KANEKO’S CRIB NOTES XXIV: MERCURIUS Alchemy is as complex as it is fascinating. Much more than

KANEKO’S CRIB NOTES XXIV: MERCURIUS Alchemy is as complex as it is fascinating. Much more than the pursuit of transforming base metals into gold, alchemy possesses an enormously rich symbology with a huge body of texts and illustrations that offer deliberately cryptic hints at its processes. Needless to say, alchemy can also be quite befuddling even if you’ve familiarized yourself with it. That brings us to Mercurius, who appears early in Shin Megami Tensei II. Kaneko’s Mercurius is surely based on that of the illustration above, which first appeared in a German alchemical manuscript of the 17th century. But this demon is more than just another name for Mercury, the Roman god; the alchemical imagery connects primarily to the element Mercury, aka quicksilver. The element Mercury was considered “prime matter” to alchemists, owing to its unusual properties such as being a metal that was a liquid at room temperature. But that doesn’t explain everything that’s happening within the original illustration or Kaneko’s version. Firstly, why is the original named “Python”? A description of the illustration has this to say: Python [Mercurius as three-headed dragon]: symbolic representation of an alchemical process within a flask.Mercurius’ dragon form is very deliberate, as dragons (or serpents, hence “Python”) represent the volatile, chaotic early stages of alchemy. Clearly something violent or transformative is happening in this representation of Mercurius. In his Alchemical Studies, psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung interprets the “Python” illustration: The spiritus mercurialis and his transformations represented as a monstrous dragon. It is a quaternity, in which the fourth is at the same time the unity of the three, the unity being symbolized by the mystagogue Hermes. The three (above) are (left to right); Luna, Sol, and coniunctio Solis et Lunae in Taurus, the House of Venus. Together they form ☿= Mercurius.In simpler terms, the “coniunctio” (conjunction or, in this case, coitus) represents the alchemical “sacred marriage” or union of opposites: the female moon with the male sun, as seen in the first two heads. Combined with the horned Taurus (♉), whom astrologers considered to be ruled by Venus, this results in Mercury/Mercurius (☿) itself, the third head. These heads represent the element, but because they are attached yet to the volatile dragon, they are still as one. This complete figure is thus the quaternity, which symbolizes the reactions of Mercury in the alchemical flask. Ultimately, Mercurius represents a single step of the alchemist’s journey, but is nevertheless a potent symbol in its own right. For more of Kaneko and alchemy, check out the very first Crib: Ouroboros! -- source link
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