QUICKSILVER – Mercury’s Liquid Metal

THE ALCHEMICAL ‘MERCURY OF THE WISE’

The Tantrik alchemists described mercury as “the most fundamental, and indeed the quintessence, of all substances.” They were well aware of its medicinal properties and believed it to possess life-prolonging properties. It was so highly valued as a restorative and stimulant, that mercury was the main ingredient in most Tantrik medicinal preparations.

Marco Polo, on his travels through India commented: “Those people make use of a very strange beverage, for they make a potion of sulphur and quicksilver mixed together and this they drink twice a month. They say this gives them long life, and it is a potion they are used to take from their early childhood.”4

Even today we are told that some Tantrikas take mercury in place of food to preserve the vital elixir of life, believing that’ ‘only when the body is perfectly attuned and strengthened can it experience and sustain the full intensity of the cosmic state.”4

Among the ancient Tantrik treatises are descriptions of their sophisticated chemical laboratories, and details of the medicinal and alchemical mixtures they prepared. But these preparations were more than just a mechanical mixture of material substances following some ancient alchemical recipe. Alongside the combination of chemicals was a body of closely guarded secret processes that transmuted the raw mercury into the life-giving elixir. An understanding of the processes of spiritual transformation went hand in hand with the knowledge of chemical transmutation. The two could not be separated.

In the Tantrik alchemical writings mercury is referred to as rasa, which is not merely the metallic substance but the subtle essence of substance itself. Rasasara, or the ‘sea of mercury’ refers to the cosmic sea from which the primeval form of all things emerged.

This Tantrik concept of “an original stuff, or ultimate substance, out of which the whole universe has been formed” is identical with the materia prima of western alchemy mentioned earlier, with mercury as its symbol “…seen as the fine psychic stuff, or vital breath, which unites the individual body-soul organism with the cosmic sea of life.”5

Rather than just dismissing these old alchemical beliefs, some modern researchers have continued to incorporate this knowledge into their observa­tions and understanding of nature. Pelikan, for example, relates the three basic alchemical principles of Mercury, Sulphur and Salt to three processes in the mineral kingdom. He describes Salt as being’ ‘the ponderable matter, subject to the earth forces,” and Sulphur “as the substance saturated with the imponderables, the forces raying in from the world circumference.” Mer­cury, however, he describes as “a substance open to the rhythmic interplay of forces from both sources, one radiating out from the earth and the other radiating in from the cosmos.”2

"these are the two serpents which are fixed around the caduceaus, or Staff of Mercury, and by means of which Mercury wields his great power and transforms as he wills." Nicolas Flamel

THE CADUCEUS OF HERMES

Mercury is the agent of all possibilities, and its great desire to unite, dissolve and transform makes it the’ first agent’ of the alchemical operation. Its moist receptive nature was likened to the original female power which like water, or the passive materia, takes on all forms without being altered itself. “In it the germ of spiritual gold lies hidden, as does gold in ordinary quicksilver.”5

Its opposing force is the volatile solar Sulphur, with its hot, dry nature. Together they represent the active and passive poles of nature, the double spiral, or the twin serpents or dragons coiled opposite about the wand of Mercury. At their height these two opposing generative forces unite in the alchemical marriage of the Sun and Moon, King and Queen, male and female, and from their perfect union is born the alchemical gold.

They are the Yin-Yang of Taoism, also identical to the Ida wadPingala, the subtle lunar and solar currents of Kundalini, described by occultist Kenneth Grant as the “electro-sexual serpents entwined about the Wand of the Magician, as in the Caduceus of Hermes.”6

Certain researches into the mysteries of electricity are focused around what is called a caduceus coil. This coil generally consists of a single wire wound around a central pole in such a way as to resemble the Caduceus of Hermes. Supposedly, when the coil is energized anomalous energy and gravity effects are experienced in the field of the coil. It varies a bit from a true Caduceus in that it consists of a single wire instead of two. Perhaps further experimentation could focus on using two wires of dissimilar metals, such as copper and iron in electrical circuits, or gold and silver in radionic circuits. Actually any two coils wound in opposition could be considered a caduceus coil. Using dissimilar metals, as George Van Tassel proposed to use in his rejuvenation building — the Integratron, would provide a polarity quite in tune with the energies of mercury.

MERCURY OF THE MEND

Being so liquid, continually changing its form, the deeper meaning of mercury is not easy to define. It is described as ‘the all dissolving water and nourishment for the spiritual embryo’ and a ‘living, omnipresent and innate spirit.’ It is ‘the substance which flows in all psychic and mental forms’ and has the only planetary sign which combines both the Sun and Moon above the cross of the four elements.

This dual nature is reflected in mercury’s alchemical symbol of an androgynous figure, expressing both female and male powers. It is at the same time the ‘semen of Shiva,’ and ‘the maternal blood’ or ‘the mother of gold,’ and there are obscure allusions to the menstrual blood of Tantrik priestesses being potent enough to solidify mercury.

Wherever there are mercurial forces operating there is the circulation of energies, the connection of opposite poles, contact, intercourse and interaction. In the Qabala the power-zone of Mercury is the sphere of the mind, of mental magic where the mind gives form to its creations. It is called the ‘Absolute or Perfect Intelligence’ and initiation into this sphere gives the ability to see behind appearances, and to realise the subtle invisible forces behind all forms.