Planetary Mercury

Meaning

Mercury in the list of planetary qualities is the adaptable planet, “partaking of the nature of all.” Its variable disposition contrasts with the more determinate assignments to other stars and supports the warning that heating is neither the action of every star nor the whole nature of those that heat. This local astrological Mercury is not automatically the universal mercury, ordinary quicksilver, or the swift messenger in Philon’s poem. The shared name requires a change of referent with context, not a single replacement term applied throughout the work.