Every question presents itself here as a pair. This mind cannot consider a proposal without immediately constructing its counterproposal, and it holds the two in the balance until something tips them. That is genuine intellectual work, not indecision, though it looks identical from outside and produces the same delays. Asked to choose a restaurant, such a person will name the merits of four and then ask what the others would prefer, which is maddening to companions and perfectly sincere.
The speech is civil, well-formed, and attentive to the listener's comfort. Objections arrive wrapped in agreement. In an argument this mind wins by reasonableness, restating the opposing view so fairly that the opponent relaxes, then introducing the qualification that changes everything. It is very good at negotiation and at writing the memo that offends nobody. What it avoids is the blunt sentence, and things that need to be said bluntly can go unsaid for months while a better wording is sought.
Learning is social. Ideas take hold through discussion, and a subject studied alone tends not to stick; the same subject argued over dinner is retained for good. There is an eye for structure, symmetry, and elegant proof, and a real distaste for ugly reasoning even when it is correct. The cost of the placement is a susceptibility to the last well-made argument heard, and a habit of adjusting a stated opinion toward the person in the room, which the person with this Mercury experiences as courtesy and others sometimes experience as not knowing where they stand.
What It Gives
- ◆fair balanced reasoning
- ◆graceful persuasive phrasing
- ◆skill in negotiation
- ◆genuine attention to others
What It Costs
- ◆difficulty reaching decisions
- ◆avoiding necessary bluntness
- ◆swaying toward present company
This is one line of a whole chart. The rest of it — every placement, house and aspect at once — is a birth date away.
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