We all know Mercury is the principle of communication, its rulership over Gemini already has it down as a planet that likes to chat. But does it apply to writing however, and if so in what way ?
These days there are very few of us that work in an area where we don’t have to write reports, emails etc, so you could say that we are all writers. But this article will focus on those people for whom writing is the essence of their work.
Capricorn Research has a collection of 2048 charts of people who would be described by profession as Writers.
Aries is the most common Sun sign in this group but with 198 this figure is not statistically significant. Basically the same goes for Mercury in sign with Capricorn nominally ahead.
But Venus in Taurus gets 213, 125 % of the expected figure and for a large sample like this that is an extremely significant score. It produces a ” p ” figure of 0 .0000000309.
Successful writers, like famous people generally have the Sun in the rising area of their charts with the 1st house scoring 125 % of the expected number. The p figure for this is a very strong 0.0000237.
In terms of major aspects, the top one for Writers is the Mars / Jupiter opposition with 131 %.
This is followed by the Mercury / Jupiter conjunction at 130 %
A third place goes to the Sun conjunct Jupiter and Venus conjunct the Ascendant at 127 %
Mercury conjunct the Ascendant is next with 125 %
All these aspects have statistical significance, nothing else gets over 120 %.
Mercury rising and Mercury conjunct Jupiter we would expect to be strong, but we should go with the Venus findings as well because of course a lot of writers use a strongly creative imagination as the fundamental part of their work.
So it might help to split this group up into different types of writers. This is not as easy as it sounds as some writers will naturally cut across the genre, but Capricorn Research has 3 samples that are roughly comparable in size, 581 Novelists, 411 Poets and 448 Journalists.
The expectation may well be that the first two groups would have a stronger Venus effect and the last one a stronger Mercury. This expectation does seem to be fulfilled.
For the Novelists Pisces is the most common Sun sign with 120 %, for the Poets its Capricorn with 117 % and the Journalists its Leo with 121 %. But just as with the larger Writers sample, these figures are not statistically significant.
Much the same applies to Mercury’s sign position for these groups, although it is very strong in Aquarius ( 132 % ) for the Novelists with a p figure of 0.077.
But as with the larger Writers sample, Venus by sign does produce significant effects. For Novelists Venus top scores in Taurus with 132 % ( p figure 0.00186 ), for Poets its top in Cancer with 131 % ( p = 0.00948 ) and for Journalists its top in Sagittarius with 139 % ( p = 0.014 ). All these Venus scores are statistically significant.
In terms of house placement, Novelists and Journalists do not have a particularly significant distribution. But the Poets do with a very strong 143 % for the Sun in the 1st house ( p = 0.00124 ) but a quite staggering Mercury score for the 1st house of 155 % ( p = 0.00037 ).
When we see that the Poets also have Mercury in the 12th at 143 %, we have a tremendously strong focus around the Ascendant for this group.
As for aspects the Mars / Jupiter opposition features quite strongly again in the Novelists sample with 143 % and for the Journalists with 136 % but not for the Poets with only 88 %.
The Novelists are the most Venusian of the 3 groups with the top scoring aspect being Venus conjunct Uranus at 143 % followed by Venus conjunct the Ascendant at 136 %. For the Novelists, Mercury’s aspects seem to have very little significance apart from the Mercury / Pluto square on 137 %.
The Poets group are a mix of both Mercury and Venus. The strongest aspect for this group is Mercury’s conjunction with Jupiter at a staggering 170 %. This is followed by Mercury’s opposition to Mars with 162 % ( once adjustments are made for the different frequency of Mars aspects ).
The Sun is also opposite Mars frequently for Poets at 159 % a score which is shared with the Venus / Jupiter conjunction.
Mars does tend to score higher for Poets than in the other two groups with the Mars / Neptune conjunction reaching 142 %.
For conjunctions to the Ascendant, Mercury is there at 137 %, Venus is in the same place at 131 %, Jupiter is also there at 137 %.
For the Journalists, by far the highest scoring aspect is Mercury conjunct the Ascendant at 166 %.
Next in line is the Sun conjunct Jupiter at 157 %
Neptune also seems to play a role for Journalists as its opposite the Ascendant at 153 % and conjunct the Sun at 141 %
Jupiter is conjunct the Ascendant at 136 %
Venus, however seems to play very little part, none of its aspects have significance and the conjunction with the Ascendant scores only 105 %.
So to sum up what are our findings here.
1. Both Mercury and Venus play statistically significant roles in the charts of Writers.
2. Venus in Taurus is very strong but it is much more likely to feature in the charts of Novelists than Journalists.
3. Mercury scores very high in conjunction with Jupiter for Writers but this seems to be strongest amongst Poets.
4. There is a very high concentration of both Mercury and Venus around the Ascendant for all Writers. This breaks down as Venus for Novelists, Mercury for Journalists and both for Poets.
So the question does Mercury have a strong influence on the charts of Writers has to be met with a resounding yes. But it seems to have a stronger impact on people writing the more factual stuff. Fiction seems to be more the province of Venus.
Exactly as most astrologers would tell you.
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Well, I’m not famous (and have only written one novel) but I do have Venus in Taurus (conjunct M.C.)
Your research confirms my ‘Great Expectations’
Fame is only a matter of time then, perhaps it will come after your soul has moved on to pastures new. Actually that would be a good subject for astro research, people who have become famous after death.
That would be a really interesting topic, I’d find that fascinating .Meanwhile, I wouldn’t mind a tiny bit of fame before I shuffle off this mortal coil. Having said this,my Sun opposes Neptune so it’s unlikely. After years of painting portraits in my lonely garret, I finally got an exhibition only to find someone else’s name mysteriously attached to my masterpiece! Good job I’ve got a ‘philosophical’ Capricorn Moon.
How strange, what sort of transits were you getting at the time ?
Saturn transiting 10th house Taurus South Node and Mercury. Pluto applying to conjoin Fifth House Saturn (1 degree orb)
Still, it could have been a lot worse!
I picked up your page off a link that astrologer Lynda Hill posted on facebook regarding J K Rawlings. Scrolling down through the right hand column, I found your very interesting study regarding Mercury in the charts of writers. Although more of an editor than writer, I have a strong Mercurial influence in my own chart with him In Gemini, in the 1st and conjunct the ascendant. My natal Sun is in my Taurus 12th house, along with a partile Saturn/ Uranus conjunction at 29 Taurus also in the 12th. Those two big dogs are tightly conjunct Mercury at 00 degrees Gemini, which are all pretty decent indications of my role as a teacher, my astrological interests and my writing/editorial skills (with a decidedly spiritual bent), That correlates pretty much to what your research shows in my experience.
But that’s not really why I thought to write to you about today. It’s Mercury related. Several years ago I took a look at the effect of Mercury’s speed in dozens of charts of more or less famous people we might consider to be “geniuses.” In that admittedly limited sample, I found an interesting correlation here too when Mercury’s daily motion is + 2 degrees more or less. I coined the term “Mercury’s Peak Weeks” which fall approximately mid way between its retrograde periods. I’ve written about this elsewhere but, if you have the time, I’d be interested to hear your reaction to this abbreviated piece which I have posted to my own Harmonic Concordance Blog: http://tinyurl.com/zhcfyqa.
In any event, thanks for looking at this.
Johnny Mirehiel
Thanks Johnny, that s really interesting. Astrologers have often said Mercury works best away from the Sun ( particularly in a different sign ) because it adds some objectivity to ones thinking processes. Ive never been sure about that and certainly not been able to spot it in research. But your idea that it works best when its moving fastest forward is one that deserves a lot of consideration. Particularly with the impressive list of subjects born on Mercury Peak Weeks.
Thanks for sharing.
CC
Thanks for replying, CC (wish I knew your name though). Makes me happy that you see a possible relationship between Peak Week Mercurys and genius. I like the way you work the %s thing and wonder if there might be a way to apply your methodology to this topic.
With enough statistical evidence, this might be a useful tool for astrologers in chart analysis. I think my sampling too small to convince the astrological community to look at it as solid evidence though.
Have you looked at your own Mercury in this regard? If your birthdate is 12/26/54 (taken from your “About ” page), it’s 1:35. Mine too is fast, and speeding up (1:34), and I am pretty intelligent, but I certainly wouldn’t say I’m in the genius class.
BTW, the next Peak Weeks is one of the longest stretches I’ve ever come across, running from June 26 through July 16, some 21 days.
Thanks again,
Johnny
Thanks Johnny. I’m pleased to hear my own Mercury is moving fast because other than that it’s combust in Capricorn in the 12th which is not a great look, although it is exceptionally good for research purposes.
I would love to run your idea throughout my database but unfortunately my research software is not sophisticated enough to do it, so any such work would require doing each chart one at a time.
I already have a number of lines of enquiry that I’m having to pursue in this way so don’t have the time available to take on another.
But I wish you well with your own research and I will keep it in mind when I look at charts myself
Regards
CC
Did you find any correlation with the Moon in the Gauqulin sectors around and behind ascendant and M/C. According to their research Moon was an indicator of writers and Politicians? I have a retrograde Mercury in Sagittarius conjunct by 1 degree with Saturn. I’m dyslexic and have problems pronouncing certain words. Kind regards Steve
Thanks Steve. Throughout my research I found very little evidence of the Moon in any of the sectors to a degree that could be considered statistically significant.
The Sun, Mercury, Venus and Mars all had strong indications in lots of the studies but the only one that shows a significant influence for the Moon is the 12th house of Singers.
It would be interesting to do research into dyslexia but I don’t have enough samples to go on.
Regards
CC
I have mercury Venus, sun, ascendant and Pluto all in libra and have been a good writer ever since I was a child. I’ve been writing poetry since school but don’t have an inclination for academic type writing if I had the choice but did write even that very well when I was at university. Moon in 3rd house Sagittarius did give me the inclination to write about my travels mind you.
I have mercury in pisces and sun in pisces in THE second house.
Venus in taurus and the north node in taurus in the third house
And I have uranus and neptune and the 1st house and uranus is in pisces and neptune is in Aquarius
Lastly my mercury aspects are mercury sextile ascendant,mercury sextile chiron,mercury sextile mars, and mercury square pluto.
I JUST WANTED TO KNOW IF THIS CHART WOULD CREATE A GOOD WRITER BECAUSE AS A 16 YEAR I FEEL LOST ABOUT MY PURPOSE AND WANTED A LITTLE GUIDANCE TO IT. LASTLY I FEEL IF IM SUPPOSE TO CREATE SOMETHING IN THIS WORLD. THANK YOU AND BYE GUYS.
Thanks for the message. Obviously these are complex personal issues which cannot be dealt with in a superficial manner. My advice to you would be to have personal reading from an experienced astrologer. https://astrologyresearch.co.uk/your-own-personal-astrology-consultation/