Hermes the Thief
One of Hermes’ first acts in the world, aside from crafting the lyre from that poor turtle, was to steal his brother’s cattle. With backward stepping shoes and clever moves, he pulled it off for a short time. Yet, nothing escapes the light of Apollo.
Norman O Brown explores this story amongst others in his lovely homage to Hermes in HERMES THE THIEF. One of the more nourishing ideas found between covers is the ‘stealing’ we do with memory and with other people’s ideas. As a guide of Souls, Hermes (Mercury) borrows-or thieves-images from any source providing insight (Apollo) to feed the Soul. Dreams would be another domain where his tricks are aplenty, where an image can trick us into thinking or dreaming of something else entirely. These cunning maneuvers happening all the time with Hermes are never more prevalent than when he is close, when he is retrograde, and when his cycle is fresh.
In the next 24 hours, Mercury will station direct. At 11º01' Aquarius, he will dimly grace each morning, reminding us of the ideas we were gifted in the previous weeks, and encourage us to be incubating them like a mother hen. The Chandra Symbol for this degree is: A heated argument turns into laughter. A brilliant resolution to opposing forces. At the core of every argument, we find warring ideas and two brothers-Hermes and Apollo-at odds. The resolution only comes with laughter and love and the gift of insight. The heat is cooled when we arrest our need to be right, then rescue the insight from borrowed perspectives. This is the trick.
Hermes, the greatest trickster of all is always guiding our souls toward more awareness. Every argument, every MRI (Mercury retrograde intervention), every lost or broken object, is trying to feed our souls in the most interesting of ways. Our job is to cultivate the hermetic awareness to see it.
To goal? To look back so you can move forward. To steal some images from memory and trick your mind into seeing clearly. It always happens this way when he stations direct. So try to distill the essence of the ‘big idea’ he shared with you this Rx and do your best to see how it has opened up a new channel for tuning into your Soul.
Praise Hermes!
Eudaimonia,
Adam
kosmognosis.medium.com/follow
….to support the creation of my writings/podcasts and be showered with gifts as well
…to adventure deeper into kosmos, mythos, and psyche
