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and the distribution of energies. Mercury is superficial. It is the moving ego mind that is
capable of knowing about things externally. It shapes itself to whatever subject or
stimulus is presented before it, creating therefrom all kinds of corresponding conclusions
and belief systems in the blink of an eye.
Likewise, the chameleon quality of Mercury, the planet, makes it take on whatever zodiac
sign it is in and enhance it with intelligence. Moreover, if it is close to another planet in a
chart it will adopt that planets function and add a sharpness to it. Mercury represents the
mutable aspects of man's nature. It is the intelligence that is book-learned. It covers its
subjects, but it does not really live them or become one with them. By its very nature of
superficiality and ability to cover things, our Mercury-nature is the very thing which lies
to us about reality. Because it so readily assumes the shape of our experiences, creating
dysfunctional maps of reality based on them, it is the very thing that keeps us isolated and
apart from creation. Our experiences prod our Mercurial intelligence and fashion from it
beliefs, complexes, fears, and patterns of behavior that keep us locked up in the fantasy
world of the ego. It is interesting to note that the Sephirah that corresponds to Mercury is
Hod whose virtue is truth and whose vice is falsehood. Our maps of reality may be
truthful and serve us well or they may be deceitful and lead us time and again into
suffering. We have a choice.
The god Mercury is regarded as the psychopompus, the soul conductor of heaven, the
messenger of the gods, the instructor and guide to the Hermetic mysteries. Thought of as
an initiator into occult schools, especially ritualistic ones involving full ceremonial. Our
Mercurial quality when properly utilized becomes not an imprisoning pattern but a
vehicle by which we experience deeper and more liberated states of consciousness.
Language
Hermes Trismegistus, a historical/mythical magus that is identified with both the gods
Thoth and Mercury, is fancifully celebrated as the inventor of language and writing.
Language is the biggest and foremost outgrowth of the hermetic mind. Some say that
human beings have a natural instinct to form language.
What would humans be like without language? It is almost impossible to say, since we
would imagine it most likely by using concepts and mental descriptions involving
language. Language has the power to shape our mercurial mind in a way that allows us to
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A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com
A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com
create fixed areas or concepts. Concepts help us to organized knowledge, to pull facts
together in meaningful ways which explain things. We all develop, knowingly or
unknowingly, conceptual frameworks which help us understand the world.
Language is a Hermetic skill very much mis-used by the unenlightened mind. We tend to
actually believe words as if they were the very object to which they refer. We tend to
actually believe the things that we say. The Mercurial mind is so mutable that it jumps to
conclusions based on very little experience. We start saying things like "Men are pigs!" or
"He always. . ." and we end up believing it.
We end up treating ourselves and others accordingly, running into misunderstandings and
conflicts when our word-versions of reality do not match with experience. The next man
you meet may have brute-like qualities mixed with a very gentle, artistic soul. But will
you notice, if "Men are pigs."?
On the Hermetic path to enlightenment, the aspirant develops what S. I. Hayakawa calls
extensional orientation. Extensional orientation is the state of mind that is prone to use
words that refer to the environment without any interpretations or judgments about it. It
maintains language reflecting the environment, rather than language imposing meanings on
things and then wrestling with the meanings as if they were the things themselves. There
are no such things as good and bad, nigger or Jew. There are no such things as human
being and love. No such things as angels and demons. There is just what is and the labels
we use to get by. Nothing more. And, of course, that which actually is cannot be
conveyed by speech or image or label. It can only be referred to in that way by the
Hermetic mind, and then that which is beyond mind will do the rest.
So, by employing language to refer to that which is beyond language, we are on the
Hermetic path. The activity of the mind is turned against itself. It examines itself and
modifies its ability to perceive. It undoes itself so that that which is beyond it can
become the locus of control. The ego relinquishes its position and becomes an aggregate
of biological and psychological traits centered, as it were, around the influence of that
which is beyond the known.
The mind finally then matures and becomes humble. The mature mind knows that
words never say all about anything, and such a mind is therefore adjusted to uncertainty.
Whatever challenges the world thrusts upon us, we are then at least free from those of
our own making.
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