The Labors of Hercules, Part 3
The Third Test, The Ceryneian Hind
For the third labor, Hercules was given a retrieval task instead of
a slaying to accomplish. Since Hercules could not be overcome with
guile & brute force, it was hoped that he could be made to trespass
against a god, & have divine fury invoked upon him. Specifically,
Eurystheus hoped that this labor would infuriate Artemis, who would
presumably give him the terrible fate that Pentheus
met with on the Holy Mountain.The hind, additionally, traveled faster
than an arrow. How was it to be supposed that Hercules could conquer
both the speed of flight & the jealousy of the female Huntress?
Since deer did not inhabit Greece, this myth carries an echo of
Northern Lands. The white or golden stag is not merely a supernatural
symbol, but a regal one. Hercules sees the deers antlers’ glinting very
far off, & begins the chase, which lasts (some say) an entire year,
possibly in the Hyperborean north. At last, either by a ruse or skill of
the arrow (possibly shooting one between its legs to trip it, or by
using a net) or by direct permission of Artemis herself (who sides with
the rugged and manly hero), Hercules comes into possession of the golden
deer, on the promise that he will return it to Artemis when he is done.
When he brings it to Eurystheus, who intends to keep the deer,
Hercules wisely lets the deer go seconds before delivering it up – the
deer slips away, & the mighty Herc shrugs it off: “You aren’t fast
enough.” Hercules proves himself a man of honor in this task, as he does not
slay or injure the deer, but returns it as promised to its rightful
owner. Here we should note that, in esoteric action, as in any other
portion of Life, there are laws that obtain. Although those who travel
in the astral realm encounter far fewer laws than we do, there are
strictures that (for all that) may be even more indurate than gravity.
One of these, according to Gnosis (Mouravieff) is that a man
cannot advance in practice unless he trains or leaves behind a
replacement. Karma is another law that obtains; repentance can mitigate
or erase it, but still, there is something that holds true & fast –
in this case, another bears your sins. Or who did you think paid your
trespass?
I say this to encourage readers to not set up a dichotomy in their
mind between royal liberation and the lesser mysteries. Not until one is
set free from Time & Space itself does one become “free of all
Law”, not even if one is “awakened” fully into the etheric, astral, and
spiritual realms. Besides, the dichotomy itself is deadening. If one is
truly free, is one not silent? Hercules is careful to observe piety and
honor; it is not forced, out of fear: he speaks and converses with
Artemis almost as an equal, as a better, but someone he may speak
before, and she grants him favor in her eyes. There is one equal to, and
worthy of, capturing the devoted and precious hind. It is the pious
warrior, who nevertheless speaks with “Frankness” before the very gods.
St. Paul spoke of this when he said, “all things are lawful, not all
things are useful”.
Hercules is wise enough to insult and belittle his enemy; after
all, if one doesn’t add a little salt to the wound, who is going to
arrange the rest of the tests? Such a jibe befits the warrior. It is the
jibe of the Russian general Kutuzov to the French prisoners of
Napoleon’s army, after he has magnanimously spoken of forgiveness.
Rallying his own troops, he says to them: “But after all, who asked them
to come here, anyway?”. It is Frederick the Great shouting out to his
fleeing men, “Ihr wolt, ewige leben?!” It is Brennus before the
conquered Romans, speaking very simply back to them something that would
become their own watchword- Vae Victis. Forgiveness and
detachment are the rocks on which the raging sea breaks, and falls,
dashing those who ride it. There should be a kind of sacrosanct danger
about sinning against a truly pious man; when defers his own judgement
and wrath, the wicked should tremble. Archangel Michael, no doubt in a
very great wroth and sorely tempted to pass his bounds, declared to
Satan’s impudence, “May the Lord judge between us!”. The wrath of the
righteous, the fury of the hero, the anger of the good man
pushed too far, should resolve into that ritual and controlled
resistance, a detached willingness to see it through bitterly, without
bitterness, which heaps coals of fire upon the head of those who take
the part of Satan. This is how the enigma of forgiveness &
resistance is resolved – in the action of the hero, who must understand
both. Could he not forgive, he could not formalize his actions and
discipline them to undergo a trial, but would simply “rage out” and go
for the throat of his persecutor. Could he not resist, he would forever
remain under their feet. This tension drives the warrior, like a bow
drives the arrow. To those who cannot see the union of this, they are
either not warriors, or do not see that “the insanity of God is greater
than the wisdom of man” (Plato).
Guided by the wisdom of a Solomon, forgiveness and power are
inseparable. Are not detachment and passion reconciled by the warrior?
When someone loses their temper and lashes out in anger and injustice
against you, the ability to bear the stroke without retributive ire in
the same manner is actually an esoteric technique for transferring the
energy they are losing to yourself. This is the secret meaning of
“heaping coals of fire” upon their head – a person who gives in to the
“wrath of man” loses enormous reserves of spiritual energy : especially
if some physical scapegoating occurs, those energies often go to the
victim, rightfully. Received in the right frame of mind, they become
available as a “lost talent”. This is why God invites the “poor” of the
world to his banquet : the rich folk turned him down. Their loss, our
gain. If Christianity is the religion of the Kali Yuga, do not therefore
conceive that it is bound to share its inadequacies: it is made to
triumph over the greatest enemy, the last enemy, to devour it inside
out.
If it wasn’t the Kali Yuga, we wouldn’t be here, reading and
talking to each other to determine the fate of the new world. Other,
better men would be leading. “The better man” in the end is just the one
who does more things that are difficult for him – if that is the test,
it is a blessed time to be alive. He who plants a garden in the Kali
Yuga, against all odds, stands above he who conquers worlds, with some
odds in his favor.
“The last shall be first – greater are those who have not seen, yet believed.”
Hercules triumphs by his ruse, his skill, his polity, his innate
dignity as a true man, before man, beast, or gods. He is not to be
deterred or thwarted. Nor will he stoop, except to make a well-earned
jibe to further incite his opponent to useful wrath.
He doesn’t show up off the street and demand to be Hercules. He IS
Hercules, by virtue and dint of a long process, created in heaven,
ratified in the mud of earth. He has conquered mental fog and the
physical passions. He has risen above those things which men almost
never even begin to subdue. He is already heads and shoulders above all
men, and even though, as a god, he could use his liberty and peerage, he
does not. “Not counting himself to be equal to God, he humbled
himself…” Hercules prefigures the gracious and valiant and terrible true
knight Jesus, who is far from the lamentable and tragic figure some
neo-pagans think him to be. Hercules is the new Sun.
So, in this third test which seems not so deadly because it was so successful, Hercules wins the affection and protection of Artemis; he is effectively adopted. The gods themselves are beginning to take sides. Heaven is being moved by earth. Hercules has swayed an eternal-feminine power to his side, and a mighty one at that, Artemis-Diana of the Hunt. It is a wild and primeval power that is now declared for the hero, who has presumed nothing, but has simply stood as a man ought to stand.
As Hercules’ divinity grows more obvious, the divinities who favor him, and yet remain worshiped and honored by him, begin to light up. It is as if they are lights which come alive and shine upon the hero, cutting his contours out of the dark, healing and supporting him. He grows greater, as he makes the gods greater than he. Further, he grows greater than the gods.
In the eternal moment at the end of time, when Christ delivers the kingdom of God back to the hands of the Father, the eternal warrior announces the end of all things and annihilates the worlds with the breath of the Father. This is how the warrior becomes God: with the gesture of the true man, who yields fealty, forever indominant, to the rightful and original Lord. This makes Him the destroyer of worlds, for it is this act which is the deeper magic. Our world does not understand or accept this: that is why “the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God”.
If Evil cannot stand in the days of mercy, how shall it stand in the hour of judgement, which comes? What will Eurystheus do? He is running out of labors. Hercules is proving a difficult adversary. Satan himself may have to enter the lists, as there is a “man worth killing“.
Illustration:
[Berlin, Neues Museum Herkules besiegt die goldbekrönte Hirschkuh
(Herkules fängt die Hirschkuh von Ceryneia) Maler: Adolf Schmidt]
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