Mercurious
I was inspired to name my business Mercurious after reading Radmila Moacanin’s book The Essence of Jung’s Psychology and Tibetan Buddhism while on a buddhist retreat many years ago. Changing the spelling slightly to suit the nature of my work while embracing the meaning that to this day feels so spacious.
Originating from the roman god Mercury associated with speed and trade, with his winged sandals. The planet Mercury. From the Latin merx meaning merchandise. And the ancient meaning as the keeper of boundaries between the upper and lower realms. The element mercury, used in the ancient art of alchemy, this is the most meaningful to me.
In alchemy you start with the original substance, the prima materia that contains the opposites (the inner conflict, outward unrest, loss of meaning or suffering), the alchemist’s (individual’s) task is to harmonise them, to bring them into unity, which culminates in the internal marriage, the consummation of the work. Carl Jung postulates that on a psychological level the union of opposites cannot be achieved by the conscious ego alone – by reason, analysis- which separates and divides, not even by the unconscious alone- which unites; it needs a third element, the transcendent function.
In the same way, in alchemy for the conjunction to take place, the alchemist needed a third factor, that medium was mercury. Thus there is sulfur the masculine principle, salt, its feminine counterpart, and mercury, the substance that is both liquid and solid. By nature mercury is androgynous and partakes of both the masculine and feminine elements, in her/himself he/she unites the spiritual and physical.
Reconciliation of conflicting opposites into a unity where the possibility of the individual psyche touches eternity, the identity of the personal with the transpersonal. One becomes all.
In part taken from The Essence of Jung’s Psychology and Tibetan Buddhism – Radmila Moacanin, Wisdom Publications
