Introduction to Moon and Mercury
- written by Philip Graves - 5 Jan 2004


Moon

The glyph for the Moon is, by Moore and Douglas's model, a broad vertical crescent of Matter connected to a narrower vertical crescent of Matter, forming together the image of a crescent Moon, or partial, incomplete circle of Spirit. According to the reverse model of the crescent and cross, the glyph for the Moon is composed of two crescents of Soul, reflecting the individuality of the person.

The Moon is ever-changing; evokes the containment of the Sun's power, and its reflection from a variety of different angles; and stands for the principle of response, which manifests on an experiential level as feeling, emotion or desire, and when positively expressed brings sympathy; when negatively, moodiness. It describes personal experience, the unconscious, the instinctive reactions, and the fate by which these bind one. It shows personal provenance from the past, memories, and what the individual seeks to overcome.

The waxing and waning of the Moon in its phases produces on a human level phases of growth and decay. The fast-changing path and circumstances of the Moon is reflected in the rapid changes undergone by human emotion. Although frequently emotion has been regarded in modern times as an agent of hazardous personal instability capable of deceiving those who feel it with regard to reality, in fairness the arousal of human emotion is a healthy response, steering and guiding one towards consciously willed adaptations to the unconsciously perceived and illuminated reality of one's situation, for one's own well-being and benefit. Since the lunar response is thus a key to personal survival via constant circumstantial adaptations, the Moon also serves as a projection of the mother, who has a similarly responsive role early in the life of a child, on that child's behalf.

The relationship of the Sun to the Moon in a nativity indicates the extent to which an individual's will and behaviour (Sun) harmonises or conflicts with his or her emotions, situation and environment (Moon).

Referred to sometimes as the 'bowl of heaven', the Moon has been regarded as a vessel for the reception of Spirit as Matter, and for the feeding and sustenance in material form of the will and creations of Spirit. It also governs the masses and the public in general, as they react and respond to changing material conditions.

The nature of the lunar influence is capricious; changeable; charitable; concrete and practical in ideas and ingenuity; desirous on a material level; defensive of the defenceless; economical; faithful; fanciful; fluctuating; frivolous; hopeful; imaginative; impressionable; instinctive; kind; lacking in concentration; magnetic; maternal; modest; peace-loving; protective; psychic; reactive to domestic and everyday matters; receptive; respectful; romantic; susceptible to influence; sympathetic; timid; travel-loving; unstable; venerating; and wandering.

The Moon governs changes, common people, females, health, home, marriage affairs, liquids, mother, native place, ocean, removals, place of residence, transportation and distribution systems, voyages, water, and worldly condition. It also signifies fancies, mysteries, popularity, public life, romances, and travelling. It confers a capricious, fanciful, inconstant, unsettled nature, with the capability of achieving public honour but a danger of reversals.

People signified by the Moon include barmen; brewers; caterers; charwomen; coachmen; common people; dearers in liquids; drunkards; female Royalty and nobility; female officials, taverners and street-sellers; fishers; fishmongers; hackneymen; huntsmen; ladies; maids; malsters; mariners; messengers; midwives; millers; nurses; pilgrims; public commodity workers; sailors; public salespeople; tradespeople; transport workers; travellers; vintners; water-carriers.

Places described include baths; bogs and marshes; brooks; deserts; fields; fishponds; fountains; highways; natural pools; port towns; rivers; sea havens; shores; springs. Minerals include crystals; moonstones; pearls; selenite; silver; soft stones. Colours are pale green; white; pale yellow; and silver. Flavours are flavourless; or fresh.

Herbs are mostly those having soft, thick, juicy leaves, loving to grow in watery places. They include adder's tongue; agnus-castus; avens; cabbage; chickweed; clary sage; cleavers; colewort; columbine; cuckoo flower (lady's smock); cucumber; dog rose; duckweed; endive; flax (linseed); fleur-de-lys; gourd; grass; hawkweed; hemp; honesty (Lunaria); hyssop; iris (flag); ivy; kale; lettuce; lily (white); loosestrife (purple, yellow); mandrake; mercury (annual); mushrooms; onion; orach; poppy; purslane; rape; reeds; rose (white); rosemary; saxifrage (inc. burnet s.); stonecrop; violet; wallflower; water lily; watercress; and wheat. Trees include melon; palm; privet; pumpkin; willow; and wintergreen.

Animals include bats; camels; cats; carrion crows; chameleons; chicks; crabs; cuckoos; ducks; eels; elephants; frogs; giraffes; geese; herons; hogs; lobsters; otters; owls; oxen; oysters; panthers; partridges; pigs; rabbits; rats; ravens; sea birds; snails; swans; tortoises and weasels.

Physically, the Moon rules the abdomen; alimentary canal; bladder; breasts; brain function; cell tissue building; cerebellum; cleansing; eye (left in male; right in female); fluids; gastric juices; glands; glandular process; heart functions; left-side reproductive organs; lymph; oesophagus; menstruation; nerve sheaths; palate; pericardium; saliva; swallowing; sympathetic nervous system; thyroid gland; throat; tonsils.

When prominent, it confers a fair stature; a corpulent, plump, fleshy body; a pale complexion; grey eyes, with one usually a little larger than the other; a round face; plenty of head and body hair; and short, fleshy hands.

Illnesses signified are abscesses; allergies; apoplexies; catarrh; colic; convulsions; coughs; diseases in the left side; dropsy; emotional depression; endocrine imbalance; epilepsy; eye pain; female disorders; functional ailments; gland inflammation; gout; measles; mental instabilities; nausea; palsy; rheumatic conditions; sciatica; small pox; stomach aches and ailments; stones; and worms.

Unto character, when well placed, the Moon confers composed manners; desire to be carefree; fearfulness; flitting tendency; focus on the present; frequent residence change; learning of many different work skills; seeking of and delight in novelties; lack of steadfastness; love of honest and ingenious sciences; peace-loving nature; prodigality; softness; tenderness.

When poorly placed, the Moon produces careless or beggarly living; discontent with all conditions of life; dislike of working; drunkenness; idleness; lack of spirit or of future forethought.

In ancient astrology, the Moon signifies the sensitive and irrational mind; mothers and women. As a vocational significator, it produces diviners; dream interpreters; magicians; and soothsayers. In horary astrology, it indicates the flow of time.


Mercury

The glyph for Mercury shows the crescent of Matter above the Circle of Spirit, which in turn is above the cross of the Soul. This represents the influence of Matter upon Spirit or consciousness, in the astrological character of Mercury. The personal will of Spirit is exposed to reflections through the plane of Matter, and the relation of its own subjectivity to the objectivity of material reality, in the conscious processing house of the mind; and it is to these mental processes that Mercury relates. Mercury provides the connection between active Spirit and reactive Matter that is of the essence of conscious human existence. It evokes communication and intelligence, which when positively expressed manifest as discernment; when negatively, as variability.

By Martin Schulman's model, the glyph for Mercury features the crescent of Soul, as originator of all self-aware knowledge based on inner perception, pouring its energies downward into the Circle of Spirit, the creative will, which then seeks to manifest this input in Matter. Mercury thus shows the mind functioning as a seat of perception and feeding that perception back into will for renewed application to matter.

Mercury governs the acquisition of knowledge for its own sake without regard to practical application or morality; analysis and synthesis; argument and debate; the concrete perceptual faculties of mind, including the perception of colour, form, motion, order, position and weight; the registering and classification of all that strikes the senses; the gathering and quoting of evidence in support of views; intellectual capacity; reason; speech, oratory and intonation; study; technical skill; thought; and understanding. It is active, brilliant, crafty, cunning, dextrous, discriminating, eloquent, excitable, facile, gossipy, hesitant, impressionable, industrious, literary, nervous, proficient, subtle, superficial, vacillating, wayward, witty, and worrisome..

Mercury governs acquaintances, bargaining, business matters, clothing, colleges, food, journeys by land, letters, memory, the mind, mother's relatives, neighbours and their gossip, printing works, publishing offices, schools, scientific and literary organisations, servants, sickness, trading, and writings. It also signifies anxieties, commercial connections, family relating, industries, messages, mental activity, and multiple occupations. It confers a busy, restless, subtle, talkative, wary nature, inclining to oratory, scientific study and writing.

People signified by Mercury include accountants, actors, ambassadors, artisans, astrologers, booksellers, carriers, civil engineers, clerks, commissioners, diviners, footmen, fortune-tellers, grammarians, interpreters, inventors, journlists, lawyers, mathematicians, merchants, messengers, junior ministers, money exchangers, notaries, orators, philosophers, poets, postal workers, printers, researchers, registrars, schoolmasters, scientists, scribes, sculptors, secretaries, solicitors, stationers, tailors, telecommunications workers, thieves, usurers and writers.

Places described include bowling alleys, commons, fairs, public halls, markets, schools, tennis courts, and tradespeople's shops. Minerals include agates, amber, coral, coxcomb, emeralds, flint, haematite, mercury, tin, topaz, turquoise, vitriol, and all stones of varied colours. Colours are mixed and new. Flavours are mixed; subtle; those penetrating without conscious awareness; ones that quicken the mind.

Herbs are mostly those of mixed color; loving sandy soil; bearing seeds in husks; connected in uses with the tongue, brain, memory or lungs, or with divination and the muses. They include acacia, adder's tongue, anise, beans, bittersweet, blackberry, bracken, cabbage, calamint, caraway, carrot, wild celery (smallage), cinquefoil, coriander, cotton lavender, cow parsnip (Heracleum), cubeb, dill, elecampane, endive, fennel, fenugreek, ferns, flax, fleawort, fumitory, garlic mustard, germander (wall), good King Henry, ground pine, hog's fennel, black horehound, white horehound, hound's tongue, houseleek, knotgrass, lavender, lentil, lily-of-the-valley, liquorice, love-in-the-mist (Nigella), lungwort, maidenhair fern, mallow, mandrake, marjoram, melilot, mercury (dog's), moneywort, myrtle, oat, parsley, pea, pellitory, pimpernel, restharrow, rock samphire, rose, saffron, savory (winter, summer), scabious, senna, southernwood, spleenwort (wall rue), trefoil, valerian, and vervain. Trees include alder, cypress, elder, hazel, honeysuckle, mulberry, palm, quince, sumac, and walnut.

Animals include adders, ants, apes, aquatic birds, bees, blackbirds, camels, civet cats, cockatoos, cranes, crickets, donkeys, ermines, falcons, foxes, greyhounds, hares, hyenas, jackdaws, larks, locusts, linnets, mules, mullet, nightingales, parrots, pigeons, pyes, serpents, spiders, squirrels, starlings, swallows, and weasels.

Physically, Mercury rules the brain; bronchial tubes; ears; excitation; feet; gall; hair; ileum; intellect; larynx; limbs; lungs; memory; mind; mouth; nervous system; perception; senses; shoulders; thyroid gland; and tongue.

When prominent, it describes a high stature; thin, straight body; olive or chestnut complexion; fair eyes between grey and black; long, narrow face; high forehead; plenty of head hair between dull brown and black; little chin hair; thin lips; long, thin nose. If Mercury rises before the Sun, the stature is shorter but well-jointed; omplexion honey-coloured to swarthy-brown; eyes small; and hair sparse. If after the Sun, the body is lank and dry; eyes hollow, sparkling and red or fiery; face tawny; and limbs small and slender.

Illnesses signified are anxiety, brain disease, congestion, dumbness, dry coughs, fantasising, giddiness, goitre, gout, hoarseness, insanity, lethargy, memory defects, nervous disorders, respiratory impairments, excess saliva, stammering, stress, tongue problems, tuberculosis, and vertigo.

Unto character, when well placed, Mercury confers cogitation, intellect, sharpness, subtlety and genius to the mind; argumentative, logical and political ability; tireless imagination; inclination to learning, usually without need for a teacher; occult curiosity, and an interest in divination; ambition for scientific excellence; resourcefulness as a tradesperson; desire for travel, including abroad; and wit. When poorly placed, it produces a frenetic nature; trouble brought by antagonistic speech and writing; easy and foolish credulity; tendency to boast, feign knowledge, gossip, lie, cheat, thieve, or interfere; inconstancy of location or opinion; trifling mind; excess of words unmatched by action; or attraction to necromancy and dark occultism.

In ancient astrology, Mercury signifies the intellectual mind; custom; fidelity; law; debating skill; inventiveness; prudence; and thoughtfulness; but when poorly placed a foolish, inconsiderate, inconstant, precipitate, untruthful nature. As a vocational significator, it produces academics, architects, astrologers, bankers, businesspeople, diviners, merchants, mimes, orators and writers. It has a potentiating effect on the benefic or malefic nature of other planets in a configuration.

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