Practicality, enterprise, energy. Master of trade, sales, finance. Master of business negotiations and communications. Handsome and charming as always but with a 21st Century twist…
Intro
Greek historians testify that in ancient folklore there are several prototypes of Hermes. This can be confusing to a person uninitiated in Greek culture. The first was the son of Hemera and Uranus and became famous for his sympathy for Persephone. The second, a descendant of Coronida and Valentus, bore the name Trophonius and lived in the underworld. The son of Maya and Zeus was the third image in the myths and the parent of Pan and Penelope. The Egyptian deity Hermes was the son of the Nile, and another character of Egyptian legends in the form of Hermes just gave people writing. His middle name is Thoth (During late antiquity, the image of Hermes Trismegistus (“thrice the greatest”) arose in connection with Hermes’ proximity to the otherworld; occult sciences and so-called hermetic (secret, closed, accessible only to initiated) writings were associated with this image).
In alchemy, Hermes-Mercurius was “quicksilver,” the spirit concealed in matter. He was the symbol that united all the opposites: metallic yet liquid, matter yet spirit, cold yet fiery, poison yet healing draught. As a substance, mercury adheres only to a precious metal; metaphorically, Hermes can show you the way to find spiritual gold. That is, a fully fleshed out, fully realized Hermes. Hermes as, ultimately, a champion of humanity and a god of Transformation.
The deities of ancient Greece are described as unearthly beauties, but their characters are very ambiguous. And yet the god of whom we are now going to discuss, managed to eclipse the others, because it is Hermes himself. Thanks to his cunning and resourcefulness, traces of Hermes are visible practically in all shenanigans of that time.
Of all the functions under his domain, one quality of Hermes that cannot be underestimated, indeed holds him apart from the rest of the Greek pantheon is the fact that Hermes is a god because he decided he would be one and then acted immediately and with intention. From his earliest days, baby Hermes exhibited his extraordinary ability as a trickster in service to his own transformation first and foremost.
Hyde, Lewis. Trickster Makes This World
“ If we turn to the Homeric Greek tradition, we will find a similar pattern, though somewhat differently elaborated. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes tells about the days immediately following Hermes’ birth.9 He is the illegitimate child of Zeus and a nymph named Maia. At the beginning of the story, the newborn babe wanders from his mother’s cave, stumbles upon a turtle, and, from its shell, makes the first lyre. After singing a song about himself on this instrument, Hermes lays it aside. “His mind wandered to other matters. For Hermes longed to eat meat.” He sets off to steal cattle from the herd of his half brother, Apollo. In many a Coyote story the phrase “he longed to eat meat” would lead willy-nilly to some sort of disaster. And the frank declaration of carnivorous desire in the Homeric Hymn makes it clear that this Greek trickster is a cousin to Coyote, as does a later remark that Apollo makes when he finally catches his thieving brother: “You’re going to be a great nuisance to lonely herdsmen in the mountain woods when you get to hankering after meat and come upon their cows or fleecy sheep.” So the Hymn itself lets us know that Hermes is a meat thief like Coyote, and given his transgressive nature, we will not be surprised if he breaks the rules and eats the cow he steals. But the plot of this particular story differs in one significant detail. The crucial scene occurs after Hermes has led the stolen cattle to a barn near the river Alpheus. Having kindled a fire in a trench, Hermes drags two of the cows from the barn and butchers them. He cut up the richly marbled flesh and skewered it on wooden spits; he roasted all of it—the muscle and the prized sirloin and the dark-blooded belly—and laid the spits out on the ground … . Next he gladly drew the dripping chunks of meat from the spits, spread them on a stone, and divided them into twelve portions distributed by lot, making each one exactly right. 10
Hyde, Lewis. Trickster Makes This World (pp. 32-33). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition.
Footnote 10: There is a bit of a joke here. There are twelve Olympian gods and Hermes is one of them, or rather he’d like to be. Here he includes himself in the sacrifice so as to stake his claim. He’s like a politician nominating himself for high office, seconding the nomination, and counting the votes—all in secret.
Hyde, Lewis. Trickster Makes This World (p. 418). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition.
And so begins Hermes well deserved reputation as a clever and cunning trickster, skillful diplomat and merchant, he is the most charming swindler of the ancient Greek pantheon. He is a messenger of success, and success itself accompanies him in everything endeavor. Hermes can be rightly called omnipresent and very versatile. An example of this is the destinations that were under his patronage. The Greek god of trade, exchange, thieves, communication, and social interactions (In Roman mythology he is called Mercury).
With his unique eloquence and ability to play on human weaknesses, Hermes could sell any commodity - both really high quality and quite questionable. With the development of the market economy, Hermes became the god of trade, a natural extension of the deity’s agricultural and livestock functions. Since agricultural products, livestock, trade itself is associated with travel, and sometimes also with fraud, he became at the same time the god of travelers. Incidentally, thieves also respected Hermes for his talent stemming from that heretofore mentioned first incident with Apollo’s cows on the first day after his birth. Visitors, merchants, heralds and ambassadors, physicians (as he was a good doctor and knew a lot about medicinal herbs; he reveals to Odysseus the secret of magic herbs to save him from sorcery).
Along with Zeus, Hermes was revered as the god of hospitality and travelers and rewarded hosts accordingly…
To Hermes the merchant mankind owes the system of measures and weights, as well as the introduction of the concept of profit. One of his attributes is a bag (purse) with money. In the hypostasis of the patron of trade, he could point out treasures and minerals, including gold-bearing ores.
Hermes was the god of dreams, and the Greeks offered him one last libation before going to sleep. He was the patron of music - he was credited with the invention of the ciphara. He was the god of eloquence and directed some kinds of popular divination. God of shopkeepers and merchants, travelers and carriers of goods, god of roads, protector of all travelers and wanderers. Treasure accidentally found was his gift, and any good fortune was attributed to this young merry god.
Cunning but very nice, dodgy, funny Hermes was always teasing others. For fun he stole the scepter of Zeus, the bow and arrows of Apollo, the trident of Poseidon and the arrows of Artemis, and the belt of Aphrodite. Zeus loved him and forgave all his pranks. Impressed by Hermes’ ability to persuade and bargain, Zeus made him an envoy of the gods. From this moment Hermes becomes the patron of traders and diplomats (if somewhere or somewhere it was necessary to deliver the message, an artifact or will of gods, anybody could not cope with it faster than Hermes).
The role of Hermes as a messenger and traveler is well seen in his attributes. The real symbol of him was the caduceus, a staff on which two snakes are twisted. Of course, this staff had magical powers: it could put mortals to sleep so that messages from the gods could be delivered to them in the form of dreams. The god is depicted wearing a wide-brimmed hat, symbolizing his role as a traveler, and sandals with wings that allowed him to move quickly from one place to another. In spite of his frivolous character, garrulity and propensity to tell lies, he carried out his work in a perfect and exemplary way, for which he often drew praise from Zeus, who made him one of his favorite sons.
Hermes showed his cleverness and ingenuity not only in trade matters, but also in love. Myths tell of all kinds of love adventures of the god, but Aphrodite stands out clearly. The beautiful goddess of love, albeit not immediately, fell victim to the charms of the young trickster lol
Hermes had jurisdiction over athletic events and gymnasiums. He was regarded as the god of youth and sport and as the embodiment of radiant youth and fervor. Hermes was put in charge of athletic competitions and schools and stadiums were built in his honor. His statues were placed in the palaestras and gymnasiums, institutions where wrestling, fistfighting, discus throwing, running, jumping, etc. were taught.
Hermes often acts as a faithful assistant to the gods or heroes. Many heroes were grateful to Hermes for his help, including Perseus, Hercules, Orpheus and Odysseus. He is most noticed in the legend of Perseus. He taught the young hero how he should defeat Medusa Gorgon. To do this, he gave Perseus his own winged sandals.
The common people, for whom this “god of speed” was a model of good humour, saw Hermes as their patron and protector. Ultimately, Hermes took on the mantle of Prometheus as patron of humanity as noted in this passage from the Iliad as described by thehistoryofwesternthought blog post entitled
Hermes Archetype of Transformation
“In Book XXIV of the Iliad, Hermes is sent by Zeus to ensure safe-passage of Priam from his safe and living world of Troy to the camp of his opposite number, his dead son, Hektor, and his son’s murderer, Achilleus, who now holds the body of Hektor hostage. Priam must therefore leave his home, cross the battlefield, and then “kiss the hands” of his sons’ killer–transitioning both his physical place and his state of being across the battlefield. As Zeus commands Hermes down, he makes an interesting comment about Hermes: “Hermes, for to you beyond all other gods it is dearest to be man’s companion, and you listen to whom you will, go now on your way, and so guide Priam inside the hollow ships of the Achaians…” (Homer, Iliad, Bk XXIV 334-337. Lattimore tr.) And then again Hermes is described: “He caught up the staff, with which he mazes the eyes of mortals whose eyes he would maze, or wakes again sleepers.” (Ibid, 343-344) One observes from these two descriptions two important aspects of Hermes: he of all the gods most cares for man (ostensibly, now that Prometheus is out of the picture), and he has the capacity to wake or put to sleep a man. What this means, is that Hermes is the archetype, par excellence, of the transition between one state of being and another, or transformation (for it is humans who go from sleeping to waking, and alive to dead*). Just as Dionysos represents the space necessary between states, so does Hermes represent the active process of transformation, though this transformation can be positive, waking, or negative, being put to sleep, both aspects are essential to transformation.“
It is difficult to imagine the myths of ancient Greece without Hermes. He does not often play the role of the protagonist, but his image is very important. Despite his contradictory temperament, he is a kind guy who strives to help people and do good deeds - albeit with a certain amount of guile, seduction, cunning, and charm.
Possessing the full range of rascal traits - speed, charisma, sexuality, cunning, eloquence, and the ability to make profitable deals - it is the most ideal good luck charm in our information age. It is the lord of social interactions and the world of information exchange. He is the patron saint of techne. This Greek word means craftsmanship or skill.
A brief version: thoughts on how this NFT can be used
Mastery of all communication - encompasses all forms of persuasive communication, eloquence from the written to the spoken word, bringing a certain elegance to them. Activation of oratorical skills. Total victory in any disputes. Ability to persuade (negotiate) the interlocutor, using semantic / lexical tricks and stratagems
Ease and naturalness of communication. Attraction of the necessary and useful acquaintances naturally
Influencing the interlocutor in the “right” way to achieve their goals. Cunning and deviousness (with a certain elegant flair)
Trusting vibes. Protection from any negativity in social interactions. Absolute constructiveness and positivity in communication, ability to say compliments naturally
Charm, attractiveness, sexuality, charisma, sense of humor
Creativity of thought. Dexterity / cunning of mind, wit
Assistance in making any kind of profit. Total intercession / patronage in trade, sales, exchange. Absolute success in any transactions, business processes
Ability to see signs, and accurately interpret the behavior of animals, birds (Hermes - Patron of the soothsayers)
If necessary - connection with the right person (who is out of range) and transfer to him important information conceptually / telepathically
Inspiration. Good luck in any endeavor. Activation of personal talents
Full intercession in travel, trips
Hospitable atmosphere at any receptions, official or unofficial meetings
Full patronage and good luck in athletic fields, competitions; additional strength and dexterity
Assistant in various divinations, in interpretation of dreams
Most of all, Hermes will facilitate your transformation in whatever way best suits your fate pattern.
Additional facts & Hermes Channel. Practitioner Tips
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Hermes sandals often appear in advertisements and logos as a symbol of speed and reliability. Goodyear, for example, used this symbol to sell its tires. Similarly, the logo of flower delivery company FTD features Hermes rushing past with flowers in hand, symbolizing the speed and reliability of its delivery services. Hermes has also been used in many national postal service logos.
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Statues of Hermes were put in particular at crossroads (hermes - tetrahedral columns with the image of his head and with inscriptions, informing where the road leads), they often decorated medical institutions and almost always - sports facilities. Hermes and his attributes (especially the winged hat) in the last century adorned almost every bank, insurance office and chamber of commerce.
The basic qualities of Hermes energy:
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Activity, Dexterity, Intelligence;
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Ability to organize structures;
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Ability to profit - some kind of activity;
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Passion for travel (research);
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Interest in technologies of development: any applied technologies, how it is possible to activate business, to receive some material result. ~
In the energy stream there is a lot of information about business, trade, organization of business processes, there is experience and knowledge in sports (Many bodybuilders have Hermes initiation)
Hermes works with aspects of:
Popularity (a person who gets attention). Popularity is necessary for people who are in public activities, politicians, artists. The person begins to attract attention, his fullness, there is significance.
Motivation (motivation for business, finance, management, sports)
The Wealth Channel, activation of luck and the right probabilities
Info
To be continued tonight ;)