Wednesday is named after Woden, the mysterious Norse god about whom we know very little. He’s a wanderer, a magician, a trickster. He’s sometimes called Odin, and he’s connected with the Roman god Mercurius, Hermes in Ancient Greece, and Nabu in ancient Babylon, the divine scribe and god of wisdom. The Egyptian equivalent to Nabu was Tehuti, or Thoth, also a scribe of the gods, and an inventor of writing, and all the arts and sciences.
Woden is connected with death and transformation, just as Hermes was the one who helped to guide souls on their journey after death. He represents communication, creativity, intellect, commerce, healing, language, and magic, and he’s identified with the building of the great sacred constructions in England.
The planet we associate with Wednesday is Mercury ?, whose color is yellow. Yellow connects with your solar plexus chakra. It is the color of wisdom, intelligence, joy, power, and strength. It’s also a chakra where we may hold a lot of hurt and despair. That feeling ‘in the pit of your stomach’ may be an energy block that can be removed through energy healing, visualization, and surrounding yourself with the glorious yellow-gold light of wisdom.
Mercury influences intellectual curiosity, analytical skill, and mental agility. The planet rules Gemini and Virgo. Geminis are thirsty for knowledge and information. They are comfortable with language, writing, speaking, communicating. An air sign, they live by their intelligence, reason, and research. They also tend to be closely connected to siblings.
In the tarot, Gemini is represented by the Magician and also by the Lovers. The Lovers card has to do with choosing wisely, and Geminis are often in a position of having to make decisions.
Virgos tend to be detail-oriented, analytical, careful, practical, and perfectionist. In their highest sense, they can see the perfect wisdom in all things, and it makes them deeply intuitive and truthful, as well as great healers. They can be very hard on themselves because of their deep longing to experience more of the ideal ‘perfection’ that they know is possible.
The wise, intuitive oracle known as the High Priestess represents Virgo in the tarot, as does the Hermit card.
Now look at your hands. The little finger, or pinky, is your Mercury finger, and the mound beneath it is your Mount of Mercury. Again, the complexities involved with this archetype are vast, so trust what you feel as you look at that part of your hand. If you have a line curving from your Mount of Moon in a half circle up toward your Mount of Mercury, a deep well of intuitive and psychic potentiality are yours. The line heading up from the middle of your wrist to the Mercury finger is the line of physical health. Several lines on the Mount itself speak of intuition. When the finger is crooked people used to believe you to be a trickster or cunning in some way. We know now that this feature has to do with being able to create an illusion of some sort—to be a magician or a writer.
Raphael is Wednesday’s archangel, the angel of healers and healing.
Wednesday’s crystal as the powerful and royal topaz; its metal is quicksilver, its tree is elm, its organ is lungs, which we use to speak with as well as to breathe. Its musical tone is D, its vowel is I, and its grain is millet.
Wednesday’s sacred number is 5, the number of change, growth, transformation, and communication.
Rudolf Steiner speaks of Wednesday being the day when we can experience “Right Standpoint.” “To live in accordance with nature and spirit, not to lose oneself in the external hurry of life, to avoid everything that brings restlessness and haste into one’s life. To do nothing rash, yet not be inwardly idle.”
Wednesdays are an excellent day to write letters, to catch up on old correspondence. I use this day to make sure my communications are as up to date as possible. I clear out old emails, write letters, make phone calls, reach out to friends. It’s also a good day to begin a new artistic or health-related project.