Curiouser and Curiouser

[sdi]

Lately I've been wondering why it is that watery Albus is associated with the intellect and the planet Mercury, rather than airy Rubeus (as one might expect from Western astrology). Today, I ran across a few more interesting tidbits.

In Mesopotamian astrology, the planet Mercury is associated with the Sumerian water god Enki (Assyrian Ea), who is the god of knowledge and craft. (In particular, he seems associated with water in the sense of the male creative energy—that is, semen—but as also applied to mental processes.)

In Chinese astrology, the planet Mercury is literally called "water star:" though this is the Chinese element of water (rather than the classical Greek element of water), it has similar associations to Albus of retreat, stillness, erudition, old age, etc.