Mercury

I've mentioned Catholic astrology on this blog before.  I don't want to talk too much about a subject that I know so little about, as I don't know of anyone personally whom I can trust to be devout Catholics and root any kind of astrology in God and the Catholic doctrine, rather than inverting this and trying to predict the future in violation of the First Commandment while still claiming to be Catholic or otherwise Christian (I still recoil when I look into most things labeled as "astrological", and I don't get on astrology websites at all, for example).  And I certainly don't want to lead anyone astray.

In particular, I don't know if it is appropriate to venerate the planets as we would angels or saints.  I don't mean the celestial bodies--that would NOT be appropriate--but traditionally, saints such as Thomas Aquinas have believed that their movement is due to heavenly spirits (the same species as angels, although the word "angel" technically only applies to the lowest ranks who communicate with us), spirits associated with the bodies of the planets, but not as inextricably as our souls are with our own bodies.  And if this were true, I would think it would be appropriate to venerate these Intelligences.  (The word "venerate" relates to the word "Venus".)  But without clear word either way from the Church, I'm not comfortable specifically venerating them, as in asking them to pray for me or intercede on my behalf (or others), or in telling other people to do so.  Still, I'm so uncertain that, at least for now, I prefer to take a similar position to that of private revelations: we aren't required to believe in them or act on them, but if the Church has approved them, we must not contemn those who do even if we choose not to ourselves.  (Then again, I don't know of people who would believe in this or act on it who are NOT breaking the First Commandment.)

Nevertheless, I'm coming to notice a recurring theme throughout my life, that (if the pattern I seem to detect is indeed legit) both suggests some truth to the influence of the planets, and also puts the lie to astrology being so certain that people might try to predict the future based on horoscopes and such.  Therefore, I think it might be a good idea for me to mention it here, at least to throw it out there.



I'm a Capricorn, and so my ruling planet is Saturn--and I have definitely noticed some degree of saturnine elements in my life: I recall reading some stories I'd written in 2005, as a young man, and realizing that I must have suffered from depression at that time; also, when I was trying to predict the future myself from 2012-2016, I kept looking at my neighborhood and world as if I were Sarah Connor from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, as if it were all gone already.

But if I'm being honest with myself, I think I'm noticing more of a mercurial influence in my life (hence the title of this blog entry).  I didn't recognize it as specifically "mercurial" before I came back to the Church, or even at all before this year (and maybe that's a good thing), but I now feel that I can put a label on it.



Before I go any further, I want to get a few things clear:

1) Even if there is anything to planetary influence on our lives, there need not be hard and fast boundaries, and that's doubly so where Mercury is concerned (Mercury is mutable and therefore has fuzzy boundaries)--so just because you see something in your life associated with one planet doesn't preclude the same for others, nor does it mean that's the dominant influence in your life.

2) Nevertheless, Mercury is so far removed from Saturn, and I feel so strongly a mercurial influence in my life, that I think it puts the lie to the idea of astrology being 100% reliable.  I wasn't born with any astrological sign ruled by Mercury (such as Gemini), so my birthday cannot explain this apparent mercurial influence in my life.  And so if I'm correct in mercurial influence dominating my life, that alone should suggest that astrology is NOT so reliable as to have it be practical to try to know the future thereby (which is a grave sin against the First Commandment).

3) While I have Asperger's Syndrome, and this makes it easier for me to miss the forest for the trees compared to ordinary people, I don't think that alone accounts for what I call a mercurial influence.  I can only speak for myself, not for everyone with Asperger's Syndrome, but I don't think this condition alone is mercurial.  (In fact, while I won't get into it in this blog entry, if anything I wondered if it was due more to influence from Luna, the moon.)



Ever since I read the book Peter Pan for the first time in 2003 (after seeing the P. J. Hogan film), I've considered it to be my favorite story ever, the one with which I could most identify and the one I most loved, reading it over and over until I practically had it memorized (not something I usually do with novels, let me tell you).  I identified specifically with Peter Pan, especially when he was looking through the window at the one joy from which he must be forever barred (seeing the happy reunited Darling family, now including the adopted Lost Boys), and when he discovered that Wendy had grown up without him, leaving him behind in childhood, and he cried.

Nevertheless, I wondered (and was unnerved) by the fact of people associating "Peter Pan" (not the character as such, but adults identifying with him) with pedophilia, or even with sex of any kind.  Peter Pan is sexless: he doesn't even know of (or want) any male-female relationship other than mother and son, and he is himself prepubescent and so his body is not sexualized.  Still, it was such a recurring theme that I wondered why it existed, and I didn't want it to exist.



Now I think that what it was is mercurial influence.  Mythologically, Mercury is the winged messenger, associated both with speed and with communication--and the latter means not only language but also being an intermediary between two people (one to give the message to the messenger, and one to receive it from the messenger), hence Mercury ruling the constellation of Gemini, the Twins.  He is also, uniquely among the gods, depicted as beardless, suggesting youth (like Peter Pan).  In addition, Hermes (the Greek equivalent of Mercury) is the father of Pan, the nature deity who is half-man and half-goat, and for whom Peter Pan was named.

What got me to thinking specifically about Mercury was reading The Narnia Code by Michael Ward, specifically the chapter about the Narnia book called The Horse and His Boy.  In particular, what caught my attention was the fact that, when the boy Shasta asks the Voice (later revealed to be Aslan) "Who are you?", he answers "Myself" three times, but each time his voice sounds different, revealing a different property of himself.  Michael Ward says that this is the most Trinitarian part of the entire Narniad, and he's right--and it's in the mercurial Narnia book.  He explains the relationship with Mercury with regard to "Hermes Trismegistus", the founder of hermeticism--which brings me to another caveat.



In the Middle Ages, the Church held that anything above the orbit of the moon was perfect, unsullied by Adam's original sin, and so reflecting God without corruption, the only imperfection being by virtue of the planets being created, and therefore finite (each having a different realm of influence).  By that reckoning, in and of itself, the influence of Mercury or any other planet (possibly excepting the moon) could only be good--but because of our fallen nature, we are vulnerable to putting such influence to evil purposes.  (This is especially so for Mars, and even more so for Saturn.)  Therefore, there are mercurial matters that are good, and those that are evil (but the evil comes from us, not from Mercury himself).



On the good side, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Word.  We only speak truly when we root ourselves in Him, otherwise our talking might as well be the braying of donkeys.  God is Truth itself.  Therefore there is holy silence (hence vows of silence), and there are short prayers, brief and to the point, contrasted with lengthy pagan prayers that rely on human efforts to get on the good side of the gods.  And when messages are important, speed is a good thing (the Internet itself is a speedy way to broadcast information to a large audience).  In addition, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and so I see Mercury reflecting Him as well, going between the two and uniting them--and the Holy Spirit is the Love of God, the Gift.

And of course, Saint Gabriel the Archangel (the patron of my church parish, and therefore one of my patrons) is the patron of messengers.  Not only does the word "angel" mean "messenger", but Gabriel is the one who made the Annunciation to Mary that she would bear the Christ Child.

Mercurial people include teachers, logicians, clerks, interpreters, translators, ambassadors, representatives, lawyers, judges, actors and other performing entertainers.  Mercury is also associated with money and business: such words as "merchandise", "commerce", etc. are etymologically related to "Mercury".



But we fallen human beings can corrupt Mercury's influence too.  Corruptions of mercurial influence include trickery, lying, cheating, stealing, ambition, envy, sorcery, alchemy, esotericism, sexual deviance, treachery, immaturity, necromancy, blackmail, gossip, slander, cowardice, kidnapping, etc.  Hence we see things like this in the pagan myths about Mercury or Hermes.  And this is also where "hermeticism" comes in.

If you were to boil down the word "mercurial" to one word, I would probably suggest "between".  On the one hand, that is the only way there can be trust and love, and therefore society on earth and salvation when this life is over.  But on the other hand, if we don't root ourselves in God, we corrupt such influence by attempting to find nonexistent categories "between" the ones established by God.  Hence, for example, sorcery and alchemy (the attempt to change one thing into another), and sexual deviance (belief that the male and female sexes aren't mutually exclusive but opposite ends of a spectrum, and that people aren't fixed to one place on that spectrum--which also divorces our sexual appetites from conceiving children) as well as denial of growth and age.

It also leads to using speed and language for evil purposes: evil purposes of speed include running away in cowardice and abandoning others to their fate; running away with something one has stolen, to avoid getting caught; being impatient and refusing to wait for things we need to; never taking the time to slow down and be quiet, and listen to God and talk to Him in prayer.  And evil purposes of language include lying and manipulating people into doing what we want; harming others' reputations; and especially lying under oath and so betraying trust--and even simply talking and talking and saying nothing.

And one of the worst corruptions of mercurial influence is just plain being untrustworthy, both in word and in action--being unreliable and an unpredictable liar, and being treacherous, a betrayer.  Trickster figures in stories are mercurial.  (I need not mention that Pan, half-goat and half-man, also closely resembles much traditional Christian imagery of the Devil.)

And this accounts for the sexual component associated with "Peter Pan" in our culture.  Our animal appetites (such as our sexual appetites) will not be denied even if we try to manufacture a false world to live in, to replace the real world--and if we don't root ourselves in Christ and so be chaste about our sexuality, look what happens.



Given this, not only must I root myself in the Lord in order to put any mercurial influence upon me to good use instead of evil use, but this suggests that the right occupation for me might be mercurial as well.

I've been initiated into the Secular Franciscan Order, and it seems to me that the Franciscan charism is mercurial as well: Saint Francis of Assisi said only to use words to preach the Gospel when necessary, but mostly to preach the Gospel by our actions.  And he focused on creation in its entirety, hence his association with animals and nature.

In addition, I have taken a LONG time in trying to figure out the right job for me with regard to steady work and income.  Even when I thought I'd found it, I would tire of "it" after awhile and move on to something else.  The only things that have stayed with me are mercurial: communication, logic, story and art, performance, change, etc.  A big part of the reason I am still not working full time is because I sought to find a "day job" because I recognized the impracticality of living off the salary of artistic and creative endeavors, and because I recognized that I was uncomfortable being in a leadership position (someone mercurial would want someone above and below him, not just one or the other).

But aside from some of the jobs that I mentioned above being mercurial, perhaps the most mercurial thing I can do is to work freelance, not tying myself down to one boss or company alone, but hiring out my services to whoever needs them and wants to hire me.  It might even be a good idea for me to have a job that requires me to travel.



That doesn't mean that I now have a plan, though.  Not only do I need to root myself in praying to Christ, but I need to be open to anything He sends my way, whether I want it or not, whether I even expect it or not.  And so I can't have any one rigid plan anyway: any plan I make would have to be flexible.

But at least I think I've zeroed in on what makes me tick, and so I have something to focus on in that regard.  Again, ultimately, being mercurial is being "between", which suggests travel, communication, and commerce.  Plus, if I were to make a living with art and creativity, I would have to sell what I produced (unless it was a performance--but even then I could record my performances and sell the recordings), and that means I would have to be some kind of salesman--there's commerce.  And performing is mercurial as well: being "between" means being able to play different roles, like an actor or a mime; plus there are stage magicians and ventriloquists; also, I think that "fools" (clowns, jesters) can be thought of as perpetual "children" in a similar way to kings and queens being fathers and mothers.

And again, hiring myself out freelance is the most mercurial work of all.



Pray for me, though, because I still need to reconcile this in my heart.

Thank you for being with me.  God bless you.