Mercury

Budha is the prince of the planetary court, quick, youthful and clever. It rules the intellect that discriminates and analyses, speech and writing, accounts and trade, and the playful curiosity that wants to know how things work. It is the planet of the student, the merchant, the writer and the mediator.

Mercury takes on the colour of its company. Alone or with Jupiter and Venus it is a benefic, sharpening the mind and the tongue. With malefics it can turn clever into calculating or anxious. Because it is never more than about 28° from the Sun, it is often combust (very close to the Sun), which in practice tends to make thinking and speech more closely tied to one's sense of self.