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UNDERSTANDING MERCURY
“I am going to get the same status as Apollo (Sun), if my father does not give it to me, I will become the Prince of Thieves. If Apollo hunts me down, I will go plunder his shrine at Delphi.”
-Hermes (Mercury)
IN SEARCH OF THE MISSING PLANET
Do you know what was the toughest part of writing this article? There was little to no mythology about Mercury in our scriptures. I did not have to face this problem with any other planet. I wondered why, then I realized a bitter truth.
We are a Shani obsessed nation with strong moon vibes. We have buried our Mercury under rabble of Shani and waves of Moon.
No wonder, we are some of the most emotional people on earth, who are more likely to fall in traps of superstitions, impulsive decisions, identity politics, and mindless servitude to our “masters.”
We are not a nation of thinkers, but of unwashed masses, not a nation of intellectuals and innovators, but a nation of blasphemy laws and empowered bureaucracy.
Western Matrix is made of Rahu + Venus, while our Matrix is that of Moon + Shani.
Emotionalism + Obedience to authority is the matrix that runs this nation.
In order to break this matrix, there are two planets which can help us:
Mercury is hard to find in our people as well as our books. Even in the fabled Navagraha Purana, the story of Mercury ends with the birth of Mercury. That’s it.
I searched and searched and searched. There were some stories scattered around in some scriptures, there was story of his birth, then story of his marriage to Ila, where Ila was a man who turns into a woman due to a curse, and Budha marries her. This highlights the “gender fluid” nature of this planet. Then there were some other generic stories with little or no specific learnings about the deeper workings of this planet. So I needed to do something else.
Then, I changed my approach and followed my idea of looking up for archetypes, and thankfully found 3 of them.
I will talk about all 3 in this article in detail further.
Then I moved to western mythology. Thankfully, the West has done a considerably better job, and there were some archetypes totally dedicated to this planet which explained the workings of this planet in detail. I will share my observations on this as well.
Before we start, I want to say something on behalf of Mercury:
“My name is Mercury and i am not Shani..!”
Genius must be born and can never be taught.
-John Dryden
“Only in recent history has ‘working hard’ signaled pride rather than shame for lack of talent, finesse, and mostly, sprezzatura.”
Disease of our times: SELLING SHANI AS REPLACEMENT FOR MERCURY:
When I was searching about quotations on genius, most of the quotations talked about “hard work and patience.” It's surprising how the concept of hard work and patience is incessantly sold to the common man. “If you work hard…you can become a genius.” It is like saying, if Shani works hard enough, he can become Mercury.
No, he cannot…!
To understand the contrast between these two, you either need to be an astrologer, or need to go from Shani Mahadasha to Mercury Mahadasha.
I qualify on both accounts.
And this happens to be my favorite transition of all Mahadasha changes.
During this you are liberated from the chains of the slave principle of Shani, and try to claim the throne under the “Prince” side of Mercury. That’s quite a transformation.
Let’s understand this little understood planet:
UNDERSTANDING MERCURY:
“You were born with the greatest weapon in all of nature. The rational conscious mind.”
-Robert Greene
Like all other planets, mercury has two sides. But his contrasts are more prominent that most other planets. Afterall, mercury rules Gemini, the symbol with two faces. The good twin and the evil twin, both are inherited in mercury.
While he is the one driving rationalism, communication and intellectual progress, he is also capable of manipulations, scamming, and the famous double talk.
He is the monarch of merchants but also the prince of thieves.
He is the genius, but also the scamster. Afterall, you need a considerable amount of intelligence to pull off a scam.
The archetypes associated with him go from the Divine Genius Ganesha to the devious trickster Loki.
So, you see how this is going?
There is an inherent immoral mischievous side to mercury that must be observed closely to understand this genius.
THE LEGENDS AND ORIGINS:
Indian Legends:
One consistency which I have seen among Indian, Roman, and Greek mythology is that it is almost always that Mercury is conceived out of an illicit union and Jupiter is involved somehow.
I have told this story briefly in my “Understanding Shukra” article. The link is here so I will keep this story short.
The Birth of Mercury:
As per the Indian legend, Moon God, Chandra was a student of Brihaspati (Jupiter), and lived in his ashram, where he started an affair with Brihaspati’s wife, Tara Devi.
Later, Chandra eloped with Tara, and understandably, Brihaspati was upset and wanted to punish Chandra. He stormed into the Darbar of God King Indra, and asked him to punish Chandra and get Tara back. Indra rallied his army.
Enter Rakshasa Guru Shukra, the eternal rival of Brihaspati, who rushed to the aid of Chandra, and assured him of safety, and brought an entire Rakshasa army to his defense.
This brought the universe to an Armageddon, with two mighty armies ready to annihilate each other. However, Lord Brahma intervened and Chandra had to give up Tara.
But by then she was carrying a child, who when born, was claimed by both Brihaspati and Chandra. This child was Mercury. Tara confirmed that he was Chandra’s child. This is where the legend ends. What did Mercury do after that…there are no stories.
To understand how Mercury works, we would have to look at some archetypes that worked strongly under Mercury principle.
THE MERCURY ARCHETYPES FROM INDIAN MYTHOLOGY:
The characters in India Mythology that you can follow to understand Mercury are:
PART 1: GANESHA:
The Virgo side of Mercury is arguably represented by Ganesha, who is the accountant of the gods, is the manager of Lakshmi, and is the writer of the Mahabharata. Silent, wise, erudite.
Ganesha: The Lord of Ketu and The Lord of Mercury.
Ganesha is the supreme most of all Mercury archetypes as he is not only the lord of Mercury but also that Lord of Ketu. Combining material growth along with spiritual heights, a rare, auspicious combination. That’s why he is considered the Lord of all auspicious things.
Anyway, I digress, today we are talking about Ganesha’s Mercury Principle.
Ganesha’s big head represents Mercury. People with a strong mercury especially in the 1st house, tend to have abnormally large heads with protruding foreheads.
Ganehsa has many stories, but the one that comes closest to Mercury principle is the one where he wins the right to be the one to be worshipped first among all gods.
The Impossible task:
Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati gave their sons Ganesha and Kartikeya the task of going through the universe and the first one back would get the right to be the “first among all gods.”
Kartikeya belonging to Mars principle immediately took his ride, peacock and shot towards the target.
Ganesha and his ride, a rat, was no competition, but then he had other plans.
Ganesha, in his Mercury principle, took his time, studied the situation and devised a plan.
Then he simply moved in circle around Shiva and the Goddess, the bowed and declared that for Him, they were the whole universe. Lord Shiva and the Goddess were pleased and declared him the winner.
Ganesha accomplished what looked like an impossible task, defeating the mighty Kartikeya, at a game where he started with a significant disadvantage.
Mercury isn’t the planet of victory for nothing.
Narad Muni:
Gemini side of Mercury is more represented by Narad Muni: He is restless, ever traveling, talks a lot, and sets up fights between devas and asuras regularly in order to ensure the fall of the asuras. He is a messenger of the gods and often a mischievous character who plays his tricks from time to time in the mythology.
Most important being the one where he triggers the downfall of Demon King Ravan by making him invite wrath of Shani.
Narad and Ravan:
Demon king Ravan had captured Shani Dev and kept him under his throne, face down in order to avoid the destructive aspect of Shani.
It was known that as long as Shani was not able to aspect Ravan, he couldn’t be defeated. The task of getting this done was given to Narad Muni.
He went to Ravan, fanned his pride and suggested that in order to further humiliate Shani, he should keep Shani face up so that he can directly witness the might and glory of Ravan, and feel helpless. Thanks to his demonic pride, Ravan did exactly that and it was a big mistake.
The moment Shani's gaze fell on Ravan, his bad times started, shortly, Lord Hanuman entered Lanka and burned it. That is when Ravan's empire started to crumble.
In the end Mercury Motto is: End Justifies the Means.
Krishna: The strategist:
Now coming to Krishna, he was the most perfect man ever born on the face of the earth. His chart was extremely auspicious, with all the planets in good positions, but if you ask me which two planets defined him the most, I would say they were Moon and Mercury.
He had an exalted Moon and an exalted Mercury. Whenever you see this combination, you can safely assume that the person is going to do well in life.
Thanks to his 1st-house Moon he was full of kindness to the right kind of people, but his exalted Mercury also helped him create stratagems to make even the most powerful enemies fall.
During the Mahabharata war Lord Krishna used his stratagems at every step of the battle to ensure that the Pandavas won:
Krishna tried his very best to avoid the war but once the war had started, he had no qualms using his stratagems to reach victory.
Most Mercury like story: The Ranchod (One who fled from the battlefield)
When Krishna faced the invincible Kalyavan, the king who had a boon that he could not be killed through any weapon by any warrior. Krishna knew it won’t be possible to win against him using regual warfare.
True to his exalted Mercury, Krishna did his research and devised a plan.
Krishna ran from the battlefield and Kalyavana pursued him hurling insults.
Cool and calm Krishna led him to the cave where king Muchchand was sleeping since many years. He had a boon that anyone who woke him up, would be burnt to ashes.
An enraged Kalyavan ended up kicking the sleeping King and was immediately burnt to ashes. Thus, the invincible enemy died without a fight.
Typical Mercury move.
Mercury is about getting things done, connecting the dots, and playing tricks. He is a mischievous genius who goes around manipulating people, and circumstance, trying to get to his ends. Mostly, he succeeds.
For Mercury, end justifies the means.
WESTERN MYTHOLOGY FOR MERCURY:
There are a few Mercury archetypes in western mythology:
The most detailed Mythology is around the Greek Hermes. The more I studied them, the more I was convinced that he is a perfect archetype with most detailed mercury principles explained.
I will use his story to highlight the qualities of Mercury:
THE STORY OF HERMES:
Greek Hermes was son of Zeus born out of his extramarital affair with the nymph Maia. Again, you see the scandalous beginning.
The Restless Genius: The story goes that Hermes was born with the ability to walk and talk. Soon after his birth, the restless child escaped out of the cradle, found a tortoise outside his cave, and killed it to make a musical instrument called lyre. This shows the cunning and ruthless side of Mercury. He killed an innocent creature in order to fulfill his experiment. But he did end up creating something new, a lyre.
Smooth Criminal: He then got bored and went out and stole cattle belonging to his elder brother Apollo. Furthermore, he tried to cover his tracks by making them walk backwards. After stealing the cattle, he created fire, and offered sacrifices to 12 gods (including himself). This shows us the criminal mind of Mercury. Out of sheer boredom he did something unconventional and then tried to cover up the tracks. Most of the intelligent criminals especially ones involved in white collar crimes, often have a strong Mercury in their charts.
Honesty among thieves: While stealing the cattle, Hermes was seen by an old shepherd, Hermes, always the deal maker, offered him bribe to keep his mouth shut, he accepted. Later, Hermes came to him in a different form and asked if he saw someone stealing the cattle. When offered reward, the shepherd divulged all the information. Hermes turned him into stone as punishment for this betrayal. Mercury takes honesty among thieves very seriously. He has his own paradoxical code of conduct, but he is very loyal to it.
The Chutzpah of the lovable rascal: Then he went back and slept in his cradle putting up his innocent baby act. When Apollo catches him, Hermes feigns innocence, and when taken to the father Zeus, he tries his best to manipulate, lie, cheat, and play innocent. Ultimately, he is able to impress his father, make amends with his brother, and is eventually able to get away with the crime. He did that and with all the chutzpah, tried to defend himself, saying that he is nothing but a mere baby.
In his lovable rascal act he was able to win the affection and admiration of his father Zeus and a certain grudging admiration from Apollo as well.
The Dealmaker: Furthermore, he is also able to placate Apollo, and even strikes an exchange deal with him. He gives his lyre to Apollo in exchange for a golden staff called caduceus. Mercury is in essence the deal maker. He does not wish to have enemies, just trade partners.
Prince of Thieves: Later on, he manages to steal something or the other from each god (not a prince of thieves for nothing). He is able to bypass the systems several times to accomplish his goals.
Getting Things Done: Hermes is often given the dangerous tasks that could not be accomplished with brute force (Mars) and need a degree of quick thinking, trickery, and manipulation.
Task 1: Saving Dionysus:
He goes on to save another illegitimate child of Zeus, infant Dionysus from Hera, the angry wife Zeus. Dionysus was a result of Zeus’ affair with a human female Semele, who was killed by Hera.
Hermes manages to smuggle the infant to another land and hand him over to a foster family. The Prince of Thieves can also be the Sultan of smugglers should the need be.
When Hera got to know about this, and drove the foster family to madness and ruin. Hermes again entered the scene, and transformed Dionysus into a baby goat and handed him over to powerful beings in a faraway land, where even the mighty Hera could not harm him.
Task 2: Killing Argus and Saving Lo: Lo was another one of Zeus’ lovers who was turned into a cow by Hera and trapped in a cave and a hundred-eyed monster Argus was kept as the guard.
Zeus asked Hermes to rescue Lo. Hermes planned this rescue meticulously. He dressed as a shepherd and played smooth melodies on a pipe while approaching Argus. Argus was fascinated and asked Hermes to come to him. Hermes kept talking and playing music lulling Argus into slumber, when all his hundred eyes were closed, Hermes decapitated him with a curved sword.
From this story we see that Mercury likes to plan and hunt. Unlike Mars, he does not run head first into the battle. He plans with maximum intelligence and minimum bloodshed. And is often more effective than Mars. As we will see in the next story, how he rescued even Mars archetype called Ares.
Rescuing Ares:
Ares, the Mars archetype in Greek Mythology, captured by twin giants Otus and Ephialtes and locked in a jar, bound in chains.
The task of rescuing him was given to Hermes. As always, he planned the rescue meticulously. He did not get into a physical clash with the giants, instead he slipped into their home, picked the lock of the jar (Prince of thieves you see) and managed to drag the weakened Ares and moved off at a high-speed using his winged shoes.
This story shows how brains are required to guide and rescue brawns. Why intelligence is more necessary than force.
Guide to Heroes: There are other stories where he wasn’t directly involved, but guided other heroes accomplish their tasks. He guided Perseus and helped him get equipment in order to kill Medusa.
He also helped Odysseus avoid the magic of Circe and avoid destruction.
He did not fight their battles directly but aided these heroes with guidance, protection, and at times equipment. This shows the wise and managerial side of Mercury.
Hope these stories help you understand this tricky planet better.
My Divine Mercury bless us all.
God bless,
G. Vijay Kumar,
Honestastrologer.com
YT: @honestastrologer
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