Moon and Mercury
Moon
The glyph for the Moon is, by Moore and Douglas's model, a broad vertical
crescent of Matter connected to a narrower vertical crescent of Matter, forming
together the image of a crescent Moon, or partial, incomplete circle of Spirit.
According to the reverse model of the crescent and cross, the glyph for the Moon
is composed of two crescents of Soul, reflecting the individuality of the
person.
The Moon is ever-changing; evokes the containment of the Sun's power, and its
reflection from a variety of different angles; and stands for the principle of
response, which manifests on an experiential level as feeling, emotion or
desire, and when positively expressed brings sympathy; when negatively,
moodiness. It describes personal experience, the unconscious, the instinctive
reactions, and the fate by which these bind one. It shows personal provenance
from the past, memories, and what the individual seeks to overcome.
The waxing and waning of the Moon in its phases produces on a human level phases
of growth and decay. The fast-changing path and circumstances of the Moon is
reflected in the rapid changes undergone by human emotion. Although frequently
emotion has been regarded in modern times as an agent of hazardous personal
instability capable of deceiving those who feel it with regard to reality, in
fairness the arousal of human emotion is a healthy response, steering and
guiding one towards consciously willed adaptations to the unconsciously
perceived and illuminated reality of one's situation, for one's own well-being
and benefit. Since the lunar response is thus a key to personal survival via
constant circumstantial adaptations, the Moon also serves as a projection of the
mother, who has a similarly responsive role early in the life of a child, on
that child's behalf.
The relationship of the Sun to the Moon in a nativity indicates the extent to
which an individual's will and behavior (Sun) harmonizes or conflicts with his
or her emotions, situation and environment (Moon).
Referred to sometimes as the 'bowl of heaven', the Moon has been regarded as a
vessel for the reception of Spirit as Matter, and for the feeding and sustenance
in material form of the will and creations of Spirit. It also governs the masses
and the public in general, as they react and respond to changing material
conditions.
The nature of the lunar influence is capricious; changeable; charitable;
concrete and practical in ideas and ingenuity; desirous on a material level;
defensive of the defenceless; economical; faithful; fanciful; fluctuating;
frivolous; hopeful; imaginative; impressionable; instinctive; kind; lacking in
concentration; magnetic; maternal; modest; peace-loving; protective; psychic;
reactive to domestic and everyday matters; receptive; respectful; romantic;
susceptible to influence; sympathetic; timid; travel-loving; unstable;
venerating; and wandering.
The Moon governs changes, common people, females, health, home, marriage
affairs, liquids, mother, native place, ocean, removals, place of residence,
transportation and distribution systems, voyages, water, and worldly condition.
It also signifies fancies, mysteries, popularity, public life, romances, and
traveling. It confers a capricious, fanciful, inconstant, unsettled nature, with
the capability of achieving public honor but a danger of reversals.
People signified by the Moon include barmen; brewers; caterers; charwomen;
coachmen; common people; dearer in liquids; drunkards; female Royalty and
nobility; female officials and street-sellers; fishers; fishmongers; hackney
men; huntsmen; ladies; maids; maltsters; mariners; messengers; midwives;
millers; nurses; pilgrims; public commodity workers; sailors; public
salespeople; trades people; transport workers; travelers; vintners;
water-carriers.
Places described include baths; bogs and marshes; brooks; deserts; fields;
fishponds; fountains; highways; natural pools; port towns; rivers; sea havens;
shores; springs. Minerals include crystals; moonstones; pearls; selenite;
silver; soft stones. Colors are pale green; white; pale yellow; and silver.
Flavors are flavorless; or fresh.
Herbs are mostly those having soft, thick, juicy leaves, loving to grow in
watery places. They include adder's tongue; Agnus castus; avens; cabbage;
chickweed; clary sage; cleavers; colewort; columbine; cuckoo flower (lady's
smock); cucumber; dog rose; duckweed; endive; flax (linseed); fleur-de-lys;
gourd; grass; hawkweed; hemp; honesty (Lunaria); hyssop; iris (flag); ivy; kale;
lettuce; lily (white); loosestrife (purple, yellow); mandrake; mercury (annual);
mushrooms; onion; orach; poppy; purslane; rape; reeds; rose (white); rosemary;
saxifrage (inc. burnet s.); stonecrop; violet; wallflower; water lily;
watercress; and wheat. Trees include melon; palm; privet; pumpkin; willow; and
wintergreen.
Animals include bats; camels; cats; carrion crows; chameleons; chicks; crabs;
cuckoos; ducks; eels; elephants; frogs; giraffes; geese; herons; hogs; lobsters;
otters; owls; oxen; oysters; panthers; partridges; pigs; rabbits; rats; ravens;
sea birds; snails; swans; tortoises and weasels.
Physically, the Moon rules the abdomen; alimentary canal; bladder; breasts;
brain function; cell tissue building; cerebellum; cleansing; eye (left in male;
right in female); fluids; gastric juices; glands; glandular process; heart
functions; left-side reproductive organs; lymph; esophagus; menstruation; nerve
sheaths; palate; pericardium; saliva; swallowing; sympathetic nervous system;
thyroid gland; throat; tonsils.
When prominent, it confers a fair stature; a corpulent, plump, fleshy body; a
pale complexion; grey eyes, with one usually a little larger than the other; a
round face; plenty of head and body hair; and short, fleshy hands.
Illnesses signified are abscesses; allergies; apoplexies; catarrh; colic;
convulsions; coughs; diseases in the left side; dropsy; emotional depression;
endocrine imbalance; epilepsy; eye pain; female disorders; functional ailments;
gland inflammation; gout; measles; mental instabilities; nausea; palsy;
rheumatic conditions; sciatica; small pox; stomach aches and ailments; stones;
and worms.
Unto character, when well placed, the Moon confers composed manners; desire to
be carefree; fearfulness; flitting tendency; focus on the present; frequent
residence change; learning of many different work skills; seeking of and delight
in novelties; lack of steadfastness; love of honest and ingenious sciences;
peace-loving nature; prodigality; softness; tenderness.
When poorly placed, the Moon produces careless or beggarly living; discontent
with all conditions of life; dislike of working; drunkenness; idleness; lack of
spirit or of future forethought.
In ancient astrology, the Moon signifies the sensitive and irrational mind;
mothers and women. As a vocational significator, it produces diviners; dream
interpreters; magicians; and soothsayers. In horary astrology, it indicates the
flow of time.
Mercury
The glyph for Mercury shows the crescent of Matter above the Circle of
Spirit, which in turn is above the cross of the Soul. This represents the
influence of Matter upon Spirit or consciousness, in the astrological character
of Mercury. The personal will of Spirit is exposed to reflections through the
plane of Matter, and the relation of its own subjectivity to the objectivity of
material reality, in the conscious processing house of the mind; and it is to
these mental processes that Mercury relates. Mercury provides the connection
between active Spirit and reactive Matter that is of the essence of conscious
human existence. It evokes communication and intelligence, which when positively
expressed manifest as discernment; when negatively, as variability.
By Martin Schulman's model, the glyph for Mercury features the crescent of Soul,
as originator of all self-aware knowledge based on inner perception, pouring its
energies downward into the Circle of Spirit, the creative will, which then seeks
to manifest this input in Matter. Mercury thus shows the mind functioning as a
seat of perception and feeding that perception back into will for renewed
application to matter.
Mercury governs the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake without regard to
practical application or morality; analysis and synthesis; argument and debate;
the concrete perceptual faculties of mind, including the perception of color,
form, motion, order, position and weight; the registering and classification of
all that strikes the senses; the gathering and quoting of evidence in support of
views; intellectual capacity; reason; speech, oratory and intonation; study;
technical skill; thought; and understanding. It is active, brilliant, crafty,
cunning, dexterous, discriminating, eloquent, excitable, facile, gossipy,
hesitant, impressionable, industrious, literary, nervous, proficient, subtle,
superficial, vacillating, wayward, witty, and worrisome..
Mercury governs acquaintances, bargaining, business matters, clothing, colleges,
food, journeys by land, letters, memory, the mind, mother's relatives, neighbors
and their gossip, printing works, publishing offices, schools, scientific and
literary organizations, servants, sickness, trading, and writings. It also
signifies anxieties, commercial connections, family relating, industries,
messages, mental activity, and multiple occupations. It confers a busy,
restless, subtle, talkative, wary nature, inclining to oratory, scientific study
and writing.
People signified by Mercury include accountants, actors, ambassadors, artisans,
astrologers, booksellers, carriers, civil engineers, clerks, commissioners,
diviners, footmen, fortune-tellers, grammarians, interpreters, inventors,
journalists, lawyers, mathematicians, merchants, messengers, junior ministers,
money exchangers, notaries, orators, philosophers, poets, postal workers,
printers, researchers, registrars, schoolmasters, scientists, scribes,
sculptors, secretaries, solicitors, stationers, tailors, telecommunications
workers, thieves, usurers and writers.
Places described include bowling alleys, commons, fairs, public halls, markets,
schools, tennis courts, and trades people's shops. Minerals include agates,
amber, coral, coxcomb, emeralds, flint, haematite, mercury, tin, topaz,
turquoise, vitriol, and all stones of varied colors. Colors are mixed and new.
Flavors are mixed; subtle; those penetrating without conscious awareness; ones
that quicken the mind.
Herbs are mostly those of mixed color; loving sandy soil; bearing seeds in
husks; connected in uses with the tongue, brain, memory or lungs, or with
divination and the muses. They include acacia, adder's tongue, anise, beans,
bittersweet, blackberry, bracken, cabbage, calamint, caraway, carrot, wild
celery (small age), cinquefoil, coriander, cotton lavender, cow parsnip (Heracleum),
cubeb, dill, elecampane, endive, fennel, fenugreek, ferns, flax, fleawort,
fumitory, garlic mustard, germander (wall), good King Henry, ground pine, hog's
fennel, black horehound, white horehound, hound's tongue, houseleek, knotgrass,
lavender, lentil, lily-of-the-valley, liquor ice, love-in-the-mist (Nigella),
lungwort, maidenhair fern, mallow, mandrake, marjoram, melilot, mercury (dog's),
moneywort, myrtle, oat, parsley, pea, pellitory, pimpernel, restharrow, rock
samphire, rose, saffron, savory (winter, summer), scabious, senna, southernwood,
spleenwort (wall rue), trefoil, valerian, and vervain. Trees include alder,
cypress, elder, hazel, honeysuckle, mulberry, palm, quince, sumac, and walnut.
Animals include adders, ants, apes, aquatic birds, bees, blackbirds, camels,
civet cats, cockatoos, cranes, crickets, donkeys, ermines, falcons, foxes,
greyhounds, hares, hyenas, jackdaws, larks, locusts, linnets, mules, mullet,
nightingales, parrots, pigeons, pyes, serpents, spiders, squirrels, starlings,
swallows, and weasels.
Physically, Mercury rules the brain; bronchial tubes; ears; excitation; feet;
gall; hair; ileum; intellect; larynx; limbs; lungs; memory; mind; mouth; nervous
system; perception; senses; shoulders; thyroid gland; and tongue.
When prominent, it describes a high stature; thin, straight body; olive or
chestnut complexion; fair eyes between grey and black; long, narrow face; high
forehead; plenty of head hair between dull brown and black; little chin hair;
thin lips; long, thin nose. If Mercury rises before the Sun, the stature is
shorter but well-jointed; complexion honey-colored to swarthy-brown; eyes small;
and hair sparse. If after the Sun, the body is lank and dry; eyes hollow,
sparkling and red or fiery; face tawny; and limbs small and slender.
Illnesses signified are anxiety, brain disease, congestion, dumbness, dry
coughs, fantasizing, giddiness, goitre, gout, hoarseness, insanity, lethargy,
memory defects, nervous disorders, respiratory impairments, excess saliva,
stammering, stress, tongue problems, tuberculosis, and vertigo.
Unto character, when well placed, Mercury confers cogitation, intellect,
sharpness, subtlety and genius to the mind; argumentative, logical and political
ability; tireless imagination; inclination to learning, usually without need for
a teacher; occult curiosity, and an interest in divination; ambition for
scientific excellence; resourcefulness as a tradesperson; desire for travel,
including abroad; and wit. When poorly placed, it produces a frenetic nature;
trouble brought by antagonistic speech and writing; easy and foolish credulity;
tendency to boast, feign knowledge, gossip, lie, cheat, thieve, or interfere;
inconstancy of location or opinion; trifling mind; excess of words unmatched by
action; or attraction to necromancy and dark occultism.
In ancient astrology, Mercury signifies the intellectual mind; custom; fidelity;
law; debating skill; inventiveness; prudence; and thoughtfulness; but when
poorly placed a foolish, inconsiderate, inconstant, precipitate, untruthful
nature. As a vocational significator, it produces academics, architects,
astrologers, bankers, businesspeople, diviners, merchants, mimes, orators and
writers. It has a potentiating effect on the benefic or malefic nature of other
planets in a configuration.
Mercury
is god of trade and profit, merchants and travelers, but originally of the trade
in corn. In later times he was equated with the Greek Hermes. He had a temple in
Rome near the Circus Maximus on the Aventine Hill which dates back to 495 BCE.
This temple was connected to some kind of trade fair. His main festival, the
Mercuralia, was celebrated on May 15 and on this day the merchants sprinkled
their heads and their merchandise with water from his well near the Porta
Capena.
During the time of the Roman Empire the cult of Mercury was widely spread,
especially among the Celtic and Germanic peoples. The Celts have their Gaulish
Mercury, and the Germans identified him with their Wodan.
The attributes of Mercury are the caduceus (a staff with two intertwined snakes)
and a purse (a symbol of his connection with commerce). He is portrayed
similarly to Hermes: dressed in a wide cloak, wearing talaria (winged sandals)
and petasus (winged hat).
Mercury is also known as Alipes ("with the winged feet").
by Micha F. Lindemans
Fortune | The Twelve
Houses |
Ascendant |
Zodiac Signs Part II |
Lilith
