The Yew Tree

The Mercury Shrine

Pierre et Gilles, Mercury (Arrache mon coeur)

Where your gaze rests,
the world is turned to silver,
shimmering beneath the waters

Your wingèd thoughts
descend into the abyss -
fireflies in the darkness

Your golden light
pierces the heart,
stealing my dreams

How gracefully
your serpents twine
around my body

You hold a mirror
made of quicksilver -
everything flows.

- Poem for Mercury by Yvonne Aburrow


Mercury

Mercury is the god of communication, travel, merchants, thieves, gamblers, ambassadors and alchemy. He was originally god of the trade in corn. He is said to be the father of Pan. His mother is Maia. His festival is the Mercuralia on 15 May. He was very popular with the Celts, who equated him with a number of their deities. Mercury carries the Caduceus, the symbol of immortality and the art of healing.

The Caduceus

The Caduceus

According to Helena Blavatsky,

«That the Serpents were ever the emblems of wisdom and prudence is again shown by the caduceus of Mercury... The two serpents, entwined around the rod, are phallic symbols of Jupiter and other gods who transformed themselves into snakes for purposes of seducing goddesses. . . The serpent has ever been the symbol of the adept, and of his powers of immortality and divine knowledge....It shows the dual power of the Secret Wisdom: the black and the white magic.»

According to A Dictionary of Symbols,
«For the Romans, the caduceus served as a symbol of moral equilibrium and of good conduct. The wand represents power; the two snakes wisdom; the wings diligence; and the helmet is the emblem of lofty thoughts... According to esoteric Buddhism, the wand of the caduceus corresponds to the axis of the world and the serpents refer to the force called Kundalini, which, in Tantrist teaching, sleeps coiled up at the base of the backbone—a symbol of the evolutive power of pure energy. Schneider maintains that the two S-shapes of the serpents correspond to illness and convalescence. In reality, what defines the essence of the caduceus is the nature and meaning not so much of its individual elements as of the composite whole. The precisely symmetrical and bilateral arrangement, as in the balance of Libra, or in the tri-unity of heraldry (a shield between two supporters), is always expressive of the same idea of active equilibrium, of opposing forces balancing one another in such a way as to create a higher, static form. In the caduceus, this balanced duality is twice stated: in the serpents and in the wings, thereby emphasising that supreme state of strength and self-control (and consequently of health) which can be achieved both on the lower plane of the instincts (symbolised by the serpents) and on the higher level of the spirit (represented by the wings).»

The Mercuralia

Mercury, whose name is connected with "merchandise" (merx), was the Roman divinity of commerce and gain, later identified by the Romans with the Greek Hermes. His mother was Maia, the eldest of the Pleiades, and the most beautiful of the seven sisters. The Ides of May was recognized as his birthday. It became a festival of traders and merchants; Ovid records the details of their rites.

With laurel boughs, they sprinkled their goods for sale, along with their hair, with water from a fountain near the Caperna Gate called aqua Mercurii. They offered prayers to Mercury, who in legend had been a thief, for forgiveness for past and future perjuries, for profit, and for the continued ability to cheat customers! It is reasonable to suppose that the guild of merchants spent the evening of the Ides of May dining and feasting together.

(source: Roger L. Robison)

Mercury is special; he is kind and merciful, swift to bring blessing on those who adore him. Arguably, as god of communication, he is also the patron of the wordwide web and web developers and designers.

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