As astrologers know, a significant part of our changing celestial scene is that Uranus, the higher octave of Mercury, has begun its transit through Mercury ruled Gemini. It first entered Gemini July 7, 2025, and leaves May 22, 2033. It fully stays in Gemini from April 25, 2026, to August 3, 2032. This highlights the Mercury archetype.

Mercury is a complex and often underrated planetary archetype. It is different from the other planets, fastest moving and closest to the Sun, never more than 28 degrees away. This means that Mercury is under the sunbeams (between 8 and 17 degrees away from the Sun) or combust (within 8 degrees of the Sun) most of the time, obscured by the Sun’s light. Visible only in the in-between times, at dusk and dawn, Mercury is liminal. From this Mercury gets its psychopomp status, the only God that could go to Hades and back.

Astrologically, we look to Mercury to see how someone’s mind works. As the fastest moving planet, Mercury indicates the quickness, facility, versatility, ease and flexibility of expression needed to adjust to circumstances in life. On the material level Mercury organizes and articulates material resources, runs commerce. At higher levels Mercury connects us to our powers of mind.

Mercury is precocious and crafty, a trickster. Mercury is young. Language, writing, early education, siblings, calculation, thought…it is our Mercury function that lets us correlate ideas, process pieces of information, communicate, learn and speak. Its liminal psychopomp status which bridges dimensions aligns it with symbolism. Language is our most sophisticated human symbol system. Symbols perform a bridging over function in the psyche, taking us from signing, which does not have any layered meaning, to symbolizing, which allows us to think.

NAMING

With this in mind, in this article I am going to focus on Mercury’s relationship with language and symbolizing; in particular, the power of naming. When we interpret charts, what is a significant aspect of what we are doing? We are NAMING things. What is the significance of naming? For one thing, it is the very first use of words and language.

Esoterically, in Jewish tradition, the alphabet and language are the building blocks of creation (pp.159-160, Laitman). In the bible, God tasks Adam to name the animals, giving him agency over creatures and establishing the supremacy of humans. By naming animals, he demonstrated his unique capacity for language and thought, setting humans apart from the other creatures. Names allow us to hold things in our mind so we can correlate, think, and relate concepts and experiences to each other. I like to say we have it, it doesn’t have us. Naming allows us to question-for we have to be able to hold a concept in mind in order to think enough about it to have questions.

Consider the fairytale Rumpelstiltskin, where the way to defeat him was to guess his name. In magic, getting the name of the demon gives power over it. This also operates psychologically-when we can name a feeling, and affect state, a behavior, it helps to gain agency over it-the “demons” of our psyche. In mindfulness meditation practice, when a feeling or thought comes up to disturb the flow, the recommendation is to simply name it, recognizing it is one part of the mind’s experience, not all of what we are.

Psychodynamically, naming allows for MENTALIZING and REFLECTIVE FUNCTION- terms for something that happens naturally as we develop – the experience of knowing we have a mind and others have minds; this is me and this is you. It allows us to recognize other consciousnesses and connect. Dr. Daniel J. Siegel, in his book The Developing Mind states it beautifully:

The capacity of an individual to reflect upon the mental state of another person may be an essential ingredient in many forms of close, emotionally engaging relationships. The reflection on mental states is more than a conceptual ability; it permits the two individuals’ minds to enter a form of resonance in which each is able to feel felt by the other. This intense and intimate form of connection is manifested both in words and in the nonverbal aspects of communication: facial expressions, eye contact, tone of voice, bodily movement, and timing of responses. This type of communication is what reveals attunement of states of mind (p. 89).

THE POWER AND MAGIC OF MERCURY: HELEN KELLER (1880-1968)

What happened in Helen Keller’s life illustrates the profound impact of being able to name and how intertwined this is with Mercury. What was happening with Mercury in and to Helen Keller’s chart by progression and transit when she realized that things have names is fascinating. The impact of this Mercurial leap on her psyche and consciousness shows Mercury’s power and magic.

Helen Keller survived bacterial meningitis at 19 months old; however, she lost her sight and hearing and spent her whole life deaf and blind. Nonetheless, as befits a 9^th house emphasis in her chart, she became an author, political activist, and lecturer. She was friends with Mark Twain. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Keller was a leading advocate for people with disabilities, and her advocacy had a lasting global impact. She campaigned for women’s suffrage, labor rights, antimilitarism, and other progressive causes. However, until she was almost 7 she lived in a world of feelings and sense impressions, frustrated by her inability to communicate, subject to rages from her frustrations.

Her world changed when her family found a teacher for her, Anne Sullivan. Anyone who has seen the movie or play The Miracle Worker which is about Anne Sullivan teaching Helen, remembers the dramatic turning point when Helen learns the word for water. Helen was almost 7 years old, mostly unmanageable, brilliant and a troublemaker when Annie Sullivan came to her home and became her teacher. Anne arrived March 3, 1887. 3 weeks later, March 23,^, 1887 Helen’s life opened.

No one can tell the story of what happened and how it impacted Helen better than Helen herself does in her autobiography, The Story of My Life originally published in 1903 (pp.21,22,23).

She describes her early experience with sign language:

I was making my fingers go in monkey-like imitation. In the days that followed I learned to spell in this uncomprehending way a great many words, among them pin, hat, cup, and few verbs like sit, stand and walk. But my teacher had been with me several weeks before I understood that everything has a name.

Helen had been gifted a doll but dashed it on the floor on that day because she was frustrated at Anne Sullivan’s repeated attempts to teach her the word doll.

…neither sorrow nor regret followed my passionate outburst. In the still, dark world in which I lived there was no strong sentiment or tenderness…I had a sense of satisfaction that the cause of my discomfort was removed.

Annie takes Helen for a walk to the well-house. Then comes the dramatic moment:

Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten-a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave light, hope, joy, set it free…I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought.

When Helen returned to the house, she remembered the doll she had broken.

I felt my way to the hearth and picked up the pieces. I tried vainly to put them together. Then my eyes filled with tears; for I realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow.

An enormous developmental leap both cognitively and emotionally had occurred. Learning names and acquiring language also allowed for reflective function; empathy, connection; realizing other things, people, existed and she was in relation to them.

MERCURY IN HELEN’S CHART

Helen’s Mercury at 00 Leo 16’ only makes out of sign separating aspects; a square to Saturn in Aries, and a sexitle to Pluto in Taurus. With Mercury (ruler of the Midheaven/her career, mark on the world, to what she is evolving in life), the Part of Fortune, and Mars (co-ruler of her Scorpio Ascendant) in the 9^th, her chart emphasizes the 9^th house themes of teaching, philosophy, higher education, foreign countries. She always credited and honored and loved the influence of her teacher, Anne Sullivan.

For those of us who use Placidus, her Mercury is intercepted in the 9^th house, making it less accessible. It is a fitting symbolic statement about how her communication abilities were cut off from her, and how she had to work harder to break through to communicate and manifest her drive and identity. The part of Fortune indicates how loss of normal ability to express herself was part of her fortune/physical fate in life, and actually became a source of positive fortune for her and the world. I find interceptions interesting as they compress the energy of the planets intercepted. For Helen, when Mercury was released, it was powerful.

Mercury also gains prominence because it rules her Virgo MC. This indicates that in her life issues and themes related to Mercury will be emphasized. An example of someone overcoming adversity with the power of her mind and the magic of language. A another Mercurially interesting aspect of her chart is that Uranus, higher octave of Mercury, is in Mercury ruled Virgo exactly conjunct her MC. This promises the potential in her life for a sudden breakthrough related to Mercury themes that will impact her life purpose and standing in the world. Appropriate to the public nature of the MC, this breakthrough became very public!

The ruler of her Mercury in Leo, the Sun in Cancer, is in her 8^th house conjunct the South Node and Venus. Her light, and the light of her mind, was hidden in darkness, but with the potential to bring light into and out of darkness. This is also indicated by the fact that the midpoint of Mercury and Mars (Asc co-ruler)= Part of Fortune. Again, her fate and fortune are intimately involved with her approach to life, the warrior spirit of her Mars in Leo trine Jupiter in Aries combined with her issues around communication, teaching, writing. She is a shining example ( Ascendant co-ruler,Mars, in Leo, ruler of the MC, Mercury- in Leo) of someone overcoming adversity.

HELEN LEARNS NAMES: MARCH 23, 1887

What was the timing of Helen’s transformation through learning names? Let’s look at what was happening in her chart; As stated, Mercury themes are the major player. March 23, 1887, 3 months before her 7^th birthday:

HELEN’S PROGRESSIONS

Progressions set the ground and show the conditions developing in a chart; along with transits they show the timing of experiences. They are in effect for months to a year or more.

Transits: The sky of the moment’s aspects to a chart impacts the natal chart and works to activate progressions. We are going to look at what planetary pictures were active when Helen learned names. I am only counting very close aspects- an orb of no more than a degree and half- closeness in aspects confers intensity, what gets the most immediate attention.

PROGRESSED ASCENDANT

For Helen, the progressed Ascendant is emphasized.

Secondary Progressed (SP): Ascendant was trine to the minute to her Mercury.

Solar Arc (SA): Progressed Ascendant was within a degree of a trine to her Mercury.

The Ascendant is the part of a chart that is the most individual and unique to that person, determining how they receive the sky when they were born. It determines where the planets are placed in the houses of the chart. It shows how we enter life and situations; our orientation to life. Her whole approach to life, how she enters situations, is changing in relation to her Mercury functions, in a positive way (a trine). In addition, her progressed Ascendant had just changed signs, setting up a new approach to life was in process. Interestingly, it progressed into Sagittarius, the natural sign of the 9^th house, of higher learning, expanded horizons, philosophy, teaching emphasizing these key themes in her life even more.

PROGRESSED MERCURY ASPECT:

Both SP and SA Mercury are conjunct the Part of Fortune. Her language and communication meets her Fortune.

PROGRESSED PLUTO

SA Pluto in Mercury ruled Gemini comes to a square of her natal Mercury ruled Midheaven which has Uranus (of sudden change, revolutionary experiences) exactly conjunct it in Mercury ruled Virgo. Her world, her self in it and path in life, is transformed through another (her Pluto is in her 7^th house of one to one partnerships-her teacher, Anne Sullivan); who had to push her (Pluto themes) to make the change.

SECONDARY PROGRESSED CHART TO HELEN’S CHART.

SOLAR ARC TO HELEN’S CHART

TRANSITS WHEN HELEN LEARNED NAMES: MERCURY RETROGRADE, ANARETIC DEGREE OF PISCES.

One of the most fascinating things about the transits to her chart when she learned names is that Mercury was retrograde and in the anaretic degree ( last degree of a sign- a critical energy because of its intensity); not only that, but the last degree of Pisces, on the fixed star Scheat. Although Scheat is generally considered malevolent, it also has the meaning of breakthroughs and innovations in communication (p.777, Rosenberg) Mercury was retrograde by transit March 23, 1887 when Helen learned names. Mercury goes retrograde three times a year for approximately three weeks, so it isn’t unusual. It is significant for someone when Mercury makes close aspects to someone’s chart. This was true for Helen. The Mercury retrograde was exactly trining her Mercury in the retrograde March 23^rd,. It had just left 0 Aries (trine her 0 Leo Mercury) and moved into 29 Pisces, still within a degree of her Mercury. It was ready to activate a return of Mercury functions to Helen. It was a return, for before Helen became deaf and blind she had a word for water. She states (p.7)

Even after my illness I remembered one of the words I had learned in those early months. It was the word, “water,” and I continued to make some sound for that word after all other speech was lost. I only ceased making the sound “wah-wah” when I learned to spell the word.

On the fateful day with the water flowing over her hand, as Mercury retrograded into the critical 29^th degree of WATER sign Pisces, still within a degree of a trine to her Mercury, the word water came back to her .She learned that things have names. Her world transformed. If something like these does not impress with Mercury’s magic in astrology and human experience, I do not know what will! I’ll let Helen close with what the power of Mercury can mean:

I learned a great many new words that day. I do not remember what they all were; but I do know that mother, father, sister, teacher were among them—words that were to make the world blossom for me, “like Aaron’s rod, with flowers.” It would have been difficult to find a happier child than I was as I lay in my crib at the close of that eventful day and lived over the joys it had brought me, and for the first time longed for a new day to come.

REFERENCES
 Keller, H. (1903,1996) The Story of My Life. Dover Thrift Editions.

Laitman, M. (2007). The Zohar. Laitman Kabbalah Publishers.

Rosenberg, D.K, (2012) Secrets of the Ancient Skies. Ancient Skies Press.

Siegel, D.J. (1999) The Developing Mind. Guilford Press.

Contact Claudia at [email protected] if interested in further information.