Do Occultists Give Mercury too much Credit?

[Pallas-trine-Mars]

Mercury is considered the creator of all occult study and giver of occult knowledge by hard-core occultists, and he has been for thousands of years. He's associated with the Egyptian god Thoth, who seems to be a combination of a male depicted by Gemini, the health association of the Virgo/6th house as medicine was apparently important to him and, of course, he was a messenger and was later given the title Hermes Trismegistus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes_Trismegistus) or "Hermes three times great."

But I think they're wrong (oh boy, do you here them hexing me yet?) Modernly Mercury has very little to do with the occult, and I think that makes more sense. Modernly he is associated with communication, manipulation and is considered changeable, but not really magical. These days the occult and the underbelly seems to be more associated with Neptune and Pluto, sometimes even Jupiter through supposed religious association and the Moon through apparent psychicism. I've even read Uranus being connected with astrology.

So, what are your views?

[dr. farr]

No, I don't think we do (give Mercury too much credit); also, beginning over a hundred years ago, years, understanding of Uranus (as a higher octave of Mercury) became incorporated into much of our outlook, and Neptune has become better understood re to its role in this area. Ancient observation of the celestial pattern in the sky made every year (from the geocentric perspective) by Mercury-a hexagon (a six sided or Star of David figure)-formed the basis for most of the important calculations relating to the planets and signs, that is, angles, degrees, etc based upon the number 6, for example: the 360 degrees of the circle (6x60), the 30 degree sign (6x5), the 36 decans (6x6), the 12 signs (6x2), the 24 hours (6x4), the 144 duodenaries (6x24), the 108 navamsa's (6x18), the sextile (6x10), the semi-sextile (6x5), the square (6x15), the trine (6x20), the opposition (6x30), and the list of connections to Mercury's "6" (hexagon) goes on. So Mercury even by the very pattern its yearly orbit outlines in the sky above us demonstrates it connection with astrology, and we can see the modern connection of Uranus with astrology, Uranus being the "higher octave" of Mercury. Mercury also is affinitive to the mind as a whole (the ancient allocation of Mercury rulership), and it is through/by way of the mind that one accesses the hidden wellsprings represented by Uranus and Neptune, and the stars behind all...

[Pallas-trine-Mars]

...Uh, a lot of planet's form patterns and all of them are in orbital resonance with the others. What I'm asking is if it really makes sense to say that the planet that rules telephones really has a connection to the occult.

[dr. farr]

1) No other planet (than Mercury) forms a hexagon (and yields a "6") in its conjunctions as traced from the earth
2) No other planet forms any geometric (sacred geometry) figure (except Venus, which forms a pentagram-yielding a "5")**
3) Communication is the key word: communication between the higher and lower planes of manifestation, via the Mind, that's fundamentally affinitive to Mercury, and to no other planetary significator.
4) Put another way, we may say that Uranus and Neptune (and, indeed Pluto) ARE the occult; and that Mercury is the communication therewith, the "road" thereto, the ability to understand and comprehend what they (and the stars beyond) mean...



**upon checking reference sources, I corrected my original posting: Venus traces a pentagram every 8 years; however, Mercury does trace its hexagram pattern every 348 days

[Pallas-trine-Mars]

I know that in the case of Venus, which forms a pentagram, that it doesn't happen in one year, many Venus orbits have to be observed. Also considering that Mercury only turns about retrograde 3 times a year, I'm not sure it could make a hexagram... Do you mean like a triangle with the points flattened out where it stations?

Even still, all the planets have patterns, the Sun and Moon every month do their lunations as the Moon's orbit does its 19-year wobble, Mars usually turns retrograde one sign down after completing an orbit..

[dr. farr]

When tracing out Mercury's superior and inferior conjunctions, every year (actually within every 348 day period) a six sided hexagonal pattern is formed; in the case of the 5 sided Venus tracing (of its cycle as morning and evening "star") it forms a pentagram once every 8 years (notice how the figure traced by Mercury is much more frequent than that traced by Venus; 8 repeated Mercury patterns for every 1 Venus pattern) Other planets, eg Jupiter and Saturn, in their courses, form twirling loops, and the Moon's tracings are quite intricate, however no other planets except Mercury and Venus trace out sacred geometry patterns.

So what?? Well, if the concepts involved in sacred geometry and its ramifications on life, spirit and the manifested universe are discarded, rejected as a bunch of speculative nonsense, then-nothing. However, if concepts connected with sacred geometry and its multi-level ramifications are admitted, then Mercury (and Venus) become objective revealers, right there in front of us up in the sky, of two of the most important of geometric figures, and Mercury of the important number 6,-with all of that number's implications (see the list of books I recommended in the "Numerology" thread for more information)

Now I do not want to be misunderstood: I (nor other followers of the hermetic tradition) do not claim that Mercury is the be all and end all of cosmic significators-no way! In the hermetic tradition all of the original 7 planets each play a vital role as significators of illumination regarding the principles and qualities underlying the macrocosm. But the role of Mercury is in showing the way, in opening things up to reveleation and understanding, in joining all of the various centers/qualities ("planets") together by communicating information and subtle energies among them all, and in bringing the integrated Mind into communication/experience with them all: Moon is affinitive to the psychic and emotional and sensitivity aspect of Mind, Saturn to the memory and retentive aspects, Jupiter to the logical and reasoning-ability aspects, Venus to the spiritual-empathic agape aspect, Mars to the Will aspect, but Mercury joins them all together, integrates all of these aspects, and, in order to probe the hidden qualities of reality (the "occult"; Uranus, Neptune, Pluto-the invisible levels of reality), the Mercury-generated balanced integration of the qualities of Mind made up of the Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Moon, Saturn elements, is absolutely necessary for success. What of the Sun? The Sun-the spark of Divinity-stands immediately behind Mercury, and it is only through the "sphere of Mercury" (we'd call it Mercury's orbit today) that one can reach into the Sun, and experience the quality of the essence of Life and Divinity...

[BobZemco]

Mercury is considered the creator of all occult study and giver of occult knowledge by hard-core occultists, and he has been for thousands of years. He's associated with the Egyptian god Thoth, who seems to be a combination of a male depicted by Gemini, the health association of the Virgo/6th house as medicine was apparently important to him

Thoth and the Sumerian Ningishzida are one in the same. Thoth's father was Ptah, who is the Sumerian Enki. His cult symbol was the caduceus, the serpents intertwined on the Tree of Life. He is the Meso-American Quetzalcoatl (Plumed Serpent) and in his former region in West Africa, all of the tribal groups from Ghana to the Niger Basin had an oracle, with a serpent in a cave guarded by a priestess (until the British Missionaries came in 1898).

He was an astronomer, biologist and scientist, and liked to play practical jokes (his nickname by the Egyptians was the "trickster") and he is credited with the Game of 52 (from where the Egyptians got the 52 week calendar) and also Quetzalcoatl is credited with giving the calendar to the Olmecs who gave it to dozens of others who ended up giving it to the idiot Mayans.

Medicine was part and parcel of the Occult (until Louis Pasteur came along). So was Astronomy and Science and all forms of divination.

You want to make Pluto the Leader of the Occult? He does nothing but destroy, which is totally contrary to the Occult. Neptune? Neptune is nothing but smoke and mirrors, which is not what the Occult is about.

I think Mercury's claim to fame is pretty safe.

[Pallas-trine-Mars]

http://i27.tinypic.com/s5iiz6.jpg

That is what Mercury will be doing this year, it's more like a triangle than a hexagram.

[dr. farr]

The hexagram formation is made by tracing the 6 superior and inferior conjunctions made by Mercury every 348 days; when tracing Mercury's ORBIT, the figure is reminiscent of a bunch of wires, or of the mixmash of connections such as seen in the nervous system, since Mercury's orbit is highly erratic; Mercury has always (in recorded history) been connected with divination: in Sumeria it was represented as the god of divination (the mask of that god representing a mass of convoluted lines, such as one would see if tracing Mercury's orbit), and among the Mayans Mercury was also the god of divination and known as the "god of the chart", Mercury also being referred to by the Mayans as "containing the house of the chart".
Interesting information regarding Mercury, Venus, and other planets relating to numbers and sacred geometry, resonance, and similar matters, can be found in several (serious, non-sensationalist) books; I would recommend two by R. Heath: "Matrix of Creation: the Planets" and "Sacred Number".

However, I do not want to push my outlook, and I shall make no further posts to this thread: I respect Pallas-trine-Mars point of view, and the OP's right to his own opinion in this matter.

[Pallas-trine-Mars]

All of you guys are raising some interesting ideas, don't be afraid to disagree with me! ..So long as you get where I'm coming from. I just found it odd that Mercury, who seems modernly to be like the king of nerds, a Steve Urkel or Alton Brown-type figure (not that that's his only personality, he can be like an errant boy, always on the move, cunning..) could be so revered as a lord of the esoteric, but yet in that same word does sort of imply Mercury - going between worlds or the go-between or the one who can slip through them because he's liquid.

This is teaching me some interesting things about Mercury, though. For one, it doesn't seem to approach semi-sextile as often as I thought, see this diagram for its maximum elongations this year, the orb is often way under the already under par 2 degrees Mercury can reach:

http://i31.tinypic.com/2wdt2pz.jpg

Orange and brownish spots are the Sun and Mercury at or as close as they'll get to maximum elongation. Yellow are superior conjunctions-direct (usually not bad days, even though Mercury is supposedly weak because of combustion), purple are inferior conjunctions-retrograde. Mercury cycle seems to end with the Sun.

Keep in mind Mercury was still moving at all of these points, so some of the points of inferior conjunction beyond the maximum will make sense. The little cluster in Virgo is because Mercury seems to stretch as far away from the Sun oriental and occidental at about the same point this year but not the same distance.

[Pallas-trine-Mars]

http://i27.tinypic.com/2i6h6d.jpg

There's Mercury's hexagram for the year, a bit misshapen, but it's astronomy.

[Michael]

I agree with the main premise.

What about the feminine moon?. Or warlike mars?. Or wise Jupiter?.

[estrella]

Mercury works very well as a basic significator for all things "occult". Thousands of years of mystical and occult knowledge are not wrong on that. I think where you might be stuck is with oversimplifying what the "occult" is. The occult is alot of things, and each one can be represented differently with astrology.

Astrology can be described by Mercury and Uraunus.

Psychicism, mediumship, and channeling-Mercury (communication), and Neptune (spirit, or universal knowledge)

Conjuring, sorcery, sex magic-Mercury (communication, manipulation), and Pluto (underworld, darkness, unseen, sex)

Occult disciplines that require teaching and discipline, or advancing through degrees -Mercury (communication, intellectual activity) and Saturn (structure, discipline).

The list goes on. I think that the concept of the "occult" is too vast and diverse to pigeon hole, but Mercury is incredibly consistent as a representative of the fundamental elements of communication, manipulation, and mutability.

[ptolomy]

I think mercury is important as a translator of the higher octave planets and that is where its occult knowledge lies,im not so convinced about its hexagonal transit patterns being so important,if you want to see a serious hexagonal/interposed grand trines/star of david transit pattern then the conjunctions,1st 1/4,Oppositions and last 1/4's of the transiting jupiter/ uranus cycle to each other are much more convincing.
Check out the 1900 to 2000 100 year pattern,Using the conjunctions for 20,10,1900-4,3,1914-15,7,1927-8,5,1941-7,10,1954-11,12,1968-18,1,1983-15,2,1997 and all the1st1/4,Oppositions and 3/4 positions.

[rahu]

it is only in greek mythology where mercury is relegated to a "messenger" of the gods.
before this mercury was a seminal creator god.the earliest egyptian myth had 8 creator gods and mercury was one.the city of mercury/thoth, hermopolis in egypt, was oringinally call 8.the hieroglyph was simply 8 dashes.

in theravada buddhist tradition, reality is a creation of the mind.each moment is surplanted by another thought/moment ad infinitum.there are 3 states of the mind.the mind of the soul entering the body,the mind of the body in reality and the mind of the soul as it leaves the body.
so here reality is a function of mercury.hard not to say that mercury is a seminal , esoteric and occult force.

isabel hickey describes mercury as the process of thinking.it is does not rule the brain.mercury becomes the transmitter of knowledge and karma when the soul(moon) incarnates in vital body(sun).so again mercury symbolizes the seminal connection of spirit to matter.

these are just observations and i don't mean to start a dialogue of about what is true and what is false.

rahu

[dr. farr]

I think mercury is important as a translator of the higher octave planets and that is where its occult knowledge lies,im not so convinced about its hexagonal transit patterns being so important,if you want to see a serious hexagonal/interposed grand trines/star of david transit pattern then the conjunctions,1st 1/4,Oppositions and last 1/4's of the transiting jupiter/ uranus cycle to each other are much more convincing.
Check out the 1900 to 2000 100 year pattern,Using the conjunctions for 20,10,1900-4,3,1914-15,7,1927-8,5,1941-7,10,1954-11,12,1968-18,1,1983-15,2,1997 and all the1st1/4,Oppositions and 3/4 positions.


I agree with the "translator of higher octaves" outlook, regarding Mercury; and also with the clear-cut hexagonal patterns mentioned regarding the Jupiter/Uranus cycle; problem is that the Jupiter/Uranus cycle is not visible to the naked eye (you can't see the Uranus part) whereas all of Mercury's activities are easily seen and kept track of by regular human vision, which the ancients used in establishing the astro-cosmoslogical foundations upon which our Western astrological tradition was erected.

[positive]

I don´t know but occult is more rituals, saturnian. I think mercury is more alchemy.

3rd house is the house of goddess and 9 of god. 3rd is the books (like bible etc.) everything written down. mercury i think in traditional is also astrology. mercury or hermes guide you to the underworld. I believe also mercury is maths.

generally I think mercury is a very important factor, just consider it stands for the nerves system.

[Anachiel]

By "occult" I assume you mean the study of magic in general. Mercury does rule this simply because the first "magic", as it were, was writing. Writing was a very magical act in ancient times and, in older times, nothing was written unless it was for magical purposes.

Later, only the priestly classes, for example, were literate and writing was used to record (or alter) the history and learning of the people/culture. Religious information was first written and then past onto the people through ritual and oracle. Or, conversely, the already extant rituals were recorded in writing by the upcoming priests, etc.

Rituals themselves, though not entirely or necessarily "magical", required the used of words and hand gestures, (all Mercurial!) to make them understandable or effective.

Now to go way out there...the card The Magician, in the Tarot, is associated with Mercury. Coincidence?

Back to astrology; There is no magic without word and gesture. Look how a simple news story can affect the minds (more Mercury) of the masses and sway them here and there. How magical!

In myth, Mercury/Hermes was a psychopomp, able to traverse from Olympus to Hades, whereas the other god/desses could/would not.

But these are the general attributes of Mercury. An oracle, say, according to Cardan, must also have the influence of Jupiter and the Sun (I believe) to be a "wow" oracle. An alchemist, by others, must also have the influence of Mars with Mercury because they work with heat and fire, and so on into all the specific areas one might call magic.

Mercury, takes on the qualities of what he combines with, the good and the bad, he can synthesize and conjoin what might otherwise be disjoint. Certainly, magic requires this for it is the practice of "as above, so below".

Mercury rules all sorts of communication and what is magic if it is not our attempt to converse with and describe that which is beyond (or higher) than ourselves and our narrow day-to-day perceptions?

Blessings,

Anachiel

[dhundhun]

Well, Mercury, Venus and Mars are basic planets and their higher orders are Uranus, Neptune and Pluto respectively.

Occult is very wide term, but if we narrow down, it is sort of TANTRA (it has links to Pluto and Mars). Sex, blood, Spirits, etc. are part of it. Fundamentals of the approach is that Letting Blood Out of Body induces enzymes capable of controlling Sprits.

We can make little wider by adding sort of MANTRA (it has links to Neptune and Venus) - Seduction, Telepathy, Spiritualism, etc. are part of it. Fundamentals of this is Deep Meditation.

More wider, sort of YANTRA (it has links to Uranus and Mercury) - Astrology, Hypnosis, etc. are part of it. Fundamental of this approach is harnessing Animal Magnetism.

It is Onion layer. Mercury/Uranus is outermost, then Venus/Neptune and at the end Mars/Pluto.

[positive]

Well, Mercury, Venus and Mars are basic planets and their higher orders are Uranus, Neptune and Pluto respectively.

Occult is very wide term, but if we narrow down, it is sort of TANTRA (it has links to Pluto and Mars). Sex, blood, Spirits, etc. are part of it. Fundamentals of the approach is that Letting Blood Out of Body induces enzymes capable of controlling Sprits.

We can make little wider by adding sort of MANTRA (it has links to Neptune and Venus) - Seduction, Telepathy, Spiritualism, etc. are part of it. Fundamentals of this is Deep Meditation.

More wider, sort of YANTRA (it has links to Uranus and Mercury) - Astrology, Hypnosis, etc. are part of it. Fundamental of this approach is harnessing Animal Magnetism.

It is Onion layer. Mercury/Uranus is outermost, then Venus/Neptune and at the end Mars/Pluto.


aha. cannot find the difference between Mantra and Yantra. Tantra sounds though logical. Hasn´t Mantra more to do with words? (well you sing them, so maybe it comes from there..?) though I got the mercury thing now, did not understand harnessing.. thank you for the information.