All About Mercury:

Bright Mercury brings us brilliant ideas, illuminating messages and amazing connections. Under its influence, flashes of insight blaze along our brains neural pathways, seeking and perhaps, attaining true wisdom and understanding. The planet Mercury was identified by the Greeks with the god Hermes, the messenger of the gods, the guide of the souls and the swift-footed deity of transitions, communication, and exchange. Mercury was the name that the Romans gave to both god and planet. In Greco-Roman mythology, winged Hermes or Mercury functioned as an enabler of all kinds of activities that broke down barriers, be that for good or for ill: he helped healers and robbers alike. He was also a god of trade and profit, and of travelers and merchants, for Mercury also rules over our material transactions- his name is related to both "market" and "commerce". In his left hand Hermes holds a staff known as the caduceus, around which curl two intertwined snakes. This shows that we find the middle way of truth by reconciling opposites. In his right hand, Hermes holds a scroll, symbolizing the true wisdom to which our cultivation of insight can lead; for this reason the Greeks identified Hermes with the Egyptian Thoth, the begetter of all wisdom and esoteric knowledge. Thoth was the scribe of the gods, and recorded the weighing of the soul of the departed (represented by the heart) against the feather of truth. 

Mercury rules our communication- our mind, thoughts and words. Its place in our birth chart reveals our way of thinking, writing, and speaking and te other means by which we present ourselves to those around us. Our bright smile or worried frown; our tidy or untidy writing style; our way of making contact; how we learn; our relationship with computers. Mercury rules all places of learning, publishing, libraries and the media, as well as the marketing and spin that dominate the modern world. Mercury can be fickle: slick, exciting words that seem to resolve issues and bring news of success may just as easily stir up fresh difficulties. If we are not careful our interactions can go awry, with understanding turning to misunderstanding and success to failure. Intellectual genius, unless firmly grounded, can spin off into neurotic failure as the lines of communication overheat and burn out. Similarly, communication can sometimes be too quick and we may find change too rapid for comfort, as the word "mercurial" suggests. Mercury the quick-witted, insightful thinker can become Mercury the trickster and deceiver. The antidote to such dangers is to seek knowledge with a kind and caring heart. This alone can lead us to true wisdom and understanding.