In Vedic astrology, Mercury is considered a very important planet which defines the measure of intellect of an individual. If someone’s Mercury is well placed and powerful, that person will have a high intellect, sharp memory and will make correct decisions. The ability to comprehend and process information into decisive conclusion is also given by Mercury.
An afflicted Mercury or a debilitated Mercury will cause lack of intelligence, poor decision making, harsh speech and restlessness. (“Budh” is the giver of “Buddhi”)
A powerful Mercury is also responsible for good business or a finance career. Since Mercury is the lord of business and finance, it is very important planet to consider if you are a businessman, a stock broker, a financial analyst, a banker, an accountant, a business analyst or sales professional. Anything related to business, trade, finance, money making cannot be achieved if Mercury is positioned badly in that person’s birth chart.
There can be very rare exceptions though. For example, a person who has a badly placed Mercury may still find success as a business man. In that case, it is possible that some other planet is super strong in his chart e.g Saturn, Jupiter or Venus or there is a conjunction of planets happening in the 7th, 10th or 12th house. Barring these rare exceptions, in general cases, if Mercury is not placed well in a birth chart, there will be problems related to trade, decision making, finance, intellect and overall intelligence of a person.
Before you get busy finding out the position of Mercury in your birth chart, here are a few things to note
- Mercury is exalted in Virgo (“Kanya rasi”) and debilitated in Pisces (“Meen rasi”). In your birth chart, if Mercury is positioned in the house of Virgo, it is considered Exalted (“Uchh ka Budh”) and enjoys maximum power or influences you positively. In your birth chart, if Virgo is positioned in the house of Pisces it becomes debilitated and loses power or influences you negatively. (“Neech ka Budh”).
- Mercury is friends with Sun (“Soorya”) and Venus (“Shukra”). So any conjunction or relationship with these two planets will increase the strength of Mercury or cancel it’s negative effects, if the Mercury is badly placed.
- Mercury considers Moon (“Chandra”) and Mars (“Mangal”) as its enemies. So any conjunction or relationship with these two planets will decrease the strength of Mercury and increase its negative effects.
The Results Given By An Exalted Mercury In Birth Chart
Mercury is the only planet which is exalted in the very house where he is the owner. This is the only exception wherein a planet which is the owner of a house is also exalted in that very house. Mercury is exalted in the house of “Virgo” (“Kanya rasi”) and at the strength of 15 degrees at Virgo, Mercury becomes the most powerful.
Let’s see some real birth charts where Mercury is exalted.
The above chart is the birth chart of famous actor Amitabh Bachhan. Look at the chart on the left hand side. Here, the Planet Mercury is denoted with the symbol “Me” and it is placed in the house which has the number 6. Number 6 denotes that it is the house of Virgo (Aries = 1, Taurus =2, Gemini = 3, Cancer = 4, Leo = 5, Virgo = 6).
So Amitabh Bachhan has an exalted Mercury and that is placed in the 8th house from Ascendant (Lagna). Furthermore, this mercury is in conjunction with Sun and is causing “Budhaditya Yog” in 8th house. Furthermore, this Mercury is creating “Bhadra Yoga” because it is positioned in the “Mool Trikone”. Also, consider the fact that he also has an Exalted Jupiter placed in the house of Cancer in 6th house, the usual house of “Mercury”, so Jupiter is also helping Mercury. And hence this position of Exalted Mercury is extremely powerful here.
Let’s look at another chart, this one if of ex Indian Prime minister Manmohan Singh.
In this chart, Mercury is again in the house with the number 6 which means, Mercury is in the house of Virgo and hence Exalted. Also, note that this Mercury is placed in the 10th house from Ascendant. Mercury is placed along with Sun, creating “Budhaditya Yog“. Not only that, Mercury is creating “Bhadra yog” because it is in the house of “Kendra”. Not only that, this Mercury is sitting with the Lord of 9th, creating “Raj Yoga“. Not only that, this Mercury is sitting with the lord of 9th and lord of 10th in the 10th house itself (the house of work and career). Hence, this Mercury is even stronger than the Mercury of Amitabh Bachhan and creates a unique example of “Raj Yoga” which is rarely found in normal charts.
The house of Virgo primarily represents Logic and practical thoughts. Virgo does not care about creativity and imagination, Virgo is all about being practical. Virgo is a sharp critique and also an unbiased judge. It also represents arguments and detailing (“Tarksheelta”). Somebody who wants to pursue a career in law, their house of Virgo must have strong influence of an important planet because it is this house which governs the elements of Logic.
An Exalted Mercury gives success in the following professional disciplines
- Marketing, Finance or Sales.
- Medicine
- Mathematics, Physics or Astronomical research.
- Law, Judgement and Administration.
- Linguistics, writing and communications.
- Logician or Diplomat.
An exalted mercury with some influence of Mars gives tremendous prospects in the higher study of Mathematics, Physics or Astronomy. A person who is researching in the field of Physical science or Mathematics or Astronomical studies will find great results if Mercury is exalted in his chart with some influence of Mars.
People who have exalted mercury are excellent Critiques. Give them any position, any topic or any subject and they will detail it so beautifully and point out the pros and cons of that thing to the finest detail. It’s because people with exalted Mercury have immense processing power in their brains and they can go to higher depths about a situation or subject and analyze it thoroughly which other people cannot. Hence, people with exalted Mercury will always find success in the profession of a Marketing Analyst, Financial Analyst, A financial broker in a brokerage firm – something which involves deep analysis with numbers, calculations, formulas and other parameters. Because these people have that capacity of processing complex situations perfectly which normal people do not have.
An exalted mercury in the 2nd house or 9th house gives excellent communication skills to the individual. If your mercury is exalted in the 2nd house, you will find success in communication, writing, advertising, news reading, journalism, reporting or anything which is related with Communications.
An Exalted Mercury in the 8th house gives immense research capacity to the individual. Especially, if that research is being carried out on an unconventional topic, occult sciences or a very rare discipline. Most of the researchers who have succeeded in their research work have the position of a good mercury in their chart. If your mercury is positioned in the 8th house and is exalted, it will be best if you take up a very rare subject and do research work on it – you will certainly be successful in your efforts.
An exalted Mercury with a combination of Good Rahu, or Good Ketu gives success in the fields of Information technology. They make good programmers, software engineers or database administrators. Rahu and Ketu are the planets which increases the processing power of large amount of information and data, so if they are positioned well in a birth chart with an Exalted Mercury, that person will find success in the fields of Data analysis, database administrators, Data scientists, Technical architect, software architect and so forth.
An exalted Mercury with the good position of Jupiter or Saturn gives success in Banking sector, in accounting, taxation or anything which needs calculation of numbers or money.
An exalted Mercury with good position of Moon gives success in Writing and composition. If you have an Exalted Mercury and the position of Moon is good in the chart, you will find success in the field of Writing. You can be a Novelist, a poet, a journalist or editor, a blogger or a media professional who writes on a particular topic and will be considered an expert in that given discipline. Moon represents “Mind” and “Imagination” and coupled with an Exalted Mercury, it creates the ingredients necessary for writers to succeed in their work. Although, Mercury considers Moon as its enemy but Moon does not consider Mercury as its enemy, so Moon supports Mercury and makes it more powerful, thereby increasing the qualities of imagination and expression.
An exalted Mercury in the 7th house makes a successful businessman. Mercury is the planet which rules Business and 7th house is the house of business. So if the planet which is the ruler of the business trade is sitting in the 7th house, it gives tremendous trading capabilities to that individual. Give this person an opportunity and he/she will always try to make a business out of it. An exalted mercury in the 7th house with a powerful Saturn makes a successful entrepreneur. Exalted Mercury in 7th house also gives wealth, sons and material pleasures.
This does not mean that anyone who has Exalted Mercury in 7th house will always be a business man, by default. There are other factors to consider but this is a general observation that if someone has exalted Mercury in the 7th house, he finds success in business. That business need not be a multi million dollar enterprise – it can even be a small coffee shop. The magnitude depends on the strength of the overall birth chart, the strength of ascendant, mahadasha, antardasha, nakshatra and lot of other things. But the general observation is that exalted Mercury in 7th house generally gives success in business – be it big be it small.
- Conjunction of Exalted Mercury with Sun creates “Budhaditya Yog”. It is a very important Yog and gives good results to the person in terms of career, work, fame, recognition etc. If this Yog is formed on the house of Virgo or in the 10th house, then the power of this Yog increases 10,000 times. This is applicable in the case of Mr Manmohan singh, whose chart is presented above.
- Conjunction of Exalted Mercury with Moon increases the intelligence of a person. Moon represents “Mind” so it’s conjunction with Mercury increases Intelligence and creative power of that person.
- Conjunction of Exalted Mercury with Mars increases the research capacity of that person. These people often find success in research work, inventions or patent work.
- Conjunction of Exalted Mercury with Venus increases the beauty of that person. These people often find success in the Entertainment industry or something which is related with Beauty, art or the expression of beauty e.g dance, acting, fine arts.
- Conjunction of Exalted Mercury with Jupiter gives success in Academia. It is usually found in the charts of eminent professors, lecturers, academic professionals or someone who is related with Teaching.
- Conjunction of exalted Mercury with Saturn makes a good craftsman e.g engineer, constructor, real estate.
- Conjunction of exalted Mercury with Rahu or Ketu makes a successful IT professional or someone who works with computers and lots of data.
The Results of A Debilitated Mercury
Mercury is considered debilitated when it is placed in the sign of Pisces (“Meen”). The maximum debilitation point for Mercury is 15 degrees in Pisces.
Pisces is the house of creativity, imagination and expression. Mercury is all about intelligence, logic and practicality. Hence, in the house of Pisces, Mercury feels uncomfortable since it cannot dwell into the attributes that comes with the Pisces house – creativity and imagination. There is dissonance and hence Mercury is debilitated in Pisces.
Mercury placed in Pisces does not mean that Mercury will always give bad results by default. There are lot of factors which decides whether a planet will give bad results or not. However, in general, if Mercury is placed in the house of Pisces, Mercury does not give favourable results.
- A debilitated mercury reduces logical ability of a person. The person with a debilitated mercury is often lost in his own world of imagination, thinking and contemplation. He become s a day dreamer. He doesn’t bother on what’s happening at the present and is not very practical in terms of thinking or decision making. These people often become great novelists or writers because a debilitated Mercury allows the subject unique imagination skills which is above and beyond logic.
- A debilitated Mercury makes a person wise and spiritually inclined. Because “Pisces” is the house of Jupiter and Jupiter represents wisdom and spiritual progress. So a person with debilitated Mercury is often God fearing, yearns for Wisdom and divine knowledge of ancient scriptures, is a great orator and tries to achieve spiritual progress in some way. He goes to pilgrimages, reads books on spiritual development and is often wiser than other people.
- A debilitated Mercury also makes a great teacher or “Guru”, the propagator of Knowledge. This is because any association of Mercury with Jupiter is generally found in the chart of a good teacher or propagator of knowledge. Pisces being the first sign of Jupiter and Mercury (the planet of intellect) sitting there signifies great knowledge propagation prospects about the subject.
- A debilitated mercury in the 1st house (lagna or ascendant) gives the subject a beautiful spouse.
- A debilitated mercury in the 2nd house gives success in singing or anything related to voice.
- A debilitated mercury in the 5th house creates condition of multiple income channels and gives the person opportunities of earning money through illegitimate sources, sometimes it also corrupts the person in some way.
- A debilitated mercury in the 6th house takes the subject far off in a distant country in search of business, work, travel.
- A debilitated Mercury in the 7th house gives moderate success in business, but only after 32 years of age. Mercury in 7th house (whether exalted or debilitated) is generally found in the charts of business people. But if Mercury is debilitated, it generally gives moderate success in business after 32 years of age.
- A debilitated mercury in the 8th house again increases the chances of illegitimate income (black money)
- A debilitated mercury in the 9th house gives gains from brothers and sisters.
- A debilitated mercury in the 10th house gives difficulties in career establishment but makes a good diplomat / politician / economist or actor.
- A debilitated mercury in the 11th house gives a very talented child to the subject.
- A debilitated mercury in the 12th house gives unexpected gains or losses, success in lottery or money laundering, makes a gambler or someone who takes unnecessary risks in terms of whimsical investments.
Budh “Beej” Mantra
If a subject has a malefic mercury (Budh) or debilitated Budh in his/her birth chart, then it is recommended to chant the following Budh beej mantra 108 times a day, either 30 minutes before sunrise or 30 minutes after sunset.
Although it is not easy to spot Mercury right after Sunset, but if you are Lucky and the evening Sky is clear of clouds, you can spot a single “White” dot visible in the West or South West direction of the Sky.
You should chant the Mantra in the direction of Mercury, either 30 minutes before Sunrise (east) or 30 minutes after Sunset (west).
Om Braam Brim Braum sah budhaya namaha
ॐ ब्रां ब्रीं ब्रों सः बुधाय नमः