AP - Two "Hermes" instead of one

1
11 Aug 2003

Ekati:

The planet of Hermes which was called Stilvon (=shining) is, in Astrology, the ruling planet of two zodiacal constellations, Gemini and Virgo.

Also there was this popular belief about the "dark" and the "bright" side of Hermes, that caused the belief that the planet rotated around the sun keeping the same face, so one side was always "bright" and the other side was always "dark"

"Until 1962 it was thought that Mercury's "day" was the same length as its "year" so as to keep that same face to the Sun much as the Moon does to the Earth. But this was shown to be false in 1965 by doppler radar observations. "
[From the Nine Planets website
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets ... rcury.html]

From mythology, we know that god Hermes is born by Zeus and Maia. Maia is one of the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas in mythology. But who is this goddess Maia? And how Hermes came to be connected with communication?

Maia is the same goddes with Maya of the Hindus. The goddess of the senses. She is the primary archetype of sensual "communication" (that is why the christians have given her a bad name, speaking of the "deception of the senses" and other sick stuff, polluting the philosophy of the Hindus). Any being communicates with the World, primarly with the senses, humans included. We see, we smell, we hear, we taste, we touch. This is how we come in touch with our surroundings, this is how we perceive our existence and any existence around as. Primarly, with the senses. Imagine a world without senses...it wouldn't be a world at all.

Now, the senses are of highly subjective nature. Meaning that each one of us, senses differently, therefore perceives and forms a different "reality", a different view of the world, or rather each one of us forms and lives in a "different world". So there is no "one reality" but many different subjective realities, primarly.

But now a problem arises. How can all these different realities, how can all these different worlds come into communication with each other? There comes Hermes. He is "born" from Maia and he is the one who takes care this problem. Hermes makes possible the communication between all these different worlds and realities. How?

With the development of speech, esp. written speech. Symbols that correspond to special sounds and special meanings and are known by many, can promote the communication among them. Different people develop different languages and different civilisations. Another thing that promotes communication among different cultures is commerce. With the development of commerce, people of different cultures come in touch, get to know each other, exchange goods and also cultural habits, ideas, texts e.t.c. Travel is also important for commerce and for the spread of cultural ideas and habits.

Out of all these, the planetary symbolism of Hermes emerges. This Hermes rules Gemini. The air element is strong on this Hermes. The communication flows and spreads, people and ideas travel and transfer, languages develop and "borrow" meanings and words from each other, different cultural habits get understood and spread around. One can write many on the symbolisms of this Hermes, the "messenger of the gods", who "flies with his wing-shoes", who "moves fast", who "teaches people about words and speech", who "promotes commerce" and so on...

Now, there is also another Hermes. This one rules Virgo and the ground element is strong on him. This one is connected with the world of the dead, and is "psychopompos" (=soul-guide), leading the souls to the underworld. This Hermes is also a keeper of knowledge, a strict guard, a scientist and a helper, someone who serves, someone who is loyal. But who is he?

From the Orphic tradition we know that there is a different hymn for Hermes, son of Zeus and Maia, and a different hymn for someone who is called "chthonios Hermes" (chthon=ground, earth). This one has different parents. He is the son of "chthonios Zeus" and of Aphrodite. We know that "chthonios Zeus" is the ruler of the underworld, the god Pluton himself. But in hellenic mythology there is no reference of any union or any child between Aphrodite and Pluton, or even between Aphrodite and Dionysus (the other name for Pluton). So where does this Hermes come from?

Well, since this Hermes has a strong connection with the underwold, one good idea is to look into Aegyptian mythology. And, yes, there it is. The myth of the "accidental" union between god Osiris (the equivalent of Pluton, for the Aegyptians) and goddess Nefthys (the equivalent of Aphrodite for the Aegyptians) out of which, god Anubis is born. Anubis, the "psychopompos". There he is, this one is the second Hermes, the Hermes of the ground (chthonios). In Roman times, the connection between Hermes and Anubis was already established resulting in the name Hermanubis.

This second Hermes, is the one who borrows his properties to the ruler of Virgo in Astrology. Virgo constellation is also connected with the underworld, initially being the constellation of goddess Virgin Astraia (who delivered Zeus thunderbolts), then associated with Dike and Nemesys. Later on it got associated with goddess Demeter, another goddess of the ground, also connected with underwolrd through her daughter, Persephone, who marries Pluton.

One can also write many on the symbolisms of the chthonios Hermes, relevant to the astrological symbolisms of the Hermes ruler of Virgo.