Mercury, Ego and the Inner Journey

by Mandi Lockley

We know that astrological Mercury represents mind, thoughts and communication in our horoscope.  The mind is where our sensory perceptions are processed in the brain and our perceptions are reflected in our thoughts. As we think, we rationalise, assess, form judgements, make decisions, learn and solve problems. We also form beliefs, ideas and opinions which we express through our actions and communications. This can take the form of sharing ideas, the transfer of information, negotiations, compromises and arguments and we also use verbal and non-verbal communication to form bonds and friendships with others.

Mercury’s sign, house and aspects tell us a lot about our style of communication; how we think and learn and connect with others. It also represents how we mentally process our opinion of ourselves, our self-image. In this, Mercury becomes the tool for our ego and its condition in our chart shows us how our ego communicates, as well as how we can go beyond our ego. If we take the journey beyond the ego, we are channelling a deeper part of Mercury, remembering that Mercury, or Hermes to use the Greek name, is the messenger of the Gods, the intermediary between the human and divine realms. We are particularly invited to step onto these deeper paths when Mercury is touched by an outer planet by aspect or transit.

But first, let’s define the ego. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, divided the human psyche into the id, the ego and the superego1.

According to Freud, the ego is the self-conscious part of ourselves. It’s how we define ourselves, including our status compared to others and our place in society. It’s wrapped up in our self-esteem, our sense of self-importance and the ‘roles’ we play. Our ego helps us to satisfy our id (the primitive, irrational, instinctive part of the psyche) without breaking society’s rules and conventions. The ego itself is moderated by the superego, which is our conscience, our ‘ideal’ self and the moral values of our collective society.

The ego of course, is reflected in our thoughts, words, opinions and ideas, as well as in conscious decision making and problem solving and this is how Mercury becomes the messenger of the ego. But if Mercury carries the ego, where is the ego itself in the birth chart?

We most strongly associate the Sun with the ego, because it’s about our self-identity and how we reinforce it. The Ascendant is how we project our ego out into the world through our personal style and outward persona. The Moon represents the baggage our ego carries from the past, translated into our moods and habits (it’s also the id, expressed as who we are behind closed doors when nobody’s looking and what we need to feel safe). Venus is about our self-worth, which is also the stuff of the ego and even those things we take pleasure in can be egoic if we use them to boost our self-esteem and status. Mars signifies how we assert ourselves and react to conflict, which is usually ego based. Competing is of the ego because it assumes a winner and a loser. Of course, when we totally lose our temper the ego has given way to the irrational id. When we get to Jupiter and Saturn we are into superego territory, but these planets can also be egoic, in that Jupiter can be about over-confidence and an inflated ego and Saturn about how the ego seeks respect. The fears and doubts associated with Saturn are also often ego based.

Beyond Saturn we’re in the realms of the unconscious, the sphere of the Gods, but more about that as we look at the chart examples.

The relationship of the Sun (the largest and most powerful signifier of our ego) to Mercury (the messenger of the ego) is telling.  Astronomically, Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and astrologically, they can never be more than 28 degrees apart, meaning that only a Conjunction aspect is possible. This tightly entwines our ego and its emissary.  A primary interpretation of Sun Conjunct Mercury2 is that it suggests an ego driven, perhaps controlling personality, with difficulty separating the ego identity from one’s ideas and opinions, which might manifest as seeing one’s own perspective as the only correct perspective and having difficulty accepting the views of others. More positively, it’s associated with independent thought and confident expression.  But even without the Conjunction, the close proximity of the Sun and Mercury suggests that every one of us is somewhat ego driven and to a greater or lesser extent lacking objectivity and defensive of our own opinions when they clash with another’s.

In the traditional astrology of William Lilly, planets Conjunct the Sun are said to be hidden by the light of the Sun and therefore debilitated, weakened3. This applies to anything in the same sign and within 17 degrees of the Sun, but a planet is in its most serious debility - combust - when between 17 minutes and 8 degrees 30 minutes from the Sun (although a planet within 17 minutes of the Sun is considered strengthened by the Sun). If we were to apply this idea psychologically, we could say that the ego (Sun) overpowers everything that gets too close to it.

The following both have Sun Conjunct Mercury and have both defined and written extensively about the ego.

Sigmund Freud, who first defined the ego, was born on 6th May 1856 at 18.30 in Freiberg/Mähren in Moravia (which is now Príbor in the Czech Republic).4

Freud has a triple conjunction of Sun, Mercury and Uranus in Taurus in his 7th House. The Sun and Mercury are 11 degrees apart but are pulled into a viable Conjunction by Uranus sitting between them. The Sun and Mercury are not combust, but Mercury is still debilitated somewhat because they are less than 17 degrees apart. So this Conjunction tells us that the connection between the ego and its messenger has some issues, suggesting a stubbornly ego driven, potentially controlling personality, focussed on relationships and pushed into the public domain (7th House). Spiced up by Uranus, here we have the potential for original, radical and controversial thinking and of course, Freud’s model of the psyche5 radically changed (Uranus) how we think (Mercury) about ourselves (Sun). In Taurus, the ego and mind-set are, at heart, concerned with the sensual, with bodily matters and Freud theorised that physical symptoms are the manifestation of deeply repressed conflicts. This triple conjunction gave him a unique, revolutionary (Uranus) purpose (Sun) and a means to communicate it (Mercury) to the public (7th House), but, with a debilitated Mercury his ideas were not without controversy and criticism.

In Getting to the Heart of the Chart, Frank Clifford describes the potential of Taurus for a “fanatical obsession with sexual or emotional situations”6 and it is of course the sexual and the emotional that was the focus of Freud’s work as a psychoanalyst. His theory of psychosexual development7 was the most controversial part of his work and in order to understand his patients’ neuroses, he asked for their sexual history to understand their desires and their experience of powerful emotions such as love, hate, guilt, fear and shame.

As we might expect, the rest of the chart also speaks to his biography and achievements. Pluto, the modern ruler of his Scorpio Ascendant is also in Taurus, in the 6th House, the House where the mind and body interconnect. The physical manifestation of repressed desires and urges is the very stuff of Pluto in the 6th.  Scorpio and Taurus on the ASC–DC axis further underlines the importance of sexual taboos and repression in his theories.
The traditional ruler of his Scorpio Ascendant, Mars, is in Libra (where it’s in its detriment) in a T-Square with Jupiter in Pisces and Saturn in Gemini, describing how he believed sexuality (Mars) could be repressed by society’s rules, religions and ethics (Jupiter and Saturn). Saturn in Gemini is particularly interesting, perhaps representing the things we’re afraid to talk or think about and therefore repress.

The outer planets, in close aspect with personal planets, invite us to explore possibilities beyond ourselves, to contemplate greater mysteries and to step into the unknown. In Freud’s chart, Uranus’ Conjunction with Sun and Mercury urges him to explore beyond the mere ego and taking that path, he developed his theory of the subconscious and unconscious mind8. In the subconscious, he theorised, we hold hidden memories and knowledge that we could become aware of with effort and in the unconscious are the things we are even more deeply unaware of. This is where we bury our fears, unacceptable desires, irrational and immoral urges, shame and trauma. He compared the mind to an iceberg, with most of its ‘stuff’ beneath the surface. It could also be likened to the underworld, Pluto’s realm, and his Pluto is widely Conjunct Venus (in detriment in Aries). This reflects Freud’s theory that unpleasant, traumatic or taboo experiences and desires are buried in our psyche but erupt in the form of physical illnesses.

His Moon in Gemini (ruled by Mercury) is in the 8th Square Neptune in Pisces in the 4th House and this is the Moon’s only major aspect. He believed that people rarely give an honest account of themselves, often to the point of self-deception. This is in keeping with the Moon’s role as security blanket, the human tendency to believe what we need to believe to keep ourselves safe from others and from our shadow selves. With a Moon-Neptune connection it shouldn’t surprise us that Freud believed we can access the unconscious through the Neptunian realm of dreams. He believed that the ego’s defences are lowered during the dream state and that dreams point the way to our desires and are “the royal road to the unconscious”9.  And in his book The Interpretation of Dreams he quotes Plato, “the virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life”10 and defined the goal of psychoanalysis as making the unconscious conscious.

Mythological Hermes was also a psychopomp, a conductor of souls to the underworld. In Freud’s work, we can see how this might work on the psychological level where Mercury and the planets disposited by Mercury – the Moon and Saturn in Gemini – act as mediators between the unconscious and conscious realms of the mind, a guide for our inner journey through the psychotherapeutic process.

Author and teacher Eckhart Tolle, in his bestselling self-help book, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment11, describes the ego as our self-image, based on our personal experience and cultural conditioning. So far, this fits with how Freud defined the ego. However he goes on to describe the ego as a

“phantom self” which “consists of mind activity and can only be kept going through constant thinking. The term ego means different things to different people, but when I use it here it means a false self, created by unconscious identification with the mind.”12 

His teachings deal with the idea of a transformation of consciousness, a spiritual awakening. He believes that an essential aspect of this awakening is the transcendence of our ego-based state of consciousness. The Power of Now encourages readers to find peace in the present moment and teaches that this can be achieved by dissolving the ego, letting go of the ego’s needs and simply accepting what is in the present moment. He associates the ego directly with our thoughts and teaches becoming present, surrendering to the present moment into a state of no thought. The idea is that there is no such thing as the past or the future, only the present moment and it is our thoughts (and by extension our ego) that keep us in the past or worrying about the future. He goes on to describe how the less you live in the present moment the more you become susceptible to getting lost in your thoughts and over-identifying with your life situation. This, he says, is the major cause of our pain, suffering and unhappiness. And of course, our life situation is of the ego, as described by Freud as how we define ourselves, our status, our sense of self-importance and our identification with the ‘roles’ we play.

Tolle was born on February 16, 1948 in Lünen Germany13. His birth time is not known so a midday solar sign chart is shown. The Sun is in Aquarius in an out of sign Conjunction with Retrograde Mercury in Pisces which receives an Opposition from Mars in Leo, also Retrograde.

In traditional astrology, Pisces is a mute sign and the planet of communication, Mercury, is said to be seriously afflicted in Pisces – it’s in both its detriment and fall. This can mean that the ability to make logical decisions is challenged or there is a poor sense of direction and awareness of clock time (unless perhaps Saturn is strong in the chart). Further manifestations can include confusion, self-deception and distortion of facts.

Getting lost in your thoughts is another interpretation and losing ourselves in our thoughts is one of the things Tolle says keeps us suffering and unhappy. He also equates our thoughts with ego over-identification and when he says this he is speaking his Sun-Mercury Conjunction. That the Conjunction is out of sign with the Sun in (at best) visionary and cerebral Aquarius, no doubt has helped Tolle to approach his mind and view his thoughts with detachment – to be able to observe his own mind, rather than get lost in it. Indeed, he goes on to describe the ego as the “unobserved mind that runs your life when you are not present as the witnessing consciousness, the watcher.”14

Taking the traditional astrology approach, the out of sign Conjunction means that the Sun doesn’t hide or weaken Mercury as it would if they were in the same sign. In the context of his work we could say that this describes how he is able to distinguish the witnessing self from the egoic self, that Mercury has enough objectivity to be the watcher of the ego, without becoming unconsciously attached to the ego. Perhaps the Sun in detriment in Aquarius helps here, rather than hinders, allowing a useful detachment from the ego.

Tolle teaches that not only do we have a mind, but also something beyond our mind, which can become aware of our mind, making us conscious that we are thinking rather than fully identifying with our thoughts and getting carried away by them. It’s not a leap to suggest that this consciousness could be interpreted as a spiritual presence15. Indeed, Mercury in Pisces can be associated with the dissolving of the ego, becoming a psychopomp to guide us through the divine or unconscious realms to where transcendence, spiritual enlightenment and psychological healing can occur. As a mute sign, of course, Mercury in Pisces invites us to go beyond thoughts to experience reality and once this happens, according to Tolle’s work, the illusion of separation from source, from God, dissolves.

Mercury in Pisces also offers compassion, empathy and gentleness and indeed, when Tolle speaks, his voice is quiet and soft. His speech is deliberately slow and punctuated by long pauses, as if he’s waiting for the right words to flow from somewhere beyond him.

Sun in Aquarius and Mercury in Pisces receive an opposition from Mars in Leo. This is potentially an ego driven, quick to react, competitive combination. The mind can become a weapon to defend the ego, taking it very personally when someone challenges or disagrees. The urge to be right can be strong. But while Leo rightly seeks to be the beating heart at the centre of everything, Aquarius’ ultimate purpose is to serve the collective and Pisces is also about service but through compassion, empathy and an understanding beyond the intellectual.  This, then, is a good combination for speaking up for others, for learning to act in an ego-less way. Sue Tompkins in Aspects in Astrology says that with Mercury-Mars aspects, it’s “important to find a vehicle for it…such as writing,” going on to say that it’s good for public speaking.16 Writing and speaking is how Tolle has made his mark as a spiritual teacher and he regularly appears near the top of lists of the world’s most spiritually influential people. In 2019, Watkins Magazine put him in fourth place behind Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey and the Dalai Lama.17

Tompkins also equates Mercury-Mars aspects with nervous tension and in some cases, nervous breakdown. Tolle had a breakdown in 1977. In a 2003 interview for The Telegraph Magazine he describes how shortly after his 29th birthday he was in a state of suicidal despair. Believing he couldn’t live with himself any longer, a question rose up, asking who or what is this self that he cannot live with? What followed he described as “the mind-made self, with its heaviness, its problems, that lives between the unsatisfying past and fearful future, collapsed. It dissolved.”  (Mercury in Pisces!) He goes on to say that, “the next morning I woke up and everything was so peaceful. The peace was there because there was no self. Just a sense of presence or “beingness”, just observing and watching.”18

Not long after this epiphany he dropped out of Cambridge University, abandoning a promising career in academia, drifting for a couple of years, before eventually starting to teach his insights, leading to the publication of The Power is Now in 1997.19

At the time of Tolle’s 29th birthday, he was undergoing some significant transits. Transiting Jupiter at 23 Taurus was Square the midpoint of Saturn and Mars and soon to Square Mars and the Sun and later that year it would also Square Mercury. Transiting Saturn was Conjunct Pluto, a measurement suggestive of his depression. Saturn would go on to Conjunct Mars and Oppose the Sun in the fall of that year, suggestive of ego based challenges, doubts and fears. Additionally, for much of that year (1977), transiting Uranus in Scorpio was Square his Pluto and transiting Pluto in Libra was Conjunct his Neptune.

These collective measurements suggest crisis and suffering with the potential for transformation.  Issues with faith and spirituality are also suggested by the transits by Jupiter and to Neptune. Pluto Conjunct Neptune particularly suggests a spiritual transformation and Uranus Square Pluto is indicative of the sudden and unexpected changes he experienced.

Natally, Chiron in Scorpio forms the axis of a T-Square to his Sun-Mercury Opposition to Mars, offering not just the potential for deep pain, but also for deep healing. Indeed, Tolle’s insights which he describes in his book, came to him through intense mental suffering. Retrograde personal planets (here, Mercury and Mars are Retrograde) can suggest a second chance in life and Tolle’s second chance came through deep crisis. The power of Chiron in Scorpio is the potential for transmuting deep wounds of grief and suffering into something powerfully healing and then to use the hidden gifts of the wound to heal, mentor and guide others through their process and this is what Tolle has done with his books, courses and workshops. 

Chiron would also have been strongly activated by the outer planet transits to his Sun, Mercury and Mars during the time of his breakdown and enlightenment. Chiron in Scorpio also suggests that the healing journey requires a trip through the underworld and the South Node in Scorpio in a wide-ish Conjunction to Chiron suggests that this T-Square axis is a point for the powerful release of deep emotional detritus.

If we allow ourselves to be a little generous with the orbs, we see a Mystic Rectangle aspect pattern in Tolle’s chart, involving the Sun, Mercury, Mars Opposition and the Jupiter in Sagittarius Opposite Uranus in Gemini. These two Oppositions are linked by Trines and Sextiles, a bit like a Grand Cross, but less about tension and action and more about balance. Dane Rudhyar wrote that the Mystic Rectangle represents practical mysticism20, which neatly sums up Tolle’s life work. His Jupiter and Uranus Opposition across the Sagittarius and Gemini axis is in itself a good aspect for a spiritual teacher, especially with its Trine and Sextile to the Sun (life direction, ego and purpose) and Mercury in Pisces (spiritual teaching). Venus in Aries Opposite Neptune in Libra is also a notable aspect for gaining income and popularity through the spiritual.

Saturn Conjunct Pluto join Mars in Leo. An acceptable orb of Opposition to the Sun pulls them into the whole Sun-Mercury-Mars complex. This can be heard in the following quote from The Power of Now.

Identification with the mind…causes thought to become compulsive. Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don’t realise this because almost everybody is suffering from it… The incessant mental noise…creates a false mind that casts a shadow of fear and suffering. 21

Remarkably, Tolle’s chart shares something notable with that of Donald Trump. Mars at 28 Leo, like Trump’s, hits the fixed star Regulus. This suggests honour, fame, a strong character and public recognition. This is also stuff to boost and encourage the ego, but Tolle has found a means to fulfil the promise of Regulus by going beyond human egoism and trusting in a higher power.

Whilst Mercury facilitated the inner journey for both Freud and Tolle, the routes they took are very different. With Mercury in Taurus Conjunct Sun, Freud saw physical manifestations as expressions of repressed emotions and used psychoanalysis to make the unconscious conscious. For Tolle, Mercury in Pisces Conjunct Sun supports his belief that the way to end suffering is to dissolve the ego. Unsurprisingly, Tolle’s journey is more spiritual than psychological, but symbolically, it all boils down to the same thing, Mercury’s role is as it’s always been but often overlooked, to act as the intermediary between the human mind/body and the divine/subconscious.

Notes and References:
1McLeod, S. A. (2018, April 05). What are the most interesting ideas of Sigmund Freud? Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html
2Aspects in Astrology by Sue Tompkins, Rider; New Ed edition, 2001, Page 99
3http://www.skyscript.co.uk/gl/combust.html
4https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Freud,_Sigmund Rodden Rating AA
5McLeod, S. A. (2016, Feb 05). Id, ego and superego. Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html
6Getting to the Heart of the Chart: Playing Astrological Detective by Frank Clifford, LSA/Flare, 2012, Page 20
7McLeod, S. A. (2018, April 05). What are the most interesting ideas of Sigmund Freud? Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html
8Ibid. 
9https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html#dream
10The Interpretation of Dreams, by Sigmund Freud, page 493. Retrieved from https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Freud_-_The_interpretation_of_dreams.djvu/511
11The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, Yellow Kite; 92 edition, 2001
12Ibid. Page 18
13https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle
14 The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, Yellow Kite; 92 edition, 2001, Page 150
15Tolle’s teaching are “not identified with any religion, but uses teachings from Zen Buddhism, Sufism, Hinduism and the Bible.” https://web.archive.org/web/20090210160630/http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/t/eckhart_tolle/index.html
16 Aspects in Astrology by Sue Tompkins, Rider; New Ed edition, 2001, Page 162
17https://www.watkinsmagazine.com/watkins-spiritual-100-list-for-2019
18Retreived from https://www.theage.com.au/world/why-now-is-bliss-20030929-gdwfir.html
19https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Now  It was originally published in 1997 by Namaste Publishing in Vancouver. It was republished in 1999 by New World Library, and this edition reached and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for years afterwards and has been translated into 33 languages. In 2000, the book was listed as recommended reading by Oprah Winfrey.
20Dane Rudhyar, The Astrology of Personality: A Reformulation of Astrological Concepts and Ideals, in Terms of Contemporary Psychology and Philosophy, Lucis Publishing, 1936
21The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle,Yellow Kite; 92 edition, 2001, Page 12

Image sources:
Diagram of the Psyche from https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html
Chess set: Image by klimkin from Pixabay
Sigmund Freud: Ferdinand Schmutzer (Public domain)
Eckhart Tolle: Kyle Hoobin (twitter.com/kylehoobin) (CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0))
Lightning / Human: Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay

To be published at: ivcconference.com/constellation-news/, 2020.

Author:
Mandi Lockley is a London based astrologer and author and former student of the London School of Astrology. She has written for the Journal of the Astrological Association of Great Britain as well as for numerous websites, including her own Astroair blog. She published the e-book Saturn in Scorpio: Your Guide Through the Dark in 2012 and has also recently been published as a fiction author. She is committed to self development – emotionally, spiritually and intellectually – and believes in doing her best to live life purposefully, in service to others and in harmony with the cycles of the universe. These values are also the focus of her client work.
www.mandilockley.blogspot.co.uk

© 2019 - Mandi Lockley - Constellation News

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