Mercury

Mercury, the planet of communication, intellect, curiosity, understanding and expression.

The third Personal Planet, it represents all the ways people express themselves, communicate with one another, approach knowledge and process information. It also represents nervous breakdowns, indecisiveness and over-analysis to keep under check.

Ruler of Gemini and Virgo, it has its exaltation in Virgo, fall in Leo and Pisces, detriment in Sagittarius.

Its glyph represents Hermes’ caduceus and winged petasos, and its meaning is Spirit connecting Matter and Soul.

Okay, as you might know, I’m a Gemini: it’s no wonder, then, that I have a natural affinity with anything about Mercury or Hermes. Favourite planet in astronomy? Mercury! Favourite Greek god? Hermes? Favourite Sailor Senshi? Sailor Mercury (and the Outers, but that’s another matter)! Sexiest character in Blood of Zeus? Hermes! Favourite one in Lore Olympus? That’s a close call but again, Hermes! Also, remember that time I went around Trieste hunting down every last statue of Hermes? You get the picture.

So of course, if I was really planning an entire series about the Planets in astrology, I was going to be Mercury. Technically it isn’t even the first time I’ve done that, since I assigned the embodiment / rulership of astrological Mercury to Astaroth in my Infernal Lords series: this is just one step further.

Said plans were actually not a spur-of-the-moment decision in the wake of how glorious Venus turned out last year: checking the metadata for the wings I shot to complete this photo, I took those in September 2018, which means by then the general concept for the project had already formed in my head, and I had a few specifics sorted out too.

One of these specifics was that the Sun and the two inferior planets (those orbiting closer to the Sun than Earth, i.e. Mercury and Venus) would be back-lit, in the former’s case to make it look radiant, and in the latter’s because that would be the “correct” light from our perspective, as they’re never too far from the Sun.

In practice, this translated into a painstakingly long process that involved going to the park, baiting birds with breadcrumbs, then scaring them away so I could take photos while they spread their wings, which had to be back-lit too to correctly fit the final image. And fun fact, while the wings sat there in my external hard drive for two years and a half, at some point I thought I’d have to reshoot them now I had upgraded my telephoto lens, until I tried using them as a place holder and found out they actually looked good in the context of the photo.

What I did have to reshoot was the portrait: I gave it a first try back in October last year, but the photos from that session were unconvincing and, after a few weeks of fiddling with them, I decided to scrap them and start over. For one thing the modelling was too stiff to represent dynamic, quick-moving and quick-thinking Mercury. Also, the abuse of a reflecting panel made for some not-so-good lighting with too much of a yellowish tone for the blue hues I had in mind (yes, I’m going to be shamelessly stealing the Sailor Senshi’s colour schemes for this project). I had also half-assed the styling and grooming (most notably, short sleeves don’t work well with the pose and a linen scarf is too heavy to float in the breeze), plus I was facing the camera and that didn’t jam well with the wings: there’s a reason why every Hermes/Mercury statue, bust or what not has them parallel to the skull, and that’s not to make them look like donkey ears. Trust me, spread head wings don’t look pretty.

 

Having learned from my mistakes, I purchased a couple of new white shirts for the project, waited out winter and the string of partial lock-downs in the past months, got a new haircut to have hairdresser-fresh grooming, and finally set off to rectify the situation. As usual, a huge chunk of the praise has to go to my assistant, my mother DamaInNero, for helping me out with the self-portrait (i.e.: I did the set up, but it was her who clicked and captured the precise moment when I was at my most flowy).

Speaking of which, I’m pretty satisfied with the pose and the flow of the scarf: it sort of looks as if Mercury just paused for a moment to check social media before taking off and flying somewhere that caught his attention.

As with Venus, I went for some pretty straight-forward symbolism: extra emphasis on communication and curiosity symbolised by the smartphone, a device that literally puts humankind’s entire knowledge in your hands, and the wings to nod back to Hermes and to symbolise a “winged mind”, so to speak. They also double as an oblique reference to Mercury’s planetary symbol, the caduceus with the winged petasos (travelling hat).

There’s no astronomical easter egg this time because Mercury is a fickle little bitch who likes evading observation and photography. Also, as you can guess, I won’t pass on the chance to put halos on each single character this time around, so halo it is.

 

At this point, with two thematically similar works already done, there’s no point denying this has become my latest long-term project. The next work is really going to codify it for good: I’m not planning on doing the Sun anytime soon because I don’t have the right model, so the next Planet is going to decide whether the back light is just for the inferior planets or the aesthetic for the entire project. I might have someone in mind while I’m still here in Sardinia, especially now that my age group is getting vaccinated and I’ll be able to meet my friends again, so here’s hoping there will be new additions soon.