Mercury
Mercury orbits the sun in 88 days and spends a little under seven and a half days in each sign.
Physical aspects of Mercury
Mercury has the biggest effect on speech and communication. It deals with all forms of communication, whether it’s conversational, writing letters or e-mails, etc. It is also the planet that will have the strongest effect on what happens during short journeys (usually those lasting under a day). It can affect someone’s ability to adapt to situations, and can also determine how someone changes their actions each time they face a similar situation as before.
Mental aspects of Mercury
Mercury has a strong effect on mental aspects as well. It has a very powerful effect on our thoughts and the way that we express them to others. Intellect is heavily tied to Mercury, as is the way we use logic and analyze things to find the answers that we are looking for. Along those same lines, Mercury also leads us to pique our curiosity, and will spur us to ask certain questions and to try to find answers for ourselves. With it we choose which skills we will use to attack problems, and it also shows how open-minded we are when we look at different things. It also affects our ability to separate things into categories and how we decide to label these categories.
Other things Mercury Rules
Mercury rules our active mind and how we allow our current thoughts to influence the things we do. Because of its attachment to questions, it also rules education and any type of learning (as information is communicated). Close environments are ruled by Mercury. In terms of people, it affects those in a close proximity to ourselves, namely our neighbors, our brothers, sisters and cousins. In the chart it rules the sign of Gemini and Virgo and the third and sixth houses (so it is more effective when in those positions).
The Planets
