Proper Substitute For Mercury Metal, in alchemy and magick Options

Now I know Mercury is one of the seven planetary metals, I also know it is a miserable pain to find and nearly as expensive as gold when you have to ship it. I found a few old Mercury in glass thermometers some time ago but used them all now. Mercury nitrate salts work well I imagine but suffer from the same high price.

So assuming I don't want to use a plant with Mercury correspondence where do I look?

If I should use a plant can anyone suggest a good one?

This post has been edited by fatherjhon: Jun 12 2011, 10:30 AM

If you want a symbolic stand in, Imperial is a much better reference then i am, but, if you just want a metal that has similar properties without the toxicity, Gallium might be worth looking into.

It's a metal that is chemically related to aluminum. but actually has few toxcity issues then aluminum. High concentrations it could still be dangerous, but as they're looking at injecting it into people, it's probably relatively well tolerated by humans.

You'd also want to be mindful of the purity of the Gallium since even very pure samples can have high-ish concentrations of mercury (depending on how the galium is processed), but you can buy scientifically graded, pure gallium online and have it shipped to you very easily (easy relative to mercury.... it can still eat aluminum, so ground shipping is the most likely route)

Gallium amalgumates with other metals about as easily as mercury. It might not dissolve/amalgumate with iron. you'd need to check on that if you're using it, and it matters. It wets nearly all types of metals.

Interesting side note, Gallium is produced as a by-product of mercury produced through electrolysis, so if there's any references in y'all's occult literature to empowered or purified mercury, it might be a reference to Gallium.

You might need to warm the gallium slightly though to make it liquid, as it's melting point is technically above room temperature (70 degress farenheit). it's not a big deal as a warmed finger could work for that.