Ruler: Mercury
Nature: feminine, negative, yin
Quality: mutable
Element: earth, physical
Symbol: the Virgin
Keywords: critical, analytical, carping
Principle: perfection
Destiny: through knowledge, Virgo attains power of discrimination

Sign Tarot: The Hermit
Planet Tarot: The Magician

Expectation: opportunity
Imperative: to master
Gift: joy of contributing
Challenge: sobriety
Difficulty: impatience with self
Need: mentor's acknowledgement

Body parts: stomach, bowels, solar plexus, nervous system
Foods: earth-grown vegetables
Colours: navy blue, dark brown, green
Flowers: small flowers, brightly coloured, blue and yellow
Herbs: aniseed, marjoram, caraway, balm
Metal: mercury, nickel
Gem: sardonyx
Animals: echidna
Countries: Greece, West Indies, USA, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Lyons
Cities: Paris, Heidelberg, Boston

Cyclic Parallels >>
Human Life: late adolescence
Moon: full
Day: late afternoon to sundown
Plant Life: seeding

Source: http://www.groundedheavens.com
( Astrological Diary Australia )

Messenger of the gods, god of science and commerce, known to the Greeks as Hermes. As Hermes, he is one of a number of suspects of being the father of Cupid, along with Zeus (Jupiter) and Ares (Mars). Son of Jupiter.

Mercury has come to inherit two personalities -- Hermes the messenger and trickster is the Gemini expression of Mercury; Thoth, the Egyptian deity whose task was to order the workings of the universe is the Virgo expression.

His winged caduceus has the power of resolving conflict and dispute. To the Hindus, Mercury is known as Ganesh, the elephant-headed son of Shiva. He removes obstacles and bestows wisdom, and so is often invoked at the beginning of books.

Ganesh gained his elephant head as a result of a dispute. Parvati, his mother, told him to guard the door while she had a bath. He tried to do so even against Shiva, who beheaded him. Parvati was so upset that Shiva grabbed the first head to hand to replace the missing one. Ganesh later lost a tusk defending the sleeping Shiva against "Rama with the axe". Opposing entrance, he yet willingly sustained the blow once he recognised that the axe Rama wielded was his father's.

Hermes' winged sandals helped him steal the cattle belonging to his half-brother, Apollo. As recompense, he gave Apollo his invention, the lyre. Roman patron of travellers, merchants and thieves, his festival, the Mercuralia, was held in Rome in May.

Mercury is perceptive, versatile and argumentative. He gets his message across. Can be nervous and tense in some expressions of his personality.