The meaning of the Name H.E.R.M.E.S.

 

This page is intended to provide the reader with a brief explanation of the meaning of the name Hermes and how our name H.E.R.M.E.S. is related to the original meaning.

Hermes has many variations, but, is first of all the name of an ancient Greek God and secondly of a (or several) semi-historical or legendary sage(s) known as Hermes Trismegistos.

According to Hesiod (c. 700 B.C.), Hermes was the son of Zeus and Maia thus forming a typological triad of Father – Mother – Son, often called the formative Logos or the formative Word in Hellenistic terminology.

In his universal aspect Hermes was regarded as World Reason, the Divine Mind, and wisdom (1) as his Egyptian equivalent Thoth god of Wisdom upholding order and balance in cosmos (2). His Roman equivalent was Mercury son of Coelus (Heaven) and Lux (Light) and in India we find Buddha as another similar equivalent from the root Budh (wisdom).

His attributes on an abstract level are Intelligence or the speed and freedom of intelligence, wisdom, light and quickness or swiftness, which made him the messenger of the gods or the link between the super sensual or divine and the sensual or phenomenal world. This function as messenger is expressed by his function as Logos or the word bridging the gap between the divine and man. In this connection he was know as the Initiator (3) or the one who brings the neophyte into the Light of the super sensual through divine wisdom and initiation into the Mysteries. He was thus also known as the lord of sacred speech. (4)

Hermes was an inspirer of eloquence and healing and the inventor of writing and the arts and sciences. (5) He was a guide to travellers and lord of the road or the Shepard of men and a link between men and the gods. He himself knows no limits or frontiers; he is free as the mind can be.

In his lower aspect he was the God of misused intelligence as in theft and selfish trade. In his youth Hermes was thus a speedy and clever trickster and a thief which is often the case with misused intelligence, however, eventually he became the reason that the other Gods and Heroes came out of their troubles and battles. Hermes for example helped Hercules triumph in Hades, he helped Perseus slay the Gorgon, he helped Zeus destroy the Titans. (6)

He soon became a personification of the mature human being or an initiate among his devotees. Geoffrey Hodson writes of him in the following manner: “The god is thus not seen only as messenger of the Supreme Deity but a Hierophant of the Mysteries, prototype of those illumined Teachers who, age by age, visit mankind. Hermes may thus be regarded as a model for all who aspire to Hermes-like stature and his supernormal powers. Very appropriately did the mythographers of old, desiring thus to inspire and inform mankind, make of Hermes a favourite of gods and men…” (7)

Among his emblems and symbols are the cross, the cubical shape, the serpent, his wand -the caduceus which combines the serpent and cross in a symbol of initiation and power, the winged cap symbolizing complete freedom from terrestrial limitations, oneness and all pervading universal intelligence, and the Winged sandals on his feet symbolizing swiftness, god-speed, no limitations, self freed and actively engaged in the world.

The legendary – semi-historical figure Hermes Trismegistos is found mentioned in Hellenistic writings. Modern scholars doubt that he has been a historical figure due to the many different source descriptions of him (8); there was, however, a general consensus among ancient scholars and traditions to regard him as a historical sage. (9) Beside the uncertainty of his historical nature Hermes Trismegistos is in almost all of Hermeticism presented as a teacher–god and an example for mankind. Hermes is often depicted as a revealer of wisdom, of gnosis and of how the real nature of things is, how we can become better and more pure human beings in relation to true being. This is the way of Hermes. The Hermetic writings are often in the form of dialogues between Hermes Trismegistos and a disciple or a master and initiate or again symbolically a father and son (10), thus again in this aspect Hermes is a (divine) teacher of men.
Hermes has thus been presented in many forms through history either as a Greek or Egyptian God called Hermes or Hermanubis, associated with the Egyptian Thoth and Anubis later becoming a Hellenized god sharing features of both as well as with the Roman Mercury; or as a divine teacher to some extend a god-initiate, who reincarnates many times through history teaching mankind the true nature of being etc.
A Hermetic tradition has persisted up to our days, which especially bloomed again during the Western Renaissance were the Corpus Hermeticum was translated into Latin by Marsilo Ficino (1433 – 1499) making a vast cultural impact in the arts and sciences.

Hermes, whether as god or divine teacher, had the purpose of bridging the phenomenal with the divine through teaching and being a messenger; symbolized by wisdom and intelligence. Hermes very well displays the principle of seeking to make that which is as yet Esoteric or hidden become Exoteric or explicit by linking ‘the two spheres of reality’ together and by illuminating the human mind to a godly state – in this sense he was known as “the revealer of the hidden”. (11) The purpose of H.E.R.M.E.S. is from a general perspective the same: to foster academic research into the yet unknown (or Esotericism) and make it known, thus being in a symbolic sense a bridge between the divine and the phenomenal sphere as Hermes was. Being this bridge involves the cultivation of clarity through the use, research and development of Methodology for the study of Esotericism.

We hope this general endeavour and study will aid to illuminate the human mind through Wisdom and intelligence as Hermes, legendary or not, once sought to do and that this feild of study will develope into an independent academic feild.

 

“Master of the heart and reason in all men” (12)

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