MERCURY MARS CONJUNCTIONS, FOCUS, & THE INTERRUPTOR'S DILEMMA
Mercury and Mars together in an astrological chart can present as rapt intentional listening, linear and targeted tracking, and seriously engrossed monologues.
In astrological terms, when Mercury and Mars are together, they are “conjoined”. Thus there is a concentrated throughline of thought and action that gets to happen. The idea and the movement that accompanies it is sharp, punctuated with alignment.
Because Mars deals with so much of our primal instincts, Mercury Mars conjunctions tend to carry a signature of survival of the intellectually fittest.
People with natal Mercury Mars conjunctions, especially if they are in Gemini, Virgo, Aries or Scorpio (signs ruled by Mercury and Mars respectively), are rapid-fire fast at rationalizing their ideas. They are often great debaters (mitigating factors aside of course) and have a way of outsmarting any situation. They can even run rings around themselves if not careful. This signature brings intense concentration and a connection between our primal instincts and cognitive savvy. It also may cause us to spin because the thought process is focused on a single subject, will leave no stone unturned - or perhaps more aptly - unused. And if given the opportunity, Mercury Mars may throw a stone or a few. If they do, you can be sure it will land like a bullet smack in the center of its target. Because this aspect is a sharpshooter.
Mercury Mars conjunctions have spy level skill. Will dig deep into the haystack to find the needle, with the thread of clues still knotted carefully around the hole.
Mercury Mars conjunctions are also talented litigators, helpful allies in court who can deftly build the story, weaving information into evidence as they tear apart the fabric of the other party’s case.
When Mercury, as a jack and jane of all trades, is joined by Mars, they can get burned, but they also have fuel for furiously fast learning. Mercury Mars people will often pick up a new skill and know it in and out, backwards and forwards with very little time. But Mercury Mars conjunctions have a single-pointed focus that other Mercury Mars aspects do not.
Mercury can definitely support a scar or two from spending time with Mars. My teacher Austin Coppock reminds us that Mercury likes hanging out with the baddies - Mercury is a Robinhood level thief after all. With this degree of skill, it might be easy to say we’d love a Mercury Mars conjunction in our natal chart. But that aspect will feel different depending on a series of factors including:
The sign in which Mercury and Mars are placed
The house in which Mercury and Mars are placed
The condition of the planet ruling the sign and house in which the Mercury Mars conjunctions is placed
The sect of the chart
Number 4 is important and you can read all about sect in the article I released last month. For our purposes today, the TLDR is this:
Mercury Mars conjunctions are naturally going to have more constructive results if you are born at night, because Mars is the malefic of the night sect and is therefore on the “home team”.
If you’re born during the day, all that focus and skill might feel like more of a burn than a boon.
When Mercury Mars conjunctions are present by transit, many of the above signatures express themselves in our unfolding lives. Wherever a transiting Mercury Mars conjunction happens in your chart will be an area of distinct concentration and intense but thoughtful processing and craft.
This fall and winter, we are lucky (depending on your relationship to Mercury and Mars) to have three separate Mercury Mars conjunctions, back to back in different signs and therefore houses. I relish when we have a repeat of a single aspect like this because we get to really tease out how certain planets show up for us, for each other, and for the part of our lives they are impacting. Below are the dates of the Mercury Mars conjunctions we’ve had, are having, or will have and a little overview of mitigating factors and how they’re expressing.
October 19th, 2025: Mercury conjunct Mars at 19°Scorpio (ruled by, well Mars himself)
This particular conjunction clearly gave the upper hand to Mars. At the time, Mercury was very much an evening star, and therefore more likely to play for Mars’ night team. That said, this conjunction was more of an alliance than others may be. One primary signification of Mars is “vulnerability”. Since Mercury deals information in spades, this conjunction likely had us practicing being vulnerable, or protecting ourselves from vulnerabilities. Words landed with an acidic edge, and I noticed that conversation around this time was all at once reticent and stinging. Mercury Mars does also happen to be a magician-like signature, specifically in the esoteric sense - aiming to protect their knowledge, which I noticed was a core theme in the Sphere & Sundry writeup of their most recent series release for Leo Decan III. I digress...
On the day before the conjunction in Scorpio, I released my Contemporary Treatise on Astrological Magic. This is the first time that I have spoken publicly and thoroughly about my relationship to astrological magic from my own platform, because it is quite a vulnerable subject when your ancestral and professional lineages have experienced different versions of persecution for this very thing. This was also a moment when I started carefully positioning clues (Mercury/Mars) for some personal and professional news I’m going to share with you soon ;) Scorpio in my chart is in the 11th house of audiences so this was a very apt signature.
There were some other devastating things that happened around this time, including the announcement of the federal cut (note the Mars word) to SNAP benefits. Mercury generally signifies youth or children. Thus, Mars and Mercury together can sometimes be literal harm to children. We might also consider Mercury and Mars together as a signature of “the people”, of “laborers”, “service workers” and generally speaking “the working class”. But Mercury and Mars are savvy and well aligned in this place in Scorpio. After the announcement, myriad people came together to support local food banks (they still need help and they need your money more than anything - they are better at food sourcing than we are and know what the people need! If you have something to give, please stop reading this article right now. Look up the food bank closest to you, give a bit of money, then come back here to finish this article. This should take you less than 5min).
Now that we’ve done our good remediative turn, onward and upward!
Mutual aid was top of mind and as Mercury is quite the Robin Hood and disseminator of things, Mercury and Mars together could move a lot of product and cash quickly, finding loopholes and supporting communities that needed it despite our complete disgrace of federal leadership.
Lastly, since we’re on the subject of thieves, the Mercury Mars conjunction in Scorpio was none other than THEE DAY of the now famous Louvre Heist, which then served as fodder for plenty of memes (and Halloween costumes - hello Mercury as the great disguiser!) about jewels that had been stolen long ago many times over from all over the world before making their way to the great Parisian palace which was also built with stolen money. ANYWAY. Onto lighter subjects, shall we?
November 12th, 2025: MercuryRx conjunct Mars at 6°Sagittarius (ruled by exalted Jupiter in Cancer)
This conjunction is coming to you live RIGHT NOW. Mercury and Mars are currently swaggering up to bat in the first degrees of Sag. Mercury is in detriment in the sign of Sagittarius, but has dignity by decan in this place. We still see the aspect of vulnerability (Mars) come through, but due to Jupiter’s rulership, that revelation can introduce grandiose perspective shifts. We need to be careful because Mercury is also currently stationing retrograde, emphasizing the Mercury Mars signature of digging in one’s heels around a single subject matter. That said, Sagittarius land is much more expansive than Scorpio, and we may find ourselves building whole worlds around a solitary theme - with Mercury and Mars running around in them together.
My absolute favorite expression of this current conjunction is the release of ROSALÍA’s new album, LUX. First off, LUX (related to luxury but also to light) is very much a Sagittarian name. Sagittarius season is when the Sun descends into the darkest part of the year in the Northern Hemisphere - creating a literal and perennial light in the dark. This album marries primal sounds with operatic vocals, spanning exquisite highs and agonizing depths of notes and emotion. It is raw and vulnerable while also a fierce (Mars) display of Mercurial talent. ROSALÍA sings in THIRTEEN different languages on this album, emphasizing the Jupiterian love of culture and she integrates whole orchestras, for a magnanimous and very ecclesiastical effect. Every song pierces the heart with its intense degree of passion. Unsurprisingly, social media is dominated (Mars) by her presence after its release. The album is about love, heartbreak, feral instincts and obsessive heartache (Mercury Mars) and pulls on myriad religious figures, emblems and allegories (Sagittarius). Based on just a few listens (who am I kidding I have probably heard the whole thing at least ten times through now), I've noted thematically on point threads such as the potency of what it is to be lost and found in love, the excruciating pain of being torn from it, and the Dionysian (who, like Mercury happens to be a psychopomp) purification of surviving it all.
Remember how I mentioned in the beginning that Mercury Mars conjunctions can make great listeners? WELL.
ROSALÍA gathered 900 GUESTS at the “Sala Ova” of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya in Barcelona for an EXCLUSIVE LISTENING of her album. Not a concert. A LISTENING. Attendees were asked to cover their phone cameras and refrain from recording. That is some Mercury Mars sh%t if I ever heard it. Draped in white, ROSALÍA was motionless on the stage for almost the entire album, kind of like Mercury barely moving now at 6° of Sagittarius. It is worth noting that ROSALÍA has a very “undignified” chart - with three traditional planets in fall and one in detriment. She is a classic example of the success we can have when we identify what we are supposed to do and fully live our chart.
January 17th, 2026: Mercury conjunct Mars at 26°Capricorn (ruled by Saturn in Pisces)
This last Mercury Mars conjunction happens in a Mercury/Sun decan, co-present with the Sun who, it’s worth noting, is just two degrees away at 28° of Capricorn - which also happens to be Mars’s degree of exaltation. While Capricorn is usually a very cool and collected sign, this moment carries some welcome and staggeringly well-directed heat. Situated in a perfectly supportive and collaborative sextile to Capricorn’s ruler Saturn in Pisces, this moment has competence written all over it.
This conjunction feels like the result of all of the trials Mercury and Mars went through together in Scorpio and Sagittarius. They’ve lived through some shit. They’ve butted heads. They’ve rode and died and came back very alive. This last conjunction may be the least emotional and most tactfully vulnerable. It is less feeling and more doing.
As the Sun has just passed Mars during this conjunction, it is the moment when Mars is furthest away from the Earth and represents the start of a new Mars cycle. However, Mars at this point is becoming a morning star, rising before the Sun. Since Mars is a night sect planet, they may have a slightly harsher tone than a few days before. But this is essentially a “New Moon” for Mars in one of Mars’s most resourced places in the zodiac - Capricorn. Thus, this Mercury Mars conjunction is coded in knowledge, mastery, prowess and general adroitness. It is worth noting where it happens in your chart because it marks a place where you might begin a fresh phase or story that is interwoven with clear, decisive strategy. It is unemotional and yet, in it for the win. So place your pawns carefully and you may just catch the queen. (or at least her jewels ;))
Use the key below, to look at the descriptions of the houses these conjunctions are occurring in in your chart and notice if you find any similar signatures in those areas of your life.
1st house: Identity & Expression, Direction & Presentation, Physical Body & Vitality, Approach & Appearance
2nd house: Wealth & Resources, Creation & Consumption, Physical Wants & Needs, Assets & Possessions, Property & Values, Worth & Gains
2nd house: Wealth & Resources, Creation & Consumption, Physical Wants & Needs, Assets & Possessions, Property & Values, Worth & Gains
3rd house: Local Community and Immediate Environment, Carework, Siblings & Neighbors, Rhythms, Rituals & Routines, Intuition & Divination, Self Trust & Acceptance, Personal Praxis, Intimate Gatherings
4th house: Family & Foundation, Ancestral Lineage, Roots & Land, Home & Privacy
5th house: Creative Power, Pleasure & Progeny, Love Affairs & Romance, Children & Art
6th house: Physical Health & Wellness, Employment & Service, Dissent & Submission, Vulnerability & Accidents, Acute Ailments & Routine Maintenance
7th house: Partnership & Commitments, Marriage & Contracts, Attachment & Relationships, Reflection
8th house: Shared Resources & Mutual Air, Debts & Inheritances, Gestation & Death, Profit & Loss
9th house: Core Guiding Beliefs, Higher Education, Philosophy, Culture & Religion, Long Distance Travel
10th house: Reputation & Public image, Intention and Visible Impact, Action & Accomplishment
11th house: Collective Power, Audiences, Hopes & Successes, Community Organizing
12th house: Mental Health & Chronic Ailments, Systems & Institutions, Incarceration, Exile, & Liberation
It is important to note that conjunctions are just ONE type of aspect that Mercury and Mars can have together. I will not go over all of the aspects today because that’s more time than I have. But I will give you a brief overview of the distinctions between the harder aspects they can make to each other:
In the Mercury Mars conjunction, we have power-fueled focus, whereas when we see Mercury and Mars in a square or an opposition, there are often interruptions, diversions, changing story lines, contrary tactics, and red herrings aplenty.
This is most critical when we are considering relationships because Mercury is a planet of communication.
In relationships, we tend to find compatibility with people who receive and convey information similarly to us. I have a Mercury Mars square in my chart, so I am an interruptor. No shame, that’s a fact. I will cut you off and talk over you whether I’m angry, excited, thrilled or anything in between. It’s not personal, and while I do have the ability to curb this tendency, it’s not the most natural.
I tend to interrupt, and I like being interrupted. I enjoy the experience of being engaged in conversation with someone who is so enthused that they want to jump in and add their two cents. I honestly relish a competitive diatribe. I grew up in a family that had people talking over one another at the dinner table and while there are certainly fallouts to this way of being, I mostly feel good about it today.
I had stopped feeling good about for a while when I spent a lot of time with people who had Mercury Mars conjunctions. Because my way of interrupting and communicating was difficult and hurtful for some of those folks, I beat myself up all the time for this thing that is so hard-wired into how I am. I constantly second-guessed myself. I thought I was a terrible communicator.
A few years ago, I met one of my now best friends who told me early on in our friendship that she never wanted to be in relationship with someone she couldn’t fight with. As in throw down with words, cut each other off, intellectually armor up and go to bat - fight. She was proud to be in the fight club. She encouraged me to embrace this part of myself and I am FOREVER grateful to also be back in coven of brazen wordsmiths.
I went out with a friend the other night who is from Brazil. In the car on the way to dinner, she shyly told me that where she’s from, everyone talks over one another and apologized if she had interrupted me. She was worried that I would be upset about it. And because of the love from my bestie, I got to own that I actually adore interruptions SO much.
But this comment got me thinking, because I also enjoy when people can really listen. I admire when someone can think deeply and stay put for a long time on a single point. And when I’m focused, I know I’m a pretty good listener. We are not all compatible in our communication styles, especially for certain types of very intimate relationships, though we can, to a degree, work on our communication skills and learn a few things to better connect with everyone.
That said, it’s also important to embrace and strengthen the ways of communicating that might be natural for us, so we can be intentional with our talents, especially if that natural thing has a sharp edge (helloooo Mercury Mars).
Just a reminder that it’s okay that we don’t all like each other and get along and know how to reach each other all the time.
So let’s talk about the other difficult Mercury Mars aspects:
Mercury Mars squares are diversion queens.
They know how to switch the subject, and probably how to switch it back again. They ask clever questions and may frustrate you with inquiries and answers completely outside the bounds of what you thought you were getting into. It might feel like getting your brain thrown around if you don’t have this in your natal chart, but these people are so good at getting outside of themselves, and getting others to think differently, from various angles. Mercury Mars squares definitely have to learn to deal with distraction but because Mercury and Mars are a tactically functional pair, they usually find a way for the distraction to support the ultimate objective. Like any Mercury Mars signature, there is a rapid-fire quality to the way these people learn. Sometimes this skill creates only a superficial, albeit wide-ranging layer of knowledge, but also a real talent for making every little bit of information count.
Mercury Mars oppositions, on the other hand, are sensational devil’s advocates.
They might be a bit aggressive on the front, but have the ability to self-reflect when they cultivate it. They can play for both teams and often are the ones who find the information that swings the jury one way or the other. There is a shock and awe quality to this aspect, generally using the shock to divert attention while something else gets stolen or integrated. But more than anything, what I see with the Mercury Mars opposition is an ability to get other people to see what you see (even if they don’t agree with it). It’s not an emotional aspect, but a functional skillset to plant perspective. They are “framers”. Because they have their own challenge meeting information, they are exceptionally skilled at organizing and presenting knowledge to others in a way that can be digested and understood.
People who have Mercury and Mars conjoined, might find themselves really frustrated by the interruptors and devils advocates because it’s hard for the conjunctions to adapt and make the perspective shift that the other hard aspects do naturally. On the other hand, those of us without the conjunction lack the intense focus of the Mercury Mars bondage. There is always a tradeoff. Luckily, we all get to experience the conjunction, square and opposition by transit.
Go back to the key above to identify where in your chart the Mercury Mars conjunctions are happening. If you want to talk about it, especially that poignant one in Capricorn in January, my books for November are open. You can schedule a session here. See you in consults!