The Chameleon Among the Planets

This is the fourth part of my essay series “Inner Work with the Planets”. If you haven’t read the earlier parts yet, I suggest you start with part 1 to get the most out of this essay.

After a bright and shiny day with no clouds anywhere in sight, the Sun set just half an hour ago, and it’s promising to be a quiet and dark night with an equally clear sky.

The Moon is only a thin sliver tonight, and her subdued light gives you a wondeful view of all the less bright stars. In the West, Venus is outdoing herself in her gala performance as evening star, by far the brightest object in the sky.

Much higher up in the South, and a lot further away from the Sun than Venus, Jupiter is doing his level best to outshine her in his slightly different shade of white. These two are so bright, they are easy to spot.

But now it gets a bit trickier. Mars is still fairly easy, with his distinguished red shine.

Saturn is somewhat harder. He’s fairly distant, thus rather small to our eyes, and also by far not as shiny-bright as Venus or Jupiter. But still, you’ve been smart and looked up his current location beforehand, and… ah, there he is! A small, rather dullish brown point in the sky.

But Mercury… Have you ever seen Mercury? For real, I mean, not on some photograph?

Chances are good you haven’t – and the reason why leads us straight into the territory of the Hermetic planet Mercury, its vices and virtues…

Mercuy is the planet closest to the Sun. From our earthly vantage point, it thus never moves far away from the Sun. You won’t be able to see Mercury in the middle of the night, even less so than Venus – it simply is too close to the Sun and thus always sets shortly before or shortly after it.

The best you can hope for in spotting Mercury is an hour or so before sunrise in the East, or an hour or so after sunset in the West. That’s it.

Merury is also the fastest of all the planets. It only takes about 88 days for its orbit. This means, again from our point of view, that in a bit less than three months, Mercury appears first to the left of the Sun, then to the right, and then to the left again.

(Ok, I admit it, this is a simplification. Among other things, I left out the fact that earth itself is moving round the Sun, too. I.e. these numbers are only approximations, and will fluctuate a bit, depending on the relative movements of all parties involved. But this isn’t an astronomy course, and having a rough idea is good enough for our purpose…)

In other words, Mercury is fast. Nope, scratch that – he’s even faster. 😉

And just like the physical planet Mercury is sometimes to the left of the Sun, sometimes to the right, so is the Hermetic planet of Mercury sometimes here, sometimes there – but never anywhere for long.

He’s changeable and adaptive.

And much more than any of the other six planets, Mercury with his adaptibility and flexibility emphasizes the connection between his vices and his virtues. They show us how, with a bit of flexibility, one Mercurial trait can be used for good or for ill – and sometimes for both at the same time.

It’s as if Mercury in particular does his best to embody this Hermetic worldview of connected vices and virtues, of “good” and “bad” being two sides of the same coin. Mercury’s traits are both this – and at the same time the opposite (or at least what we perceive as opposite!).

In short, Mercury is the poster child for the Hermetic “two-sides-of-the-same-coin” point of view, and we’ll discuss in detail how this expresses in his vices and virtues in a second.

But first: Did you do the exercise I suggested in the last essay, namely to try on this new worldview in your everyday life? To assume, just for a change, that there are always two sides to the same coin? To make it a habit of considering: “Ok, and how does the other side of this very same coin look like – and why are they two sides of the same?”

If you did so, you’ve built up a good basis for our dicussion of Mercury today – because boy, will this new ability of yours get a workout when you consider the Mercurial vices and virtues in your life! 😉

So Mercury is not just quick – he’s also your guy if you need flexibility, adaptability, and variability. Of course, on the other side of the same coin, this can also make him a bit fickle, inconsistent, and not always reliable in the long term.

(Incidentally, this is a direct reflection of the properties of the planet Mercury up in the sky. I once spent more than a week trying to spot Mercury during one of its short bouts of evening visibility, when it is visible in the West for an hour or so after sunset. Well, “visible” in theory at least.

While we had a week of exceptionally good weather and clear sky, each day when I went to a place with a good Western outlook, there happened to be just one band of clouds in just one area of the sky – and I’m sure you can guess where Mercury was hiding…

I did happen to see him, btw, on one of the very last days with reasonable visibility. But hey, that’s Mercury for you!)

And just as the planet Mercury’s position and path are very adaptable and flexible, and not always easy to spot, so is the Hermetic Mercury and his traits:

Quick-witted (and sharp-tongued!), he is the god of learning and of knowledge, and also the god of technology and technological understanding.

As you might note, these are all rather intellectual pursuits, which don’t necessarily leave much room for certain other things like emotions. I’ll leave it to you to work out the other side of this particular coin… 😉

With his quick tongue and quick mind, Mercury also rules all forms of communication and language. Expressing your ideas or understanding another person are purely Mercurial traits. But then, so are coaxing, cajoling and all forms of verbal manipulation.

(Again, the two sides of this coin should be fairly obvious – and again, I encourage you to look at the communication in your life from this point of view and see what you can learn from it!)

Language and communication, as so many other things, are tools… and tools can be used in various ways, and for various purposes.

Not all of these purposes are necessarily noble or ethical – and adaptable Mercury is the one to teach us this lesson. Not very surprisingly, he is also the most flexible of the planets when it comes to ethics and morals, as you will see shortly…

Of course, with his strong intellect and quick mind, his ability to learn and adapt, and his excellent communication skills, Mercury is more or less predestined to have business success and to earn money.

And again, his skills are tools – tools which can be wielded in various ways in people’s lives (and their businesses), some of them more ethical than others.

(And, of course, you could also choose to not wield some of these Mercurial tools at all – or only in certain areas of your life. Which, essentially, is yet another side of the same coin.

And if that’s you, I’d encourage you to reflect a bit on why you choose to express some of Mercury’s virtues and traits, but not others – and where.)

Of course, with his specific toolset, it’s not surprising that Mercury rules not just over honest businessmen, but also over thieves and trickery of any sorts.

But Mercury has yet more depth, and more sides to himself:

He is also the planet of healing and health. Of competition, and especially of winning in any form of competition (hey, with his speed, it’s not wonder he expects to win in races, right?).

And ironically, Mercury, with his soft heart for thieves, his persuasive skills and his affinity to trickery of all sorts, is also the planet of boundaries and limits.

Even more ironically, his interest is not just in stretching limits and trespassing, but also in setting limits and in keeping boundaries…

Thus, again, he is the planet which shows us most clearly how this particular coin has two sides, and how both sides can be equally important in our lives.

Mercury simply doesn’t understand the concept of White vs. Black. Instead, he’s teaching us all the shades of grey and all the colours of the rainbow, mixed up and changing in very quick succession.

Consequently, in the old literature, the “colour” associated with Mercury is often described as “this mixed with that”, or “this with sprinkles of that and the other”. I guess you could say he’s the chameleon of planets… 😀

(Btw, I keep referring to the Hermetic Mercury as male here. But I suppose it won’t surprise you to hear that he is sometimes taken to be female instead, or both. For Mercury, this isn’t about gender roles and about finding your identity, or any such thing. It’s about being flexible and adaptable, about not ending up somehwere static, and, I suspect, also a bit about having fun…)

So… how does all of this matter to us, and to our inner work? Besides the entertainment value, I mean. 😉

As I’ve explained above, of all the Hermetic planets, Mercury is the one which incorporates most visibly the idea that every coin has two sides, that every tool (and every trait) can be used for good and evil (not just good or evil!).

But he doesn’t stop there.

If there is anything Mercury can teach us, it’s that the two sides of each coin are intrinsically linked together. It simply isn’t possible to just embody one of it, and think we can ignore the other.

For example, how are you going to preserve your boundaries in life if you aren’t on occasion willing to step over those of others?

How are you going to get what you need, if you aren’t willing to take certain things away from others?

And nope, I’m not suggesting you’re a thief or scammer: Even just buying eggs in the supermarket means that nobody else can get the eggs you just bought.

Life isn’t just a constant flipping back and forth between one side and the other, between black and white, good and bad – life is both sides at the same time. Nothing is ever only black, or only white.

If you don’t just “understand” this Mercurial lesson in an intellectual way, but begin to see it applied in your own life (or even begin to apply it yourself!), you’ll be a huge step ahead of most other people.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that everything is possible, or negotiable, or right. Quite the contrary.

After all, Mercury is right there to set boundaries and limits – and even flexibility has its limits…

And besides, there are six other planets to balance out Mercury, to set constraints, to be empathic and warm, to offer you focus, dedication and drive, generosity and connectedness.

But Mercury, consciously applied, is the one to teach us that our positions on our respective high horses aren’t always as high above the mud as we believe them to be.

Incidentally, this important lesson also ties in with one of the big issues of Hermetic thought (which, not surprisingly, is also one of the big points of contention in academic discussions about Hermeticism 😉 ):

You might remember how, in the last essay, I wrote that earthly incarnation in Hermeticism has often been interpreted as just another “fall from grace”, and that I have a more differentiated view on this issue.

Well, if you should study the Hermetica, especially the treatise called Corpus Hermeticum I, you will notice that the first, prototypical human isn’t thrown down to earth because of any transgressions – quite the contrary!

Instead, he looks down on earth from his position high up, close to The Source of all that is – and promptly falls in love with nature. To this first human, the Creation is so beautiful that he wants to share in, to get closer to her. And thus he descends through the planetary spheres with the full consent of the Creator.

But this is just the beginning. Throughout the Hermetica, there are various passages which stress how humans have a double nature: They are part divine being, and part earthly creature.

In fact, the Hermetica tell us in various places that humans are the only beings with such a double nature.

I’m not sure I fully agree with them in this, btw, especially as there are other passages in the Hermetic texts about how reincarnation from a Hermetic point of view might work across the boundary between humans and animals.

Thus I assume the writers weren’t really concerend about ecology or animal rights here, and instead were trying to make a point: In our current state, some divine beings (“higher beings”) might be more powerful than us. But none of them has the same dual nature as we have.

In this, we are truly unique. And while giving up some of our divinity for earthly incarnation might seem like a bad deal at first, it does allow us to be closer to our beloved Creation.

But more importantly, our dual divine-and-earthly nature gives us unique opportunities and gifts – and unique challenges. (You knew there was a catch, right?)

Thus one of the most important things we can do, while we are a part of Creation, and Creation is a part of us, is to make the most of our dual nature. And this, of course, is some of what we’re attempting to do with our inner work here in this essay series… 😉

For today, we’ll leave it at that, and I think (well, I hope!) I’ve given you a lot to ponder.

Next time, we’re going to move one sphere up to the next planet, beautiful, gracious Venus – and we’ll also talk a bit more about what our being on earth even means, and whether that’s good or bad for us.

Until then, I’d like to encourage you to do three things:

1. Spend some time contemplating the Mercurial traits, vices and virtues, and how they manifest in your life.
2. Expand your worldview even more than you did last time: Don’t just consider that there are often two sides to a coin, and that they are intrinsically linked together and can’t be separated.

   Instead, entertain the idea that maybe, just maybe, it’s not even possible to focus on one side or the other of a coin in any given situation, but that in a lot of cases, the two sides really can’t be separated at all – they are both present at the same time, and it simply isn’t possible to suppress one of the two sides, and only express or embody the other.

3. And finally, if you feel so inclined, leave me a comment below.

   I’d love to read any feedback you might have about the series in general or about this particular essay, whether praise, critique or comment. And I’d especially love to hear if you’ve tried applying any of it in your life, and what resulted from that. Thanks! 🙂

The next essay in the series will go up in about two weeks – see you then!

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Image: Tate Lohmiller on Unsplash