Alchemical Mercury = High Priestess NOT Magus ?
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This from another post by "the atlas itch":
That's a great observation that the Empress is showing the sign of alchemical salt. I took a closer look and the Priestess and the Emperor are likewise displaying the signs for mercury and sulphur, respectively. It's unmistakable.
About the Priestess=Mercury...
@Book of Thoth said
The Emperor is also one of the more important alchemical cards; with Atu II and III, he makes up the triad: Sulphur, Mercury, Salt. - pg77
The Gunas are represented in European philosophy by the three qualities, sulphur, mercury and salt, already pictured in Atu I, III and IV. - pg 90 (Fortune)
The bit about Alchemical Mercury appears in Atu I, the Magus... with nothing obvious mentioned in the High Priestess card... what other Crowley texts mention Atu II as bearing mercurial significance? I guess I wonder about that connection; point in fact, I always wondered:
- if one of the quoted sentences was wrong (editorial mistake)
- if 1. was not the case and why
A bit in the BOT that I did find as indirectly associating The High Priestess (the arrow on her lap) with Alchemical Mercury was this bit in the Art card:
The Arrow, both in this card and in Atu VI, is of supreme importance. The Arrow is, in fact, the simplest and purest glyph of Mercury , being the symbol of directed Will. - pg 104
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I'm certain that "Atu II" is a typo. Either a literal typo, or a mind fart substituting B=2 for Atu I.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"I'm certain that "Atu II" is a typo. Either a literal typo, or a mind fart substituting B=2 for Atu I."
Is it not the Priestess whose pose mimics the Alchemical symbol for Mercury, thereby keeping in step with the other two cards that represent the remaining aspects of the Alchemical Trinity?
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@PAARZCYPHAL said
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@Jim Eshelman said
"I'm certain that "Atu II" is a typo. Either a literal typo, or a mind fart substituting B=2 for Atu I."Is it not the Priestess whose pose mimics the Alchemical symbol for Mercury, thereby keeping in step with the other two cards that represent the Alchemical Trinity?"
I don't read it as Mercury, but, rather, as the sign Mulier (second sign of Babe of the Abyss), an aspect of Isis.
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AC makes numerous comments in Confessions correlating higher Mercury to Chokmah. So it would make sense if Mercury = Atu I Magus. See the Paris Working:
www.hermetic.com/crowley/confess/chapter74.htmlOn the other hand there is contradictory evidence to this interpretation that seems to go further than just a typo.
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The four deuces, the four knights and all Wands are mapped onto Chokmah, suggesting a fiery quality to this sephira.
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If you look at the overall pose of the Priestess and Emperor, they are imitating the signs for mercury and sulphur. Compare the Atus against the signs below:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alchemical_symbol
There is a resemblance between the Priestess and sign of Mulier, but it seems more obvious that the bow and arrow across her lap forms the lower cross for the sign of mercury and her upper body forms the circle and crescent (if you really stretched the imagination resemblances might be seen with Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica). Likewise the Emperor's crossed legs form the lower cross and his upper body form the upper-pointing triangle of sulphur. These two Atus were enough to convince me that the third Atu, the Empress, is indeed holding her arms in the sign of salt, the three cards forming the Alchemical Trinity.
- AC's description of the Priestess is full of mercurial significance. The god Mercury brings messages from the gods and is the connection between the high and low. Alchemical mercury is described as the fluid connection between the High and Low.
AC describes the Priestess as:
*The High Priestess is the first card which connects the Supernal Triad with the Hexad; and her path, as shown in the diagram, makes a direct connection between the Father in his highest aspect, and the Son in his most perfect manifestation. This path is in exact balance in the middle pillar. There is here, therefore, the purest and most exalted conception of the Moon. (At the other end of the scale is Atu XVIII Moon)... This light is the menstruum of manifestation, the goddess Nuith, the possibility of Form. This first and most spiritual manifestation of the feminine takes to itself a masculine correlative, by formulating in itself any geometrical point from which to contemplate possibility. This virginal goddess is then potentially the goddess of fertility. She is the idea behind all form; as soon as the influence of the triad descends below the Abyss, there is the completion of the concrete idea... At the bottom of the card, accordingly, there are shown nascent forms, whorls, crystals, seeds, pods, symbolising the beginnings of life...In this card is the one link between the archetypal and formative worlds...It is important to reflect that this card is wholly feminine, wholly virginal, for it represents the influence and the means of manifestation (or, from below, of attainment) in itself. It represents possibility in its second stage without any beginning of consummation.
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(BOT, 72 - 75)These two interpretations indicate AC conceived of Mercury in different aspects - one "without any beginning of consummation" and one of consummation. The Priestess seems to be an early passive phase that leads the aspirant upwards whereas the Magus seems to be a later active phase that impregnates Babalon/Binah with the Word of the Aeon. His comments on the Magus (BOT, 69-72) confirm this idea of two aspects of Mercury:
*He is the male correlative of the High Priestess. *
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@he atlas itch said
"1. The four deuces, the four knights and all Wands are mapped onto Chokmah, suggesting a fiery quality to this sephira."
Yes, Chokmah is the Root of Fire. (However, in Hebraic Qabalah, it is attrributed to Water.)
"2. If you look at the overall pose of the Priestess and Emperor, they are imitating the signs for mercury and sulphur. Compare the Atus against the signs below: "
Yeah, I know you're stuck on that. Get over it. It holds up for The Emperor and The Empress, but not for Mercury, and is simply a wrong alchemical interpretation.
"3. AC's description of the Priestess is full of mercurial significance."
I can't find one. Not one. (OK, there is the sense, totally divorced from individual Trumps, in which the Middle Pillar itself might be deemed mercurial among the triad.) And there are at least a dozen explicit statements in his Book of Thoth description that are pointedly un-Mercurial.
(Every detail of the section you quote - other than the Middle Pillar = mediation idea - is decisively lunar, feminine, and non-Mercurial.)