.: The Mercury Rush :.
In a time not too different than our own, there was a ‘gold rush.’ Frantic and directed by visions of abundance, millions migrated to the mountains around the world with the promise of the Sun’s metal. It turned out good for some, catastrophic for others. These days, the gold is still around, yet the rush seems to be more motivated by Mercury. To be following all the best, being the first to hear, the one who said it before everyone else, to be versed in speed reading, listening to audiobooks and podcasts at 2x speed, inhaling a hundred books a year, learning at least 3 subjects at the same time; Beyond hip. It’s safe to say we live in a Mercury rush. As they say, “data is the new oil (gold).”
Currently retrograde in Scorpio, sailing on top of my Moon’s waters, an early memory found its way back into my awareness this morning. It took place in a library in Seattle. I must have been 8. On this particular visit, I imagine the quicksilver sage was doing something similar, perhaps square or opposite to my natal placement (Taurus), because I must have gathered up twenty books to check out that day, with my two-week allowance to read them all. I swooped up all of Tolkien’s books, a stack of historical fiction about American Presidents, and a few CHOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURES. When I placed them in front of the librarian, she looked at me with a mixture of bewilderment, horror, and judgment. I remember the look well. And by the time we needed to return the books, I had only made it a few chapters into THE HOBBIT.
My young mind learned a valuable lesson with this experience, the first of many. It’s not about quantity, it’s the quality of knowledge we are after. With reading, what value is there, really, to a book we hardly remember? What is the point of reading if you are already looking to see when the chapter ends? I’ve learned over the years that if I want to expand my knowledge, I needed to become a voracious slow reader.
With Mercury causing a frenzy with his confusing footprints in the earth, this idea I’m sharing can relate to much more than reading. It’s helpful in tracking our ideas as well. Useful with solving problems, making decisions, living our lives at a wiser pace. It’s a more successful way of finding gold.
The actual metal Mercury is sometimes used to extract gold. It’s not the safest method and has poisoned many a river, yet the alchemy of it is interesting. You mix it up with sediment from a river, for instance, stir it all together, filter, strain, add heat, and mercury spits out some golden nuggets. Our minds are similar. If we desire to find gold in what we are learning, there requires lots of mixing and straining, and heating of the material to find gold. It takes time, requiring saintlike patience to find it in our thinking and dreaming.
When Mercury is in Scorpio, there is a Socratic questioning that seems to emerge, something even bordering on suspicion. The whole world is experiencing this together right now. Perhaps, we can learn from Socrates then. He spent his entire life asking good questions: Why would you write this? What is your purpose? Who is asking these questions? Until his final days, when he declared he knew nothing. And then, in his supposed final words, Socrates said, “Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius; pay it and don’t forget.” He saw beyond the veil. Fearless of death, he walked into the light, knowing no-thing, yet one with every-thing. He had glimpsed into the Asclepian Mysteries.
The moral of all these stories? Slow down, we’re moving too fast. What’s the rush if we go on forever? If you don’t believe we do, there are ways of being shown otherwise. Just ask Mercury.
Praise Asclepius! And Hermes for always helping us see more clearly, assisting us, always, in our pursuit of the Stone. May you find it in your own voracious slow reading.
*Find the Mercury/Uranus opposition in your own chart. May you be gifted a dusty memory in need of some careful cleaning.
Eudaimonia,
Adam
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