Mercury's stay in Pisces is prolonged by its retrograde period in this sign from February 23 until March 17.

Traditional astrology considers Mercury in Pisces to be a difficult placement. The reason is that Mercury is primarily concerned with data and details. Watery  Pisces, however, is about instincts and feelings. It is interested in fusion and the big picture, which can make Mercury's grasp of facts a little fuzzy.

Communication is more impressionistic when Mercury is in Pisces. Feelings are paramount, which can lead to confusion when one is looking for precision. Finding the words to express the vastness of Pisces can be challenging, as well. Using symbols, images, art and music can be good ways to capture these big concepts that go beyond the boundaries of ordinary language.

This can be a good time to move outside the limits of ordinary perception and speech. Intuition and imagination can work more easily at this time. The censoring aspects of the mind are looser, allowing a wider, if less precise, picture of reality to emerge.

Extra care may be required to keep normal communication on track, since we all may be hearing and seeing in less objective ways. Accounting skills can give way to artistic ones, yielding brilliant dreams, but less than clear numbers.

Not surprisingly, there are many musicians born with Mercury in Pisces. They range from the tortured: Kurt Cobain, Andy Gibb to the torturing: Yoko Ono, Alice Cooper to the talented: Celine Dion, Elton John.

The chameleon-like quality of Pisces serves actors John Travolta, Glenn Close, Peter Fonda and James Caan, to name a few. Commentaries by Camille Paglia, Ellen Goodman and George Stephanopoulos reflect Mercury in Pisces' wide range of views and social interests. Similar qualities may be found in fellow Merc in Pisces Ralph Nader, Gloria Steinem and Al Gore.

For more on Mercury see An Interview with the Messenger by Alice DeVille.