Mercury
Mercurius
The quicksilver spirit, the elusive heart of the work.
Mercury: what does it mean in analytical psychology?
Quicksilver, liquid, shining, poisonous, and impossible to hold, was for the alchemists both the matter and the spirit of the work: Mercurius, who is “duplex,” male and female, old and young, poison and medicine, the fugitive servant who must be caught. Jung wrote a whole essay on him and read him as the unconscious itself, and its trickster spirit.
Mercury: where does it appear in myth and tradition?
Hermes and Mercury, messengers and thieves, the caduceus, the planet nearest the sun, and quicksilver in the Materia Medica.
From the Sources
Redgrove explains that to the alchemists' 'mercury', the metallic principle par excellence, were attributed fusibility, malleability and lustre, the properties regarded as characteristic of metals in general.
“…to the “mercury,” the metallic principle par excellence, was attributed such properties as fusibility, malleability and lustre, which were regarded as characteristic of the metals in general.”
H. Stanley Redgrove, Alchemy: Ancient and Modern, Chapter II, § 17, 'The Sulphur-Mercury Theory'. Second and revised edition; London: William Rider & Son, Ltd., 1922 (first published 1911) (Project Gutenberg eBook #43240). The text, read in part
Silberer reports the alchemists' saying that a great difficulty at the outset is the finding or making of their indispensable mercury, which they call by many names, among them green lion, serpent and dragon.
“…a great difficulty at the outset of the work is the finding or making of their necessarily indispensable mercury, which they also call green lion, mercurius animatus, the serpent, the dragon, acid water, vinegar, etc.”
Dr. Herbert Silberer, Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism, Part II, Section III, 'The Hermetic Art'. Translated by Smith Ely Jelliffe, M.D., Ph.D.; New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1917 (Internet Archive OCR text). The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
In the Materia Medica
Quicksilver: the substance itself, as the old medicine used it and as it is known today.
Where to Read
- “The Spirit Mercurius” (1943/1948), CW 13
- Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12
Jung’s writings are cited by the volume of the Collected Works (CW), Bollingen Series / Princeton, 1953–79.
Related Symbols
In the Glossary: Hermetic.
Also among Metals, Principles, and Substances
“Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing a dream.”
Cite This Entry
“Mercury.” In Symbols of the Psyche, the Symbolarium. The Thinking Press, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/symbolarium/psyche/mercury.
Symbols That Share Its Terms
The Magician (Magus) · The Ascent · The Vessel (Vas hermeticum) · The Caduceus (The staff of Hermes)
Nearby in the alphabet: The Mandala: The circle with a centre, a picture of wholeness. Melusine: The water-woman with a serpent’s tail. Metamorphosis: Changed into another form, and changed back. The Miraculous Birth: Born another way, and so not wholly of this world.