Mercury's chariot has a literal side. It stays inside 12 degrees of the Sun for the whole of this Virgo passage: under 3 degrees behind at the ingress, through the Sun on the 27th, and still under 12 degrees ahead when it steps into Libra. So its entire stay in the one sign that is both its home and its exaltation happens inside the Sun's glare, and from mid northern latitudes it will not clear the evening twilight once. A protected planet that does its best work where nobody can watch is a fair picture of Virgo Mercury.
The speed holds up too. It is moving 1.99 degrees a day at the ingress and 1.70 at the exit, close to double its average pace, with the year's peak of 2.19 having come in mid May.
Mercury's chariot has a literal side. It stays inside 12 degrees of the Sun for the whole of this Virgo passage: under 3 degrees behind at the ingress, through the Sun on the 27th, and still under 12 degrees ahead when it steps into Libra. So its entire stay in the one sign that is both its home and its exaltation happens inside the Sun's glare, and from mid northern latitudes it will not clear the evening twilight once. A protected planet that does its best work where nobody can watch is a fair picture of Virgo Mercury.
The speed holds up too. It is moving 1.99 degrees a day at the ingress and 1.70 at the exit, close to double its average pace, with the year's peak of 2.19 having come in mid May.
Indeed! I wasn’t tracking how close it was to its peek speed earlier in the year. Thanks!