It’s amazing how you can speak right to my heart

without saying a word, you light up the dark

Try as I may, I can never explain

what I hear when you don’t say a thing…

you say it best, when you say nothing at all

(Lyrics from When You Say Nothing At All, by Ronan Keating)

One of my best friends shares a 12th house Pisces Mercury with me. His Mercury is better than mine because it is direct (mine is retrograde), but also worse than mine because it is conjunct Saturn, so I guess we are pretty well even. The point is, we can talk about stuff without talking about it- if you know what I mean. We can talk around it, or refer to it or come into it backwards, but at the end of the day we both have a pretty good idea about what has been said- largely from what hasn’t been said. Anyone listening in would be well confused!

Here is last years post…I think it says it all. Oh, by the way, Mercury is in Pisces from tomorrow…but we have all been getting a little dose over the last couple of days due to the conjunction with Neptune. Like the song? Here it is.

There is a great scene in Notting Hill where Julia Roberts & Hugh Grants’ characters are sitting on a park bench in a private garden in the dark. Cue Ronan Keating and “You say it best, when you say nothing at all.” For my money it is one of the most emotion charged scenes in the movie (although I save my tears for the bookshop scene & the press conference scene & the final scene). This is a true Mercury in Pisces moment.

Mercury hates being in Pisces. A lot. And it really isn’t that difficult to see why. In the signs that mercury rules- Virgo and Gemini- he has things to do, information to gather, details to take care of and lots to say. As Mercury is about how we think and communicate and learn, such occupation keeps him happy. In Pisces he has a different role entirely, and it is not one he is comfortable with.

Pisces is a big picture girl and doesn’t do details- she has big dreams and a limitless future. Pisces feels her way through and doesn’t do data- that isn’t to say that she can’t, just that after analysing it she will still listen to her intuition… and often be right. Pisces is what the traditional astrologers call a mute sign- she doesn’t say much- but she communicates on so many more levels than verbal.

This isn’t to say that the communication is ineffective, but it is different- and for that reason, often misunderstood. An astropal (AstroSparkles) likens Mercury in Pisces to being retrograde… and in many ways she is right.  Pisces lives in an “other” world, almost a parallel world- a world of fantasy and daydreams and where bad stuff doesn’t happen to good people and dreams can come true.  In order to perpetuate that illusion, Mercury in Pisces will evade, divert, manipulate and spin. Not usually for any malicious reason, but just to keep everyone happy and the romance alive. Where this fails, she will pop her head nicely into the sand (thanks again AstroSparkles) and pretend that the bad stuff doesn’t happen…much like I declare that Saturn doesn’t exist and I really can drop this 20kgs in 2 weeks.

The biggest challenge that Mercury in Pisces has is the ability to verbalise what we feel and what we want and what we need. This frustrates other signs incredibly. Mercury in Pisces has no problems passing on messages as long as it doesn’t involve her own deepest emotions- these get stuck in her throat somewhere between head and heart and are generally communicated in other words- through actions, songs, writing. Pisces is indeed mute, but rationalises that “if they really knew me/ loved me/ cared about me they would know how I felt.” Whatever spin is put on it, the root cause is fear of exposure and fear of rejection.

What Mercury in Pisces does say is said with imagination, perception, and sympathy. It also isn’t to say that Mercury in Pisces doesn’t retain information- we do, but in a different way. I have often said that I have the worst Mercury in history, yet from somewhere in the deepest part of my brain an amazing amount of seemingly useless trivia resides, just waiting to be brought out. The information may be disorganised and filed differently to that of people with stronger Mercury placements, but I can always find it when I need to… my desk is the same…

Mercury, like Venus, rarely strays far from the Sun, so Mercury in Pisces is only found in people who have the Sun in Aquarius, Pisces or Aries. In Aquarius, Mercury in Pisces adds imagination and creativity to invention, in Aries, Mercury in Pisces adds some empathy and intuition, softening the Warrior somewhat.

A random tweet (@advicetowriters) I read this morning said this nicely: “Sometimes you have to look reality in the eye and deny it.” This is very much Mercury in Pisces. While it means that we have the ability to follow our intuition and reach for the sky, in taking this attitude we also quite successfully delude ourselves- especially in regards to my ability to lose 20kgs in 2 weeks… Whats that? You mean the results they have on Biggest Loser aren’t realistic? Who would have thought?