Mercury in Aries

Mercury can be found in Aries only when the Sun is in Pisces, Aries or Taurus. Ptolemy (Ashmand's 1822 translation) states that the planet never strays more than a sign from the Sun, and Lilly 1659 limits it to 27 degrees. The placement therefore belongs to one stretch of the calendar every year.

Ptolemy's chapter on the mind names tropical, bicorporeal and fixed signs and is silent on Aries' equinoctial class. Raphael's Guide of 1877 is the one source read here that speaks to this Mercury directly, with a restless and ambitious mind, a fertile wit and a gift for speech, along with a charge of dishonesty left with its author. He also guesses that Shakespeare had this Mercury rising.

Lilly gives Mercury degrees 15 to 21 of Aries as terms, and a term is a slice of a sign with a minor claim attached. Aries is a house of Mars, and apart from that slice his tables give Mercury neither dignity nor detriment there. Alan Leo 1899 grants the sign great mental energy, though he is speaking of the sign and the Sun.