Mercury in Aquarius: Insight & Eloquence – Botswana Agate Pendant

Of the nature of Mercury in Aquarius, these Botswana agate pendant talismans were created with the intent of endowing their bearers with enhanced insight in sciences & secrets, ingenuity, wit, and eloquence.

Though not usually billed as such, astrological magic can rightly be considered a Hermetic art. In diametric opposition to the contemporary obsession with originality, for most of recorded history it was not new ideas but rather ancient ones that were seen as more important and reliable. It was common in antiquity to attribute ideas and the authorship of texts to even more ancient sources, and so there is a long and loose tradition of giving credit for texts of magic, alchemy, and theology to Hermes Trismegistus:

“Hermes, the god who presides over rational discourse, has long been considered, quite rightly, to be the common patron of all priests; he who presides over true knowledge about the gods is one and the same always and everywhere. It is to him that our ancestors in particular dedicated the fruits of their wisdom, attributing all their own writings to Hermes.”

—Iamblichus, De Mysteriis, I.1 (tr. Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon, Jackson P. Hershbell)

The origins of Hellenistic astrology as a whole involve lost texts attributed to Hermes, and significant parts of the extant corpus of astrological magic, including the Liber de Quindecim Stellis, also known as Hermes on the Fixed Stars, get attributed to Hermes or his many variants (such as Toz Graecus, aka Greek Thoth, who gets credit for the Liber Veneris among other works).

It seems fitting that Mercury, the only planet whose major dignities all occur in humane signs, should be so closely associated with the legendary figure responsible for imparting a font of esoteric wisdom and lore to humankind. Mercury in Aquarius, in particular, ruled by cold Saturn, is particularly well-suited to piercing insights that are ahead of their time or even timeless—like the perennial wisdom and technique that serves as the foundation of astrological magic, shrouded in the mists of antiquity as it is.

Most planetary talismans get created while the planet is in a sign of their domicile or the sign of their exaltation. These dignities make for singular, intense effects and tend to produce the most potent talismans. In Aquarius, however, Mercury is dignified by triplicity and term. The Brethren of Purity write that “a planet in its triplicity is like a man in his domicile or shop” (On Astronomia: An Arabic Critical Edition and English Translation of Epistle 3, tr. F. Jamil Ragep & Taro Mimura, p. 79) An empty shop is an unsuccessful one, highlighting how triplicity dignity relies on connection and community. While a planet may have certain gifts on its own, they’re never fully recognizable or completely active until we get other people on board. In other words, maybe the real insights were the friends we made along the way—or at least we can’t really see into the depths without a little help from our friends. A planet in triplicity tends to collect the social connections that coax out that planet’s gifts.

The Brethren of Purity also describe a planet in its terms as “like a man in his natural character and disposition” (On Astronomia, p. 80). While the cliche that we only use 10% of our brain is not literally true, cultural norms and the relentless press of advertising can readily cow us into stale routines and insecurities about our own lack of capacity. This artificial lack of dynamism can translate into a failure to really come into our own. Talismanic magic leveraging dignity of term seems to invite a fuller embodiment of our “natural character and disposition,” allowing us to make the most of what we’ve got rather than relentlessly seeking outside of ourselves. Tapping into our own divine nature, allowing us to connect more readily to the world and divinity around us—isn’t this why Hermes Trismegistus endowed humanity with “true knowledge about the gods” and the fruits of wisdom of our ancestors?

These Insight & Eloquence talismans bring our natural abilities and connections to the fore. In our experience, they have magnified and coaxed out latent gifts, foregrounded long-shelved ideas, facilitated lateral thinking, and opened roads to social and ancestral connections of great value. Though not created with this particular intention in mind, we have also seen these talismans make travel and traveling more easy, consistent with the road-opening quality that Mercury can generally manifest. Consistent with the triplicity nature of these talismans, the Insight & Eloquence pendants seem almost like an interpersonal accelerant, putting the right people in the right place at the right time and allowing us to connect with them in the right way to open the right doors.

Technical Details

The Mercury Aquarius Insight & Eloquence talismans were ensouled during Mercury hour on Monday, February 5, 2024 between 6:17am and 6:36am EST.

Essential Features of the Election

For planetary talisman elections, we require that the relevant planet either rises on the Ascendant or culminates on the Midheaven during the relevant planetary hour. This election took place during Mercury hour with Mercury rising and within 5° of the Ascendant during the electional window. Mercury was unafflicted and dignified by triplicity in term in Aquarius.

Planetary elections also require the Moon to be in sufficiently good condition. During this election, the Moon was unafflicted in her face of Sagittarius II, applying by sextile to the Sun and moving with moderate speed. Her ruler, Jupiter, was unafflicted and peregrine in Taurus.

Since the 1st house signifies the bearer of the talisman, we also look at the condition of the Lord of the Ascendant in planetary elections. Saturn rules the rising signs of Capricorn (during the first minutes of the election) and Aquarius (during the majority of the election). Saturn was unafflicted and dignified by face in Pisces I.

Further Magical Factors in the Election

On its face, this looks like a very straightforward planetary election: Mercury is dignified on the ascendant, the Moon is unafflicted, and the malefics are tucked out of the way, with not much else complex going on. We have to look a bit deeper to find the esoteric gold here. Although the main significator of a planetary election is always the star of the show, the Moon always plays a role as a kind of co-significator, and the Lord of the Ascendant also casts a long shadow over the effects of the talisman as well, given that the 1st house represents the bearer. The Moon and Saturn (Lord of the Ascendant) both have dignity by face in their respective decans, which adds some interesting twists.

The Moon’s decanic dignity in Sagittarius II bolsters some of the significations of this election. In 36 Faces, Austin Coppock describes the Moon in this decan as “grant[ing] the ability to focus diverse parts of the life around a single goal” and having magical significations of “powers of concentration and focus” (p. 203).

Saturn’s decanic dignity in Pisces I, which Coppock calls “The Labyrinth,” carries possibilities for “profound wisdom,” “contemplative work,” and investigation of dreams and the “mysterious laws” that govern our lives (p. 246). The tendency to get lost in the labyrinth must be kept in mind, however.

Hence, the Moon and Saturn, as co-significators of the election, tie into the Mercury-in-Aquarius themes in a big way.

Reflection on Weaknesses of the Election

The one significant factor here to note is that the Moon’s next aspect is a sextile to the Sun in Aquarius, the sign of the Sun’s detriment. Although the sextile is a positive aspect, having the Sun making an aspect to the Sun in detriment is not the most happy configuration. This leads us to recommend extra circumspection and discernment to folks with natal afflictions of either of the luminaries.

Recommendations

As mentioned above, due to the nature of the aspect of the Moon to the Sun in Aquarius, we recommend extra discernment to folks who have significant afflictions of the Sun or Moon in their natal chart.

Ceremonial Details

Gemstone & Talismanic Image

For the Insight & Eloquence talisman we carved an image cited in Ficino’s Three Books on Life: “The form of Mercury: a man sitting on a throne in a crested cap, with eagle’s feet, holding a cock or fire with his left hand, winged, sometimes on a peacock, holding a reed with his right hand, in a multicolored garment” (Book 3, Chapter XVIII). On the obverse of the talismans we carved the sign of Mercury and the sigil of Mercury’s intelligence, Tiril.

The stone chosen for these Mercury talismans was agate, one of the canonical stones assigned to Mercury, particularly in the Renaissance (by Agrippa, Ficino, Lilly, and Ramesay). Agate was highly prized in antiquity, in large part because it was only discovered in a single source along the river Achates, from which it got its name. Bishop Marbode of Rennes in his lapidary heaped praises upon the agate, assigning it numerous virtues including “eloquence and grace” and that it “gifts the pleader with persuasive art / To move the court and touch the hearer’s heart”; “Bourne in the mouth the virtues of the stone / And all its mighty works are quickly shown” (tr. C.W. King, quoted in Marbode of Renne’ (1035-1123) De Lapidus, John M. Riddle, pp. 36-38).

These significations echo and were likely sourced from the lapidary of Damigeron, which says, “He who wears [the agate] will be rich and powerful and pleasing and persuasive and be loved by God and man” as well as extolling medical virtues of the stone (The Virtues of STones, tr. Patricia Tahil, p. 30). The virtues of eloquence and persuasiveness go far toward explaining why this stone came to be strongly associated with Mercury.

Ritual Setup

An altar of gold and green was erected to Mercury preceding the election, adorned with two lush maidenhair ferns (attributed to Mercury by Nicholas Culpeper in his book The English Physician) surrounding a large bronze statue of Mercury in motion flanked by two candelabras. Offerings of wine, spirits, flame, fresh bread, honey, Greek olive oil, walnuts, Mercurial herbs, and two vases filled with Skittles (to capture the “mixt Galimaufry of colours,” according to William Ramesay, that are attributed to Mercury). Four candles of Mercury festooned with the symbols, seals, and kamea of Mercury and consecrated to Mercury during His hour also set the scene. 

Suffumigation

The suffumigation used to ensoul these talismans consisted of a specially made Mercury incense blended prior to the election. The incense was prepared according to a recipe adapted from Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy, which says, “For Mercury, make a fumigation of mastic, frankincense, cloves, the herb cinquefoil, and the stone agate. Incorporate everything with the brain of a fox or weasel and with the blood of a magpie” (Book I, Chapter 44, tr. Eric Purdue).

For this election, we mixed Greek gum mastic, royal Hojari frankincense, whole cloves, and cinquefoil herb. Since the talismans themselves were agate, we did not include agate in the suffumigation mixture—agate was persistently attested in medieval lapidaries to have a “very strong odour” (Albertus Magnus, Book of Minerals, p. 72, tr. Dorothy Wyckoff) despite this simply being false (Dorothy Wyckoff speculates that this may have been due to a confusion with jet or onycha gum, p. 72n12). We also did not include the animal products for obvious reasons.