mdmd(4) - Notes (145.20..6)

[Thomas Eckhardt]

At 17:38 17.07.1997 -0500, you wrote:
>
>
>145.20..6 Trines & Sextiles:  heavanly bodies 120 and 60 degrees
>apart.  Symetry is appearantly a good thing.  Squares would be bodies
>90 degrees apart:  probably also good, by symmetry.  Mercury (named
>after the messenger god) in retrograde:  Mercury is moving west to east
>in the sky, unusual motion in heavenly bodies. Unusual bodes poorly,
>thus, Mercury in retrograde suggests poor communication, explaining
>Maskelyne's outburst.
>

Hello everybody!


I think that Mason and Maskelyne are not only talking about the planet
Mercury but about the messenger of the gods himself: When Maskelyne blames
Mercury's movement on the date of his birth for his failure to enter human
discourse, he calls him a "tiny, fleet Trickster" and "Midge of Mischief".
Mason answers teasingly that "a messenger going the other way is returning,
after having deliver'd his message someplace else." And after a day of
reflections upon this topic Maskelyne ponders: "Perhaps that's it? (...) A
message that never came to me." 
So the allusion here seems to point to Mercury/Hermes in his function as the
messenger of the gods, among whose symbolic qualities are cleverness
("trickster") and speed ("fleet"). I take the passage to mean that Mercury,
not having reached Maskelyne, is on his way back ("retrograde") after having
delivered the message "someplace else". But there are a few qustions: Who
has received the message in Maskelyne's place? And whose E-Mail-Address is
it from? God's? John Company's? Is John Company God? Does Maskelyne finally
receive the message when he gets appointed A.R.? 

And there might be even more to it. Here are some unstructured thoughts
(some might say wild speculations) that rightfully would belong to the
discussion of the next section: Mercury/Hermes is also the "Psychopompos",
the leader of souls through the underworld, and he is closely associated
with the wind. The wind is the preeminent feature of chapter 15 and is
described in the subjunctive as "a Deity in itself, infinitely in Need, ever
demanding..." (159) St. Helena is depicted as some sort of underworld,
either hell, or, more likely, the "Fegefeuer" (purgatory) mentioned by
Dieter in his recitation (162)(question for MDMD (5): Where does the German
quote come from?) Dieter obviously is referring to the "Soul of the Company"
(ibidem) and its greed ("ever demanding..." might apply here too). Maskelyne
wants to ransom "at least one soul, from this awful wind" (ibidem). The
ransom money would have to be paid to the Company, which again links it to
the wind.
The wind has transforming powers (160), just like Mercury in alchemical
symbolism. And, finally, it is one of the central symbolic qualities of
Hermes, that he permanently crosses boundaries (!) - not only between
heaven, earth and the underworld, but also between male and female. (It
seems a bit strange, but Hermes does not only represent the male principle
in the word "hermaphrodite", but does himself belong to both sexes.) In
chapter 19 three genders are mentioned (195): male, female, and death.
According to Derrida in his "Dissemination" Thoth alias Hermes alias Mercury
is not only the god of scripture and, of course, hermeneutics, but also
closely associated with death. 

I am not sure at the moment whether the symbolism of Mercury (due to my
studies I am inclined to detect the tricky messenger of the gods everywhere)
is at all relevant for an explanation of all the
soul/wind/insanity/underworld-business (which is mainly the business of John
Company) that is going on on St. Helena, but the whole complex seems to be
an highly important one, even without the mythological connection. 

I hope I haven't spoiled anybody's fun by referring to chapters that are not
yet being discussed. Please excuse my sometimes rather clumsy English.


Thomas Eckhardt


                             The clouds didn't look like cotton,
                             they didn't even look like clouds.

                             Townes Van Zandt