Chapter One
Hercules stands at the beginning upon the Way.
“What is your name?” the Teacher asks.
“I am Herakles, meaning Hera’s Glory”, he answers.
“Hera’s Glory?” comments the Teacher. “Hera means Soul, which you have yet to reveal.”
“What is a Soul?” Hercules asks the Teacher who answers,
“This you will discover as you do your tasks.”
Hercules is asked his parentage, to which he replies, “My Father is divine but I know him not, only that I am his son. My Mother I know well. She made me what I am.” Then goes on to say that he has a twin, another self, defining the experience of duality: child of god and child of man. Part divine, part human.
It is the Path of reconciling the two brothers, mortal and immortal, the spiritual and the physical, which reveals both our Power and our challenges. It is the tale of Ages: Cain and Abel. Castor and Pollux. Romulus and Remus. Christ and Lucifer. The theme of the Piscean Age, symbolized by the two fish bound together through a golden cord, swimming in opposite directions, is the reconciliation of the brothers. The Unification of the polarities.
‘Herakles’…, “I am the Glory of my Soul.”
Hercules then begins to boast. He is educated, proficient in all the arts and sciences and skilled in the ways of the world. He wears the skin of the lion he slew at the age of 18 and confesses he has killed all his past teachers. He is self-determined and free of obligations.
But the Teacher warns, “Again in Leo you will meet the lion and in Gemini, the teachers you slew, while in Scorpio, you will wrestle with the demons of desire.” And with that warning, comes the message that Hercules is to prove himself.
The demigods (lesser buddhas of activity) approach Hercules with their various gifts.
Minerva brings him a robe, symbolizing a vocation. Minerva was the virgin demigod of Wisdom, War and Commerce, all ways we extend ourselves to others, through our vocations. May they all be they Pure of Heart, for ‘virgin’ means ‘pure’.
The demigod Vulcan brings him a golden breastplate to guard his Heart, symbolic of Spiritual energy, the three-fold Flame of the indwelling Presence, our Sacred Heart. Vulcan was heaven’s blacksmith, in charge of fashioning forms and gear for the gods; bodies to house Souls. He symbolizes refinement by persistence…evolution of form.
Neptune brings him two horses, symbolic of the Mastery of Love: sensitivity without being carried away by unbridled thoughts and emotions.
The demigod Mercury brings him a sword, symbolic of the Mind, of our ability in cognitive association, mental analysis, discrimination, association and synthesis.
And Apollo, the Sun god, brings him a bow of light and an arrow of illumination. This gift gives him one pointed directedness or focus, on the path the arrow reveals.
Well equipped by the gods, Hercules is made ready to begin. When he runs into the forest and makes himself a wooden club. “This is mine. I made it myself.” And with the addition of this crude weapon, he begins his path along the Way. He passes through to the first gate.
Aries – The Capture of the Man-Eating Mares
