Margo's shamanic perspective on the 12 labours of Hercules

So maybe Heracles is telling us about the shamanic ways, as when he was doing women's work and wearing women's clothes for a year...

And 12 labours - 12 is shamanic/magical in itself...

So what did he do, this power called Hera's Glory? ("Labours", really? as in "she's in labour"?)

(there isn't really any order as the mythological dimension is timeless and generally spaceless)

1) the Lion.

The Lion pretended to be a woman to deceive the warrior. When the warrior would get near thinking it was a damsel in distress, the bonnie would turn into the lion and kill him. So this might be a reference to the bodily thingy. Heracles tried to shoot the lion but arrows were harmless to it. It's not the kind of enemy you can "fight" with aggression (arrows are sort of masculine eh).

The lion's cave had two entrances; Heracles blocked one and entered another. Caves are mysterious and er female. Heracles killed the lion by strangling it. So we enter the dark cave of fear and we meet fear and embrace it so tightly that it becomes our part. Heracles took the lion's skin - and he had to use one of the lion's own claws to skin the lion as no knife could cut it. Then the skin became his protection, the most powerful one. So once we make it our own it becomes our greatest protection. We learn that the male side, the straightforward shooting-arrows-blowing-up-way doesn't always work. We learn to see "the lion" in "the woman" (sexual desire) and learn to (see how we) embrace the lion, the true nature of what is there. The two entrances might be Mind and Body. We can block something on the mind level but for the real work we have to go deep into the body - we don't block that. And then when the Lion becomes our part (Heracles wearing the lion's skin) both entrances become free. Firstly we set firmly in the body and only then we are safe to travel.

2) the Hydra.

Heracles needed an external help on this one. It was his nephew's idea to scorch the stumps of the Hydra's necks once Heracles chopped the heads. Only one head of the Hydra was immortal (but not really - Heracles cut it off with the golden sword he got from Athena). Heads growing back as you cut them sounds like egoistic desires / attachments. It's hard to cancel these. We can put something off our mind but then it comes back, in one form or another ("Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times." - Mark Twain).

So it's like Pravoslavny confession. When you confess you are supposed not only to "be sorry" but to set your mind on not doing the sorry thing again. This is scorching. Finding something else we are attached to we let it go. But if we just "let it go" it may come back (didn't leave our gravitational field - stayed on the orbit for a while and then was pulled back). So we burn every stump. We die every time we let go. Though it doesn't have to hurt or to be heavy. It's alchemic. This is doing alchemy on ourselves. Though we need a hint from someone detached to see our Hydra and to begin the work. If it's what we are attached to it's hard for us to see it ourselves, at least, not at first. There are lots of distractions as well - Hera send a giant crab to distract Heracles... (but he wasn't distracted, he just stamped on the crab - so we learn to concentrate). And then there is the immortal head, the ultimate attachment - something we can't possibly let go of - but when we are ready we are given the magical golden sword from the beautiful cosmic Athena (or Dorothy or Nerys or - whatever you call her) - easy like that. But we had to work first, to try, to show, to taste, to know... whatever...

3) the Hind.

Now that's a task of a different quality. It doesn't involve fighting.

It involves Artemis (Diana) instead.

It also involves catching the quickest hind there is. It's not clear how Heracles did it - perhaps he was too fast for the storytellers to notice ;-)

The idea was that either Heracles won't catch the hind at all; or if he does it it will anger Artemis and she'll kill him. That's what the king (3d mind) believed.

Yet it was neither.

We become quantum - we run faster than we thought we could. We run so fast we fly. We learn to travel through space and time at will. And we can only do that if we are into our nature (meeting Artemis of the wildland, the mistress of Nature). And then we find out that Artemis isn't there to kill us. On the contrary - she doesn't mind it when we play with her animals (forces). She knows her hind is safe - because the king, the 3D mind, is too slow to capture it. Even when Heracles brings the hind to the king, the king can't hold it. The Hind, the Quantum Stream, escapes him forever.

4) the Boar.

Also to be brought alive.

Interestingly, this story is not about the boar at all. That's where we get into Story and give up expectations. We think we are going to catch the ugly beast somewhere out there but what happens?..

Heracles visits his old friend, a centaur called Caveman. He shares a meal with him. Then he persuades him to open the only jar of wine the centaur had (and that wasn't any wine, either - it was a gift from Dionysius). The smell attracts centaurs from everywhere, they get drunk as they don't like mixing wine with water, so they become aggresive and Heracles kills them with his poisoned arrows. Heracles' friend Caveman was curious and picked up one of the arrows... scratched himself and died. Chiron, the immortal centaur, was wounded by an accident as well. He couldn't die but he was in such pain that he gave up his immortality. (And it was the same Chiron who told Heracles how to capture the boar).

So who's the ugly boar now?

There are no "friends". Only energies.

There are no "ugly beasts out there". Just us.

We learn that there is the dark side within us. We learn that we can kill our friends. We are responsible for our friends' deaths. We can't blame the others anymore. It's our own darkness from the beginning. And then we learn how that is inevitable - how the wise centaur still gives you the essential knowledge even though it was you who is killing him forever. He knows.

We come to our old friend - who lives in the cave again. It's not the murky cave of the lion. It's a comfy cave. But staying in a comfy cave isn't very heroic. When we find another attachment we might have overlooked before we let it go - however dear it is to us. We might not have the courage to do it directly - but somewhere in our conscious mind we plan the murder so it happens anyway. We become responsible for the wild boar within us. In some versions it comes before the Hind and I guess it's more reasonable.

5) the stables

And then we see how  becoming clean is as easy as pi - in a snap of your fingers, in a blink of an eye - when we don't "do" things ourselves but let ourselves be the gates of the great flow, the mighty stream.

And... the king believes that all this dung business is very humiliating but we know 'tis no matter. Nothing's "better" or "worse" than something else. We let the Stream rush through us - we become the Stream - that's all that counts. And of course the king says it wasn't fair and therefore never happened.

6) the metallic birds

Sharp metallic feathers launching at the victims. Man-eating. Highly toxing dung, too. Made by Ares. Came to the idyllic Arcadia to destroy it.

Now that's the 3D technology, the ways of 3D male mind - destroying your own planet and your own people. But now when the Stream rushes in your veins, in your breath... You are given the magical rattle and with the power of Sound you scare the birds away. Some were killed and some flew away, never to return. Sound meets 3D technology and wins. Easy.

7) the bull

Something topsy-turvy is going on. There is a bull terrorizing Crete - and bulls had always been the sacred animals, protectors of Crete. The king of Crete offers his help - but Heracles is too proud to agree. He tames the bull himself and takes it back to Athens. They want to sacrifice the bull to Hera - but she's too proud to accept it as it comes from Heracles so he would be stealing her glory - and she hates him - hates this chap called Hera's glory. So the bull is left to wander peacefully.

So that's the bit when "up" and "down" become mixed. First you get things upside down, then you see how "up" is no different from "down" - Hera the goddess is just as stubborn and proud as the much hated Hera's Glory boy. So this story isn't even about Heracles. We are getting a broader picture. We find the Stream within us; we practice it; and then we realize that what we thought was the reflection of the sky in our wateris the sky in our water - be it blue or cloudy or dark. We are the fish and the stream and the sky and what not, with all the little clouds seeming to spoil the view. It's all ours. It's all us. And if we are the sky we might get furious at the thought that the reflection in the dirty river is not a re-flection but us. There. In the dirty river. That's when we realize that we are going infinitely in both directions, both "up" to the stars and "down" to the dung. No problems.

8) the mares

Ok. So these are man-eating wild mares called Swift-Footed, the Shining, the Blond and the Terrible. Heracles wasn't aware of their diet and they ate his boyfriend. Then Heracles let them eat their own master, the king who was feeding them the human meat. After eating their king the horses became calm. Heracles took them to Athens and they were dedicated to Hera - who didn't seem to mind this time.

First, let's meditate on the names...

Swift-Footed, the Shining, the Blond, the Terrible...

What are they, these forces so dangerous, you won't know what hit you (or ate your boyfriend)?

Why does eating their master makes them permanently peaceful?

Perhaps the king represents the 3D mind (like Heracles' boss) who mistreated the powers - using powers in the wrong way may well cause destruction. So when the powers override the mind's frame (eat the king) they become natural again.

"There's nothing wrong with having a nuclear reactor. It's just where you have it. It does its job very well in the centre of a star".

As for what the mares are... I can only try to meditate/download it. I'm not sure we've reached this level yet - perhaps we'll understand it better when we are there...

Swift-Footed, the Shining, the Blond, the Terrible...

Swift-Footed makes me think of a Shadow or of Death... It follows us always and it's so light-footed we hardly notice its presence...

the Shining makes me think of Stephen King ;-) Of the force that is so beautiful it can blind you if you look at it directly. Stephen King's Shining is something like dwimmer - "However, Danny soon realizes that his presence in the hotel makes the supernatural activity more powerful, turning echoes of past tragedies into dangerous threats." . So the Shining might be dwimmer, the power of Life. As we see from the example, it's not always friendly as the dangerous things may suckle on it too. It's shiny - Life is shiny - it's the life-bringing Light.

the Blond makes me think of Dumb Blond ;-) of something smooth (it's not "Shining": it's "Blond"), something that takes you very softly, so softly you never notice till it's too late... Some kind of a gradual change... Like you said - er was it yesterday? - and then you discover you are the dumb blond you never wanted to be... It's half-light... losing your form...

the Terrible... sounds quite silly really. Like something that is not terrible but it wants everybody to think it is... Except it is terrible... If all horses are so bad why weren't they all called the Terrible, the Horrible, the Bloody and the Dentist? Perhaps if the Blond is something too smooth to notice, to glue your attention to, then the Terrible is something too sharp? Something you avoid looking at? "Oh, it's too terrible" and you turn away? Our own access to All that Is?..

Whatever they are the mares seem to be some non-3D abilities - very dangerous from the 3D mind's point of view; but neither good nor bad in themselves.

9) the Amazons

Heracles had a company on this quest. Some of them were his friends but two of them were killed by king of Crete's (Minos') sons; so Heracles took two of Minos' grandsons instead. We never "lose" anything. When we "lose" something, we inevitably "gain" something new. So this was a mighty exchange. We give a bit of what is us and we receive something else in its stead, and that's a way to change - to stay alive.

Heracles was sent to fetch the Queen's belt because that's what the king's daughter wanted. Girls...

Now, the Queen of the Amazons thought that Heracles was awesome and so she didn't mind giving him her belt as a gift. She herself got the belt from Ares. But Hera whispered to the girls that Heracles was going to steal the Queen (interestingly, Hera is the goddess of women and marriage... extremely jealous and mean). So the girls went to fight. Heracles was surprised but he decided they were simply mean and never intended to give him the belt in the first place. He killed the Queen and took the belt.

So we have the Queen - the Female who is looking forward to giving herself without any fight. She is secure - the war god's belt keeps her safe - but the belt, the lock is only there to be given to the Male.

Then there are the girls. That's the protection as well, that kind that might be overprotective. And it will listen to the goddess of marriage. Oh no, this naughty Male will steal the Queen altogether! The Male never takes a bit - the Male takes all! And then they get hysterical and provoke the Male.

And so the girls who wanted to save the Queen become the cause of her death.

OK. The Queen is Heracles' Female side. Heracles are Hera are one as well. Hera is mad about having this a)human b)Male side to her. She probably hated him more for being at peace with his own Female side. She wants to kill him - to kill the Male in herself - she disbalances the system... But instead she gets the Female killed. Oops!

What does it mean, killed?

Disconnected.

He had to get rid of the rigid overprotective girls... but it was them who kept the Queen alive. Heracles is Male so his Female side needed support and protection. As long as the Female was recognizing its own Male the protection was down. But when the Male was mistaken for an intruder the protection was activated. So he had to shut down the whole thing. Whatever. 

But there is another Female side, much stronger - and that's Hera, much as she hates that. She couldn't fully become his Female while the job was occupied. Now the goddess will have to take her place as Female instead of the queen. It doesn't have to refer to the Male/Female thing. It's the same with other things - how we have a predictable zombie machine with only basic programming waiting for us to become ready to tune into the natural technology of is... we'd explode if we got all at once, unprepared...

It looks like Heracles lost the queen; but he gained the goddess.

10) the cattle (or was it the kettle?)

Heracles had to cross a desert to get to where the cattle was. The desert is another highly magical place as we know.

There Heracles shot an arrow at the Sun because he was so annoyed with heat. Or that's the reason they give. Anyway. You go to the desert and you venture to shoot the Sun (Helios). If you go to a shamanic place you practice shamanic ways or you die. The desert might be the inner landscape as there is just you. And then you challenge the Spirit, the unruly Sun. You are not a servant. Well, you can't kill the Sun but then the Sun was so amused that it gave Heracles the magical golden cup in which Heracles flew to the land of the cattle.

You go into your place of peace... and then you find the high Spirit guiding you... you acknowledge it... and then you challenge it - whatever your mind thinks: "it's silly" or "it's a blasphemy" or whatever. And you find you didn't drop dead but on the contrary you are given every support.

In the land of the cattle Hercules kills the two-headed watchdog and one-headed herdsman and the owner of the cattle. The owner was wearing a triple protection but Heracles got him with a single shot.

What's the cattle? And who are the guards?

I think the cattle is some sorf of information, missing bits of the rewiring code. One level of protection is the zero level - it's impossible to get to the land at all if you are not able to challenge the guiding Spirit first. Then there is the animal level (the dog), the human level (the herdsman) and the triple super protection (the owner).

The two heads of the dog are Do I really need it? and Does it really need me? It's doubt and boredom. It only takes a bit of will to overcome it. The herdsman is Even if I get it I won't be able to manage it. It's the herdsman who looks after the cattle. So it's the voice of reason saying all sorts of things to distract us. And the owner is all three in one, probably.

Hera didn't like his success and sent a gadfly to scatter the animals; but Heracles got them all back after all. Then she make the river flood so they couldn't cross it; but Heracles put some stones in it and crossed it. Later the cattle was sacrificed to Hera. The more she does the more she's entangled.

So even if you get the cattle your attention might go elsewhere and the information will scatter as you come back to your usual reality - so another task is not to drop what you picked up; the flooding river - it might look like there is too much to handle; but we can do it by putting a stone after a stone. A stone is a little exercise in remembering and staying focused. And then we can take all the cattle to our side of the river.

11) the apples

Apples are very magical as they are, really...

In this story Heracles tricks Atlas so he doesn't enter the garden himself. After challenging the Spirit it's a doddle to diddle Atlas. Heracles is equal to gods now. He can hold the heavens for Atlas and he is able to trick Atlas into holding the heavens again. He can become the foundation of reality (holding the sky) and he is free (not getting stuck in holding the sky). And he gets the apples - but apples are too magical to describe them linearly so just feel the  [...]

12) Cerberus

The ultimate task. Very predictable in a way - no less shamanic. Now we can enter the underworld. Heracles has every help he might need. Gods and Goddesses are with him (compared to the first labour when he went into the lion's cave on his own).

He meets two chaps there, doomed to sit on their chairs for wanting the underworld's god's wife for themselves. Heracles frees one of them - but the other one is so deep into his desire to have the god's wife that he can't move - he's properly stuck.

Heracles captures Cerberus and brings him out.

So in this task we have a journey into death (and also looking for the cerebrum heh heh). The underworld is in our head as well... 

Wherever we find ourselves - whatever we call it - we know we are safe. There's no "can't". We are the power. We are the connection. We are. 

And then we go and wear a dress and do women's work :D