Warning: Though Mercury has many traditions in magic and some religions, it is a highly toxic heavy metal and should not be handled. Contact with the skin or inhalation can cause death. Ecologically, mercury is equally devastating to the environment.
Mercury is an unusual metal in that it remains liquid at normal temperatures much like water. However, unlike water, though it will pour, it will not be wet. On a dry surface, it rolls itself into little balls. Mercury is fourteen times heavier than water; this means heavy substances like iron will float on its surface. It will only freeze at –38 degrees Fahrenheit, and it is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Though it will sometimes occur in small globules within the ore cinnabar, it is more often chemically bound to a sulfide.
Alchemists were fascinated with mercury, referring to it as "quick silver" meaning living silver. They held it as sacred to their founder, Hermes Trismegistus (Hermes the thrice-great), medieval evolution of the Greek god Hermes (Roman Mercury). Some called mercury the philosopher’s stone, asserting that when colored with sulfur, it might be solidified into true gold through the “marriage” of Hermes and Athene (or Mercury and Minerva). Alternately, another goal of alchemists concerning mercury was to discover the nature of Anima Mercury, the mercurial soul, another term for the spirit of creation. Once this secret was understood, alchemists felt they could create any substance, organic or inorganic.
Mercury as the god, not only of magic, but of tricksters, thieves, and gamblers, also leant this ability to his namesake metal according to old manuscripts. Gamblers might carry a hollowed nutmeg filled with mercury and sealed. Mercury was also used for scrying mirrors, due to the god’s association with Venus Fortuna. This eventually evolved into the use of mercury amalgam for the backing of mirrors.