mercury and me

mercury is the closest planet in our solar system to our sun. this smallest of the eight planets has a unique rotation and is second only to earth in density. when mercury’s position in relation to the sun changes, it has an enormous effect on our psychological being, and our emotions. this makes it a perfect alternative to use as an analogy for society; when society’s position in relation to an issue changes, so does the population’s feelings and views. you see, mercury is also a symbol for emotion, spirituality, and theosophy, because of its mysterious, almost dream-like qualities. it’s unknown who discovered the planet, and it is comprised mostly of heavy metals and rocks, lending to its dark grey, almost silvery colour, which is visible from earth to the naked eye.

as glenn perry, phD says, “if a person experiences interest in a particular topic, their curiosity activates the mercury function of inquiry.” this demonstrates the extent to which our feelings, emotions and actions, and furthermore, our responses to certain issues, are connected to this otherworldly mass.

according to the internet encyclopedia of philosophy, “emotions are the products of societies and cultures, and are acquired or learned by individuals through experience.”  the glasgow university media group has deduced that “as certain knowledges have been promoted over others [through media], they have effectively been given the privileged status of being authoritative and, in some cases, truthful”. this illustrates how the consistent and overwhelming presence of opinions can create the sense of being a fact.

in the same way media, the entity utilised by society to spread its perspective, can influence people to believe that certain habits, ways of speaking, ways of dressing and more are ‘normal,’ it can also stipulate certain emotions and thoughts in response to news, global issues, and even objects or personality types. the reach of media is so awesome that there is truly no limit to its affect.

the efficacy of media is demonstrated in a 2015 metastudy in the journal information, communication & society, “social media use and participation: a meta-analysis of current research,” which included that 82% of all the factors examined (with the randomly sampled youth populations having the most significant influence on this data) showed a positive (yes, positive! it’s not all bad) relationship between social networking sites and one of many displays of political and/or civic participation.

societal conception is a warped version of the reality. subsequently, our own minds warp this new perception even further, until it is indistinguishable as its original form which then ceases to exist. because if everyone's forgets about its genuine meaning, how can that meaning hold, and not fade into the oblivion to exist with all the real meanings of all the important words and concepts? it can't. and thus, society permanently changes the truth to compliment what it dictates.

simply put, society changes the meaning of conceptual words to support its own agenda by gradually convincing everyone that their new definition is the genuine one.

mercury retrograde is a phenomenon that involves mercury appearing to move backward. during these periods of time, our emotions are obviously affected. this interesting thing, however, is that mercury doesn’t actually move backward, just as a word’s meaning doesn’t actually change; it merely seems to until there’s no point arguing with oneself or anyone else because that’s just how it is.

this applies also to ideals and thoughts and worldwide issues like feminism, one that is making a slow comeback from this phenomenon to be recognised once again as a synonym for equality, and not an evil, swear word.

society's perspective is a planet, and those who dare to think differently and look at the world and everything that requires thought from the outside, independently, are as alien as if they come from mercury.

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I am Gracie, a teenage aspiring creator. I'm a bohemian who's bossy, a passionate animal warrior and plant eater and a feminist.