Mercury, our planet of communication and exchange, is leaving the exacting, exhausting dirt of Virgo for the sugar bowl of Libra this week, a move from scalpels to gel pens if you will.
An air sign ruled by Venus, Libra is an apex negotiator and what a friend of mine likes to call “an operator,” ascending and descending throughout a vast social hierarchy and adjusting their expression accordingly.
Mercury is named for the messenger of the gods whose communicative route spanned from the peaks of Mount Olympus to the depths of the underworld.
Mercury moves into Libra on September 18 and will mill about in these climes until October 6, 2025, when it takes its leave for the underworld and the sign of Scorpio.
If Mercury in Libra were an instructional book, it would be “How to Win Friends & Influence People.”
This is a shapeshifting Mercury adept at inhabiting the perspective of another person in order to better understand their meaning and motives. However, this fluidity can read as vascillation as during this transit we are less likely to pick a side or stake a claim.
Libra Mercury dislikes the ugly, the extreme and the tactless, and even when natives are being provocative, they’re low-key purring it at you, which makes the questionable seem palatable.
This transit butters us up and makes us ruthlessly flirtatious with very little follow-through. All hat no cattle, but god–n, it’s a nice looking Stetson. Be aware of the tendency to love bomb or lay it on thick with a potential partner. Ask yourself, do I want this person, or do I want them to feel wanted?
The energy here can encourage us to sidestep conflict and rely on avoidance and/or passive-aggressive tactics to navigate difficult situations.
Yet the true aim when Mercury moves through Libra is diplomacy, not gutlessness.
There is a temptation here to deny or disassociate from the inconvenient and the uncomfortable.
Don’t.
At its highest order, Libra wants justice and flattering light for all.
If we use the energy of this transit effectively, we are supported in our efforts to harmonize. Brokering for peace is brave work; keeping the peace by eschewing the truth is cowardice.
Above all, the power of this transit is persuasive, so if you’re trying to get your way or bend others to your will, now is the pliable hour.
See natives like Gwyneth Paltrow galvanizing the masses to buy her P—y candles and Anna Wintour guiding trends, with the lilt of her British accent and the decisive sweep of her angular bob.
My money says Cher Horowitz, with this rousing argument, has her Mercury in Libra. “It does not say RSVP on the Statue of Liberty,” folks.
While we’ll all fall under the soft light and silver tongue of this transit, three signs will feel its effects most acutely.
Read for your sun and rising sign.
Aries can borrow some tact from Mercury’s flit through Libra. This transit activates their seventh house of commitments and trusted partnerships, imbuing them with the grace to communicate their wants and needs in a way that feels tender rather than tyrannical.
If you enter into dialogue expecting combat, your defenses will ensure it.
However, if you come to the proverbial table with open hands and an easy dedication to deepening rather than damaging your dynamic, everyone wins.
Ahoy, Libra!
Mercury in your sign highlights your first house of the self, lending you an authoritative edge when it comes to knowing and speaking to who you are.
As the zodiac’s resident referee, you often choose the high road at the expense of exploring and understanding the underbelly.
But now more than ever, it is imperative that you don’t allow discomfort to stop you from discovery.
Heed the advice of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“If you don’t understand, ask questions. If you’re uncomfortable about asking questions, say you are uncomfortable about asking questions and then ask anyway. It’s easy to tell when a question is coming from a good place. Then listen some more. Sometimes people just want to feel heard. Here’s to possibilities of friendship and connection and understanding,”
Mercury’s hopscotch through Libra shines a light in the dark attic of your twelfth house of endings, enemies and the subconscious mind, Scorpio.
Private by nature and birthright, you’re not predisposed to sharing what ails you, but Mercury in Libra wants to be witnessed, and this influence lends eloquence to your darkness. The only one who suffers when you hold it in is you. Meanwhile, a brave disclosure may be the first shaky stone on someone else’s road to healing.
In the words of Charles Dickens, “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.”
Here’s to lightening the load and lighting the way.
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. To book a reading, visit her website.
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