hera-kles:

a story in self development and a revelation in self understanding

Threshold of Awakening Hera-kles stands at the beginning upon the Way. 

“What is your name?”  Divine Mother asks.

“I am Herakles, meaning Hera’s Glory”, he answers.

“Hera’s Glory?” comments Divine Mother.  “Hera means Soul, which you have yet to reveal.”

“What is a Soul?” Hera-kles asks Divine Mother, who answers,

“This you will discover as you do your tasks.”

He is asked his parentage, to which he replies,

“My Father is Divine but I know him not, only that I am his son.  My Mother I know well.  She made me what I am.”  Then goes on to say that he has a twin, another self, defining the experience of duality: a child of god and a child of man.  Part divine, part human.

The Secret Mysteries illuminate the Path of reconciling the two brothers, mortal and divine, the spiritual and the physical, which reveals both our Power and our challenges. 

It is the tale of the Ages:  Cain and Abel.  Castor and Pollux.  Romulus and Remus, the reconciliation of the brothers.  The Unification of the polarities.  

‘Herakles’…,

“I am the Glory of my Soul.”






Hera-kles was boasting,  “I am educated, proficient in all the arts and sciences and skilled in the ways of the world.”  

He wears the skin of the lion he slew at the age of 18 and confesses he has killed all his past teachers.  He declares he is self-determined and free of obligations.

But Divine Mother warns,

“Again you will meet the lion and come face to face with the teachers you only think you slew.  You will wrestle with demons of Desire and in short, you will prove yourself.” 

The demigods gathered around him, bringing their various gifts. 

Minerva brought him a robe, symbolizing a vocation.   She was the virgin demigod of Wisdom, War and Commerce.  She brings to us the understanding of the ways we extend ourselves towards others.  May they be “pure” of Heart. 

The demigod Vulcan brought him a golden breastplate to guard his Heart, symbolic of Spiritual energy, the three-fold Flame of the indwelling Presence; our Sacred Heart.   Vulcan was heaven’s blacksmith, in charge of fashioning forms and gear for the gods.  He symbolizes refinement by persistence…evolution of form.

Neptune brought him two horses, symbolic of the Mastery of Love: sensitivity without being carried away by unbridled thoughts and emotions.

The demigod Mercury brought him a sword, symbolic of the Mind, of our ability in cognitive association, mental analysis, discrimination, association and synthesis. 

And Apollo, the Sun god, brought him a bow of light and an arrow of illumination.  This gift gave him one pointed directedness on the path the arrow revealed.

Well equipped, Hera-kles got ready to begin.  When all of a sudden he ran into the forest and made himself a wooden club.  “This is mine.  I made it myself.”  And with the addition of this crude weapon, he began his path along the Way.   He passed through to the first gate.