Volume 2: Mercury and Hazel - Preface

“OMNIA MIRARI ETIAM TRITISSIMA"

(Find wonder in all things, even the most commonplace)

Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné)

What makes things what they are?

The way we perceive them? In which case, does everybody innately perceive in the same way, or do we all learn different ways of experiencing? Do we experience languages in the same way that we experience metals or trees, stars and gods?

Is it a hidden essence which makes things what they are? In which case, is this essence a timeless, abstract ideal which we can barely even glimpse through our limited sensory perception, or is it a physical property of the thing in question – its DNA, its subatomic structure – which we can understand more and more deeply by means of that mixture of experimentation and abstraction we call scientific method?

Or is it how things relate to other things which makes them what they are (Classification systems)? In which case, can we ever stop widening the circle of reference of relationships, and just experience a thing as it is, in its imminence? What is happening to us when we feel as though we can experience things as they are? And how does the way we think about concepts in biology, for example, affect the way we think about chemistry, astronomy or theology (The root of the tree)?

This volume explores the four subject matter areas of chemistry, botany, astronomy and religion, and in particular the persistence of the name 'mercury' across three of these domains, and the mythical association of mercury with the hazel tree.

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Key references in this book: Linnaeus, Crowley, Graves, Foucault.

Table of contents: Chapter 1 – Introduction; Chapter 2 - The four domains of play; The sign of Mercury and Hazel; Metals and Mercury; Trees and the Hazel; Planets and Mercury; The gods and Mercury; Chapter 3 - Development of the game; A table of correspondences; Classification systems; Developments in chemical nomenclature; Developments in biological nomenclature for flowering plants; Developments in the study of religion; Developments in planetary science; The root of the tree; Chapter 4 - The Mercury and Hazel game; Move 1 English and Proto-Indo-European taxa; Move 2 Key characteristics of taxa; Move 3 Paradigm of sevens; Move 4 Alternative signature; Move 5 – Gravegoods to protect the dead; Move 6 The doorway to the underworld; Move 7 Many become one; Move 8 Common name to scientific naming paradigm; Move 9 Phylogenetic naming; Representation of the game as a “mandala” ; Representation of the game as a “table of correspondences” ; Game commentary; Chapter 5 - Select bibliography.