mercurial

A mercurial temperament is volatile or cunningly shifty. Rather straightforward, but the suggestion of the word, via its collaboration with astrology, is that such a temperament is foretold, fated, unchangeable. Those of such a disposition might as well get used to it, and their acquaintances and loved ones had best not expect change any time soon (says the word). The word lends two other aspects to the disposition. The first is the force and energy of celestial activity; the implication is that the volatility paradoxically follows laws that preclude any possibility of lasting calm. Like an orbiting planet, a mercurial nature will never travel in the same direction for more than a moment. Secondly, by selecting Mercury as the celestial object in question, the word endows the mercurial nature with a heat, a fire, a burning that volatility alone does not require. The mercurial nature is seldom consistent, sometimes choleric, and ultimately unalterable...if the connotation of the word is to be fully accepted.