Eugene, Oregon USA
Mercury is the scientific and chemical basis of inner transformation. The terms and paraphernalia of the medieval Alchemists were a means of veiling this knowledge from the profane. The use of the term Mercury is no exception.
Why the word Mercury?
The word Mercury has many associations to point to its meaning.
Mercury as an element is commonly known as Quicksilver. It is the only metal that is liquid in its natural state. Therefore, it is both a “stone” and a liquid at the same time. Thus it is utilized to represent the foundation, the “cornerstone” of the Great Work.
The Mercury of Secret Philosophy
“That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” - Jesus, Matthew 15
This cornerstone that is “marvelous” in the eyes of The Christ is the very same rock (Peter = “rock” in Greek) upon which we must build our spiritual house, our inner church.
He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.”
- Jesus, Luke 6:46-48
This foundation stone of our inner temple is what in Hebrew is called Yesod. Yesod literally means “foundation” and is the 9th Sephirah of The Kabalistic Tree of Life. On the physical body, Yesod is directly related to the sexual organs. This is because it is here that we find the “foundation” of spiritual development - the liquid stone of Yesod/Peter...Mercury. It is a liquid stone, because it is a symbol of the sexual waters, the ens seminis, or “entity of semen”. It is the rough stone of the masons that must be shaped with the hammer of willpower and the chisel of intelligence to form the cubic stone, the philosophic stone of the Alchemist. This is a work of sacred sexuality.
Hermes-Mercury is the messenger of Zeus-Jupiter, the father of the gods in the Greco-Roman tradition. The job of Hermes-Mercury as messenger of Zeus-Jupiter is to deliver his word to humanity. Zeus-Jupiter represents The Father aspect of The Logos, The Great “Word” of Creation. Hermes-Mercury represents the Mercury of Secret Philosophy, the sexual waters. It is through these waters that The Great Word of Creation is delivered to humanity. It is through our sexual waters (the fluids of the sexual glands = sperm and ovum) that this Word of Creation creates new life. This creation can be physical or spiritual depending on how we work with this liquid stone.
Knowing how to work with this liquid stone is the true key to the secret of Alchemy. And this is the true mystery of baptism as described by Jesus to Nicodemus in the New Testament:
Jesus answered and said unto him, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus saith unto him, “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water [the Mercury] and of the [Holy] Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
- John 3:2-6
Birth of the Soul is not the result of simply believing it to be true, just as a physical child cannot be born by simply believing that it can happen. Jesus is describing the fundamental scientific principles of Alchemy through the language of Kabalah to the rabbi Nicodemus. One must know how to work with the principles of the Spirit, The Holy Spirit - the force of Creation within the sexual fluids. The Holy Spirit is the third aspect of The Logos that is the principle of Creation in all the Universes as well as in the human being. It is the Ens Virtutis (“Entity of Virtue” / Fire of The Holy Spirit) that the Alchemist must liberate from the Ens Seminis (“Entity of Semen” / sexual waters) in order to develop the Human Soul.
Once liberated these fires are raised like a serpent on a staff, culminating in the Pentecostal Flame of The Holy Spirit represented above the heads of The Disciples. This is the same Fire of Kundalini seen above the heads of eastern yogis.
The serpent on the staff is the scepter of Hermes-Mercury, the caduceus. This scepter is famous for healing all injuries. This is why it has been borrowed as a symbol of modern medicine. This is the same brazen serpent on a staff raised by Moses in the desert to heal the Israelites. This symbol is further described here (link not yet available).
There are 3 Grades of Mercury:
First Mercury: This is the raw Mercury itself, the brute Mercury, the Prima Materia; the unworked seminal/sexual waters; this type of Mercury is related to the unformed stone of Masonry, the black stone (the first grade of The Philosopher’s Stone); the raw Mercury is related to the black virgin goddess representing the prime formless base of all matter (Prima Materia).
She is the womb and the source of all matter. As the black virgin she represents the unworked matter of the universes and of our own sexual waters. She is the Prakriti of Hinduism.
The black stone is also a reference to the soiled sexual waters, waters that are dirty with psychological degeneration, sin. When this stone has been properly worked then it becomes the white stone of Revelation:
Second Mercury: This is the electric, vital essence of the sexual fluids when they have been transmuted. This is the vital force of the sublimated Mercury that circulates throughout the organism renewing and revitalizing the physical, mental and emotional aspects of the human organism.
Third Mercury: This is the electric, vital essence of the sexual fluids when they have been transmuted and fecundated by the sulphur in order for the salt to be regenerated. This is the Mercury that is the foundation for being born again, for developing, giving birth to the Human Soul.
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. - Revelation 2:17
The black stone of Islam originally dedicated to the triple goddess Al’Lat, placed as the cornerstone of Al-Ka’bah (“cube”).
The aniconic black stone dedicated to the Greek goddess Aphrodite.
The black Madonna of Christianity.
The black Artemis of Ephesus.
I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.
- Song of Solomon 1:5
The Ithyphallic Herm of Hermes-Mercury
Hermes-Mercury carrying the serpentine caduceus that heals all injuries
Moses beside the brazen serpent on a staff that heals the Israelites’ injuries
Putrefaction
Putrefaction is an Alchemical reference to Mystical Death. To Mystically Die means to die in everything that is related to an egotistical sense of self, to die in all vice that degenerates one’s heart, mind and connection with Truth. Every sacred scripture insists that one cannot remain identified with egotistical desire (source of sin), if the goal is salvation, the achievement of heavenly realms. This is because egotism and Spirit are antithetical. Bitter and sweet waters do not flow from the same stream. Mystical Death is a transformation of the base, subjective elements of one’s psychology (lead) into superior conscious awareness (gold).
The Mercury of Secret Philosophy is not only important for the process of being born again (Mystical Birth), but it is also key to the process of (Mystical) death. This is what is referenced when the Alchemists advise to whiten the brass. The serpent of brass is fabricated through the proper use of the sexual waters of Mercury. This brass is also cleansed (whitened) with the same sexual waters.
For more about putrefaction and mystical death click here (link not yet available).
The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner [cornerstone]: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?
- Jesus, Matthew 21:42
Dry Mercury: A fourth type of Mercury exists that is called Dry. This type of Mercury represents psychological aggregates, ego. This Mercury is dry as reference to the sands of the desert that are arid, lacking water and therefore deficient of vitality, life. It is poison. Not only is it lacking in the humidity of the vital Mercury, but its dryness leaches the life-giving moisture from the vital Mercury that is essential for the health of the human organism. What is meant by this is that the vital principles intended for sustaining a healthy spiritual life, mind, emotions and body are squandered by the desires of ego for its own purposes. This type of Mercury is the “poison-dripping dragon that can be cheaply had...”
What this tells us is that there are two fundamental ways to utilize the sexual force. We can create physically, meaning that we create sexually, and something is born of the flesh. And what is born of the flesh, is flesh, and obviously this would be a child; to create children, which is something we all know how to do very easily. But he says there is another way to create from the water and the spirit. And that is, to create something spiritual. Something that is related to the spirit, to our own inner process, our own inner divinity.
I [Mercury] descend into the Earth and ascend into the Heavens,
I am the highest and the lowest, the lightest and the heaviest.
I am dark and light.
Often the order of nature is reversed in me.
I am known yet do not exist at all.
I am the carbuncle of the sun, the most noble purified earth,
through which you may change copper, iron, tin and lead into gold.
A waxing poison comes from my nose,
having brought to death many people.
Therefore, with the art,
you have to separate the coarse from the fine,
if you don’t want to delight in poverty.
I give you the power
of the male and the female,
even that of heaven and earth.
With bravery and broadness of understanding,
the mysteries of my art are to be done,
if you want to conquer me with the power of the fire.
From which many have suffered in their potential and work.
- Mercury, from the Aurelia Occulta, Theatrum Chemicum (1613)
Mercury = Ens Seminis = “Entity of Semen” = the Sexual Fluids of Man and Woman
I am the poison-dripping dragon,
who is everywhere and can be cheaply had.
- Mercury, from the Aurelia Occulta, Theatrum Chemicum (1613)
This is the dragon that must be conquered through the cooperation of Sun and Moon, Man and Woman.
“Hermes writes: The dragon only dies when he is killed by his brother and sister at once. Not by one alone, but by both at once, namely by sun and moon...The dragon is the living quicksilver drawn from or out of the bodies that have a body, soul and spirit. Hence it is also said that the dragon does not die without his brother and his sister...”
- from the Rosarium Philosophorum (1550)