Hello beautiful people of Expansive Capacity! Happy Woo-Woo Wednesday, storied ones!

This month, we’re gonna play with Mercury… the planet of communication, intellect, how we learn, how we speak, the technology we use to communicate, and how we process thought and express ourselves. When Mercury goes retrograde, sure enough, those are all the things that go a little screwy for a few weeks (and yes, Mercury is going retrograde this month).

We’re gonna look at what house Mercury was in when you were born. (If you’re in Aligned Advantage, you know we’re also looking at what house Mercury is *currently* in, in your chart, and where it’ll be next [and when]. Woo HOO!)

Here’s how to figure out where Mercury was when you were born: Do your chart at a site like Astro (choose natal chart under free horoscopes) and in that cool wheel o’ YOU, look for a symbol that looks like a stick figure with no legs and antennae on his big ol’ head. That helps with receiving all the communication, of course. 😉

As usual, I offer up my chart as an example. Take a look at the numbers closest in on the wheel, running counter-clockwise from 1 to 12.

Using this as a guide, you can see my Mercury right up there in the 10th house when I was born (with my Mars and Sun).

Once you’ve found the house Mercury was in when *you* were born, use this guide to help you discern what this means about the way you communicate, learn, and make meaning out of the stories you have living in your mind.

Born with Mercury in the 1st house? Ooh, hello ADHD. You love changing your mind, meeting new people, and charging in on convos even before you’re invited to do so. You’ve got keen instincts and you’re quick-witted, funny, smart, and curious… but also impatient, easily distracted, and some may call you insensitive with your words.

Born with Mercury in the 2nd house? Do we have to talk? You’re practical, focused, and you enjoy your own company just fine. When you do speak, it’s pretty powerful stuff — stuff that helps others’ ideas grow and prosper. You’re described as clever, smart, reasonable, logical, and… sometimes stubborn AF. Your brilliance aligns best with material values.

Born with Mercury in the 3rd house? Hey, brainiac! You love a good book, enjoy learning new things, and never pass up the chance to go deeper with what’s in the news. You’re bright, nimble, and express yourself well… even effortlessly about what you’ve learned — sometimes too fast — and that creates a tangent-loving, sometimes impatient, possibly shallow but varied, forgetful multitasker of a personality.

Born with Mercury in the 4th house? Creatively stubborn. When you make up your mind about something, you really dig in your heels about it. Your homelife growing up may have been a bit unstable OR filled with dogma. You’re creative and crave knowing more, but your inherent narrow-mindedness can be a real impediment to that desire. You’re highly intellectual, occasionally manipulative, find relaxing nearly impossible, and you don’t always fully express what you’re feeling. (BTW, this is Keith, y’all.)

Born with Mercury in the 5th house? Let’s be friends! You are friendly, gregarious, funny, creative, youthful, and you love telling stories. Sometimes to the point of spinning some not-so-truthful yarns. You’re witty, loyal, dramatic, competitive, fun to chat with… but you can come across as a liar if you’re not careful (which you really don’t WANT to be).

Born with Mercury in the 6th house? Details, details. You catch every. little. thing. and you’re quite organized and helpful. A high-tech healer, you’ve probably been described as a meticulous perfectionist who can sometimes come off as anxious and hyper-critical. You’re not trying to be… you just have exacting standards!

Born with Mercury in the 7th house? Shout it out! You love expressive people and you never shy away from sharing what you think. Yep, this means you’ll get into squabbles, debates, flat-out fights if you’re not careful about it. Handled well, this talent for mediation is great in PR, sales, legal professions. You’re perceived as analytical, competitive, questioning, and persuasive.

Born with Mercury in the 8th house? Go deep! Show your work. Ooh, you love learning what it is that makes everyone else tick and then sharing what you’ve learned. You’re probably a research junkie or at least a questioner, always wanting to know the why behind the what. You may love reading the fine print. You’re intense, strong, strategic, intuitive, and occasionally line-crossingly straightforward in your communication.

Born with Mercury in the 9th house? Get curious! You like learning about how the world operates and studying systems, processes, organizations, governments, religions, laws. You’re an imaginative seeker who loves getting to the bottom of things and you do so in an intellectual, philosophical, authoritative way. You can also be impatient and judgmental, but you’re a great conversationalist, a talented writer, and you probably learn foreign languages easily.

Born with Mercury in the 10th house? GOAL! Because you can see all sides — and you love learning about them, deeply — you’ll struggle with making decisions. Not because you’re flighty or indecisive but because you really can see things working out in all directions. You express yourself well in all forms and this helps you achieve your goals and public recognition about your achievements (possibly political or publishing ones). You give great speeches and you’re analytical, thoughtful, and sometimes offensive without knowing it. (This is me, y’all!)

Born with Mercury in the 11th house? Community committee. You are curious about how people interact with one another and build those systems we’re all a part of. You love socializing and have a nimble mind, seeing all sorts of points of view. You’re talkative, fair, open, innovative in your thinking, and up for debate as it serves the collective… sometimes you’re seen as easily confused, maybe even silly because you’re so unconventional.

Born with Mercury in the 12th house? Living in extremes. Here’s a placement that creates shyness and false confidence, a streak of quietness and over-compensating loudness. You are a great listener, an empath, so sensitive that you’re intuitive, but you’re also nervous, anxious, stewing in low enoughness about all you’re perceiving. Your knowing comes from your subconscious and you’ll sometimes choose to be secretive rather than risk anyone weighing in on your worldview. You struggle to learn new things because you second-guess that gut knowing. Stop doing that! Remember, the 12th house is all about your undoing.

Now, of course, we’re not even *talking* about what SIGN these planets were in, when you were born, which adds another layer on top of all of it. But for now, you’ve got a start and you can join us to go deeper either in the comments at the dojo as we continue to jam about our June topic of Your Relationship with Your Stories or in the Aligned Advantage membership, where we’ll explore more astro during our Zoom.

Speaking of Zooms… if you haven’t already done so, head over to the dojo to register for our Expansive Capacity Zoom mastermind! It’s going to be filled with the stories we WANT to tell!

All my love,

Enoughness is an inside job… and sometimes you need a guide to find your way there. Let Bonnie Gillespie get you started.