I want to start off by saying that, as a practitioner, I do find that it takes more time for Mercury in Scorpio to start to open up. By this I really do mean more time and not more effort.

It’s very noticeable to me when I meet with a Libra, Scorpio, or Sagittarius who has Mercury in Scorpio versus Mercury in some other sign. There’s the silences, the waiting, and the clear demarcation of what it is that they refuse to talk about.

This is the Mercury that quiets down when you ask a direct question. It’s the Mercury that takes its fucking time. It doesn’t give for the sake of just making words appear out of thin air. No, Mercury in Scorpio is extremely deliberate. When they say something they really mean it. This means that they will take their time to figure out what they want to say and what they want to talk about with you.

Mind you, Mercury in Scorpio is not more walled or defensive than any other Mercury placement. It’s just that their style of trepidation is obvious. Mercury in Scorpio doesn’t need to flit away to escape. They don’t need to dance around topics or silences. They let it all happen. Their boundaries are powerful and present. They have no fear of quiet. They will let you ask a question that disappears into the air. They will not respond to anything that they don’t have something to say about, especially not to simply fill the room.

The air grows around Mercury in Scorpio. It becomes like a solid. It becomes something that you must learn how to navigate, how to walk into.

Mercury in Scorpio, despite being a sometimes quiet Mercury, is not quiet in order to keep the peace however. They are quiet to prove to themselves that they can be even when it is uncomfortable to be quiet. In conflict? Oh, they are there. Often, they are the most outspoken people when it comes to expressing uncomfortable emotions.

And, oh, the way a Mercury in Scorpio speaks itself—the resolution, the certainty, the power. You scarcely remember that you might disagree.

The thing is, Mercury in Scorpio is not always the most persuasive Mercury despite having such power and finality in tone. It only speaks on things that it knows best and it keeps quiet on things that it doesn’t feel sure about. It presents itself and its own stakes like a monument. It sometimes forgets that, in saying anything at all, it invites conversation into itself. It sometimes forgets that words themselves are treasonous and that speaking is also the art of inviting others to call you a liar.

Like any monument, exposed and vulnerable in its totality despite its thick, thick casing Mercury in Scorpio can sometimes feel judged.

This, I think, is some of the reasons why I meet so many Mercury in Scorpios who do not get along with their siblings or other peers. It’s not like they’re doing anything particularly unfair or pushing people away. It’s this feeling of being the other person caught within the webs of your own experience, the feeling that no one else has ever quite known what you yourself have known.

We often think of Mercury in Pisces or quieter signs when we think of Mercuries that are well used to not being heard and we often notice Mercury in Scorpio for its power in research and psychological depth. However, Mercury in Scorpio is mostly peregrine. It, too, is a Mercury that doubts the usefulness of its own words.

This isn’t a Mercury that lets you know, right away, when it is disappointed, when it is angry, and when it is distraught. It takes time for it to get there. When it lets you know where it is and what it is grappling with, Mercury in Scorpio does so with a purpose. This is a Mercury that is never without a purpose.

And, so, that is why Mercury in Scorpio is a digger, perhaps. This is why it is able to begin with a single question and find ten more. This is why it is going to know almost everything about a topic that it is interested in. It doesn’t just research in libraries or on the internet, mind you. Mercury in Scorpio knows all of the information that is already out there and they hunger for more. They’ll find the right people to ask the right questions to. Once they have done that, then they’ll wait for the right moment.

Your favorite band as a teenager? Mercury in Scorpio knows a writer who knows one of them. Your favorite niche anime that no one knows about? Mercury in Scorpio has heard of it. That weird bike law that no one knows how to navigate around? Mercury in Scorpio knows how to use it in your favor.

But, Mercury in Scorpio may not always disclose these secrets until it’s time.

You see, Mercury in Scorpio doesn’t just live on the surface where its casing and silences are felt. There is a backdoor to every Mercury in Scorpio that doesn’t get opened all the time but, when the time is right and curiosity is most pleasurable, is opened with eagerness and relish. Behind this backdoor is a world of insight, observation, and imagination. It’s dosed outward like a rare treat and to swim in it is the feeling of being lost in a world of inescapably curiosity, a world where you know everything and nothing at the same time.

I love working with Mercury in Scorpios. There’s the silences and the respect for their own boundaries. And when they choose to go deep? Oh, they pull me right in.

Mercury in Scorpio is like a deep well of knowledge that looks like a monument. It doesn’t try to entice you in with sweet words and nothings. It doesn’t section itself off for sale. It waits for you and it expects you to wait for it. When you are both ready, it is your best friend in the dark. After all, Mercury in Scorpio is used to trying to see things in places that are poorly lit for them to appear on a map.