CHESMAYNE

cavatina u-fool-U                                                                      saint therese of the roses

 

 

Caduceus

 

          Vaunt Courier (VC): herald’s staff - the staff carried by Hermes, or Mercury, as herald or messenger of the gods.   This magical winged serpent-wand is held by Hermes or Mercury represents power, the axis mundi, the Millde Pillar in the Qabalistic Tree of Life.   It is the royal wand, Jacob’s Ladder

 between heaven and earth, up and down which messenger gods and angels arise and descend.   The wings symbolize the transcendence of lower by higher.   Coiling round about and up the wand itself the two serpents, eternally opposed, are complementary and finally united in their dualism: night and day, good and evil, male and female.   The balance of opposing forces throughout the universe.   Also the movement in the dance of life, separating and joining.  

          The Caducaeus is two intertwined serpents on a pole and an attribute of various gods and goddesses in the Ancient Near East, especially Hermes.   The main feature of the phenomenal world is duality - light and dark, male and female, intertwined (represented by two serpents).  At head and tail they are united, at the beginning and the end they are one, but in between they are taken apart and put together, differentiated and reunited.   They are the serpents of Force and Form, formed by the loops in their bodies.  The figure ‘8’ is related, symbolizing the joining of the two worlds of mind and matter (a simpler version of one aspect of the caducaeus, while the symbol of infinity is also an abstraction of the double serpent symbolism, just as the zero is symbolically related to the Ouroboros (the circular serpent with his tail in his mouth).  The Hierophant in the Tarot bears a staff indicating spiritual authority.   These short-tipped, wand-like lightning conductors transmit power from one plane to another.  A white wand was carried by Roman heralds when they sought peace.   Milton refers to it as his ‘opiate rod’ (Paradise Lost, XI, 133).   Ear: symbol of communication, hearing, organ of perception (eye of the spirit).   Pulling the ear: reminder not to forget.   Kerykeion: Roman caduceus.   Herald’s staff or magic wand.   Symbol of balance and the union of opposing forces.  

          Aaron: Biblical patriarch and elder brother of Moses, first high priest of the Israelites.   In his attempts to lead his people out of Egypt he performed various miracles with his rod.    He was confirmed as hereditary high priest by the miracle of his rod blossoming into an almond tree (various plants are nicknamed ‘Aaron’s Rod’).   Numbers 16-18.   It was placed in the Ark.   The cups and branches of the golden candlestick were modeled on Aaron’s rod which budded almond blossoms.   It is used for the wakefulness of God.   There is a legend that suitors were each to bring an almond stick that was to be left in the sanctuary overnight.   The owner of the stick that budded was considered to be the suitor approved by God.    In this manner, Joseph became the husband of Mary.   A picture by Raphael’s shows a suitor breaking his stick.  

 

 

          Aesculapius: god of medicine and healing.   The serpent entwined around a staff became his attribute in Rome, around 293 BC.   It is also the badge of the Royal Army Medical Corps (England).