Correspondences of Mercury

• Symbol: ☿
• Names: Hermes, Stilbon, Cyllenian, Arcas (Lilly)
• Adjective: mercurial
• Alchemy: mercury / quicksilver
• Weekday: Wednesday
• Rulership: Gemini, Virgo
• Detriment: Sagittarius, Pisces
• Exaltation: Virgo - 15°
• Fall: Pisces - 15°
• House of joy: first house
• Triplicities:
  • air (night) (Lilly, Frawley, Avelar & Ribeiro)
  • air (second, day), air (first, night) (Dorotheus)
• Terms: Aries (15° - 21°), Taurus (9° - 15°), Gemini (1° - 7°), Cancer (14° - 20°), Leo (7° - 13°), Virgo (1° - 7°), Libra (20° - 24°), Scorpio (22° - 27°), Sagittarius (15° - 20°), Capricorn (7° - 12°), Aquarius (7° - 12°), Pisces (11° - 20°).
• Decans: Taurus I, Cancer II, Virgo III, Sagittarius I, Aquarius II.
• Quality:
  • cold / dry (Lilly, Frawley)
  • common (Avelar & Ribeiro)
• Temperament:
  • sanguine (Skinner)
  • melancholic (Lilly)
  • phlegmatic, slightly choleric (Ferne)
• Element: water, earth (Ferne)
• Gender: neutral (Lilly, Avelar & Ribeiro, Frawley)
• Sect: diurnal if oriental; nocturnal if occidental (Lilly, Avelar & Ribeiro, Frawley)
• Chinese: 水星
• Wuxing: water
• Key concepts: communication, transportation, commerce, trade, contact, intellect, language, education, learning, writing, numbers, subtlety, youth, tricks, games, sport, astrology, variety (Lilly, Frawley, Avelar & Ribeiro, Valens)
• Dignified significations:
  • strategy, eloquence, discrimination, refinement, good perception, shrewdness, ability and desire to learn, love of travel and desire to see other places, curiosity, ingenuity, sharpness, wit, ambition, interest in occult matters (Lilly, Avelar & Ribeiro)
• Debilitated significations:
  • argumentativeness, discord, a disorganized mind, deception, malice, shallowness, lies, foolishness, boasting, provocation, mockery, derision (Avelar & Ribeiro)
  • troublesome wit, being frantic, argumentativeness, idiocy, distraction, inconstancy, lack of substance, being prone to deceit, partaking in wicked arts or ungodly knowledge (like necromancy), cheating, thieving, pretending all manner of knowledge, having no true or solid learning, lying, boasting, bragging, prattling, busybodying, gossiping, trifling (Lilly)
  • (Al-Biruni)
• Greek pantheon:
  • Hermes, Asclepius, Eros (Skinner)
• Roman pantheon:
  • Mercury, Meditrina (Skinner)
• Ages of man:
  • infancy (4 - 14) (Avelar & Ribeiro)
  • "the age of gray hairs" (Ferne)
• Phases of gestation: sixth month, movement (Lilly, Avelar & Ribeiro)
• Musical mode:
  • Locrian (Flute)
  • Hypophrygian (Agrippa)
• Muse: Euterpe (Agrippa)
• Body:
  • brain, skull, tongue, arms, hands, fingers (Frawley)
  • hands, shoulders, fingers, joints, the sense of hearing, belly, arteries, intestines, tongue (Valens)
  • lungs (Paracelsus)
• Major arcana: The Magician (Golden Dawn)
• Minor arcana: 8 of Wands (Sagittarius), 2 of Cups (Cancer), 6 of Swords (Aquarius) , 5 of Coins (Taurus), 10 of Coins (Virgo) (Golden Dawn)
• Colors:
  • mixed and new colours; grey mixed with sky-colour; many colours mixed in one (Lilly)
  • complex colors, multicolored patterns, mixtures, bluish gray, some metallic tones (Avelar & Ribeiro)
• Tincture (heraldry): purpure (Ferne)
• Flavours:
  • an hodge-podge of all things together, so that no one can give it any true name; yet usually such as do quicken the spirits, are subtle and penetrate, and in a manner insensible. (Lilly)
  • mixed and complex flavours (Avelar & Ribeiro)
• Odours: composite odours, subtle but penetrating (Avelar & Ribeiro)
• Places:
  • tradesmen's shops, markets, fairs, schools, common halls, bowling-alleys, ordinaries, tennis courts (Lilly)
  • places of commerce, shops, markets, schools, libraries, public spaces, casinos (Avelar & Ribeiro)
  • bazaars, divans, mosques, houses of painters, irrigation channels, springs (Al-Biruni)
• Appearance:
  • high stature; straight thin spare body; high forehead; somewhat narrow long face; long nose; fair eyes, neither perfectly black or grey; thin lips and nose; little hair on the chin, but much on the head, and it a sad brown inclining to blackness; long arms, fingers and hands; complexion of olive or chestnut colour. Mercury usually partakes of the influence of a planet in aspect to it: with Saturn heavy, with Jupiter more temperate, with Mars more rash, with the Sun gentler, with Venus more jesting, with the Moon shiftier. When Mercury is oriental, complexion of honey colour, or like one well sunburnt; not very high stature, but well jointed; small eyes; not much hair. When Mercury is occidental, a tawny visage; lank body; small slender limbs; hollow eyes, sparkling and red or fiery; the whole frame of body inclining to dryness (Lilly).
  • tall and slim figure, dark skin and hair, big forehead, thin lips and nose, long arms and hands (Avelar & Ribeiro)
  • fine figure, complexion brown with a greenish tinge, handsome, narrow forehead, thick ears, good nose, eyebrows joined, wide mouth, small teeth, thin beard, fine long hair, well shaped long feet (Al-Biruni)
• People:
  • literary men, philosophers, mathematicians, astrologers, merchants, secretaries, scriveners, diviners, sculpturers, poets, orators, advocates, schoolmasters, stationers, printers, exchangers of money, attorneys, embassadors to emperors, commissioners, clerks, artificers, accountants, solicitors, thieves, prattling muddy ministers, grammarians, tailors, carriers, messengers, footmen, usurers (Lilly)
  • authors, philosophers, mathematicians, astrologers, merchants, secretaries, clerks, poets, orators, ambassadors, teachers, printers, money traders, accountants, lawyers, salespeople, transporters, messengers, delivery personnel, letter carriers, thieves, liars, swindlers (Avelar & Ribeiro)
  • virtuosi, auctioneers, agents, dealers, merchants, humorists, clerks, accountants, scribes, messengers, media people, doctors, lawyers, right-hand men, servants, thieves, tricksters, con-men, pickpockets (Frawley)
  • brothers, young children, temple builders, modelers, sculptors, doctors, secretaries, legal advisors, orators, philosophers, architects, musicians, prophets, diviners, augurs, dream interpreters, braiders, weavers, physicians, strategists, weightlifters, mimes, gamblers, teachers (Valens)
  • government agents (Abu Mashar)
  • merchants, bankers, councilors, tax-collectors, slaves, wrestlers, calculators, surveyors, astrologers, necromancers, fortune tellers, geometers, philosophers, poets, barbers, manufacturers of combs (Al-Biruni)
• Weather:
  • windy and turbulent weather, sometimes rain and storms (Avelar & Ribeiro)
  • windy, stormy and violent, boisterous weather, that stirs up that wind which the planet signifies to which he applies; sometimes rain, at other times hail, lightning, thunder and tempests. In hot countries earthquakes, but this must be observed really from the sign and season of the year (Lilly)
• Animals:
  • hyenas, apes, foxes, squirrels, weasels, spiders, greyhounds, hermaphrodites, all cunning creatures, linnets, parrots, swallows, magpies, beetles, ants, locusts, bees, serpents, cranes, mullets (Lilly)
  • human beings, monkeys (Frawley)
  • dogs, apes, foxes, weasels, harts, mules, hares, squirrels, spiders, hyenas, civets, top-snails, foxfishes, cephalopods, nightingale, thrushes, swallows, cranes, larks, jackdaws, parrots, blackbirds, cockatoos, ibises, swamphens (Ramesey)
• Herbs, plants and trees:
  • herbs with colourful flowers; herbs that love sandy barren places; herbs that bear their seeds in husks or cobs; herbs that smell rarely or subtly; herbs that have relation to the tongue, brain, lungs or memory; herbs that dispel wind and comfort the animal spirits and open obstructions; beans; wood sorrel; walnut-tree; hazels; nuts; elderberry; adder's-tongue fern; bistort; twopenny grass (moneywort); lungwort; anise (aniseed); cubeb; marjoram; herbs that are used for the muses and divination: verbena (vervain); reeds (Lilly)
  • berries, currants (Frawley)
  • violet (Ferne)
  • mercury, fumitory, parsley, pimpernel (Ramesey)
• Minerals:
  • any stones used as milestones, marcasite, flint, agates, topaz, vitriol (any sulphate of metals given a glassy appearance), all stones of diverse colors (Lilly, Houlding)
  • amethyst, opal, zircon (Ferne)
  • emerald (Ramesey)
• Objects:
  • parti-coloured things, ambiguous or mixed things, dextrous or tricky things, small things, things that come in great numbers, things that produce wind, anything that speaks or resembles man, things that mimic mental processes, volatile things, wind, cocktails, pizza, sweet and sour sauce, earthquakes, lavender oil, keys, puppets, siccatives, computers, drugs, documents, papers, books, magazines (Frawley)
  • money, coinage, objects used to weigh and measure (Valens)
  • taxes Abu Mashar
• Conditions:
  • vertigo, lethargies or giddiness in the head, madness, any disease of the brain, tuberculosis, all stammering and imperfection in the tongue, vain and fond imaginations, all defects in the memory, hoarseness, dry coughs, too much abundance of spittle, all sniffling and snuffling in the head or nose, gout in the hands and feet, dumbness, wicked tongue, all evils in the imagination and intellectual parts (Lilly)
  • suggestions of evil spirits; foolish and irrational conceits; troubled thoughts; stuffing of the pipes and organs of voice; leptospirosis; wind in the bowels; lightness of mind; deliriums; aridity of the tongue; swellings in the legs, hands and fingers (Saunders)
• Sin: Envy (Skinner)
• Virtue:
  • love (Skinner)
  • temperance, prudence (Ferne)
• Angel: Raphael (Lilly)

References

• Agrippa, H. C. (1651). XXVI. Concerning the agreement of them with the Celestial bodies, and what harmony and sound is correspondent of every Star. In Peterson, J. P. (Ed.), Three Books Of Occult Philosophy (Vol. II). https://www.esotericarchives.com/agrippa/op2.htm#chap26
• Carvalho, H. A. de, & Ribeiro, L. (2010). On the heavenly spheres: A treatise on traditional astrology. American Federation of Astrologers, Inc.
• Ferne, J. (1586). The Glorie of Generositie. In The Blazon of Gentrie (pp. 168–171). Printed by John Windet.
• Flute, G. W. the F. (2013). Modern modes. https://feralflute.blogspot.com/2013/11/modes.html
• Frawley, J. (2014). The Horary Textbook. Apprentice Books.
• Houlding, D. (2003). The classical use of triplicities. Skyscript. https://www.skyscript.co.uk/triplicities.html
• Lilly, W. (1999). Christian Astrology, Books I & II (D. Houlding, Ed.; Vol. 1). Ascella Publications.
• Obert, C. (2020). The Classical Seven Planets: Source Texts and Meaning. Almuten Press.
• Saunders, R. (1677). The Astrological Judgment and Practice of Physick. Printed by Thomas Sawbridge.
• Skinner, S. (2006). The Complete Magician’s Tables. Golden Hoard Press.