Soon the planet Mercury, the scribe and messenger of the Sun, will be cazimi or conjoined the Sun within 1 degree. This is a very special moment for the planet during which they are elevated to the same power and authority as the Sun, as if they are king or queen for a day. Mercury will be cazimi from Thursday at 5:05pm eastern time until Saturday at 7:59am eastern time.

When the planet is cazimi, they are said to be placed on the throne of the king (the Sun). The planet is given a lot of power and attention in the heavens, like a giant spotlight is being shone on them. As the Sun rules the realm of spirit and the divine, the energy of the cazimi planet becomes more directed towards the realms of spirit and the life of the soul.

As a result, it becomes much easier to cultivate the gifts, talents, and strengths of that planet within our own lives whenever they are cazimi the Sun. Their energy predominates, and becomes much more apparent on the earth.

This time, the solar spotlight falls upon Mercury, the lord of the reason, the mind, and its tools - intellect, thought, language, wordcraft, and writing. Mercury also rules divination, as well as travel and journeys. Mercury is the patron deity for astrology and other methods of communication with the divine and receiving spiritual guidance. In any kind of divinatory skill where you are taking an intangible spiritual truth and translating it into a tangible, understandable message, you are engaged in the work of Mercury.

So when Mercury is cazimi, it's easier to focus more on internal cultivation around Mercury's virtues. Learning new skills, improving your crafts, and gaining insight into your practices and the spiritual traditions. If you have a divinatory practice that you want to begin learning, or understand more, this is a good time to dive headfirst into. This is a good time to work on developing any kind of skill that involves the use of the mind, or even strengthening your mind in general. You can make lightning-fast leaps and bounds in your understanding of the spiritual traditions that you study. 

If you want an example of Mercury Cazimi, check out Alan Watts, if you're not already familiar. He has Mercury cazimi in Capricorn. A brilliant philosopher, a polyglot, and an excellent orator, he became very famous for his capacity to understand the history, philosophy, and langauge of multiple different spiritual traditions and translate them in a way that was easily digestible andunderstandable for laypeople. This Mercury Cazimi will help you develop Alan Watts type mental skill. 

The best way to capitalize on this is to engage in Mercury Magic. As mentioned above, Mercury is cazimi in the sign of Gemini, where he is essentially dignified and much more disposed to provide his gifts. If you can do the magic on a Mercury hour thursday evening or friday Morning, then the waxing Moon will also be in the sign of Virgo and applying an aspect to Mercury. This creates a very strong opportunity to pull down Mercury’s power from the heavens.

Mercury is a good deity to call upon for beginning new lines of study, learning new skills, and developing/deepening talents around magic - in particular divination.  Mercury promotes the development of craft and wisdom, as well as intellectual dexterity in general. Mercury is also a strong candidate for money magic and fast cash - such words as merchant, merchandise, mercantile, and even market have their origin in the word Mercury, and statues of Mercury were often placed in markets. However, because of the more internal, spiritual focus of a cazimi planet, I recommended prioritizing the cultivation of Mercurial talents and virtues, as opposed to manifestation.

Here’s a simple ritual that you can do:

• Wait until one of Mercury’s planetary hours during this window (you can calculate planetary hours at planetaryhours.net).

• Then, during the proper hour, light a candle and some incense. Lemongrass and mastic are both good options.

• Start by make your request to Mercury, expressing what help you would like to receive.

• Then take a mercurial gemstone, such as opal, labradorite or (raw) emerald, and carve the glyph of Mercury ☿ into it.

• Suffumigate the gemstone with the incense

• Express gratitude, and put out the candle.

And that’s it! You can carry the stone on your person to receive Mercury’s blessings. If you want to strengthen or recharge the stone, then resuffumigate it with incense. The longer you pray with it and give it offerings, the more powerful it will become as a talisman.