‘This is from Tracy Masks book "Your secret Self-Illuminating the Mysteries af the Twelth House” Marcury’s Influence upon your twelfth house suggests that you ate a reflective parson, capable of providing your own mental stimulation and drawn to intellectual pursuits involving reading and writing. In the privacy of your own home, youspend many hours introspecting, studying a variety of subjects, writing, or speaking on the phone, in uder to clarify yourthinking about issues of personal concem. You are almest always communicating with yourself dialoguing, with your thoughts, talking aloud to yourself, snd even talking in your sleep, Because you ae self critical, anxious and prone te worrying, you may experience a high deoree of nervous tension which may interfere with your ability to.concentrate or focus ‘your attention on one project ‘Your mind is always active, processing your inner experience and secking to organize the vast amount of stimultion which threatens te overwhelm you. As auesult, you can be compulsiveabout details-making, lists, planning, and oxeanizing your life, Seme of your mental obsessiveness may Ibe an unconscious attempt tocontrol anciety and keep thueatening thoughts out of your consciousness. Frequently, twelfth house people experience considerable embarrasment, guilt, or shame in regard io thoughts they have ‘which violate their moral code: yet their attempt to inhibit these thoughts only inese ses their anxiety and their complusive mental behaviours. One of the difficulties ofa twelfth house Mercury isthat your nervous tension, anxiety, worry ox negative ‘thinking may leed you to suffer from psychosomatic syptoms of marvous disabilities which ate not easy to diagnose or cure. As a result, examining your self-defeating thinking pattems and developing, consinuctive pattems of selHtalk may have significant ramifications in regard to your emotional and physical health. Fomns of cognitive therapy such as rational-emotive therapy can help you fiee yourself of debilitating thinking pattems from the past which helped you survive childhoed, but which interfere now ‘with effective adult functioning. ‘This placement of Mercury indicates that you are vulnerable in regard to your menial capacities. Squares to Mercury (especially from your thisd and ninth houses) and oppositions suggest trauma during your school years. Perhaps you suffered from reading disabilities or were humilitated for your inadequacies by insensitive teachers or peers. Perhaps you'studied conscientiously, but could not Liveup to the standards of the adults who mattered. Like the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz ("IE Lonly had a brain”), you may ‘have doubted your mental abilities, although you may have not had intellectual deficits. ‘Sometimes, people with twelfik house Mercuries have overvalued rathes than undervalued their minds. ‘They seek refuge in their mental capacities or painstakingly struggle to prove their competence through odteivenment in school. But grandious standards for yourself in regard to intellectual capacity may alse lead you 10 fee] mentally inferior, because you strive for impossible levels of brilliance in thinking, studying and writing. High standards may fuel glorious fantasies of success and aoclain inn intellectual ‘or communications fied, but you may hesitate to publicly test your capabilities by fully comitting ‘yourself to professional achievement in theses areas. ‘Your vulnerability in egasd te your thinking and intellectual ability is likely toextend te your attitudes: about writing. A clovet writer, you may fear revealing your writing to others, afraid that their critical standards will be as exacting as your own. Nevertheless, writing isa satisfying occupation for you; whether or net you write professionally, you are likely to find considerable satisfaction in joummal writing. and reflective fomns of writing which help you to clarify your thinking‘You have a natural bent for writing, because you have a subtle attunement to inner perceptions and a sensitivity tothe emotional simosphere which gives meaning to experience. Your deep seated intuition, ‘your continual quest for self knowledge and your interest in psychological processes enhance your perceptiveness in segard to human behavior and thought. Your capacity to block out the outer world andl Tisten to the inner voice ean enable you todraw from deep sources of insight within yourself Basically, you are a nonverbal thinker, perceiving the world in terms of feelings, images and sensations, ‘Translating these nonverbal impressions into words may be difficult for you, likebeing forced to swim up. to the surface of the ocean after residing af the ocean's bottom. But because you live in these watery realms, ‘you may have an innate poetic sense which enables you to use images, metaphors and stories to evoke the dogper meanings of experience, Although you live in your mind, your mind is almost always influenced by foolings, intuitions, and past perceptions, all of wihich provide a sich weservior of images and meanings ‘which inhance all farms of your communication, Because you live sodexply within yourself, you are keenly attuned to inner experience but absent-minded in regard to details in the outer world, You may be prone tedaydream excessively, and even to confuse ‘your fantasies with outer reality. Another difficulty ofthe close connection which exists between your conscious mind and your ineonscious perceptions is that you may frequently be overwhelmed by foelings and sensations which interfere with your capacity tothink clearly. As result of this underwater bresthing, your mind may becloudy, your thinkingdistorted, and your decision-making capacities befuddled by unclear and ambiguous considerations. ‘Your struggle te make conscious sense of preverbal impressions,and the experience of being bombarded ‘by many unwanted images and thoughts, may keep you in state ofconfusion. Repetitive or circular ‘thinking and pattems of rationalization may interfere with your capacity to find the clarity you seck. Asa result, you may need to engage insegular activities which use your mind but free you fom excexcising ‘your analytical, critical faculties in a self-defeating manner. Joumal writing practices poetry writing, ‘melitation, and affismation and visualization work might be useful to you, ‘The same vulnerability and attunement to your unconscious which influences your thinking and writing also influences your communication with other people, A private person, aftaid to speak openly and let people know your ral thoughts, you may not always be straight forward and honest. Sometimes you keep. ‘your thoughts to yourself, and then burst forth with a long stream of words, monologuing rather than establishing dialogues with ethers. Making contact while communicating yourthoughts may be difficult for you; tho intemal stimulation wihich sometimes overwhelms you may seck discharge, and lead you 40 use others as a sounding board, rather than establish two-way communication, Groups are likely to be tying, because your attunement to inner signals at the expense of outer signals may inhibit your capacity to tune inte the communication signals of social interaction. Being able te hear and respond to theeues appropriately, so that you neither keep silent nov intentionally interrupt other people, isa skill younead to develop. Because you may feel inferior about your communication abilities or intelligence, you more frequently ‘hide your thoughts than express them. Translating your subtle perceptions into words which others can understand may not be easy for you; you often feel as if you speak a private language, and that when you really do express yourself you are not heard or understood,Because your thinking is subjective and eften profound, you may not have developed the eapacity for ‘small tak, which helps to establish greater ease in social interaction, This social deficit interfexes with ‘your comfort in meeting people, starting conversations and becoming involved in discussions of external ‘matters which are of litle concem to you. You may as a result shy away ftom many social situations, and Fimityour contact to people whom with whom you can more fieely express your inner world, ‘Your tendency toreueat fom the everstimulation af the sovial encounters is alse influenced by your Psychic oversensitivity to other people's thoughts and feelings. Unknowningly, you absorb the thoughts: and anxieties of the people around you; you pick up subtle innuendos and unconscious communications ‘which most people miss. Inevitably then, you become psychologically ovaloadad, and may be confused in gard to whose thoughts and concems you are carrying. On the other hand, your psychological sensitivity ean serve you, because you so pereeptively attune yourslf to other peoples motivations and sess, and respond to their hidden but vay 1eal messages with acute sensitivity and awareness. ‘Your twellth house Mercury may incline you tomake a contribution to society through the written wore or social service; you may wishto use your mental, onganizational and communication skills for a purpose which extends beyond that of your personal well-being. Because of your ability wo perceive ‘subliminal levels of experience and to mentally oraganize subtle perceptions, you may be drawn te literary, ‘councelling, or spititual professeions, as writer, scholar, researcher, psychologist, or minister. ‘Your capacity touse your Mercury constructively may depend on your ability to overcame the negative conditioning which influenced your thinking, communication and social skillsearly in life. IF your Marcury is troublesome, you may have frequently received such parental messages as "Don't be stupid!™ “Be Quiet!” ; of "Children should be soen not heard.” Perhaps your paronts insensitively teased you about your thinking or manner of speaking, or belittled your perceptions. Asa result, you tao easily developed considerable insecurity and distrust of your own mental and verbal abilities. You may not have {ely you had aright to think for yourself or to voice your own thoughts. Another early influence related to a twelfth house Mercury isa family which does’t communicate sbout personal and interpersonal experiences, In such a situation, secrets prevail. Parents may monofougue with each other and their children, rather than encourage dialogue or menaingful exchange of thoughts and experiences; other parents assume they knoe their child's thoughts, and they "mind read" or "mind rape" by telling the child what he thinks or by'speaking for him infront of other people For you tohamess the positivepotential of your twelfth house Mercury, you nead tobe aware of the self defeating attitudes and behaviers which youhave developed, and to replace them with constructive beliefs, pattems, and actions. Doing somay also invalve nat only examining your thaught pattems, but alse actively developing your thinking, writing, communication and social skills, and consciously lesrning to ‘value your capacities. Tall-oriented psychotherapy, particularly therapy with a cognitive focus, can help ‘you reprogram negative thinking, learn to trust your perceptions and intelligence and gain more confidence in regard to communication and social interaction.