tension of opposites

Many analyses suggest that tricksters are combinations of oppo-sites. Some are both cultural heroes and selfish buffoons. The Spirit Mercurius was associated with gods and with sewers. Wakdjunkaga was able to change from male to female. Some ritual clowns and mystics eat feces, and in so doing they invert the opposites of food and excrement.

George P. Hansen • The Trickster and the Paranormal

“The Spirit Mercurius was associated with gods and with sewers.”

So if the mercurial fire contains both the horror of the abyss and the ecstasy of divine love, it is necessary for the alchemist (or the modern seeker) to learn to sustain that unbearable tension without fragmenting, to learn to live the torment of their conflicts. One cannot access divine love by ignoring the power of the secret fire; we must... See more

Alchemist • Carl Jung: Mercurius, the fire of transformative potential

We can experience this mercurial fire in the tension of opposites (mind - body, thought - emotions, external reality - internal reality, animus - anima, etc.). Generally it is felt as a tense psychic conflict (personally, deep meditation showed me that such tension was often projected into external conflicts).