Mercury (Alchemy)

In the ancient art of alchemy, such as in Hermeticism, mercury, sulfur, and salt were the Earth's three principle substances that represent the trinity in creation. As sulphur is the symbol for the active principle, mercury is the symbol of the passive principle.The symbol of Mercury is the cosmic womb being incubated by the cross of the four elements of creation. Rising up out of the womb Creatrix, is a partial form whose features are not yet determined as the raw substances undergo each Law of Alcehmy to reach the final Magnum Opus. Each civilization had its own legends about Mercury (Alchemy), 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 physical symbol to represent the Azoth or fire-water 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.

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)