In the Greek and Roman religions, Mercury (Greek Hermes) is the son of Zeus, the guide of souls to the realm of the dead, the god of magic and magic, the patron of shepherds, travelers, actors, thieves and merchants. He is considered the ancestor of all the rogues of European literature - beginning with the legendary Odyssey. He patronizes the sport - his statues were placed in the palaestra (Greek gymnastic schools). Hermes is a magician, he owns a magic golden rod, which forced the souls of the deceased to follow him to Hades, could lull or, on the contrary, awaken a person, could be a spell. Known by fairy tales, a wizard with a wand or a stick is an image that goes back to Hermes (remember the Mercury costume in the video clip "A Kind Of Magic"). Hermes - the mediator between the world of the earthly and heavenly, the world of gods and people, living and dead. He not only escorts the souls of the dead to Hades, but, if necessary,

Therefore, when a person died, the Greeks said "Hermes took", and if during a lively conversation silence ensued, they said "Hermes entered" (Christians in this case say "The silent angel flew"). For the soul of the deceased, Hermes was prayed, he could summon a soul from the world of the dead.

Hermes-Mercury - a messenger of the gods, a symbol of the prophet and preacher. In Hellenistic Egypt, Hermes became the main figure of religion, known as Hermeticism. In this tradition he is the creator of the world. With the help of his father Zeus, he stops chaos, divides the elements, organizes and creates the world - the earth, the sky, the stars and planets.

Hermes is associated with gold, silver and mercury. He is the lord of metals, his veneration in alchemy is connected with this. He possesses the Necklace of Harmony having the same meaning as the Nibelungen Ring. One of its symbolic names is the White Queen, the oldest symbol of goodness (perhaps this is another explanation for the name "Queen"). In Hermetism, he is the spouse of Harmony and is a sign of peace and order.

Hermes became the father of the Logos - Reason, Speech. It is called the Three times the Greatest (Trismegistos), one in three manifestations - the First Mind, the Demiurge Intelligence, the Logos. He is the Interpreter of All, the guide to the light, the inventor of the alphabet and numerals, measures and weights, a translator of languages ​​and a separator of peoples. In the ancient treatise "Myths" it is said that Hermes granted Apollo and people the art of playing the lyre and poetry, writing and articulating thoughts (rhetoric), philosophy. Mercury - the patron of music and musicians, in the Greek and Egyptian lyre with it the highest note is connected.

Hermes was identified with the Egyptian Thoth - the god of wisdom and writing, the patron saint of the dead, defending her on the way to the kingdom of the dead.

Hermes plays the role of a preacher who tells people about the possibility to overcome his sinfulness and mortality and achieve the immortality of the soul, he calls people to repentance and pious life, as evidenced by hermetic treatises:

"Why did you, the earth people, give themselves to death, having a chance to join immortality? Repent, you who walked with error and communicated with ignorance, abandon the darkness, take part in immortality, leaving death! And some of them left me with mockery, giving themselves the way leading to death, while others, rushing to my feet, asked me to teach them. And I, having ordered them to rise, became the leader of their kind, teaching them in words how they will be saved. And I sowed in them the words of wisdom, and they were nourished by the water of immortality ... ".

Mercury-Hermes makes the nature of people dexterous and gives them wisdom, sanity, conviction and truth. Mercury is a Great Magician, a symbol of the secret, invisible and secret sciences, so he is revered in mystical cults. A sign of the cross is associated with it, with Jesus in Rome associated with him - one of the names of Mercury in ancient Rome - "filius" ("son").

Mercury is a sign of a strong masculine principle, but at the same time it is a sign of the duality of human nature. He is portrayed with a caduceus - a rod that is traced by two snakes - a sign of the male and female beginnings. He is considered the father of Hermaphrodite (perverts, please do not worry - Mercury was never associated with homosexuality, it was a philosophical concept of man's duality, his connection with the earthly and heavenly, animal and spiritual).

Since Mercury is closer to all the planets to the Sun, it is considered close to God, enlightened, a prophet and an interpreter.

Mercury has a different meaning in alchemy. This mercury, silver, the spirit of metals - in this capacity, it appears in the tale of the Brothers Grimm "Spirit in the bottle." He was called the "universal sparkling fire" and considered fire itself its nature. According to Avicenna, Mercury is the spirit of the Lord and the spirit of Truth, hidden from the world, the possessor of true knowledge. The synonyms of Mercury in alchemy are water, fire, spirit and soul.

At the end of our small cultural excursus, we should remember one more value of Mercury - under this name are known two Christian saints warrior.

The Holy Great Martyr Mercury of Caesarea lived in the 3rd century in the Roman Empire. He was a great warrior and served in the imperial regiment Martenses. In the war with the barbarians Mercury showed great courage and struck the enemy leader himself. For this Emperor Deci appointed him chief over the whole army. But the rise of Mercury did not last long. As a Christian, he refused to offer sacrifices to the pagan gods, publicly declaring that he did not recognize any god, except Jesus Christ - and for this, the death penalty was imposed on the laws of the Roman Empire. By order of Decius Mercury was thrown into prison and subjected to terrible torture - but he did not renounce Christ. During the most terrible suffering, Mercury spoke to his tormentor:

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