Message From Hermes

I begin this essay at 8:51 am on December 4,2024. It is Wednesday and I have just made my weekly offering to Hermes. I tried to make this one a little special because tomorrow Mercury will be cazimi (at the heart of The Sun). When planets occupy the same place (are conjunct) The Sun, they are said to be especially impowered. In the case of Mercury, we get two of these alignments during each orbital period of Mercury. One of these alignments happens during Mercury Retrograde. Known as an “inferior conjunction”, it occurs when the planet Mercury stands directly between the Sun and Earth. At this moment, Mercury is as close as it gets to Earth. As a devote of Hermes, I celebrate these moments as a time when s/he is most able, as messenger of the Gods, to bring their tidings and instruction to mortals.

This is an especially auspicious instance of a Mercury Retrograde Cazimi because it occurs in the sign of Sagittarius. Sagittarius is not generally a great place for Mercury which is said to be “debilitated” there (opposite its’ home sign of Gemini). But in this case, Jupiter is in Mercury’s home sign of Gemini while Mercury is in Jupiter’s home sign of Sagittarius. When two planets are in one another’s home signs they are said to have “mutual reception”, a special ability to communicate even when they are in unfavorable signs or “hard aspects”.

What is special about this particular configuration of planets is that Jupiter is equivalent to Zeus in Greek Mythology. Mercury (Hermes) is the messenger of Zeus who brings his mandate down to mortals. Jupiter in Mercury’s home of open communication and Mercury in Jupiter’s home of high minded philosophy provides a rare moment when mortals might think about their deeply held (Jupiterian) beliefs with the open curiosity of Hermes. Given the state of the world and the fractiousness among humans at this historical juncture, I think it wise to make the most of this opportunity.

I asked Hermes to teach me how I might use this moment to understand the world as it unfolds around me. This is what he told me:

“The alchemists have a maxim, SOLVE ET COAGULA. It means to separate and unite. We must be able to do both in order understand the world and act within it. Now there was once a philosopher named Empedocles. He taught that the world was composed of four elements which were mixed by the force of Love and separated by the force of Strife. When love reaches its maximum influence, every point throughout space and time resembles every other point. Since no differences are found, no development toward or away from anything is possible as the difference between one point and another is the line along which development occurs. This state resembles chaos. At the other extreme, when Strife reaches its peak, the four elements are separated, each to their own kind. This is stagnation. All things are a mixture of elements. When there is no intercourse between elements, no development occurs because development IS the mixing and remixing of elements.

Among your kind (mortals), there are those who favor strife. Such people think they serve order because their goal is to make and maintain clear distinctions between things. They believe that these distinctions allow each thing the dignity of its own individual nature. Their efforts tend to push the world toward the stagnation.

And then there are those who favor Love. Understanding that all change and development depend upon the intercourse of elements, they make every effort to mix and remix every category. They believe that in this effort they serve order by making distinctions impossible. They imagine that in doing this, nothing will claim supremacy over another. Their efforts generally lead to chaos.

Few among you see that love and strife serve one another and that this mutual service is the only order. This is the source of your woes on earth.

This is what Hermes told me over coffee this morning. Remembering that Hermes is a trickster as well as a messenger. I leave it to the reader to make of this message what they might.