OK, I know we are in the final degree of Mercury in Aquarius, but in the interests of completeness…
Remember school sports carnivals? I hated them- with an absolute passion. I loved the swimming carnivals, but that’s because I was good at it and usually in line for age swimming champion, or at least get a few decent wins beneath the belt, but dry land? Forget it.
My Mum used to make me go every year and she used to make me enter stuff that would just be humiliating. I would come last in every running race- not just by a little bit, but really, truly, embarrassingly last. My long jump would be well short of acceptable and my high jump? The less said about that the better. In short, I let the team down.
Every year the embarrassment would be so great that for many years I completely stayed away from any exercise that took place on dry land- at least until I was older and discovered gyms and aerobics classes. Places where I could sweat on my own terms and be responsible for no collective performance.
I avoided any situation where running was involved, apart from a spell as a Rugby League referee (in those revolting shorts and coloured shirts I was invisible).
The reason I was made to do it? To get the entry points for the team. My Mum is an Aquarius, so the team and the greater good are so much more important than my teenage humiliation. But you know what? I couldn’t give a flying faff for the team, or the house or the spirit of participation or whatever it happened to be. To this day I have stayed away from team sports of all sorts. I do neither commitment nor failure well.
Even when I entered everything I could possibly enter in the pool for school swimming carnival, it wasn’t for the glory of the team- it was to try and get some street cred back after the disgrace of sports day! And my butterfly, medley and 400m freestyle usually did just that. In fact I only stopped swimming competitively at 16 after the lifeguard at the local pool started to hassle me and freak me out – I never went back. But that is another story entirely.
These days my Mum tries the same tactic with my daughter, but TTM, with her Moon in Aquarius, sort of gets it- at least she gets it more than me. With all of the rest of her Aries though, she mostly just wants to win.
Mercury in Aquarius, whilst being completely individual, relies on the collective or the group to help with the communication of the message.
You have ideas- inventive, progressive, often brilliant- ideas. You perform at your best when committed to a cause, but, being a fixed sign, you can also become attached, fixated even, to your ideas. The plain and simple fact is that when it comes to what Aquarius believes nothing- not facts, supporting data, other people’s ideas- will sway you off course. Even if what you believe is not right.
Whilst you believe whole-heartedly in freedom of thought and freedom of speech, you will doggedly try and bring other people around to your frame of mind. This isn’t the preaching that Sagittarius can tend to, but the zeal of the cause.
Your traditional ruler Uranus gives you uniqueness in the way in which you get your message across, excitement, and the ability to relate individually with each person involved in the communication stream. Aquarius’ legendary detachment allows you to make connections between seemingly unrelated concepts.
It is that detachment which also encourages your tendency towards experimentation and the way in which you like to test your theories out on people. Mercury in Aquarius, for all of it’s fixed nature does neither commitment or conformity well.
Your traditional ruler, Saturn, gives you the structure and respect for organisation that you need in order to get your message to the right people. You also know the benefits of surrounding yourself with people who actively support you. You find groups stimulating and know that an active social life and group of friends is absolutely essential to you.
You know that there is no “I” in team. You know that people working together towards a collective purpose will achieve more than they will on their own. When Aquarius fails to achieve (there is an “I” in that word) or win his point (there’s an “I” in that word too), it will be for one of two reasons:
- The rebellious side of Uranus over-rides the structure of Saturn, and/or
- He tries to go it alone and only involve others at the 11th hour
It is only when Aquarius goes for personal glory at the expense of a team result that the brown stuff hits the whirly thing.
This sound like you? If you are an Aquarius (or Aquarius Rising), have Mercury in Aquarius or Mercury conjunct Uranus, this will be you. And the title? A Different Point of View by, of course, the Pet Shop Boys