Caduceus

From AnthroWiki
Revision as of 06:59, 21 April 2021 by Odyssee (talk | contribs) (Created page with "The '''caduceus''' ({{Latin}}), the '''staff of Mercury''' or '''Hermes''' ({{Greek|κηρύκειον}} ''kērū́keion'' "herald's staff"), like all occult symbols, has mult...")
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

The caduceus (Latin), the staff of Mercury or Hermes (Greek: κηρύκειον kērū́keion "herald's staff"), like all occult symbols, has multiple but internally coherent meanings:

Staff of Mercury
Serpent of evil and good [sign],
which, through knowledge (Mercury)
overcoming evil through
his own strength

Merkurstab
Schlange des Bösen und des Guten. [Zeichen],
das den Menschen durch Erkenntnis (Merkur)
zur Überwindung des Bösen durch eigene
Kraft leitet. (Lit.:GA 266a, p. 205)

For the spiritual disciple, the staff of Mercury with the two serpents is a good aid to prevent the intrusion of ahrimanic beings into his consciousness:

„There is a means to prevent the penetration of the ahrimanic beings into our consciousness, a symbol that one must allow to come alive in oneself. This is the staff of Mercury, the luminous staff with a black snake and the brightly shining glittering snake. The snake is the symbol of the astral body. Every evening the astral body sheds its skin, it sheds the used skin. The black snake is the symbol of this. Overnight it receives a new, shimmering skin, and this newly revived, beautiful, shining skin of the astral body is symbolised by the shining snake.

This symbol banishes everything that wants to penetrate our consciousness in a disturbing way, if we let it arise vividly before us before every meditation: the staff of Mercury, which the messenger of the gods holds in his hand, showing the way. When man rises higher, when he becomes clairvoyant, the Ahrimanic entities force themselves before him in images. He sees parasitic animals, rats and mice. Beings with beautiful human faces but crippled feet approach him as a temptation. One must not surrender to them. Good images are when the meditator sees a sphinx (Seraphim) or a Cherubim. - Here, too, the wand of Mercury is to be used to banish the prostrating beings.“ (Lit.:GA 266a, p. 465)

„Now it is so that the beginner at first feels only the presence of dark powers in the distracting thoughts, while the advanced one sees these astral powers as parasitic animals, as rats and mice. But no one who sees the rats and mice should rejoice that he has already come so far, otherwise he would succumb to these powers altogether. One must make oneself strong in order to resist the influences of these dark powers.“ (Lit.:GA 266a, p. 451)

The Mercury staff meditation or Mercury staff imagination helps to reject disturbing thoughts, feelings and desires. The healing power of Raphael, the Christian Mercury, helps.

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.
Retrieved from "https://en.anthro.wiki/index.php?title=Caduceus&oldid=2797"