Octave Planet Pairs: Mercury, Uranus, and the Realm of Thought
The connection between these two Mental planets
Photo by Alex Dukhanov on Unsplash
As of late, I've been absorbed by the link between planets and the personality, but I’ve been really curious about the Higher Octave and Lower Octave planets. There are 3 Octave planet pairs; Uranus & Mercury, Venus & Neptune, and Pluto & Mars. You can find limited material that gives you a brief description of these planets, but usually the lens of focus is wider, and the descriptions are loose; seldom do you find anything that actually relates the information to personal behavior in a tangible way. I want to explore how the Higher and Lower Octave planets of Uranus and Mercury work together to impact us and our minds.
First we will start with a brief definition.
Lower Octave planets refers to the set of personal planets -- Mercury, Venus, and Mars -- that rule over conscious, individual expression; Mercury guides our conscious thoughts, ideas; Venus handles our pleasure principle and values; and Mars governs our desire, energy, and ambition.
Higher Octave planets are the set of trans-Saturnian outer planets -- Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto -- which rule use on an unconscious level. Because they are operating from higher frequencies, Higher Octave planets take the characteristic foundations of the Lower Octave planets and elevate them.
Both Mercury and Uranus are planets associated with the mind.
Mercury is a personal planet that rules over the active intelligence -- logic, reason, how we learn, speak, communicate, and what we perceive and rationalize. In the birth chart, Mercury is what drives you to speak your mind, investigate and seek answers. The seed of curiosity is planted by Mercury, and the planet is what propels us to find interest in new subjects and come up with ideas. But much like its ruling sign Gemini, Mercury, can be superficial; depending on its sign, Mercury's attention span can be quick-dissolving, and interest can be fleeting. It’s difficult for Mercury-dominant people, or those with heavy Gemini in their chart to finish anything they start.
As one of the trans-personal planets, Uranus transcends direct association with your consciousness. It is concerned with the higher consciousness, and rules over the intuition. Often considered the bohemian's planet, Uranus wants us to expand our perception, destroy old ideologies, and revolutionize. Any time you get a flash of insight or a sudden ingenious spark of inspiration, that's Uranus working through you.
Unlike the shallowness of Mercury, Uranus has a mania that can cause fixation on a particular idea, notion, or belief, and deeper need to understand reasoning behind and inside it, so that it can shatter, and ultimately reform it.
Uranus thrives on the plane where abstract ideas bloom, which is part of the reason it is the planet associated with genius and insanity.
As mentioned, Mercury and Uranus are the planetary rulers of air signs Gemini and Aquarius, and you can see the same qualities of the planets in these signs -- the curiosity, eccentricity, and link to the logical mind. But one aspect of these planets curiously overlooked is their connection to the imagination.
Aristotle distinguished the imagination from the perceptive mind, because he believed them to be distinct capacities. This illustrates the distinction between Mercury and Uranus. However, I argue that these planets have a great influence over our imaginative minds because of their relationship to the intellect.
Mercury allows us to communicate through several different mediums like writing, speaking, painting, music, math, etc. Whereas Uranus speaks primarily through images and visions. But the two planets need to work in tandem in order for us to full develop our imagination and intellect.
Think about it for a second: Mercury can be likened to elementary math – addition, subtraction, multiplication, division -- arithmetic that requires logic and systematized thinking to solve its simpler equations. Uranus, on the other hand, can be likened to higher math such as trigonometry, calculus, and linear algebra, subjects which incorporate logic as well as imagination and abstract thinking. Without learning the mathematical fundamentals represented by Mercury, Uranus wouldn't be able to be so high-minded.
Uranus is responsible for unpredictable moments of insight, but it is only through Mercury’s fundamentals of communication and instruction that Uranus allowed full expression. This can cause some major disturbances in your mind, because the images that come flooding in when Uranus opens your head up to the sky are trying to come out, without an immediate form of expression.
But Uranus’ ideas don't just fall out of nowhere.
Because the planet rules part of the unconscious, his divine abstractions come from a database of imagination buried deep inside your brain, you’re just totally unaware of it. But you need Mercury’s lower octave perception and lucid intellect in order to access and comprehend Uranus’ high revelations.
When there is tension between Mercury and Uranus, it is extremely challenging to unite the higher, theoretical mind with the rational, subjective mind. It’s like God is trying to speak to you in English, and you’re only fluent in French.
In terms of the personality, if you are Uranus-dominant and/or Mercury-dominant, you will definitely be highly curious and concerned with the matters of the mind. But you need to look to these planets’ house positions to indicate the areas where your imagination finds optimal expression.