When Mercury is positioned in the 8th house, the native’s intellect receives Plutonic traits, making his mind over-analytical and able to go deep into every subject it concentrates on. Such kinds of people are very focused and have amazing abilities to uncover secrets. They adore solving mysteries both from the material realm and the occult.
A native with Mercury in the 8th house may have a great career as a detective, an undercover policeman or a spy. His eyes are always there to focus on the details, while his brain can filter the important information and figure out links between pieces of evidence even if it is not profound. They are also able to intuitively understand liars, see gaps in plots of stories and highlight dubious parts. It is very difficult to lie to such an individual.
When Mercury is present in the house of death, the person’s mind is drawn towards the occult. They should be very careful, especially if their Mercury is adversely afflicted, as their words and thoughts have immense power, resulting in effects that can even be described as “unconscious black magic”. Indeed, whatever negative they wish, say, or think, can materialize; if their character is grudgy and revengeful, they can do a lot of harm to other people. Trying to focus on positive thoughts is an exercise that they should always practice, as in the end, life tends to return the evil created by someone. The 8th house is an open gate, and sending negativity through it will have a mirror effect at a later time.
While people with Mercury in the 8th house adore uncovering secrets of other people, they keep their own well hidden. They strive to keep their thoughts in a fog of mystery, and will easily lie to others in order to create a false image. This technique, even if unconsciously done by such individuals, is a great source of power. They strengthen their thoughts, by not sharing them; the same way that in many religions the real names of gods were not revealed to the masses.
Due to the 8th house also ruling sex, Mercury strongly connects sexuality to the intellect with such a placement. People who have such an aspect will choose partners with whom they can communicate in deep levels, share fantasies and otherwise use speech as a means to transfer sexual energy. Mercury in this house receives a lot of dark, Plutonian attributes, making the individual indulge in games of controlling his partner through words. If the planet is afflicted by Pluto or Mars, there are possibilities of obsessive or manipulative behaviors; in extreme situations this aspect can create stalkers and abnormally obsessed minds. This placement gives a natural disbelief towards others, and someone with this placement would not hesitate to check on his significant other. This might be from looking at the messages on the phone or social media, to even creating real detective-style researches in order to uncover possible infidelities. Indeed, when Mercury is very heavily challenged by “malefics”, the mind of any native can reach extreme and uncontrolled behaviors, no matter in which sign or house it is located.
On the other hand, Mercury in the 8th house can be a blessing for a writer, a psychologist or someone interested in the other realms and the connections with our reality. They take big pleasure in uncovering the reasons and mechanisms behind things, can easily analyze characters, behaviors, and motivations; at the same time, they can foresee the development of strategies – this can also make them great chess players. Their speech is very persuasive, and when they talk they automatically receive a place of authority, which can sometimes be regarded as a manipulative technique and even create enemies within people that do not accept and tolerate such behaviors.
Mercury in the 8th house is a great placement for finances and working in governmental organizations. It is not uncommon that people with such a placement have a career as accountants for the government, in tax departments, banks or big multinational companies; they can also be stock analysts or otherwise work where the big money is. In business, their morals can be rather flexible, and their hidden agendas can even harm people. They usually do not cause harm deliberately, but they will not blame themselves if something like that happens.
In case of adverse aspects falling on natal Mercury in the 8th house, there can be legal problems with some inheritance. Usually, such problems have to deal with some kind of paper or contract, and it depends on the nature of the planet afflicting Mercury, whether the story will have a happy end. There are possibilities of them losing a sibling or important neighbor while young; this issue should be supported by other aspects though, and in observing the 3rd house and its ruler.
Finally, when the planet of speech is placed in the darkest house, it definitely creates a person using black humor. Indeed, such individuals like sarcasm, enjoy readings where even morbid areas like death are seen with a pinch of salt and like to laugh towards everything that is a taboo. These are the type of people when seeing a human skull, who will take it in their hands and start making fun jumping on a grave and shouting “To be or not to be, that is the question”. Fun people to hang around, unless of course, you become the victim of their weird sense of humor, and it becomes difficult to know whether some inner aggression and malice are directed towards you. As we already said, these people tend to hide their real thoughts, and a genuine positive behavior could be appearing as malignant. Or the opposite.
Each planets have a different effect on you, depending on which house and sign they reside in. In order to find out where they are located in your natal chart, you can use our free birth chart generator. Also, examine the aspects that they form with other planets in your chart. You will understand a lot more about the detailed role that they have in your horoscope.