Mercury (Alchemy)

In the ancient art of alchemy, mercury, sulfur, and salt were the Earth's three principle substances.Each civilization had its own legends about mercury, and it was used as everything from a medicine to a talisman. Mercury's chemical symbol, Hg, comes from the Greek "hydrargyrum" meaning liquid silver. Mercury is also known as "quicksilver," a reference to its mobility and used as the phscyual sympbol to represent the Azoth in ancient alchemy. Speed and mobility were characteristics of the Greek-Roman god, Mercury (Hermes), who served as a messenger of knowledge to all the other gods and shares his name with the planet nearest the sun. The symbol for the planet was used by the alchemists to identify mercury before it was given its more modern chemical notation.

==Hermeticism==Parts of the Hermetica appeared in the 4th-century Gnostic library found in Nag Hammadi.— another famous tract is the Emerald Tablet of Thoth, which teaches the doctrine "as above, so below". The Hermetica are Egyptian-Greek wisdom texts from the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, which are mostly presented as dialogues in which a teacher, generally identified as Hermes Trismegistus ("thrice-greatest Hermes"), enlightens a disciple. The texts form the basis of Hermeticism. They discuss the divine, the cosmos, mind, and nature. Some touch upon alchemy, astrology, and related concepts. Orders -Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn - Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor -Hermetic Brotherhood of Light -Ordo Templi Orientis (Aleister Crowley)

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