The Labours Of Hercules - The Eleventh Labour
Part Two
The Labours Of Hercules - The Eleventh Labour
Cleansing Human Consciousness - A Truly Herculean Task
Heracles was one of the greatest of Greek mythology’s Divine heroes. He was one of the Argonauts and famous for his strength and his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Argonauts were a legendary band of heroes, who in the years before the Trojan War accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest for the Golden Fleece. Their name is derived from their ship, the Argo, named after its builder, Argus. Argus Panoptes was a primordial giant who was described as having multiple, often one hundred, eyes.
Our hero was the son of Zeus, the father of the Gods and supreme deity. His mother was a mortal woman by the name of Alcmene. In the later Roman religion and mythology Heracles’ name changed to Hercules, whose father was Jupiter, king of the Gods and God of sky and thunder. Jupiter was the chief deity of the Roman state religion during the Republican and Imperial eras, until Christianity became dominant throughout the Roman Empire. Zeus is said to have negotiated with Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, to establish the principles of Roman religion such as sacrifice.
Heracles/Hercules’ mother was a woman who belonged to the Earth plane. Like most heroes of the ancient world, our two were half human and half Divine. As Christianity has its roots in both traditions, as well as all other religions that were still practised at the time, the legend of Jesus as the hero who rises above all obstacles is clearly an extension and natural continuation of the old tale. It represents another variation on an ancient theme. Each time the story of this hero is retold, it has to be in keeping with the level of humankind’s spiritual development at that particular time. Its contents depend on how much understanding we, individually and as a race, have gained up to that point. For this purpose every new hero is placed in a different setting and a new name has to be invented for him.
The first requirement every new tale had to fulfil was the hiding of the esoteric wisdom of the Ancient Teachings. With the help of the Angels in charge of us these teachings were given to humankind, God’s children of the Earth, directly from the Source of all being. The esoteric wisdom and truth they brought came down the ages and reached us in ever new disguises. With the passing of time, this camouflage grew ever more transparent, so that the esoteric meaning behind the surface words of the myths and legends that were given in this way would gradually be easier to detect and interpret. This has always been the intention behind each one of them.
Each one of the tales was designed to capture people’s imagination and communicate with their hearts and souls. Without this it would be impossible for any of the new religions that appeared from time to time, to carry its followers along and arouse in them the necessary religious fervour. They would then lack the zeal to fight for and if need be would be prepared to sacrifice their lives trying to help their new believe to achieve the top position of the religious league table.
Even though the scribes on every occasion must have known that what they were creating was nothing but a new myth and that their tale was pure fantasy, their story had to have a ring of truth about it. Basing them on events of the past described by sacred teachings of the old religions made this easier. Furthermore, the legend had to contain promises of things and events to come which could be recognised by the disciples to be as something desirable to strive for. How else would anyone believe a new movement and decide to follow its leaders?
Bearing these points in mind, from the evolutionary point we have reached by now, the stories of Heracles/Hercules/Jesus in truth contain one and the same message for our whole race and the spiritual development of each one of us within this monad. The most essential element of the Jesus legend had to be added to the tales that came before it. For a long time prophecies had circulated about the appearance of a messiah, who would be capable of saving and redeeming us and our world from all our sins.
This theme was skilfully built into the new myth and the story was told in a manner which created the impression that its hero came into our world as the fulfilment of these promises. As it was still far too early to reveal to the mass of people God’s true nature and our own, as young Gods in the making, for quite a long time to come it would be necessary to hide the story’s underlying esoteric meanings. To understand why and how this was possible, it needs to be born in mind that very few people could read and write in those days. Storytellers and itinerant preachers travelled the length and breadth of countries in search of people who were willing to listen to the messages they brought. They were hoping that some of them would be fired into joining and following them and their new movement.
As these wandering minstrels were speaking from memory, ever more fantastic details and fabulous deeds were steadily added onto the original tale, which they themselves had picked up somewhere. As folks back then were extremely gullible and superstitious, the story and its following grew and prospered. And once more let’s not think in terms of ‘them’ and ‘us’, but only of ‘we’ and ‘us’. To my mind there is every likelihood that we, the more highly evolved souls in our midst, were among them at least in some of our lifetimes. If you had been one of the travelling salesmen of spiritual ideas, who convincingly enough promised me salvation and the redemption of all my sins, I probably would have followed you whoever you may have been and wherever you wanted me to go.
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The above is a chapter from ‘Myths & Legends For The Aquarian Age’.
If it has whetted your appetite to read more, please follow the link below:
‘Myths & Legends For The Aquarian Age’
