with him in his. The
"psychological space" that tends to exist between people who are
foreigners to each other is thereby, to a degree, disintegrated and a
sense of mutual "togetherness" takes its place. From "Mercury as words" we
graduate to "numbers," then to abstract symbols. In these three stages,
the conscious mind is exercised on three specific levels, the first two
being the more concrete and direct channels for learning. It is true that
each planet has its special effect on the mental faculties, but, in
addition to Mercury, three others
specifically refer to "mental octaves." These are Moon, Neptune, and
Jupiter. The Moon, ruler of Cancer, is the "instinctive" mind; by this
octave we think by "inherited patterns," we "think as the tribe thinks,"
we think through feeling, fear, desire, prejudice and instinctive
security-patterns. Mercury is our
"individual choice and selection," "thought free of congestions of feeling
or subconscious negatives." Neptune is the psychic mind, the telepathic
mind and that part of mentation by which we become instruments. Jupiter is
the mind of morality," it is "thought raised to the level of concept,"
decision that is based not just on expediency but on understanding of
principle.
Through Mercury we learn by
study and observation; through Jupiter we learn from experience from which
we distill improvement and growth. All four of these planetary symbols
involve the semi-circle which is the symbol of the Moon; Jupiter is "the
Moon surmounting the cross of incarnation;" Mercury and Neptune
have the semi-circle up-turned but Neptune's symbol does not use the
cross--it is the pure symbol of "chalice," "perfect intake," "receptivity
that is founded on faith" and it is the symbol of the upper-octave faculty
which we call instrumentation.
We ascribe to Mercury the rulership
of two mutable signs: Gemini and Virgo, Air and Earth respectively. As
ruler of Gemini, Mercury is exalted
(matured) in Virgo because knowledge is matured in being put to use;
knowledge, as such, remains in its "childhood" if it is not projected or
expressed for the ongoing of incarnation. Only through knowledge can
service be fulfilled and material affairs be improved. Anything that is
"rightly known" can be "rightly used;" ignorance is the path to "wrong
use" and corruption of service.
Mercury is the most
plastic of all planetary vibrations. By this is meant that "he" is most
easily affected by--or qualified by--the sign which he is in. Both of the
signs of his dignity are mutable signs; one (Gemini) is female-masculine,
the other (Virgo) is male- feminine. Mercury, as intellect,
is un-emotional or neuter as far as gender is concerned. By sign-rulership
he is the root of fraternal relationship patterns and the androgyny of his
nature is clearly revealed in the nature of Uranus, ruler of Gemini's
ninth-house sign, which is the symbol of creative bi- polarity. The
intellect is also a bi-polar faculty since it is one which both sexes must
exercise in every incarnation. It, as far as "generic quality" is
concerned, is neither masculine nor feminine, but it is not peculiar to
either one or the other. One of the evidences of polarity-fusion is the
development and exercise of intellect by human beings incarnated as
females; just as cultivation of the sympathies represents a "rounding-out"
of the nature of males. The mind must be trained to coordinate the
conditions of, and give expression to, the powers of emotion, feeling and
desire on all evolutionary octaves.
As the faculty of reason, Mercury represents the
root- in-consciousness by which the Law of Cause and Effect is learned.
The conscious mind observes the material world, hence an awareness of the
out- picturing of inner causes is evolved. In mythology, the wing-footed
Mercury was the
messenger of the gods to mankind. "The gods" is simply a symbolic way of
referring to life principles. When mankind emerges from a purely feeling-
reaction toward life and experience he clears the way to unfolding his
awareness of the material world and the principles which it expresses and
by which it functions. Man learns about an action when he perceives its
effect; from that, he learns about his own consciousness as the source of
all his actions and expressions The unreasonable person--if one could be
entirely so-- is so because he refuses to open his consciousness to the
voice of Mercury.
He does not study himself in relationship to the effects which he has
caused. He does not study things and other people as manifestations of
law, therefore he does not integrate himself in form. He remains in an
unfocused swirling of feeling-reaction; no control, no pattern, no
directive. Planetary squares to Mercury represent the
person's potential for being un-reason-able. Bear this in mind when you
analyze a chart--it is very important. Mercury is the way by
which we learn how to disintegrate congestions and fulfill ideals.
A psychological point that may be of
interest: when Mercury's Virgo is on
the Ascendant, his other dignity is (usually) on the Mid-heaven. The
introversion that is so often ascribed to Virgo-Ascendant is here
pictured: Self-development is the focus of ambition fulfillment.
Personality complexities of Virgo-Ascendant and Pisces-Ascendant (Virgo
and Pisces are the last of the signs of the lower and upper semi-circles)
are represented by the polarity of Capricorn-Cancer synchronizing with the
fifth and eleventh houses--the houses of creative love. Whenever
Capricorn-Cancer are focused in the fifth house, we see the love potential
mixed up with parentage-consciousness and these persons are most likely to
have emotional complexes of a karmic nature in relationships with their
parents.
Mercury, variable and
impressionable, is at the mercy of "too much action," "too much fixity"
and "too much adjustability." Since this planet rules the two basic
mutable signs, its potential for integration is largely qualified by the
relative dynamic-ness or static-ness of the chart, as a whole. Gemini and
Virgo each initiate a zodiacal quadrant, therefore they initiate a
quadrant of houses totaling together an entire semi-circle of houses or
one complete diameter of the wheel. Therefore any congested or frictional
aspect to Mercury
has the direct effect of impeding the person's ability to learn from the
experiences represented by those two quadrants-- wherever they are placed
in the chart. The particular placement of Mercury, as
"focalizer" of the Gemini-Virgo vibrations, shows the department of
experience that provides exercise of the mental faculties toward the
"rehabilitation" of disharmonies and coordination of mind with feeling.
The sign in which Mercury is placed
identifies this particular "generic coloring"--dynamic/expressive or
absorptive/reflective. A most important factor in the analysis of Mercury patterns is
found in the planet which rules Mercury's sign
placement. This planet is Mercury's dispositor
and has much to say about the way that the person develops--or fails to
develop--his "reason-able" faculty.
"Mind against emotion" is pictured by an
uncongested Mercury
disposited by a congested planet. The congestions involving the dispositor
represent--of course--problems which are ignited by emotional reactions of
a negative kind--toward other people, events or whatnot. The clarity of
Mercury, uncongested,
makes it relatively easy for the person to learn from his experience and
to exercise reason-able control of his emotions and feeling-reactions. You
can be sure of one thing if Mercury and its
dispositor are uncongested: no matter what other difficulties may be
pictured in the chart, the person has a natural ability and urge to be
practical about learning how to realize his ideals and fulfill his deepest
urges, regardless of what the ideals are or what he, in consciousness,
terms "fulfillment" or "success." His ideal may be financial abundance, it
may be popularity and admiration, it may be professional fulfillment of a
talent, it may be power over other people; it may be one of a hundred
other things, but the clarity of uncongested Mercury--both by
aspect and vibration--makes it possible for him to see his way clearly
toward realizing his dream.
A congested Mercury with an
uncongested dispositor promises disintegration of a mental congestion if
the principle of the dispositor is exercised in relationship to the Mercury problems. The
"virtues" of the planetary dispositor are the "alchemical agencies" by
which that particular generic quality of the Mercury may be
"purified" and the mental qualities harmonized and organized. Any
planetary aspect to Mercury is better than
no aspect at all, because every aspect is a "channelling" for the training
of the Mercury
faculties. Mercury,
cardinal, fixed, or mutable must be synthesized with the cross that is
most strongly emphasized in the chart, because, for example, a cardinal or
mutable Mercury may
serve as a very effective counteractive to many planets in fixed
signs--and so forth. Cardinal Mercury emphasizes
expression, fixed Mercury emphasizes
retention, and mutable Mercury emphasizes
adjustability.
The Planet Mercury
Part
II
For the pursuance of this material we
will use a copy of the Great Mandala--a twelve-housed wheel with the
zodiacal signs in sequence starting with Aries as the Ascendant; place the
planetary symbols in the signs and houses of their dignity. Emphasize the
third and sixth cusps because they pertain to Mercury's dignity in
Gemini and Virgo.
The androgynous (bi-polar) nature of Mercury is seen in his
attributes of "in-take-ness" (learning) and "out-put-ness" (expression of
thought). To learn everything and express nothing is to use only half of
the Mercury
faculty; conversely people who are mentally unorganized display only "half
of Mercury" when
they express continually without concentration, reflection, or mental
intake. As expression, Mercury cannot put out
anything that is valid if the intake is not the result of a concentration
and clarification of mental powers. We express ourselves to the world
according to our mental picture of the world; viewpoints that are based
primarily on congestions of feeling and desire do not--and cannot--"see"
the world with clarity or give expression of thought with truth or
judgment.
A square or opposition aspect from a
planet to Mercury
may act as a stimulus to expression, but the expression itself will tend
to outpicture a negative in consciousness. This is what is meant by
congestions to Mercury. States of
subconscious feeling based on ignorance, disharmony, and so forth divert
the Mercury
faculties from true perception; consequently what is expressed through Mercury will be a
"false messenger" to other people. With reference to the Great Mandala,
let us see how Mercury's potentials
can be thwarted and corrupted by misinterpretation of other planetary
principles. Misinterpretation simply means false knowing--therefore false
understanding.
The "criminality" that is traditionally
ascribed to Mars-square-Mercury is due to a
mental coloring of negative egotism. "Me first" is the keyword of this
combination. The Great Mandala tells us that "I- AM" (the awareness of
individualized Being) is the keyword of Mars' rulership of Aries. The
congesting mixture of the Aries vibration with Mercury, as ruler of
Gemini, is a picture of "I think in terms of what is expedient for me--
first and last." A criminal is such because he is unaware of, and has no
respect for, the "I-AM" of the other fellow. So--his Mercury functions
accordingly; he figures the angles," "works the tricks," and "plays the
game" according to his limited understanding of "I AM and I Want." This
negative preoccupation with "I AM" without consideration of "You Are" does
create congestions in thought because we are here to learn how to use the
resources of the first three signs for evolutionary expression. The
anti-social criminal mind is not very aware of the principle of the sixth
sign, Virgo, the Earth- dignity of Mercury, because Virgo
is the application of mental powers toward the fulfillment of
service-patterns. In turn, service (Virgo) emanates from the heart-center
of Leo, and Leo is the first trine (Love-aspect) of the fire- trine
initiated by Mars' Aries. The harmonious aspects of Mars-Mercury picture a
practical integration in thought. The person can project his thoughts into
form and give them objectivity. This is one of the best patterns of
picturing the ability to "get things done" because thought is integrated
with action and physical expression generally. This pattern emphasizes the
masculine areas of consciousness because it adds the dynamic coloring to
the thought-processes.
Venus and Mercury can make only
the conjunction, semi-sextile, and sextile aspects to each other. The
Venusian vibration, by the sextile, acts as a refining alchemicalization
for any congestion of Mercury by other
planets. Since Mercury's Gemini and
Venus' Libra are
trine to each other this planetary aspect points unquestionably to a
vibratory resource by which relationship-disharmonies may be adjusted into
constructive exchange and mutual good. The sextile from Venus indicates that
artistic expression is also an alchemicalization for the harmonizing of
mental powers. Venus-Mercury, by
conjunction or sextile, adds a touch of refinement to the entire
personality which can increase with spiritual maturity. Since Mercury's Virgo is
Libra's twelfth house-sign, this aspect between the two planets indicates
the improvement of relationship-experiences when service is rendered and
the consciousness of fraternity is one of the most significant "adjusters"
to all kinds of relationship-congestion or difficulty. This aspect clearly
indicates that when the person seeks to learn (Gemini) from relationship
he unfolds a sure-fire potential for harmonizing relationship, through the
alchemicalization of mutuality. Venus conjunct Mercury squared by a
third planet is like a birdling in a nest of thorns. The delicacy and
refinement of the conjunction is--to a degree--congested in expression by
the third planet; that planet may represent an environment factor or a
relationship-factor, but the aspect itself indicates that the person must
refine his consciousness toward that situation or relationship and redeem
it by expression through Venus. The principle
represented by the "squaring planet" must be unfolded into conscious
levels by the alchemy of exercising Mercury-Venus.
Moon square Mercury most certainly
activates the mental faculties but the great need shown is concentration.
This is the aspect of "scatterbrained-ness." Reference to the Great
Mandala is very illuminating: Gemini is Cancer's twelfth house-sign,
therefore knowledge and mental organization is the "redemption" of the
"instinctive feelings" of Cancer. A chart having this aspect tells us that
the Principle of Maternity is one of the important "studies" for the
person in this incarnation; the disorganized quality of Mercury in this
pattern is due to a weakness in the psychological base of subconscious
feeling, and the need is shown to learn the lesson of disciplining the
mind against the onslaughts of negatives in subconscious feeling. The
mother of this person may have a very pronounced effect on the mind
and--since the Moon is the arch-symbol of basic feminine polarity--the
aspect pictures a form of negative thinking and expression on the part of
the person in a previous female incarnation. So--now, whether male or
female, with this aspect the native is susceptible to the mental
influences of either the actual mother or to persons who take a mother's
place in the life. The Moon is also the "public mind"--the collective
instinctive mind of masses of people who are magnetized together through
the common denominators of nationality, religion, emotional vibration or
mutual activity. The person with Moon square Mercury who seeks to
express in public ways must organize his thoughts to be effective. The
"mass-mentality" is affected--for good or ill--only by concentration of
power. To fulfill such a work-pattern the discipline required for
planning, organizing, etc., is the means by which the person is induced to
correct the disintegration or "scatteredness" of the square aspect. Mercury's Virgo is
third house-sign from Cancer; since Virgo is Earth--and therefore a more
concrete expression of Mercury's
potentials--the experience-chapter represented by the placement of Virgo
in the natal chart may be the most objective channeling for correcting the
Mercury square. If
Gemini is knowledge, then Virgo is knowledge put to work in practical
ways. The instincts represented by the Moon must be trimmed down and
focused if knowledge is to be put to practical use.
The Great Mandala shows Capricorn at the
apex of the wheel; its ruler, Saturn, is the Guardian of that gate; he
says: "Fulfill your responsibilities to yourself and to others or you
cannot pass through into Aquarius and Pisces." In a chart showing Saturn
square or opposition to Mercury we see a
picture of "organize your mind in this incarnation--or else!" This aspect
is a peculiar one because it illustrates, perhaps more clearly than any
other, the inherent goodness in a "bad" aspect. Capricorn is Gemini's
eighth house-sign; regeneration is through discipline and order. The
frustration which seems to be pictured by this aspect is evidently focused
in those conditions of the house carrying Gemini, because Gemini is Mercury's mutable sign
and, hence, the one that most needs organization. This aspect, in a chart
that is primarily cardinal or mutable by planetary placement, is a focus
of organization; it "holds back" the Mercury conditions
only because the Mercury conditions
need to be brought into greater order and clearer system.
The cardinal
person who just "expresses without plan" or the mutable person who "just
floats" needs to be focused on points of needed fulfillment. The fixed
person who has Saturn square Mercury can, if he
will, use his Mercury to learn about
the results of unadaptability. He has, in the past, "buried deep" in set
patterns of thought and reaction; consequently when he is timed for "new
things" he tends to resist and resent the changing of his conditions. This
person can be--usually is--highly concentrated with, perhaps, a wonderful
focus of mentality, but he tends to think about everything, or learn
anything, from a very set approach. He will, in time, sicken inside
himself at the crystallization of his conditions and affairs and seek to
expand through change. Saturn square Mercury, in a fixed
chart, can picture mental or intellectual fear, and to experience the
desire to know more will prove an effective release for the mental
congestions and from that level to an improvement of psychological
conditions.
Any chart with Saturn square Mercury will have to
be synthesized and analyzed carefully to determine if the purpose of the
aspect is to organize tendencies that incline to be scattered or to
observe the results of over-crystallization. Life is a sequence of
emanations: the best of the past (Saturn) made its contribution to the
best of the present. The person with Saturn square Mercury may tend to
resist and resent the past (the old, crystallized, and out-dated) as no
longer practical or needed. However, if he uses his Mercury he will study
the old to determine its constructive value to the present. This
decrystallizes the feeling of frustration and results in turning the
combined powers of Saturn and Mercury to good
account.
Further, Saturn rules the cardinal sign
which initiates the Earth trine--the third octave of which is Mercury's Virgo. The
spiritual lesson is this: since "third octave" means "Wisdom," perfect
fulfillment on any level adds to the resource of wisdom--since wisdom is
distilled from experience. Book-knowledge (Gemini) is the first step in
understanding, but all claims to understanding are put to concrete
testings in the processes of living. Therefore, in valid
service-contributions we prove whether or not we know whereof we speak.
So, with Saturn square Mercury, knowledge
must be demonstrated in the kind of living that is true service; this is
the evidence of the wisdom-octave of Mercury's vibration.
Uranus, ruler of one fixed sign and
exalted in another, adds a touch of what might be called "implacability"
when square to Mercury. Uranus
"inspires" Mercury
with the genius of inventiveness because Uranus is the symbol of
individuality that expresses creatively. But this aspect can mean
"lock-jaw" for Mercury because the
thought-processes are filtered through an intense resource of
emotionality. Immovable opinionatedness is pictured by this aspect--it is
the picture of the fanatic mind. A genius may need this deep certainty in
order to fulfill his great purposes; he is focused on a great fulfillment
and he cannot afford, in many cases, to be too responsive to, or
influenced by, the thoughts of others. He must live and fulfill through
his individuality however unorthodox or eccentric he may appear. He can be
a tyrant or despot, master criminal or inspired scientist, but his mind is
revolutionary in its effect; his mental expressions are charged with
power--for good or for ill. However, geniuses are few and far between; the
average person with this aspect may be evolving a genius-potential, but
mental adaptability is one of the things needed in evolutionary
processes--we have to be free inside to learn more and more as we climb
the ladder.
A mediocre person with Uranus square Mercury may feel, "I
know it all--don't tell me anything." Life, by activating the Uranus, may
elasticize him in radical ways by bringing about changes in such an abrupt
fashion that the person's world either expands with life or it
disintegrates through resistance to needed changes. Gemini is the root of
fraternal consciousness; Uranus' Aquarius is its spiritualized octave;
when the two rulers are square we have a possible portrait of a person
whose experience in this incarnation is tuning him for the first time to
the concept of universal brotherhood and this is an octave of
consciousness that is way over the mind and heart of the average person.
So, "catching a first glimpse," the person may talk fraternity beyond his
ability to realize it and live it--except in a sort of "pretend-way." He
may--and usually does--proselytize a great deal on this subject and bash
his head against the wall of rock-like conservatism. This aspect is the
symbol--par excellence--of the "parlor pink;" it is also the symbol--let's
face it--of a person who is contacting astrological or psychological
thought for the first time. The Uranus vibration interjects newness of
mental perspectives. We may be catapulted into a Uranus vibration during
the course of one incarnation but we do not adjust to that vibration
except in several incarnations. Uranus square Mercury simply means
that in this incarnation the mental powers and the intellectual capacities
are encountering a newness that was never known before. Uranus trine Mercury is an
established mental adjustment to an impersonal pattern; individuality is
here timed for "flowering" and the person expresses naturally in this
transcendent vibration that refers to "that which is progressive." This
person can learn from the all-over picture--he can think in terms of the
race, not the limited conditions of the local group. This aspect, on
whatever evolutionary level, is outlet for a potential of genius because,
with the trine, Mercury is organized
for expression.
In conclusion, connect the cusps of the
third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth houses of the Great Mandala by straight
lines; the result is the mutable square, the congestions of Mercury through the
defects of Jupiter and Neptune, and the negative potentials of Jupiter and
Neptune created by the basis of unorganized Mercury. If Mercury is "talk,
tell, and communicate," Jupiter is "teach" and Neptune is "inspire." We
give information through Mercury but we radiate
wisdom--distilled from our experiences--through Jupiter to ignite the
latent Wisdom of our "younger brothers and sisters." Through Neptune we
"ignite the souls of people" and this ignition can only be radiated from a
consciousness that is centered on true perception; this perception, in
turn, is evolved from the constructive exercises of Mercury. The upper
octaves of Mercury,
when congested, represent potentials for "perversion of truth;" when they
congest Mercury
then the faculty of intellectual organization is "tampered with" through
subtle false concepts that have been built in past incarnations. All
conditions represented in a chart by congested Jupiter and Neptune
represent a need to gain truthful information from facts that pertain to
those conditions and experiences--that means use Mercury objectively,
unemotionally, and concisely. Facts, not beliefs; statements, not
implications; proofs that are realizable not just blindly and credulously
accepted through mental laziness are the Mercury correctives
for Jupiter and Neptune congestions. The "base" of the mutable cross is
formed by two Mercury signs to give
reliable foundation to the truthful realizations of Jupiter and Neptune;
they, in turn, are to provide scope on more and more abstracted octaves
for the exercise of the Mercury faculties. We
understand a literal picture, then a word, then a number, then a symbol,
then a concept, then a principle, and then an ideal. To understand the
nature of ideals (Neptune) is the flowering of the Mercury-potentials,
because in ideals is found the esoteric reality of all manifested life.