By Darrelyn Gunzburg
January 2005
This case study examines a man’s powerful rising Mercury in rulership in paran to Acumen and Betelgeuse.
The natal aspect can tell us a great deal about the nature of an aspect being expressed in a client’s chart. The Fixed Stars which sit beneath them can add an even greater understanding of how this can best be articulated.
Example: Mercury with Acumen (Culminating: active in his Prime)
Starlight says of this star and planet combination:
Difficult, or tedious, mental endeavours; stressful financial dealings
In my client’s chart, Mercury in rulership in Gemini in the 12th house makes a partile mutable square to Jupiter in detriment in Virgo in the 3rd house.
This natal aspect suggests my client is either part of a large organization or institution (the 12th house) for whom he is the writer or spokesperson (Mercury in the 12th house with Gemini and Virgo intercepted in the 12th and 3rd houses); or in his writing he represents or is symbolic of a large group of people.
With Jupiter being in detriment, this writing has to be for an unusual or fringe group or he himself may be unusual and radical and making statements on behalf of or an unusual and radical group. This difference can cause stress and tension (the square aspect) which he does not see until it is right in front of him (mutable square). However, once he sees the problem, he can then take action and solve the problem in a highly creative and flexible manner (mutable square). Since both Sagittarius and Pisces are intercepted in his chart (sixth and ninth houses), hard work and travel or publishing underpin the way he expresses himself.
So what does the fixed star Acumen add to this picture?
Mercury is connected with Acumen in his prime, so this empowered writing capability and clear-thinking mind has to deal with “difficult, or tedious, mental endeavours or stressful financial dealings” in the prime of his life. This could be said to encompass the Jupiter in detriment.
However, my client is gay and chose to work for large gay organizations, such as co-ordinator of the International Lesbian and Gay Association in Brussels, Belgium; and project manager of a gay men’s education agency which provided condoms and lube packs to gay men in London. In this way, continually in the firing line when expressing his writing and communicating skills, he was able to give a credible voice (Mercury in Gemini) to “difficult, or tedious, mental endeavours or stressful financial dealings” (Mercury connected with Acumen).
Luckily his Mercury is also connected with Betelgeuse.
Starlight says of this star and planet combination:
An abundantly creative person
Being on the nadir, this works his whole life. After his Saturn Return, in the middle years of his life and embodying the difficulties of being an “out” gay man, my client began a successful writing career as a published poet and short story writer which has at its core the gay zeitgeist of modern life.
By looking at the stars that are in paran to his Mercury, I gain a clearer picture as to how this important planet is going to play itself out throughout his life.
