Symbols mercurial nature

Mercury (chemical symbol Hg, from the Latin name of the metal, hydrar-gyrium, liquid silver), previously also known as quicksilver is, at ordinary temperatures, a silvery white liquid metal that boils at 360°C. The metal is occasionally found in nature in the native state. Most mercury has been derived, however, from the red mineral cinnabar (composed of mercuric sulfide) that was also used in the past as a red pigment known as vermilion (see Textbox 41). The Greek philosopher Aristotle, writing in the fourth... 

The Moon center, the pituitary body, is situated just beneath the pineal gland (the Mercury center), which represents the Philosopher s Stone. The Stone is sometimes called the Seed of the Sun and, in sacred art, is often portrayed as a flaming disc. On the ceremonial crowns of certain high lamas, there is often shown the symbol of a lunar crescent, lying on its back, holding a radiant disc. This refers to the crown-wearer s realization of the ultimate nature of reality and their ability to... 

Mercury is the alchemical symbol for consciousness because the metal mercury, quicksilver, is used to coat glass to make mirrors. The mirror, in both Eastern and Western traditions, is often used as a metaphor for the inherently pure and transparent nature of mind, pure awareness, the light of Primordial Consciousness. It is in the mirror of human consciousness that God beholds God. 

The silver liquid called mercury has been known since ancient times. In fact the symbol for mercury (Hg) comes from its Greek name Hydrargyrum, which means watery silver. Although elements in the liquid state at ambient temperature and pressure are quite rare (Br2 is another example), the liquid nature of mercury is especially confounding. For example, compare the properties of mercury and gold ... 

The beginnings of all material things, Paracelsus asserted, were not the elements of Aristotle (earth, air, fire, and water) but the three principles, or tria prima, of Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury. These were as much symbolic categories as rudimentary components of matter. Salt represented an unburnable, nonvolatile ash or earth Sulphur stood for combustible natures and Mercury denoted the volatile and metallic constitutions of bodies. Creation of the physical world was itself a process of separation. The mother and parent of all generation, he proclaimed, has always been, even from the very beginning, separation. Separation was the first divine act (hght separated from darkness), and as such was a miracle... 

In terms of the pictorial symbolism which forms so important a characteristic of alchemy, the sulphur-mercury theory is well illustrated in an engraving of 1617 (Fig. 4). The two kinds of principles or natural exhalations supposed to exist in the interior of the earth are marked with the familiar alchemical symbols for sulphur (left) and mercury (right). They are shown coining into conjunction in the... 

The element mercury, also known as quicksilver (symbol Hg for hydrargyrum), and its compounds have no known normal metabolic function. Their presence in the cells of living organisms represents contamination from natural and anthropogenic sources all such contamination must be regarded as undesirable and potentially hazardous. Accumulation of mercury in tissues is reportedly associated with an excess risk of myocardial infarction, increased risk of death from coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease, and accelerated progression of carotid atherosclerosis. 

For simple elementary substances the smallest particle is called an atom. An atom is very small indeed a sheet of iron 1 //m thick would be 4300 atoms thick. These simple substances, which have as their smallest particle an atom, are called elements. There are 92 elements found in nature, including such commonplace materials as oxygen and carbon, sulphur and mercury, iron and lead. The Latin names of these elements can be abbreviated to one or two letters. These abbreviations are internationally recognized as symbols for the elements, e.g. O for oxygen, C for carbon, S for sulphur, Hg for mercury (hydrargyrum), Fe for iron (ferrum) and Pb for lead (plumbum). The 92 elements are listed by their symbols in a table called the Periodic Table (Fig. 1). The elements listed in vertical columns behave similarly in a chemical sense. The elements are given atomic numbers from 1 to 92. 

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