Hermes
was to have been born at dawn and by mid-day was playing a lyre, an instrument
he designed and constructed that day. This myth appears to contradict the
concept of linear time while also retaining an affirmation to the quick
wittedness, deceptive speed and cunningness associated with Hermes the
communicator.
Hermes
was born in a cave high in the mountains, a mythical cave located on Earth
which was said to be the hiding place of his mother Maia. Hermes’ beginning
originated in the purity of a heavenly realm “absolutely divine and free from
the ills that belong to men.”
Myths
and legends abound concerning Hermes’ later adventures and about how he was
raised and cared for after he stole away from his cradle and swaddling clothes.
One of those stories focused upon Hermes’ invention and construction of the
lyre from boxwood, a tortoise shell, oxen hide, sheep gut, and the horns of a
goat.
According
to Homer, Hermes had met a tortoise while in pursuit of Apollo’s oxen, implying
that his idea for the lyre actually originated while in quest of a different
goal. Hermes' original intent was diverted by his delight in the unique and
hidden beauty of the mountain tortoise. Symbolically it was at the beginning of
Hermes journey into the margins that exist between the realms of virtual spirit
(Olympus) and virtual matter (Earth/Nature).
Hermes’
idea for the lyre was triggered by his captivation and enchantment with the
movements of the tortoise along with the beauty of its shell. An “endless
delight”, according to Homer, implies that Hermes was fascinated with both the
physical characteristics of the tortoise and certain qualities unseen in other
animals. Far from being simply an observation, Hermes' encounter with the
tortoise was an emotional event that spurred his intuition into believing that
their meeting was more than just an enchanting experience, but actually an omen
from the gods.
One
cannot escape the realization that the creative act is the result of a
particular mental sensitivity and purpose precipitated by an emotional and
meaningful attraction and/or desire. Hermes’ experience also illustrates
that ideas seem to appear out of nowhere and are typically launched by qualities (designs)
never before recognized for their beauty and purposefulness.
Hermes
and the construction of the lyre
Enchanted
with the tortoise Hermes wondered how this creature came to gather such a power
and attractiveness that engulfed his heart and stirred his desires. These
inquiries, including his own emotional response to them, surprised Hermes
because he thought such magnificence was found solely in heaven. In his
desire to possess and control this power Hermes lured the tortoise with
trickery into becoming an integral part of his own being.
“But
I will take and carry you within: you shall help me and I will do you no
disgrace ...”
In
true representation of mind’s inherent craftiness, Hermes had fallen victim to
his own desires and deception by attempting to convince the tortoise that it
would be protecting its own interests/beauty from “mischievous witchcraft” if
it would merely be “consumed” by Hermes. The tortoise was promised it would
“make the sweetest song” by sacrificing its graces into becoming an instrument
of the gods through the power of Hermes, i.e. the mind. In other words the
mind, in wake of material awareness and relative form, would be of service to
both heaven and earth if it allowed itself to be influenced by the imaginative
designs of a higher consciousness symbolized in the heartfelt message of
Hermes.
Without
resistance Hermes gutted the tortoise and cut off its legs with a metal bar,
most likely created for him by Hephaestus.
Ever so quickly Hermes' idea, stemming from the material beauty of the
tortoise, continued to perpetuate his own intentions. Experiencing relative
"matter" in the image of the tortoise’s shell, “… glorious Hermes
planned both thought and deed at once". In fulfilling his desire for
designing an agent that could be used to inspire his own imagination, the lyre
also became a powerful instrument in humanities search for harmony between the
spheres. Hermes' intentions and desires became self fulfilling. Hermes had
designed an instrument whose medium was consubstantial with that of the
gods.
Hermes
found himself in the midst of a process where the relationship linking meaning
(desire) and purpose (mind) became immortalized. Such a symbolic undertaking
possessed the most appropriate ingredients necessary to create the most
accomplished imaginings in the shape of form, geometry, situations, realities
and imaginings necessary for a measured expansion in awareness. All holographic
formations are products of this unique relationship, a means that perpetuates
the design process by embracing and expanding greater communications between
divergent elements.
More
ideas surrounding and supporting Hermes’ concept entered into his awareness
while the lyre gradually began to take shape as he “ … cut stalks of reed to
measure and fix them … stretched ox hide all over it … put in the horns and
fitted a cross-piece … and stretched seven strings of sheep-gut.” Each element
contributed to a fabrication of the original concept Hermes had first desired,
imagined and then made manifest into the form of the lyre.
Ref:
Homeric Hymn 4 Hermes (trans. Evelyn-White) Greek epic C7th 4th B.C.
The
Lyre: Ancient Origins
The
most ancient findings surrounding the concept of a lyre
stem from before the Bronze Age (400-3200BC) and may have evolved from ancient
harps.
“The
fundamental difference between a lyre and a harp, is that in a harp, the
strings enter directly into the hollow body of the instrument, whereas on a
lyre, the strings pass over a bridge, which transmits the vibrations of the
strings to the body of the instrument – just as on a modern guitar.”
Michael Levy
The
first examples of the lyre were discovered at the ancient Sumerian city of Ur (2025-1738
BC) in ancient Mesopotamia, yet according to Greek mythology the lyre was a
musical instrument created by Hermes. In reference to design, the lyre is
a tool of transformation meant to correspond with the symphonic
tones/frequencies of a vibratory universe. Non-linear, complex and masculine in
qualities (Yang) the lyre is an instrument of creativity. The lyre is an
instrument of service in the transformation of certain frequencies into audible
sounds and vibratory impressions. The lyre gave every musician the ability to
interpret what was silently heard and felt as a flowing reverberation stemming
from the intimate relationship between the Source, the All, the Tao, etc. and
the individual psyche.
Design,
at first, appears to be lost in this translation while the symbolism that surrounds
the personification of Hermes steps aside and is magically lost during the
process of manifestation. The lyre symbolizes energy/light and information in a
state of transformation, a transmission that cannot be seen but only felt with
Hermes performing as messenger and translator through the skill of the
musician. In this manner Hermes also symbolizes the Observer Effect where
in quantum
mechanics the meaning of a scientific event weighs heavily upon
subjective interpretation.
Lyrics, which are
words/symbols unto themselves, are the products of a lyricist; abstract and
sometimes unintelligible utterances filled with artistic and subjective meaning
as the musician “sings to the lyre”, e.g. poems, songs, stories. In
essence, the lyre symbolizes a design event. Design is an instrument of
change that epitomizes a creative and eventful process made manifest by and
through a symphony of subjective experiences.
Design
is omnipresent and recognized symbolically by the blueprints and “forms” that
result from its transformative efforts. Design represents an all-encompassing
universal instrument of correspondences that
are endowed with the capacity to cross-fields of consciousness. Design has the
capacity to enter the unknown through qualities attributable to Hermes and
through the many symbolic instruments/systems invented for the transformation
and translation of light, energy and information, e.g. science, poetry, art,
mathematics, dance, language, music, architecture, etc.
The Principle of Correspondence
"As above, so below; as below, so
above."--The Kybalion.
This Principle embodies the truth that there is
always a Correspondence between the laws and phenomena of the various planes of
Being and Life. The old Hermetic axiom ran in these words: "As above, so
below; as below, so above." And the grasping of this Principle gives one
the means of solving many a dark paradox, and hidden secret of Nature. There
are planes beyond our knowing, but when we apply the Principle of
Correspondence to them we are able to understand much that would otherwise be
unknowable to us. This Principle is of universal application and manifestation,
on the various planes of the material, mental, and spiritual universe--it is a
Universal Law. The ancient Hermetists considered this Principle as one of the
most important mental instruments by which man was able to pry aside the
obstacles, which hid from view the Unknown. Its use even tore aside the Veil of
Isis to the extent that a glimpse of the face of the goddess might be caught.
Just as a knowledge of the Principles of Geometry enables man to measure
distant suns and their movements, while seated in his observatory, so a
knowledge of the Principle of Correspondence enables Man to reason
intelligently from the Known to the Unknown. Studying the monad, he understands
the archangel.
“The classical authors could not agree about the number of strings on the original lyre: three, four, or seven were proposed … This disagreement about the number of strings probably stems from different mythological roots for the lyre as symbol. The interpretation of the four string lyre of Mercury is given by Macrobius, who says that the strings symbolically represented the four seasons of the year.”
Each
string creates a bridge between the known and the unknown; each represent a
frequency, a vibration, a quality and an impression, a numeric theory that,
according to legend, was mathematically investigated in the Pythagorean
school. Concerning the number of strings, each lyre varied in design.
Typically there were three, four, seven and sometimes ten strings, each
representing certain patterns of frequency (sound) considered appropriate in
the design of the instrument i.e. meaning and purpose of the
communication.
Edited: 01.11.2017, 03.05.2018, 07.15.2019, 10.29.2019, 11.22.2021, 12.03.2021, 01.05.2021
