My little Mercurial offering to you, as Mercury now domicile in Gemini is co-present with the liberator Uranus. It seems to have liberated my speech! Not only that, I am writing this under a Virgo (Mercury ruled) Moon. This was never meant to be a piece of writing but just a mash up of information and thoughts that might be of interest to someone other than myself. A pairing of text and images about somethings in and on and around my mind lately. However in true Mercury Uranus style under this Mercurial Moon trining my own Mercurial Moon the words are flowing freely.

Tá me ag foghlaim Gaeilge arís! I am learning Irish again and trying to remember all the words and linguistic rules of the language of my homeland. A lot of Irish people have a strange fractured relationship with ár teanga. There is a singular type of wound that nags at the Irish psyche. One that is the language of the foreigner continually shaping our mouths for many generations. Our language has been diminishing over the centuries however she is experiencing somewhat of a resurgence.

Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam

A country without a language is a country without a soul.

It’s difficult to get a place in an Irish class in Belfast at the moment. They book up quickly and I understand why. Coming together with others to unlock the words of my school days is a thrill that I cannot quite explain. It has become a surprising exploration of both memory and language. It is a wonder to feel doors in my mind I thought locked and forever forgotten open once more. Dusty though they are the words are still there and now coming to life again dancing in my mind. Trying to sleep after any of these classes is an impossibility. My mind is full of words and phrases as Gaeilge but often I can’t quite grasp the meaning as Béarla. The words are coming first and the images they represent later.

Irish is like magic to me. At school I was taught that if it sounds right, it is likely to be correct. It is a language to feel into and listen closely to. Sitting in a room of others with a grá for the teanga is go h-iontach ar fad.  The old adage leathan le leathan, caol le caol is one I have not forgotten. The image of the large round broad vowels belonging together like apples and oranges while the slender e and i stand as sisters apart. Irish has a commonality with Arabic with the verb coming first and all else following. Emotions, objects, people are often at or with or beside or in relation to you in ways not described in English. As it is with other languages the spoken is a lens through which we view and experience our world.  Logos is our way of navigation whether by sky or by word. It gives an order to things to allow us to comprehend. The word comes first.

Being in Belfast i gCúige Uladh it is Ulster Irish that I am learning. Though I’m stubbornly sticking to my mostly Munster pronunciation, mo mhúinteoir Tuathan is graciously giving me the ‘southern’ way of saying things at times. The Ulster way is proving tricky (as expected) and there are pronunciations that make basic words sound like something else completely! Sometimes what is said I don’t understand until it is written. At the same time if I can hear it I can often spell it. The mind is a wonderous thing.

One lunchtime, an seachtain seo caite, I visited the Ulster Museum and happened across the work of Elisabeth Frink. Her drawings prints and sculptures depict masculine figures, birds and horses. Her drawings and prints feel as materially vital as her sculptures. There is much movement and sensuality in her work with an exploration of the vulnerability of the male form in particular. This etching of Hermes was one of the works that caught my eye. Her Flying Figures which are now installed on the outer wall of the museum also put me in mind of Mercury/Hermes.

Mercury the trickster, the stealer of cattle, the market maker, money exchanger, the messenger between worlds, he/she/they. Both/And. Shapeshifter, psychopomp.

I come from a land where language and story telling is a national sport. The worst of insults (and there are many) is to be a “dry shite”. Finding fun even in the darkest of places is what we do, and where often we excel. Though Ireland is an ancient place, she as a nation state is young. Her birth chart of 1949 bears the Moon in Capricorn applying to a trine with Mercury in Taurus. Honey drenched words, charm and sweetness, maddening contradictions, open and closed, softness and edge, verbose and silent, this but also that. Irish words and the Irish themselves fuelled by a creative Venus in the heart of the Sun ruled by Mars in the 5^th house.

Mercury is considered highly changeable by ancient astrologers. Mercury can be hot, cold, dry, moist, benefic, malefic, masculine, feminine, diurnal, nocturnal. They cross the divides, straddle boundaries and borders with ease, stealthily moves across and back over any perceived chasm. Mercury the heralder, the carrier of messages. Mearcair as Gaeilge. The planet itself also has some Gaeilge upon it. In 2017 an Irish planetary scientist had his application to name a part of the planet Mercury approved. And so Mearcair Planitia, a large lava plain on the planet is a little bit of Gaeilge i spás. Again, an apt nod to a Taurus Mercury ruled by a hot Venus engulfed by the Sun in the sign of Mars. For the curious more of this story can be found on the Irish Times website.

My Moon is Mercurial so I often conflate the two. Mercury and Moon both refer to mind and psychology. Mercury moves frequently and is almost as changeable as the many faces of the Moon. Where is Mercury in your chart? How does the Mercurial exist in your life? What work do you do with your hands? Where is exchange of most importance? Where are you adept at shape shifting and adapting? Where are you both/and?

If you’d like to learn more about Mercury in your chart do consider booking a reading with me or another astrologer of your choice.