O swift winged Mercury,“who flies as fleet as thought to do the bidding of Zeus….off into the sky, unapproachable, twirling in the air the windswift soles of his shoes.” Greek epic Nonnus, Dionysiaca

 

Our celestial Mercury is the smallest of the major planets, heavily cratered, closest to the sun and visible at night after sunset or before sunrise. The mythology of Hermes/Mercury is a smorgasbord of symbolic role assignments. This ancient Greek/Roman messenger of the gods governs (get ready for this) trade and commerce, shepherds, wisdom and eloquence, the mind, language, literature, poetry, sleep, visions and dreams, curiosity, diplomacy, thievery, alchemy, athletic contests, transportation and travel. He is the guide for souls of the dead, a psychopomp, the generally wily trickster and even – a bringer of peace. What a list!

Intelligent, eloquent, changeable – well, mercurial, fast-moving and a quintessential messenger.

The Shepherd

I was first intrigued by one of the earliest images of Hermes/Mercury. He was known as the god of shepherds. His title: Keeper of the Flocks, Ram Bearer. He not only protected sheep and all sacrificial animals but was believed to increase their fertility. Under him the flocks flourished.

My thoughts “moved swiftly” to Jesus of Nazareth, the Good Shepherd, a beloved Christian image. I discovered that early Christian art was based on the classical Greco/Roman forms of the times. The statues of Jesus as shepherd produced during the time of the Christian persecution are thought to have been camouflaged as Hermes/Mercury.

Hermes Kriophoros, Museo Barracco, Rome   

Third Century Statue of Jesus, Lateran Museum

The early Christians must have received a hope filled message in this image when recalling the words of Isaiah, David (the Shepherd King) and Jesus. They themselves were being shepherded – protected with a love stronger than death at a time when they were being led like sheep to the slaughter.

Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord God……Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care. (Isaiah 40:10-11)

The archetypal image of shepherd resonates deep in our psyche/soul. It carries not only a pastoral connotation but depicts the powerful energy of love, the energy of a vigilant protector in times of trouble, one who never fails to search and find, one who guides us to fountains of living water and life to the full. Just so, we are called to discover in the greenest of pastures, a fuller, more conscious life in the Spirit, refreshed indeed by joy and gathered in the arms of love.

We recognize the path our ego is guided to walk as we awaken to the Self within, finding a true home in God/The Beyond All/The Beloved.

One of three paths of a bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism is to live as shepherd. Motivated by compassion, the bodhisattva wishes to assist every sentient being in times of difficulty to help them achieve Buddhahood – perfect enlightenment.

With a shepherd’s staff beckoning, our lives, too, are offered for others that the flock will flourish. Even the universe must bask in a divine shepherding energy guiding the evolution of life and consciousness through entropy and chaos to our holy destiny.

An artist from Algodones, New Mexico wrote on the back of her retablo, “Our Lady the Shepherdess.” A treasure!

There are many ways the shepherd energy shows up in us. I’ve been holding, as gently as I can, draped around my shoulders, the shadow parts of myself that have been brought into the fold of consciousness. Awareness without judgment brings a shepherd’s eyes to my wandering in brambles. Seeking and finding all of ourselves and the other in ourselves is a lifelong journey.

The Hebrew word for shepherd, Ra’ah, carries the connotation of being a friend. Rumi says it all. “Be like a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.”

How are you radiating the energy of a loving shepherd, for others, for yourself?

1889: Camille Pisarro, Shepherd in a Downpour

 

The Messenger    

That sure-footed Mercury moves swift as thought between heaven and earth, carrying messages between the realms, ferrying communication between spirit and matter, the unconscious and the conscious, always connecting givers and hearers.

Under the patronage of Mercury, poets are inspired artists, stretching the boundaries of language. Our bodies have a language of their own through gut feelings, moods and emotions. Wondrous messages are sent by dreams, nature, music, and pictures – just as eloquent as words. Especially eloquent is silence. “God’s first language,” wrote St. John of the Cross.

John the Baptist responded to questions from the Rabbis and spoke, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven.” (John 3:27)

So with the wings of Mercury’s energy, let’s look at some messages from heaven. The one I immediately recall is the message of an angel to Mary.

You will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus..the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. (Luke 1:31,32)

1449: Fra Filippo Lippe, Annunciation

Meister Eckhart, the 13th century German theologian and mystic wrote of the grace of knowing God, “the birth of Christ in the soul.” It’s a wonder to me to hear this message resonate deeply within.

Hildegard of Bingen was a Benedictan abbess and mystic in the 12th century. She shared her visions with awareness that she was the instrument of God’s word to others.

“O Holy Wisdom, soaring power, encompass us with wings unfurled, and carry us encircling all, above, below, and through the world.”  O Holy Spirit, Root of Life

Can’t you just see Mercury’s spiritus winged feet swiftly carrying that message?

Along with angelic visitors, prophetic men and women, in all walks of life, have carried messages from the Divine. Balaam spoke of himself as one “who hears what God says and knows what the Most High knows.” Consider Lao Tsu, the great Moses, Abraham and Sarah, Zechariah, Elijah (whose words were as a flaming furnace.)

The Prophets accept all agony and trust it for the water has never feared the fire. Rumi again!

In our time, Gandhi was a luminous prophet of nonviolence. The words of Martin Luther King still ring in our hearts. And Rosa Parks, by posture alone, when seated on that bus in Montgomery, Alabama carried a transformative message.

Perhaps prophets (perhaps you!) echo Dante’s plea in the Paradiso “...and grant my tongue such powerful expression that it may leave behind a single spark of glory for people still to come.”

Isaiah asked God, “What shall I cry out?” The answer to him: Here is your God..like a shepherd he feeds his flock..he has sent me to announce a year of favor from the Lord. (Isaiah 40:10,11)

What messages will you cry out in your living? About the love that moves the sun and the stars? About a year of favor as compassion flows from you to others?

I can almost see you now dancing, drawing, singing, praying, pausing on that mountain trail, dreaming or filling the pages of a journal with messages from heaven.

For Wisdom, …quicker to move than any motion..renews the world and generation after generation, passing into holy souls, She makes them into God’s friends and prophets.  Book of Wisdom 7:22,24

May messages of heavenly love always fly swiftly to your heart,

Mary Catherine