How To Determine Your Mercury Sign And What It Means For Your Communication Skills

Astrology exchanges notes with Greek and Roman mythologies, and the planet Mercury's lore is wrapped up in its role in antiquity. According to the New York Post, Mercury is the Roman version of the Greek messenger for the gods, Hermes, who is often depicted as a man with wings on his feet. Mercury is associated with the spreading of news, and is the planet that determines our communication styles. 

Whether we're relating to the world around us or trying to understand a friend's point of view, we can improve our relationship with others through understanding our Mercury signs. Each planet means something for your birth chart and so do the retrograde periods, in which our communication and technology are likely to be in flux or glitching. 

Finding your Mercury sign can be as easy as looking at your sun sign, but since Mercury only remains in each of the 12 signs for three weeks, it may fall in the sign before or after your sun sign. To check out yours and others' Mercury signs, you can see every transit the planet has made between 1930 and 2019 at Cafe Astrology. For your full birth chart, you can plug your birth day and time into a birth chart generator.

When your Mercury sign is in retrograde or out of whack, processing information or speaking your mind may be especially tricky. So, learning how to navigate communication in spite of planetary shifts may end up being a lifesaver.

Per Bustle, Mercury taps into the characteristics of each sign it passes through, meaning that the sign Mercury was in the moment you were born can explain some of your core qualities. For some planetary background, Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, meaning that it also travels the fastest and can bring with it a whirlwind of chaos, per POPSUGAR. Mercury is also the ruling planet for Gemini, explaining the sign's quick thinking and ability to switch things up at a moment's notice. 

The outlet sees Mercury operating quite differently for a sign like Virgo — this earth sign processes information and formulates their words carefully so as not to appear disorganized or unprepared for the situation at hand. Like intellectually thirsty Mercury in Virgo, those with their Mercury in Libra tend to seek out knowledge — a quality they share with their fellow cardinal signs Aries, Cancer, and Capricorn, per Cosmopolitan. 

Learning by osmosis is more the style of laid-back Mercury in Pisces, and Mercury in Aquarius tends to prefer dabbling in a diverse range of intellectual pursuits, according to Allure.

Scorpio Mercuries tends to keep what they learn to themselves, and, like Pisces Mercuries, find protection from judgement by maintaining their privacy, at least until they're fully sure about their audience.

Elite Daily sees Capricorn as an excellent communicator who may need to work on a more tactful delivery. They can learn how to do this from super-considerate and compassionate Cancer, who may be soft-spoken, but are trustworthy confidants. Extroverted Aries Mercuries may experience a similar roadblock as Caps when it comes to their straightforward and occasionally confrontational communication style. After all, these signs are driven by their intellects, and the ram may rush to make decisions. 

Like Aries, Taurus, the zodiac's bull, is also known for their stubbornness. Though they have the opposite problem as impulsive Aries, taking extended periods of time to make simple decisions, per Allure. Still, Taurus is a committed sign that will show up when they say they will. Mercuries in Sagittarius can learn from the bull how to refrain from making promises they aren't sure they can keep, per Elite Daily. Sag may have a reputation for being flakey, but they really just relish the breadth of opportunities presented to them and, unfortunately, tend to get overwhelmed and drop the ball. 

Aquarius is a Mercury sign that tends toward extroversion, per POPSUGAR, and their creativity and openness can inspire those around them to dream bigger. However, their outgoingness can sometimes cause drama. So it might be best for these Mercury signs to consult their zodiac neighbor Pisces, who is always tapped into the emotional atmosphere of any room.