Mercury rising

What is astrology? As defined by most media, it’s a simple predictive tool based on sun signs, with prognostications so general that fortune-cookie aphorisms seem pointed by comparison. According to those who have explored it at depth, however, astrology is an ancient and complex art with the potential for personal transformation and for understanding mundane affairs. Michael Mercury hosts a talk show, The Center of the Universe, on KDVS 90.3 every Tuesday from noon to 2:30 p.m., where astrology is the subject du jour. The former actor, television producer and café owner comes across as an open book.

How long have you been interested in astrology?

I’ve been doing this all my life, actually—reading charts and things like that. It was really more of a hobby, something I always was interested in but never really took seriously. You don’t grow up and be an astrologer; that’s not generally deemed to be a noble profession [laughs]. I think that’s changing, though. And I think part of my situation was, I had to get through that fear—of the stigma that might be attached to making a living as an astrologer. I didn’t think the idea of getting a master’s degree, of becoming highly educated and well traveled had anything to do with becoming an astrologer. Well, that’s exactly what an astrologer needs. I didn’t realize that. So I’ve gone through my own transformations, certainly in the last five or six years.

Do you look at your chart to plot your next moves?

I don’t think it’s in one’s interest to live one’s life based on even astrology. I’m not making decisions based on where the planets are. Maybe I should [laughs], based on my observations on how accurate it can be. But I feel that it’s important for me to exercise my free will. Astrology is more of a system, a guidance, a philosophy that helps clarify what we are, who we are, how we can become more of what we are and who we are. And there are those who like electional, predictive or horary astrology. But I lend myself more to the philosophy of astrology. And I might be eating my words someday and end up using astrology to make decisions, but I really try not to. It’s just not my interest.

In a piece I read somewhere online, you stated that many Wall Street firms use astrology to navigate financial markets. Is that true?

Chris Doose, who was in his 60s, he worked for the Treasury Department—he worked with Oliver North, for God’s sakes, here’s this Texan who’s known the Bushes all his life—at Kepler College [the Seattle astrology school], he’s the one who told me that that was the case. He even told me that there’s a group in Abu Dhabi that’s actually managing over several billion dollars now worth of stocks and assets, using astrology software developed by Alphee Lavoie. And Alphee’s been on my show several times and has confirmed that there are several groups in the Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, that use astrology and do very well with it.

Of the various U.S. July 4, 1776, natal charts, does the Sibly chart—with its Sagittarius ascendant corresponding to the American character of expansiveness—make the most sense for you?

It does. The astrologers who come on my show, they all seem to go back to the Sibly chart. Once in a while we’ll have an astrologer who uses the Scorpio rising or Gemini rising, but the Sibly seems to get a pretty good consensus at this point, based on what happened in New York.

If the Sibly chart is correct, then you’d have a Saturn-Pluto opposition with Saturn on the descendant and Pluto crossing back and forth on the ascendant.

Which would speak to our personality of letting go of the past and embracing the future. I think the real value that we can get out of all this is a comprehensive energy policy that should be up to 50 or 100 years from now, so that by the year 2050, we shouldn’t be dependent on oil ever again, and never really need it. We’re always going to need oil to some extent, minimal stuff. But there’s no reason that we shouldn’t be totally devoid of the use of oil for the most part, and not dependent on it. And let’s face it: We’re in the Middle East because of oil. End of story.

How did you get started doing your radio show at KDVS?

Radio is really the last medium that I hadn’t really worked with much, yet I grew up on it. Three years ago, I shot a TV pilot with a friend of mine. We wrote a script, “Eye of the Cat,” using the moon, which is in the script, about this astrologer who uses astrology to solve crimes, and he has his own radio show in the script. So we shot the pilot on film, and couldn’t come to the conclusion of the idea—he’s not an astrologer, and I wanted to stick to some of the more esoteric aspects, and he was trying to make it too mundane for me. So we didn’t finish the pilot. After that, I thought, I’ve got to start doing this radio show. If there was a show like that, I would listen to it. And I realized nobody was doing it, so I did it. And then I took the name Michael Mercury, and I called [well-known astrologer] Noel Tyl, and he called me back and I said, “Michael Mercury"—I never answer my phone as Michael Mercury, never. He starts laughing and says [in booming, theatrically pedantic voice], "Well, don’t you know? I wrote this novel 20 years ago about Michael Mercury!" And when he told me that, I got chills.