Hercules
_AM: Now that your journey has begun, you must take one step at a time, and be very careful in each of them, because you only have 12 steps to take, and if you make a mistake in one of them, you must repeat the 12 again. time.
_I: It is a huge weight and responsibility.
_AM: It all depends on how you take life. As we said yesterday, each one carries the burden that he is willing to sustain, which has manifested according to his path, choices, possibilities... Each one is the hero of his own tragedy, and they adapt according to the manifestations of his spirit, needs of your being or conditions of your soul and body. No one can be saved from his personal misfortune, we can only collaborate among ourselves, extend a hand, but the strength to get out of the well can only be exerted by the will of the one who is inside it. And we have all been there, in different ways, physically, emotionally or mentally, we have all gone through the path of tragedy. But do youow one thing?
_I: What?
_AM: It is conflict that nourishes your ability to create, just as polarity generates options, creates realities, opposites attract, this is how you manage to move forward; By generating friction you generate energy. Freedom does not lie in the moment in which the conflict ends, but in the moment in which I integrate the tools that it has generated for me. You must ask yourself what each conflict gives you, and thus you will know its reason for being. An individual who buries himself in his own conflict does not advance, and experiences misfortune more than tragedy.
_I: What's the difference?
_AM: Tragedy comes from the Greek words “tragós” (goat, ram) and “oidé” (song), and refers to the Greek celebrations in which a sacrifice was made to the god Dionysus to celebrate the good times after hard effort. , commemorating it by publicly killing this animal and watering the earth with its blood.
_I: A true tragedy…
_AM: The theater was part of this celebration, and therefore the heroic stories were related to the roar of the goat when it died, connected to the sorrows of the heroes. Meanwhile, a disgrace is to be graceless, lacking in praise, something or someone who does not deserve to be honored for his or her inabilities and lack of gifts. They preferred the tragic suffering of a hero to the dull life of a useless person.
_I: It makes sense… But, I don't understand the meaning of this in Aquarius…
_AM: It is the transformative path. Just as for Capricorn the methodology of work and the sense of insufficiency in it are constant keys to improvement, for Aquarius it is transformation, surpassing levels, finding something new, a new adventure that implies renewal and drives to be different.
_I: The Hero's Path, but in the case of the Aquarian mind, it is a path that makes him transcend himself, transform himself at each step of his journey, into a new adventure.
_AM: Every step you take will be key to renewing your essence.
_I: Why 12 steps?
_AM: Because your Body is a Trinity, your Soul is another Trinity, your Spirit is another Trinity, and your Being is Trinity. 3, 3, 3, 3= 12. To join them, you have to go through them.
_I: What are they?
_AM: The trinity of the Body refers to Music, Biology and Geometry, aspects of creation considered the foundations of a body. The trinity of the Soul is related to its attributes: Love, Wisdom and Will. The trinity of Spirit is the mental principles of the Subconscious, Unconscious and Conscious, while the Self unifies them all in the trinity of Vibration, Energy and Matter. Each trinity is related to an element, the Body being the Earth, the Soul being the Water, the Fire the Spirit, and the Essence being the Air. To find balance between all the parts, they travel a path of expression, experimentation, integration and transcendence, which must be manifested in 12 great tests.
_I: The Labors of Hercules…
_AM: In Greek mythology, the initiatory path was adopted as the path of the Hero, and Hercules (Herakles, meaning “Glory of Hera”, mother goddess, wife of Zeus), embodied his story perfectly. Being the son of Zeus and a human, this hero was a demigod. Jealous, the mother of all gods, made that character go crazy and kill his entire family, which destroyed his being, leading him into exile after realizing what he had done. There, his brother convinces him to go to the oracle of Delphi, where they advise him that to heal his being he should do what King Eurystheus, who took his place on the throne, told him.
_I: And he ordered him to do 10 jobs, one for each month, although Hercules ended up doing 12 because he had time left, 12 like the months of the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian calendar.
_AM: 1- Kill the Nemean Lion. 2- Kill the Lerna Hydra. 3- Capture the Cerinean deer. 4- Capture the Erymanthian Boar alive. 5- Clean the Augean stables. 6- Expel the Stymphalian Birds. 7- Taming the Cretan Bull. 8- Steal Diomedes' Mares. 9- Steal Hippolyta's Belt. 10- Steal Geryon's cattle. 11- Steal the Golden Apples from the Garden of the Hesperides. 12- Kidnapping the dog Cerberus, from the underworld. Are you ready to learn the steps on the path to your transformation?
_I: I think so…
_AM: Let's start.
_I: Kill the Nemean lion.
_AM: This Lion had a very thick skin and was impossible to be pierced by any spear or sword, and it devoured everything it found. Hercules tried for days to defeat the lion, but all in vain since his skin was impenetrable. Then he decided to surprise him in his cave, and with his strong arms he strangled him. The lion, his ego and pride, our dark shadow. No one can defeat this beast other than oneself, a beast that is difficult to kill by cutting its skin, since it will protect us if we know how to take control of the situation. The cave is the innermost part of the being and it has two entrances: one confusing, full of emotions, and the other open to reason to be able to subdue the beast that is inside. This task is connected to the first month, to Leo, who awakens the strength and power, which governs our Self. The key here is to replace selfishness with altruism.
_I: Kill the Lernaean Hydra.
_AM: In Lerna there were some horrible swamps where the monstrous Hydra lived, a mythological snake with nine heads, giant, with very hard scales, poisonous breath that gave off toxic gases. To make her come out of her cave, he smeared her arrows with burning pitch and shot them into the cave where the monster was hidden. Upon leaving her, Hercules destroyed her heads with his shovels, but new heads emerged from her, and he managed to defeat her by burning her wounds like scars, preventing them from growing again. This story speaks of all the low emotions based on grudges, on the ephemeral victories that nourish the ego, and represent immense obstacles in the path of those who wish to conquer themselves. It is fighting one's own interior, where negative thoughts and desires lie that emerge when eliminating another. The fire of the spirit is the only thing capable of bringing clarity to these matters. Of course the Hydra cannot be anyone other than Scorpio. This sign rules death and transformation, which occurs when we illuminate the darkness. The Hydra represents the repetitiveness of our mistakes. For this reason, it is essential to identify it, giving up repetitive actions: innovate.
_I: Capture the Cerinean Hind.
_AM: With its golden antlers and bronze hooves, Hercules had to capture it and take it to the temple of the Sun. The goddesses Artemis and Diana claimed ownership of the deer for themselves. It took our hero quite a while to capture her, as the goddesses confused him to thwart his hunt for her. Hercules chased her and captured her while she was drinking water. The request involved not spilling her blood, so he wounded her tendon. The Deer represents the unconscious and history of the soul, that which is hidden. Pursuing it is searching for what is within it, the search for wisdom and improvement . The goddesses who claim her represent her desire and mentality, both awakening intuition, related to Cancer's maternal hunch and his sensitivity.
_I: Capture the wild boar from Mount Erymanthus.
_AM: In this case, I should not kill the boar but capture it. This was a creature that wreaked havoc, destroying crops, attacking towns and making residents sick. After having drunken fun with centaurs, which ended in a tragic battle, he found the wild boar, which he cornered by tying it with chains. Despite having fallen into the hands of Hercules, the animal represents the cunning of knowing how to manage the senses. The search for balance in what you feel is reminiscent of Libra, justice . The balance in the control of passions to achieve inner harmony .
_I: Clean King Augeas' stables.
_AM: Augeas was a king of Elis, son of the Sun god. He owned cattle that never got sick, which made him the best in all of Greece. The task of cleaning the stables was aimed at humiliating the hero. Due to the amount of excrement, Hercules opted for an easy solution: divert the rivers and have them carry everything away with the current. The stables being all that is dirty in the subconscious, Aquarius acts here as one who purges, cleans, clarifies this hidden part. Wisely use the power of the waters to cleanse the consciousness.
_I: Drive away the birds of Stymphalus.
_AM: The birds that inhabited Lake Stymphalus were carnivorous and had bronze beaks, claws, and wings. Furthermore, their excrement was poisonous and therefore ruined crops. He tried to kill them with his arrows, but there were many of them and he couldn't do it. He set a trap but this didn't work either. He remembered that Athena had given him a gift that emitted sound, and when he made them sound, the birds fled in a flock forever from this place due to the noises they generated. These birds were a punishment for evil acts, only capable of being transcended by the sounds of wisdom. Only the capacity for reflection can shake that world to clarify the vision. Become aware. This adventure of wisdom and eliminating the noises of the mind is typical of Sagittarius, who seeks wisdom , higher knowledge and philosophy . In this sign he learns to discriminate between what is fair and what is unfair, what is real and what is unreal.
_I: Capture the Cretan Bull.
_AM: This wild beast expelled fire from its nostrils and wreaked havoc on Crete. Poseidon had him taken out of the water towards the island of Crete, when King Minos promised to give sacrifices to the gods. But this king wanted to keep the animal for its beauty, and because of this Poseidon forced his wife to have relations with the Bull, giving rise to the Minotaur. To dominate him, Hercules grabbed his horns and mounted him, directing his momentum. And so he returned it to the sea. Like the emotions themselves, this bull is ruled by instincts and impulses, representing the insatiable desire of the ego, and the world of material illusion. Taurus is thus the constellation that embodies this attachment to the emotional illusions of matter.
_I: Free Diomedes' mares.
_AM: Diomedes, King of Thrace, had some mares that ate human flesh. And sometimes, he fed them to his guests. Hercules had to steal them and take them to his king. Ar he cornered these wild mares in a field where there was no more room to move, and there he trapped them and tied them up. But they devoured his friend, who helped him, and they escaped, so he saw no other option than to dig a canal and flood it with sea waters, trapping them there. The fierce mares represent the wrong thoughts and words, the wrong ideas that generate forces that cause war and devastation. The learning here is to master the runaway mind. Something typical of Aries, who devours the world with its low egoic passions, or begins life with all its power.
_I: Get Hippolyta's belt.
_AM: Hippolyta was the queen of the Amazons, a tribe of women. She herself had a belt that had been given to her by Ares, the god of War. Hercules tried to make her fall in love, but it was impossible, and so he kidnapped her sister, asking for her Belt as a reward. This symbolizes feminine power, virginity and chastity . Hercules does not understand that the belt, a symbol of union, bond and love, cannot be conquered or stolen. Only by integrating his feminine and masculine polarity could he have achieved his goal. Thus, Virgo is the key to this test: cultivating tolerance, compassion and charity , virtues that will allow us to progressively be more inclusive and loving.
_I: Steal Geryon's cattle.
_AM: The giant Geryon was a monster with human faces, he had one body and three heads. He owned a two-headed dog and a flock that was protected by the dog and a shepherd. Hercules pointed his bow towards Helios, the Sun, who left his golden boat at his disposal to cross the ocean to Erythea. Once on the giant's island, he put all the cattle in the boat. Geryon set out in search of him, but Hercules killed him with a single arrow that pierced all three of his bodies. This is the death of the personality and the liberation of the soul, typical of Pisces, who transcends, starting a new cycle, dissolving the material to amplify itself to the divine.
_I: Steal the apples from the Garden of the Hesperides.
_AM: In the garden of the Hesperides, there is a tree that bears the golden apples that provided immortality. The Hesperides and the hundred-headed dragon, Ladon, have the task of taking care of the apple trees in the garden. Atlas, father of Hesperides, is tricked by Hercules into taking some of the apples, meanwhile Hercules would hold the sky. When Atlas returns with the apples, he no longer wants to hold the sky. But Hercules tricks him again and asks him to hold the sky for a moment while he puts his cape on his shoulders. In this way Hercules took the apples and finished his work. In this work Hercules does not use his brute force, but his power of conviction and his intelligence . The Tree represents the Tree of Knowledge, of Good and Evil, which is full of apples of wisdom. Gemini is activated here with its abilities to solve from the mind and cunning.
_I: Capture Cerberus in Hell.
_AM: As his last job, Eurystheus commissioned Hercules to face death itself, to go down to hell and bring before him Cerberus, the dog with three heads and a snake's tail who was in charge of guarding the entrance to the Underworld. To achieve this, Hercules went to Hermes to help him go down to the Underworld. There he asked Persephone and Hades himself to lend him Cerberus. He chained the ferocious animal, took it out of the abyss and went to show it to his master Eurystheus, but Eurystheus, frightened and seeing that he was capable of anything, finally decided to grant freedom to the hero, who returned the dog to Hell. This task leads Capricorn to face the temptations of matter, descending to the underworld in an act of purification. In this work Hercules must overcome his deepest fears of failure in the face of possible defeat due to the magnanimous ambition of his prowess.
_I: And so it completes all the steps…
_AM: These stories only narrate what many cultures have described as the steps of an individual to become wise, a divine being on Earth. Of course, the myth of the 12 Labors of Hercules does not have a logic if it were not for understanding the metaphysics of its narrative. No matter the order in which you decide to walk the path, your feet will lead you to learn, to educate you on the paths of full consciousness, where the physical, emotional and mental aspects will be put to the test.
_I: I'm noticing it... I feel like, I have to start facing these trials.
_AM: That's why I wanted to tell you about them today, so that you recognize them when you stand before them. But don't worry... Soon our path of the Soul begins... And there we will go through it one by one, step by step, and we will carry out together the tests that you recognize here today from the mind.
_I: Ugh... I'm not liking Aquarius... I thought it would be different...
_AM: What you must integrate cannot be easy. In the challenge lies glory, in conflict lies evolution, in error lies learning. You just have to dare to make mistakes, to face your monsters, and together we will do the rest. You dare?
_I: …Yes… I'm ready.
_AM: Welcome to the Hero's Path. Let's get started.