A Mercury that listens like a whisper and works like a drum—a Mercury that moves in beat with people, always straying far too long and, yet, always on time. A Mercury that pouts because it is trying to hint that it knows more than you could possibly know it does but doesn’t want to say anymore than what is necessary—this is Mercury in Cancer.

Mercury is odd in Cancer. It doesn’t enjoy triplicity and, yet, it yearns for affinity. This is the Mercury that didn’t know the self until it found a small group of supportive friends and, yet, doesn’t quite know how to begin a conversation except between those closest to it.

This is the Mercury that treats the stranger like its closest friend. Mercury in Cancer will look around, a mischievous glint to its eye, beckon to you to come closer, and whisper to you that there’s a sale on beeswax like it’s sharing a social conspiracy.

This is the Mercury that speaks almost everything like a well rehearsed secret. You see, Mercury in Cancer knows things. It knows things about the people who you know together. It shakes its head, gives silent nods, and it prizes itself on knowing more than what it is willing to tell.

Mercury in Cancer won’t tell your secrets unless there is the chance that telling these secrets are good for you. That’s important for Mercury in Cancer. It strives to care for others with the voice.

There is an unceasing and subtle drama to the Mercury in Cancer. This is no fiery flair. Mercury in Cancer has the ability to spread stories into life without you realizing that they are assuming character at all. Their voice breaks, then they laugh, they play with volume freely, and they speak in tongues. This Mercury finds it easy to imitate the voice of their great aunt and your mother in dialogue together. You laugh but it’s true. Mercury in Cancer tells stories but always from their own point of view.

This Mercury remembers. A Mercury ruled by the Moon? A Mercury that is ruled by memory? Mercury in Cancer forgets nothing.

Mercury in Cancer can replicate entire conversations at whim. They don’t remember the gist of things. They are capturers of detail. They know how a conversation came to be, can retrace the very rhythm of interest, and they know where you came from. God, Mercury in Cancer knows where you came from. They can parrot the dialect in your hometown and make you feel like you never left.

This isn’t a big texter. Mercury in Cancer prefers the touch of voice. They’ll leave you voice memos or call you for a two hour conversation but they might not get back to that last text. They’re not constantly available even if they, mostly, tend to see everything that occurs.

For all of its friendliness, for all of its quiet charisma and unfolding flair for the melodramatic, Mercury in Cancer is rather shy. It speaks in a shy way. It speaks quietly, unassuming, and then louder when encouraged to do so. It can quickly assume the voice of a child and then impress upon you the weight of its authority. Whatever it says, it says it with living and breathing emotionality. Mercury in Cancer isn’t interested in objective realities. It’s far too interested in funny characters and in humanizing machines.

Mercury in Cancer will keep its opinion quiet when it is not popular, supposedly. They do so by speaking into the ear of everyone they are around one on one, privately, so as to not disturb the public peace and consensus all too much.

This is a funny Mercury. Funny Mercuries tend to be the less straightforward Mercuries, the ones that fall peregrine or in debilitation and Cancer is such a funny sign. Mercury in Cancer is the master of inside jokes. It doesn’t call someone an acquaintance until it can share at least two inside jokes with them and it doesn’t call you a friend until you can recall at least five inside jokes together.

Sometimes, people think that they are closer to Mercury in Cancer than they actually are. They look around and quickly realize that they know none of Mercury in Cancer’s secrets while Mercury in Cancer happens to know several of theirs.

You don’t want to piss a Mercury in Cancer off. If you’re close enough to piss them off, then they also know how to gut you.

This is a Mercury that makes sure that it will be listened to, becoming softer than it’s expected to go big and becoming louder when it's expected to be small. It’s the Mercury that plays exceptionally well with a child’s imagination because it never left that part of itself behind. It’s the Mercury that says socially dangerous and almost libelous things when it is disturbed. It’s a Mercury that provokes the most intimate of scandals because it just so happens to know so, so much more than it is willing to express.

Mercury in Cancer is the secret keeper who shares. It’s the auntie who talks shit to your face and compliments you behind your back. It’s the sweet-faced critic who works with the voice of a lullaby. Mercury in Cancer will have your ear when it’s ready to have your ear—not before, not after. If Mercury in Cancer is willing to speak, then it has already ensured that it will be heard.