CLAVES ANGELICÆ

COMMERX

The derivation of word commerce which comes from the Latin com-merx, meaning ‘to be with Mercury’. French (marché), German (markt), Spanish (mercado), and others all spawn from the past participle of mercari, meaning ‘to exchange, to trade’.

Mercury, the Roman god of commerce, communication, and trickery, has worn many masks throughout history. In Hellenistic Greece the divine herald was known by the name Hermes and served as the messenger that travels the crossroads between the heavens and earth. Greeks in the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt acknowledged Hermes (i.e. Mercury) as an incarnation of the ancient Egyptian deity Thoth, the god of writing, magic, and law.

In considering the historical and mythological lineage of magic's affinity with markets we must consider why our human forebears drew these correlations. In antiquity, crossroads were often where marketplaces were held due to the increased likelihood for fortuitous exchanges, communications, and commerce. Markets were places where travelers would first encounter merchants and goods from alien worlds.

In addition to the aforementioned cultures, crossroads in West African (Esha-Elegba) and Caribbean (Papa Legba) lore have represented the juncture between worlds; liminal sites where the world of the gods intersect with the human; a nexus of the real and unreal; an alien convergence inhabited by tricksters and scammers from other worlds.