Mercurius
As
I have said, the confrontation with the unconscious usually begins in the realm
of the personal unconscious, that is, of personally acquired contents which
constitute the shadow, and from there leads to archetypal symbols which
represent the collective unconscious. The aim of the confrontation is to
abolish the dissociation. In order to reach this goal, either nature
herself or medical intervention precipitates the conflict of opposites wihout
whcih no union is possible. This means not only bringing the conflict to
consciousness; it also involves an expereince of a special kind, namely, the
recognition of an alien "other" in oneself, or the objective presence of another
will. The alchmists, with astonishing accuracy, called this barely
understandable thing Mercurius., in which concept they included all the
statements which mythology and natural philosophy had ever made about him: he is
God, daemon, person, thing, and the innermost secret in man; psychic as well as
somatic. He is himself the source of all opposites, since he is duplex and
utriusque capax (capable of both). This elusive intity symbolizes
the unconscious in every particular, and a correct assessment of symbols leads
to direct confrontation with it.
The
Mercurius of the alchemists is a personification and concretization of what we
today would call the
collective unconscious.
Yet
it would be an altogether unjustifiable suppression of the truth were I to
confine myself to the negative description of Mercurius’ impish drolleries, his
inexhaustible invention, his insinuations, his intriguing ideas and schemes, his
ambivalence and – often – his unmistakable malice. His is also capable of
the exact opposite, …
The
Mercurius who personifies the
unconscious is
essentially “duplex,” paradoxically dualistic by nature, fiend, monster, beast,
and at the same time panacea, “the philosophers’ son”.
For the alchemists Paradise was
a favourite symbol of the albedo, the regained state of innocence, and
the source of its rivers is a symbol of the aqua permanens. For the
Church Fathers Christ is this source, and Paradise means the ground of the soul
from which the fourfold river of the Logos bubbles forth. Aion 235
Like the dragon, Mercurius is
the slippery, evasive, poisonous, dangerous forerunner of the
hermaphrodite, and
for that reason he has to be overcome. Aion 234
As Mercurius is the principle name for the arcane substance, he deserves mention here as the paradox par excellence. What is said of him is obviously true of the lapis, which is merely another synonym for the “thousand-named” arcane substance. MC 44
Ever since the Timaeus it has been repeatedly stated that the soul is a sphere. As
the
anima mundi, the soul revolves with the world wheel, whose hub is the
Pole. That is why the “heart of
Mercurius” is found there, for
Mercurius is the
anima mundi. The
anima mundi
is really the motor of the heavens.