Are desire and talent enough to turn a wannabe wordsmith into a successful one? Putting words and sentences in order is straightforward enough, and while many make the initial effort, few survive the subsequent emotional and financial roller coaster.

Donna Cunningham talks about the chart as potential and life as reality. Delineating an example of a person with a Gemini emphasis, a strong Mercury, or a strong Third House, but little Saturn or Pluto, who wants to be a writer, she points out that while the individual will undoubtedly have a gift for words he or she may lack saturnine discipline to stay still long enough to complete anything significant. Without a strong Saturn, the writer would be eager for immediate gratification, whereas the rewards of writing are long in coming. And then there's Pluto. When emphasized, Pluto indicates the ability to spend time alone, needed for writing anything lengthy. Stephen King, with late Cancer rising, has both Saturn and Pluto conjunct in Leo in his First House.

Elements and Angularity are Important

An emphasis in air suggests the importance of intellect and ideas, water gives imagination and fantasy, while a lack of earth may indicate the inability to bring forth anything tangible.

Michel Gauquelin found a Twelfth House Moon statistically significant in the charts of eminent writers, and Jupiter angular in the charts of eminent journalists and playwrights. Just as interestingly, he also found a tendency for Mars and Saturn not to be angular in the charts of writers. A strong Moon or Cancer can give a person the ability to appeal to large groups of people.

Charles Carter, writing in the 1920's, associated literary ability with a strong Mercury and Gemini influence, which he connects with the middle of the signs rather than the beginning or end. Other degree areas he finds common are 25 degrees Cancer, which appears connected with romance; 25 degrees Aries-Libra, idealism; 25 degrees Sagittarius with "sketches from life"; and 27 degrees Taurus-Scorpio, realism. While he admits these interpretations are conjectural, he maintains these degree areas are important and cannot be doubted.

Further, he finds that in nearly all imaginative literature the creative power is shown by planets in Cancer or a prominent Moon. Carter associates poetic ability with a strong Venus influence in addition to Mercury, suggesting that all art seems connected with 13 degrees Leo-Aquarius. He also has observed a strong connection between the Third and Tenth Houses in the horoscopes of authors.

Take the Whole Chart into Account

The French poet Baudelaire had Mercury in late Pisces trine the Moon in Cancer. However, his Mercury was also conjunct Pluto and Mars and square a Uranus-Neptune conjunction in early Capricorn. He also had Sun-Saturn and Venus-Jupiter conjunct in Aries in the Eighth House of sex, death and other people's money. As Seymour-Smith points out, Baudelaire's writing was transmitted in chaotic, uneven, but often very powerful and imaginative poetry. He inherited his father's fortune at the age of twenty-one, and lived extravagantly until what was left of the capital was placed in trust by his family two years later, forcing him to earn a living as a writer and critic. His only volume of poetry, Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil) contained several erotic poems that led to his being convicted for obscenity. He became increasingly disillusioned and while in Belgium in 1866 he became paralyzed as a result of venereal disease and died in Paris soon after.

Mercury Prominent in the Charts of Writers

Mercury can give a quick, inquiring mind and ready expression with tongue and pen. Mercury is not imaginative, which is more Neptunian and Lunar. Under affliction, the mental powers are seldom lessened, but there may be a tendency to dishonesty, exaggeration, sarcasm or ill-temper. As Hand suggests, Mercury can never be found in pure form; it is always colored by sign, house and other factors. In its pure form it would describe the completely rational and objective mind.

Unless it is unusually subdued, which it sometimes is with Saturn, Mercury is volatile, restless and even merry. Mercury has no emotion, except that it finds great amusement in teasing, in being skeptical or flippant. While Mercury is shrewd, it is not of itself profound. The sign, house and aspect relationships of natal Mercury will contribute to what we write about. Tompkins points out that hard aspects to a person's Mercury indicates that their opinions are likely to get tested and challenged, or that they expect them to, whereas soft aspects imply the reverse. Soft aspects indicate ease in expression and thereby skill in writing. Individuals are less likely to feel threatened if disagreed with and so can often express themselves more easily. As always, the soft aspects, especially the trine, can give rise to complacency, whereas the hard aspects offer the potential for growth.

As with other combinations, but especially those involving the outer planets, chart factors indicate potential that may lie dormant until a growing desire for greater self-expression, or a major transit, sets it off.

Mercury Retrograde

Of course we can't underestimate the importance of Mercury retrograde, which is often associated with a mind turned inwards with a greater propensity for reflection and subjectivity. It also represents, symbolically, a turning away from, or a returning to. Since by progression Mercury can, and often does change direction in the writer's life, it should mark a significant date in terms of a change of style or a desire to pick up one's pen, or keyboard, in the first place.

Sun-Mercury

Sun-Mer