Mercury in Vedic Astrology and Lord Budha

 

In Vedic Astrology planet Mercury has a neutral nature concerning its sex. That means it is neither male nor female, and not both male and female. It also considers Sun, Venus and Rahu as Friends, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn as Equals, and Moon as Enemy. Now, remember that Sun sees Mercury as Equal, Moon sees Mercury as Friend and Mars sees Mercury as Enemy.

 

Mercury’s colour is green, its stone is the green emerald, its metal is brass (which is an alloy of copper and zinc), but also any mixture of metals or metallic alloy, as well as mercury, although I am not sure if this is a loan of the western astrology or not. Mercury’s season is Autumn and its element is Earth.

 

Mercury owns Gemini and Virgo, it is exalted in Virgo, having its greatest exaltation on the 15th degree of Virgo, and it is debilitated in Pisces, having its lowest debilitation on the 15th degree of Pisces. What Mercury would call home and not just house (its Mooltrikona) is the area from the 16th to 20th degree of Virgo, while the first 15 degrees are the area of its exaltation.

 

By nature Mercury is considered mild beneficial or sometimes even neutral, as his position and aspects strongly define his malefic or beneficial aspect.

 

Mercury offers intelligence and rationality, nice and influencing speech, adaptability, good taste, artistic nature and a good sense of humour.

 

Mercury governs the nervous system, the bowels, the arms, the mouth, with the exception of teeth, and the sight. It also rules study and teaching, understanding, learning through experience, and imitation. It also influences, all kinds of communication, as well as the communication with the Divines, and therefore the ceremonial magic, being it of organized religions or not. But keep in mind that he most probably make a priest or mage than a theologian or philosopher (these are under Jupiter), as it is more practical than theoretical.

 

Almost in every house Mercury, if not having negative aspects, will give its blessings, including money, status, children and brothers, education, and good relations of every nature.

 

In the sixth house though, would give obstacles in achieving the desired education and success in business matters. If Mercury is in the tenth house the person is most possible to become a priest or ceremonial mage.

 

The Gods associated with the planet Mercury are Lord Budha, and the Great Lord Vishnu. The Graha is Lord Budha.

 

As mentioned in the post regarding Moon and Lord Chandra, Lord Budha is the first son of Lord Chandra and the Goddess Tara, the wife of Lord Brihaspati (Jupiter), and so another name of Lord Budha is Sowmya, which means “born by Soma”.

 

The Harivamsha Parva of the Mahabharata says that Brihaspati reclaiming Tara started a war with Lord Chandra. I should mention that Lord Sukra (God of Venus) joined forces with Lord Chandra, while the Great Lord Rudra joined forces with Lord Brihaspati. Anyway, the things went mad and Great Lord Brahma stopped the war demanding Tara to go back to her husband.

 

At that time Tara was almost ready to give birth, and Lord Brihaspati asked her to do so at once as her containing someone’s other seed was indiscreet. So, Tara gave birth to the child. The baby’s body was glowing like a ritual fire, and appeared as an enemy slayer, as the parva states.

 

So the devas start wondering if he is a child of Brihaspati or one of Soma and asked Tara, but she refused to answer. The newborn child get angry and wanted to curse his mother, but Great Lord Brahma stop the curse saying that if Tara don’t answer, only then the curse would take effect. So Tara stated that the child was one of Lord Soma, who embraced at once his son naming him Budha.

 

Now, as about who were the acting parents of Lord Budha, the Mahabharata sais nothing, as goes from his birth to his becoming father, so there are two options. The one assumes that Lord Chandra and his wife Rohini raised the child, while others believe that Lord Brihaspati and Tara raised him. That is why sometimes Lord Budha is called son of Rohini while other times is called son of Brihaspati.

 

Lord Budha marries lady Ila, and has a son with her the great king Pururava. Should I mention that although Ila is the mother of Pururava and Budha the father of him, Ila is both male and female, something that by delivering Pururava achieved, as Lord Mitra and Lord Varuna, the creators of Ila had promised to her.

 

Please note that she is not hermaphrodite. When he is a male, under the name Sudyumna, he is a complete male, and when she is a female she is a complete female. Sudyumna fathered three sons Utkala, Gaya and Vinata-ashva. These three boys are not sons of Budha, but sons of Sudyumna (which is male) and Vaivasvata Manu (also male).

 

Vaisvata Manu is an expression of the Sun (Surya) and the metre of time, and who through a Vedic ritual asked Mitra and Varuna to create Ila, therefore Ila is considered daughter of Vaisvata Manu. Also Ikshvaku is a son (the first son) of Vaisvata Manu.

 

And so, from Chandra comes Budha and from him and the Sun descendant Ila starts the Lunar dynasty from which Lord Krishna will be born, while from the other son of Vaisvata Manu, Ikshvaku (who then is as well son of Surya), the Solar dynasty starts, from which Lord Rama will be born.

 

Now back to Lord Budha. As the teacher of the deities, Lord Brihaspati, was not very fond of him, he was not well educated, so Budha prayed to Great Lord Brahma or Great Lord Vishnu (depending on the tradition) for several years in order to obtain knowledge.

 

Great Lord Brahma was pleased with his prayers and gave to Lord Budha knowledge on all things, and made him a Buddha (illuminated). Or Great Lord Vishnu was pleased with his prayers and gave to Lord Budha the knowledge of all the Vedas and the arts.

 

Lord Budha’s vehicle is a Lion which sometimes is winged. He also can be pictured as sitting on a carpet, yes maybe the first flying carpet, for Tara gave birth to him on a carpet made of sacred grass. Other times he is in a chariot that is carried either by lions or yellow horses. His clothes are mainly yellow. He wears much jewellery, most of them also of yellow (golden maybe) colour. His skin can be green or greenish.

 

He most often has one head, and four arms, usually two of them holding weapons (a sword and a club most probably), one a shield, and the forth either gives blessings, or holds a lotus flower (meaning again the same).

 

 

The number of Mercury is 4, so the magic square (Yantra) of Mercury starts with 4.

 

 The simplest mantras of Mercury are:

 

 

Repeat the mantra for one mala (108 times) or 3 malas, starting on Wednesday for 14 or 40 days over – or holding – the yantra and/or an emerald.

 

It is said that if you chant the mantra for 17 malas (1836 times) for three consecutive days you will also have the desired results in a hurry. I haven’t tried that, as you’ll be needing about three hours for each session. If you do try it, please let me know.

 

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