The First Matter

Restate basic principles.
The Hydra: a mythical, multi-headed monster. Eclecticism, identity and schizoid perspective personified. Unstoppable in battle: chop off one head, two more grow in its place. Triumph in adversity, survivalist tenacity. All experience is good experience; what doesn’t destroy me makes me stronger. Hydra-genic, a bipolar ambiguity: generating or generated by? The synthetic duality of problem and solution. Throwing liquid onto the fire of an over-heated psyche, before knowing whether the bucket contains water or petrol.
Hg: a convenient contraction, but also the chemical symbol for mercury. A pretty poison, the quicksilver (living silver – the quick and the dead) that made the hatter mad. A measurement of temperature, of blood pressure – now considered unstable and replaced by alcohol. The planet closest to the sun. Mercurial: uncontrollable, unpredictable, unstable, fleet, flighty, quick-witted, volatile, erratic. A god of trade, thievery and communication – eloquent, shrewd and crafty as a vessel.
A cosmic prankster, retrograde. “A mercurial man / Who fluttered over all things like a fan.” Hydrargyrum, liquid of life: I lie down and shiver in Jhon’s silver river. The alchemists considered it the First Matter, from which everything else derives. A plant, also known as Good King Henry. A filler material, a mouthful of metal. Fluorescent light, harsh and unreal. A medicine – blue mass: antiseptic, laxative, antidepressant and antisyphilitic. Explosives. Pigments.
A personal mythology: all the things I wanted to be; all the things I have become; all the things I always was.