Greybeard
09-09-2011, 06:32 PM
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110908141443.htm
The above link leads to an article that says our brain holds and ties together all sensory information about an object, or class of objects. It specifically refers to the senses of sight and touch. But the implication, which can be corroborated by simply observing ourselves, is that all sensory impressions of any given object or set of circumstances are stored and integrated within the brain.
In other words, our brains collect all the information they can, whether physical or otherwise, about any set of circumstances we encounter and correlate it. We carry a sort of encyclopedia in our heads that can inform us, from any past experience, about the probable characteristics of a present one.
I see an apple. My brain tells me that apples come in colors from dark red to yellowish-white, are often streaked in color, have a certain typical size and form. I can see them on the tree, in the store, and even see the tree they grew on, and the weather on the day I noticed the apple tree, the mountains surrounding the valley where they were growing.
I can smell them, taste them, feel them, hear the crunch as I bite into them.
In astrology, Mercury is the general indicator of the physical perceptive senses. [We also possess more subtle senses, call them intuitive]. Mercury rules "translation" and it is this power of the planet that makes us able to "feel" an object and then, within our brain translate the "data" coming from, say, our fingers into useful and cogent "perception" as to the classification of the object.
But Mercury's ability to translate, or interpret, the data it receives from the nervous system relies on the memory, which is the realm of the Moon. The Moon rules all processes of absorption and assimilation, and memory is one of those processes.
Mercury is not just the lord of the perceptive functions of the nervous system. He also rules our rational mind. He is the symbolic mind, the power of abstraction that allows us to "see" one thing, and transform or transpose it into another. The word "door" is not a door at all; but if I say "door" to you, you see a door in your minds eye. The mind refers the word "door" to all its memories of a door, all conveniently filed under that key word, and conjures up the impressions of "door". A door, in my mind at least -- because of early experiences -- implies "privacy" or "inner sanctum". As we can see from this simple example, not all impressions come from our physical sensory system; some are "moral", intuitive, "understood". With memories come feelings, and feelings have great power over how we perceive anything.
A study of the Moon--Mercury relationship in a horoscope will tell us volumes about how a person perceives things, how they think, and what they are apt to do with the products of their thought.
The above link leads to an article that says our brain holds and ties together all sensory information about an object, or class of objects. It specifically refers to the senses of sight and touch. But the implication, which can be corroborated by simply observing ourselves, is that all sensory impressions of any given object or set of circumstances are stored and integrated within the brain.
In other words, our brains collect all the information they can, whether physical or otherwise, about any set of circumstances we encounter and correlate it. We carry a sort of encyclopedia in our heads that can inform us, from any past experience, about the probable characteristics of a present one.
I see an apple. My brain tells me that apples come in colors from dark red to yellowish-white, are often streaked in color, have a certain typical size and form. I can see them on the tree, in the store, and even see the tree they grew on, and the weather on the day I noticed the apple tree, the mountains surrounding the valley where they were growing.
I can smell them, taste them, feel them, hear the crunch as I bite into them.
In astrology, Mercury is the general indicator of the physical perceptive senses. [We also possess more subtle senses, call them intuitive]. Mercury rules "translation" and it is this power of the planet that makes us able to "feel" an object and then, within our brain translate the "data" coming from, say, our fingers into useful and cogent "perception" as to the classification of the object.
But Mercury's ability to translate, or interpret, the data it receives from the nervous system relies on the memory, which is the realm of the Moon. The Moon rules all processes of absorption and assimilation, and memory is one of those processes.
Mercury is not just the lord of the perceptive functions of the nervous system. He also rules our rational mind. He is the symbolic mind, the power of abstraction that allows us to "see" one thing, and transform or transpose it into another. The word "door" is not a door at all; but if I say "door" to you, you see a door in your minds eye. The mind refers the word "door" to all its memories of a door, all conveniently filed under that key word, and conjures up the impressions of "door". A door, in my mind at least -- because of early experiences -- implies "privacy" or "inner sanctum". As we can see from this simple example, not all impressions come from our physical sensory system; some are "moral", intuitive, "understood". With memories come feelings, and feelings have great power over how we perceive anything.
A study of the Moon--Mercury relationship in a horoscope will tell us volumes about how a person perceives things, how they think, and what they are apt to do with the products of their thought.