ruled by mercury

One morning, when I was walking around the lake near my house and thinking of nothing in particular, two unrelated streams of random thought intersected.

Why does the world seem to be constantly in turmoil? Could it have something to do with the zodiac signs of the men and women that run the world? Ha! That’s funny!! But, wait . . . aren’t there too many born under Gemini* in this lot? Just an impression – but I thought it would be fun to find out anyway.

Now, I don’t know much about Astrology except what I picked up from Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs and Linda Goodman’s Love Signs during college days. There were a couple of copies of each around and they were in much demand as everyone in the hostel used them as ready reckoners to figure out roommates, friends and boyfriends.

So I looked up the zodiac signs of people who routinely take the lead in world affairs.

There are three types of Signs:

1. Cardinal – leaders
2. Fixed – organisers
3. Mutable – communicators

The world now seems to be run largely by people born under Mutable signs, i.e. Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces!

Among the G-20 nations, 9 are Mutable!

• India, Modi – Virgo
• China, Xi – Gemini
• Turkey, Erdogan – Pisces
• Saudi, MBS – Virgo
• France, Macron – Sagittarius
• Germany, Scholz – Gemini (Merkel is a Cancer, leader)
• Italy, Draghi – Virgo
• UK, Boris Johnson – Gemini
• EU, Charles Michel – Sagittarius (represents EU at G20 summits along with Ursula von der Leyen as far as I know)

There are only 5 Cardinal signs in the G20:

• Russia, Putin – Libra
• Indonesia, Widodo – Cancer
• Brazil, Bolsonaro – Aries
• Canada, Trudeau – Capricorn, and
• Argentina, Fernandez – Aries

Of these, two (Brazil, Indonesia) are born on the cusp, the 21^st, and might not even be Cardinal.

The remaining 6 are Fixed signs:

• Japan, Kishida – Leo
• Oz, Scott Morrison – Taurus
• S Africa, Ramaphosa – Scorpio
• US, Biden – Scorpio (cusp, 20^th Nov)
• Mexico, AMLO – Scorpio, and
• S Korea, Moon Jae-in – Aquarius

These people are supposed to keep things steady and may not lead change. Biden might’ve been more relaxed if he didn’t have the world scrutinizing his every move intently. He might’ve been more like pre-COVID Scott Morrison, or Moon Jae-in without the Kim factor!

It’s not surprising the G20 doesn’t come across as a cohesive, focused, pro-active group. There aren’t enough leaders in it, especially after Angela Merkel retired.

Now, look at Europe.

These 7 are ruled by Mutable Gemini:

• Poland
• Germany
• Greece
• Romania
• Bulgaria
• Hungary
• Estonia

Gemini is also Trump’s sign, Pence’s too, also the late Gaddafi’s, and Xi’s and Boris Johnson’s, and IMAFT head Raheel Sharif’s.

The following are ruled by the other three Mutable signs, viz. Virgo, Sag, Pisces:

• Spain – Pisces
• Turkey – Pisces
• Austria – Virgo
• Switzerland – Sag
• Portugal – Sag
• Serbia – Pisces
• Norway – Pisces
• Latvia – Sag

That’s a lot of communicative leaders in Europe who may mesmerize people with their silver tongues but not necessarily lead their country anywhere, nor hold on to gains and keep things stable. You can expect some amount of drama and chaos with Mutable signs.

Tedros, the WHO chief who has been handling the corona pandemic, is also Pisces. So is Jens Stoltenberg, the present secretary general of NATO.

By the way, Teresa May and David Cameron are Libra, and so was Margaret Thatcher. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, is Libra too.

Wang Yi, the tough-talking Chinese foreign minister, is Libra, so is the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

Central and South America:

Only Chile and Guatemala have Mutable heads of state at present. Venezuela too, if you consider Nicolás Maduro President. Other than Costa Rica, all have presidents born under Fixed signs, and six of them are Scorpio – Haiti, Nicaragua, Mexico, Honduras, Paraguay and Ecuador. Scorpios are good at staying on track and getting people to toe their line.

I don’t know enough about these countries to say how they are faring under these leaders, but my Mexican friend says AMLO has been good for Mexico and is very popular.

The Middle-East:

8 countries are ruled by Mutable signs:

• Iran – Sag
• Iraq – Virgo
• Saudi – Virgo
• Turkey – Pisces
• Kuwait – Gemini
• Syria – Virgo
• Qatar – Gemini
• UAE – Virgo

Only 2 by Cardinal signs:

• Israel – Aries (his predecessor Netanyahu is Scorpio; Benny Gantz is Gemini)
• Cyprus – Libra

6 by Fixed signs:

• Egypt – Scorpio
• Oman – Scorpio
• Bahrain – Scorpio
• Lebanon – Scorpio
• Palestine – Scorpio
• Jordan – Aquarius

Again, a lot of Scorpios.

We in India have had our share of them during the Nehru and Indira Gandhi years, both Scorpio. Morarji Desai and I K Gujral were the only Mutable signed Prime Ministers we’ve had. Four of our PMs were born under Cancer, two Libra, two Capricorn, one Taurus and one Leo.

A preponderance of Cardinal signs. Our country loves monarch-types rather than those that cycle to work like Mark Rutte (Aquarius, not a conventional guy) of the Netherlands!

Right now, we have China, Nepal and Sri Lanka in our immediate neighbourhood ruled by Gemini. Aung San Suu Kyi is Gemini too. Imran Khan of Pakistan is Libra and General Bajwa is Scorpio. Interesting!

I haven’t looked at Africa, the SE Asian countries or all the countries formed when Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were fragmented; I’ve also left out places that don’t loom large in the daily news, like Kosovo, Moldova, etc. I don’t want to labour the point . . . This is, after all, not a serious in-depth study but a bunch of observations born out of idle curiosity.

I glanced through the zodiac signs of people who dominated the political scene in the seventies, i.e. the places we heard about frequently in connection with India. Here’s a sampling:

• India – Indira Gandhi, Scorpio
• Sri Lanka – Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Aries
• China – Mao, Capricorn; Hua Guofeng, Aquarius
• Pakistan – Z A Bhutto, Capricorn; Zia, Leo
• Russia – Brezhnev, Sagittarius
• Israel – Golda Meir, Taurus
• Iran – Reza Shah Pahlavi, Scorpio
• France – Georges Pompidou, Cancer
• UK – Harold Wilson, Pisces
• US – Nixon – Capricorn, Ford – Cancer, and Carter – Libra
• Germany – Helmut Schmidt – Capricorn, Helmut Kohl – Aries, but Willy Brandt was Sagittarius

In other words, most of them were steadfast/rigid types, and not prone to being all over the place like the Mutable signs that now rule the roost!

Make of it what you will. I’m just a dabbler. I know the sun sign is far from the complete picture. For example, an astrologer would make something of the fact that Brezhnev had Aries rising, Obama has a Gemini moon, and Modi has a Scorpio ascendant.

And that’s why this is merely a light blog post and not a research article 🙂     

*Mercury, the ruler of Gemini, is the god of shopkeepers and merchants, travelers and transporters of goods, and thieves and tricksters in Roman religion. In Greek religion he is Hermes, the fleet-footed messenger of the gods. Mercury is also known as quicksilver, i.e. given to changing rapidly or unpredictably.