Welcome back, dear reader, I hope the last week has found you well. After completing our short study of the seven hermetic principles, over the last couple of months, we will be moving from the academic study of concepts to the more practical study of the three essentials. Today we will be starting with the most active of the three, Mercury.
For many years it has been believed that alchemy was so obviously fake, we can easily add salt(NaCl), sulfur(S) and mercury(Hg) in a lab in any amount and under any circumstances possible and never arrive at gold(Au), case closed. To give a slight nod to the Great Work, the scientific community will agree that early medicine was made, and often effective, using mercury. Aristotle and Paracelsus were well known for their study of medicine and alchemy, as well as for their effective use of alchemical medicine, including mercury(Hg)[5][8].
Mercury, sometimes called quicksilver or Azoth by alchemists of the past is both the elemental Mercury that we see today, as well as life force that is embodied in every mineral, animal or vegetable in the world. In this discourse we will not be covering elemental Mercury as there are thousands of textbooks that could be referenced if you want to educate yourself on the subject. For practicing alchemists, I recommend some study on the subject before beginning, even if just for safety’s sake. Scientific texts should be consulted as well, as it has been said that “the great divide between the two(alchemy and laboratory science) is marked by the way of conceptualizing and recording their practices[7].” However, for our purposes, we will be discussing philosophical Mercury and the Mercury that is hidden in everything around us.
Of the three essentials; Mercury, Sulfur, and Salt; Mercury is the most active force making up the material. Mercury is the spirit of the material, giving it the volatility required for life or for chemical transformations, in the case of minerals. It should be noted that in many alchemical texts minerals can be considered living or dead based on the state of the Mercury within[2].
Mercury itself was considered the feminine aspect of the three essentials. The symbol of Mercury, used along with this discourse is made of two other feminine symbols, the circle and cross of Venus topped by the crescent of the moon herself. As the feminine principle required to create everything, Mercury is the sea of energy that is impregnated by the Sulfur and, nourishes the seed to create a new body, salt[6]. Mercury can be thought of as the place where sulfur deposits the seed of life and from the intermingling of the two, the salt is created and nourished by the mercury.
In practical alchemy it is absolutely necessary to isolate these three essentials in order to combine them in the proper amounts to reach a closer state of perfection and create things like medicine or the Stone itself. This is a relatively simple process to explain but putting it into practice can be more or less difficult depending on the material you are working with[1][2][3]. For simplicity’s sake, let us take the herb Lemon balm, or Melissa, and walk through the process of extracting the mercury of Lemon balm. In order to begin the process, you will need about an ounce of dried Lemon balm, a mortar and pestle, a glass jar with a lid, and as strong an alcohol as you can find, at least above 70%. To begin our work, we will need to consult a chart to find out the planetary sign that governs Lemon balm and with that, the day to begin our work. Once that day and time comes, begin by taking your dried Lemon balm and grinding it as fine as you can in the mortar and pestle, the finer ground it is the easier it will be for the alcohol to draw out the mercury[1][2][3].
After grinding the Lemon balm as fine as possible, place it into the glass jar and pour enough alcohol to cover the material with about two fingers left over the top. This alcohol should be as strong as you can find, red wine that has been rectified alchemically is the best option, but Everclear or other strong grain alcohol is the easiest to find for materials of the vegetable kingdom. After pouring the alcohol over the material, seal the jar. If you are using a metal lid, plastic wrap should be used under the lid in order to ensure a seal and to keep the material from touching metal. The jar should then be placed in a warm dark place for about a month and shaken often to ensure the most mercury is removed from the material. After this month, the liquid should have taken on a dark green color and is ready to be filtered off and the material squeezed in order to get as much liquid out as possible. That liquid contains the mercury of the Lemon balm. The material is set aside in order to be used later to obtain the salt and the liquid is then distilled seven to twelve more times in order to raise it to the level of purity needed for our work. The mercury contained here is often called the “volatile spirit” contained in the material, this is also where we get the English term “spirit” for alcoholic beverages. Because we have removed the vitalizing spirit from the material it is now dead and known as the “Caput Mortuum” or dead body[1][2][3].
Being the vitalizing force inside the base material, mercury is also found within people as well. We have come to call this principle “the spirit” in modern terms. I will try to avoid using the term “spirit” too often in this discourse as to try to keep it separated from the idea of “soul” that we will cover next week. It will suffice to say that mercury is analogous to the “Spirit” within living beings. It is the force that gives us life, which animates us. In Jungian writings mercury is a symbol of a person’s mind, their problem-solving side and their creative side [1][4][9][10].
This aspect of our being is our conscious mind, it is how we think and feel in any situation based off the experiences we have had in our lives. Our conscious mind is made up of both our objective and subjective minds, this combines the information we get from our senses, and analyze that through the lens objectivity and our personal experiences. To take the next step and go slightly beyond the purely psychological aspect and look at the connection Jung strove so long to make, mercury is the medium that connects the body(salt) to the soul(sulfur)[12][13][14][15][16][17]. I could never come close to explaining the many books Jung wrote over his whole life in such a short paper. I do recommend reading his works, as his method of therapy is very helpful.
As we build over the next few weeks on the three essentials we will bring mercury back into the discussion, as the three elements are intrinsically related. Once we have discussed the other two elements, we will take another week and try to bring them back together to try to come to a more complete understanding of each of them, as well as how they interact with each other. I know this discourse did not go into much detail, but I hope what we did cover inspires you to learn more on the subject. I hope this next week finds you well, dear reader, and the study of mercury revitalizes your spirit.
References:
[1] Hauck, D. W. (2008). The complete idiot's guide to alchemy. Penguin.
[2] Bartlett, R. A. (2009). Real alchemy: A primer of practical alchemy. Nicolas-Hays, Inc..
[3] Albertus, F. (1987). The Alchemists Handbook: Manual for Practical Laboratory Alchemy. Weiser Books.
[4] Jung, C. G. (1995). Jung on alchemy. Princeton University Press.
[5] Martelli, M. (2014). Properties and classification of mercury between natural philosophy, medicine and alchemy. AION: annali dell'Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, Dipartimento di studi del mondo classico e del Mediterraneoantico antico: sezione
filologico-letteraria: XXXVI, 2014, 17-48.
[6] Pinkus, K. (2009). Alchemical mercury: a theory of Ambivalence. Stanford University Press.
[7] Marchini, M., Gandolfi, M., Maini, L., Raggetti, L., & Martelli, M. (2022). Exploring the ancient chemistry of mercury. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(24), e2123171119.
[8] Simioli, C. (2015). The King of Essences: Mercury in the Tibetan Medico-Alchemical Traditions. AION: annali dell’Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli: Dipartimento di studi del mondo classico e del Mediterraneoantico antico: sezione filologico-letteraria: XXXVII, 35-54.
[9] Rubenstein, E. (2024). Alchemy-Secrets of Consciousness Transformation. XinXii.
[10] Utke, A. R. (2004). Alchemy and the concept of ultimate reality and meaning. Ultimate reality and meaning, 27(1), 51-69.
[11] McKenna, T. (1991). Lectures on Alchemy. Esalen Institute, California.< https://medium. com/@ Ayahuasca_yage/lectures-on-alchemy-with-terence-mckenna-e7a81430aae7>,(accessed 24 February 2023).
[12] Jung, C. (1957). On the psychology and pathology of so-called occult phenomena (Vol. 1). Newcomb Livraria Press.
[13] Jung, C. H. (2014). Collected works of CG jung, volume 16: Practice of psychotherapy. Princeton University Press.
[14] Jung, C. G. (1967). Paracelsus as a spiritual phenomenon. Routledge and K. Paul.
[15] Jung, C.G. (1948d). ‘ The spirit Mercurius’. CW 13
[16] Jung, C. G. (2014). On the nature of the psyche. Routledge.
[17] Jung, C. G., & Hull, R. F. C. (2014). The spirit of man in art and literature. Routledge.
Image: https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2H5295G/planet-alchemy-symbols-mercury-sign-icon-isolated-outline-vector-simple-pictogram-on-white-background-2H5295G.jpg
I really want to answer this correctly but I'm not quite sure if I can. The planetary charts that I use would pit lemon balm under the sign of jupiter. I know there are some that are slightly different from different practices. I honestly believe that herbs can have the signatures from several planets that can be used depending on the purpose of product you're creating. For instance you could use the days of jupiter or Venus to tune the product to a more specific signature inside the plant.
Great article! Lemon balm is under the planetary influences of Jupiter, Venus and the Moon, but is usually considered a lunar herb. So would the work begin on Monday (Moon)? Or can the process start on the days of either Jupiter or Venus?