Prayer to Mercury

Earlier this year as I was writing a post entitled Roman Gods, Indian Gods I came across a beautiful hymn (which is included at the bottom of that post) to the Vedic God Pushan, who, as pyschopomp and the God of journeys, roads, prosperity, good luck and cattle (which were equated with wealth in Vedic times, as they were in the earliest Roman times) is either the Vedic manifestation of Mercury or a God very similar to Mercury.* Over time I have adapted it as a prayer to the Roman God whom I honour most (Mercury). It is as follows:

Prayer I
Great Mercurius or whatever name it is that you prefer,

Lord of the path, guide us on our way; go close before us.

Drive away that which would do us harm.

Protect us from deceit, wherever it be.

Wise Mercurius, wonder-worker,

We desire the help that you gave our people in times past.

Lord of prosperity, make wealth easy to acquire.

Make our paths easy to travel, lead us to happy destinations.

May you provide for us and invigorate us.

We praise mighty Mercurius and we seek your goodwill,

May you know the sincerity of our prayer by this incense that is lit,

May it find favour with you.

[based on Rig Veda, Book 1, Hymn XLII]

I have also put together another prayer based on Horace's Ode to Mercury (Horace's Ode is reproduced in full in my post on The Nature of Mercury), which I also use:

Prayer II
Divine Mercurius, who helps us to perceive,

We praise you, the shrewd deliverer,

Who is eloquent and cunning.

May you guide us to happy homes,

And confine trivial arguments.

Grant us humour, great Mercurius,

Who is dear to all the Gods.

May you know the sincerity of our prayer by this incense that is lit,

May it find favour with you.

[based on Horace, Odes, 1.10]

A hybrid prayer is as follows:

Prayer III
Shrewd Mercurius, who helps us to perceive

And is eloquent, wise and cunning.

Guide us on our way; restrain arguments.

Drive away that which would do us harm.

Protect us from deceit, wherever it be.

Lord of prosperity, make wealth easy to acquire.

Make our paths easy to travel, lead us to happy destinations.

We pray that you protect this household,

And that this offering find favour with you.

Mercury by another name?

It is well known that in the ancient world Gods of different pantheons were often equated with each other (in the Religio Romana we call this the interpretatio Romana; Caesar, Cicero and Tacitus are perhaps the most famous Romans to have adopted this approach), with the assumption being that the same (major) Gods manifest differently across cultures. Thus the Germanic God Woden (later to be known as Odin) was equated with Mercury, as was the Hellenic God Hermes and the Egyptian God Thoth. Using the same approach it could be surmised that the Vedic God Pushan may (possibly) be Mercury by another name, however, Pushan is no longer a major God of the Indian pantheon, but Shiva, also known as Pashupati, the Lord of cattle/animals, is (Shiva as we know him today was unknown in Vedic times). The Rig Veda has "Pashupa" (protector of cattle) as a name of Pushan, thus if we are looking for the contemporary Hindu equivalent of Mercury perhaps we need look no further than Lord Shiva himself.

Roman era statuette of Mercury in silver (orig. France).
Image source: britishmuseum.org

Odin by Klingner (1902) (Public Domain)

Bronze statue of Hermes the ram-bearer, c 500 BCE (Greece).
Image source: mfa.org

Detail of papyrus manuscript depicting Thoth, c. 1275 BCE (Egypt).
Image source: britishmuseum.org

Shiva, Sharma Pic Pub (1940s) (Public Domain)

* Likewise, both Pushan and Mercury are associated with goats.

Written by M' Sentia Figula (aka Freki), find me at neo polytheist and romanpagan.wordpress.com