Hermes & Hanuman: Heroes Bridging Worlds Divine and Human -- As Above So Below. The most widely-known mythical figures symbolizing communication include: Hermes, Hanuman and Ganesh. All three excell at applying their liminality (category and boundary crossing capacities.) Ganesh especially symbolizes writing.
Religions and Societal Sequences: Carl Jung’s Typology of Aions (Aeons; eons; ages)
Adapted from Edward Edinger’s The New God Image; http://www.symbolism.org/writing/books/spc/sequence/page5.html (I have added Islam as an essential entry during the aeon (eon) of “Universal Monotheism”) Also I identify a seventh age, the Transpersonal Global Communication Age symbolized by Hermes, Hanuman and Ganesha.
1. Animism Hunting & gathering; animated world
2. Matriarchy Agriculture & settlement; Earth Mother
(Attis-Cybele myth)
Symbolism: son (psyche) can be reborn
in Earth Mother (nature) but never matures
3. Hierarchical Polytheism Cities development; urban society; patriarchy
Symbolism: Sky gods and kings
What role does writing play in changing socio-economic and political structures and in also transforming the psyche? (cf. Lawrence Schlain, The Goddess and the Alphabet
4. Tribal Monotheism Ancient Hebrews; monotheistic God
Symbolism: personal One God
5. Universal Monotheism The Axial Age (Karl Jaspers) Emergence of Christianity,
god-split; Islam
Upanishads, Zoroaster [Zarathustra], Buddha, Mahavira, Confucius, Lao-Tzu, Socrates
Second Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, etc. promote a single Universal God who is not limited to a particular tribe or temple.
Satan steps forward taking major role as symbol & scriptural character
6. Individuation Religion as phenomenology of psyche
Jung compared the symbolism of the aeon of Pisces (fish in water) to symbolism of Aeon of Aquarius: instead of fish (for Jung a symbol of the psyche) being contained, psyche now holds the container, the psyche stands outside the container
7. Transpersonal Religion as balance of mind, heart, soul and body
in a globalized network
Monday, September 1, 2008
Sunday, August 24, 2008
HANUMAN: A Hermetic Hindu Hero-God & Ernest Becker's Hermaphroditic-Image Moiety Model of the Human Being
The Ramayana (the epic of Rama) has been one of my favorite stories as both text and drama. I'm sure I've taught the book over 18 times. Hanuman, like Hermes, mediates between realms, and as an ambassador bears the hermetic function of communication. The late ancient figure of Thoth (pronounced: Te-how-ti) who was later merged with the Greek Hermes resulting in the archetype of the magus Hermes Trismegistus was, when not represented as an ibex, sometimes represented as an ape.
After 18 semesters of reading and teaching the story and attending three stunning dance performances of the Ramayana in Bali and Jogjakarta, I might have wondered if the Ramayana would continually open its symbolic treasuries and bestow even more mysteries.
Today I read a description of Hanuman as half-god, half-ape. This is not news. I've heard and taught this for decades. But the writer followed up this casual definition by asking, "Get it?" Now I rethought the question and the character of Hanuman. As a new understanding and appreciation of Hanuman dawned on me, I realized I had never probed the implications of his persona deeply. Further this was my first time working with Becker's themes and methodology. Today those tools provided a key to at least one understanding of Hanuman I had not seen before.
Since Hanuman shares important resemblances to Hermes and I am building on and applying ideas such as Ernest Becker's notion of the "hermaphroditic image," I want to work on these relationships. The hermaphroditic image is a metaphor Becker adopted from mythology and which also carries etymological roots in alchemy -- where it means the that body has been transmuted into spirit. The union of the spirit and body, god and mammal, or in Becker's anthropological terms, the moiety of the symbolic self joined to an animal body, points to the connection between Hanuman's symbolism and Becker's ideas.
To understand how Becker adopted an alchemical analogy to his anthropology we need to understand that the hermaphroditic image was a symbol of the "great work." The sexual intimations in the term "hermaphrodite" refer macroscopically to the sun and moon, and microscopically to the "inner marriage."( hieros gamos) In the inner marriage the nous (higher mind) and the psuche refine and purify the corporeal body into a spiritual body. In the inner marriage, the physical body becomes dedicated to and empowers the spiritual heart and mind to greater wisdom and greater compassion. As the emerald tablet concludes: "Thus have I spoken of the great work of the sun.
Some legends give the reason for Hanuman's jaw and cheeks being so great with the following story: Hanuman son of Pavana, the son of the wind God saw the rising sun and thinking it a fruit, jumped up to eat it. In some accounts, Indra struck him down with a lightening bolt.
We see that Hanuman is like a human, but differs greatly by being more like ourselves than we usually want to know. Hanuman is an exaggerated version of ourselves and his situation is an exaggerated version of the human condition. We clearly see the "moiety" (i.e., complementary pairs; dyads, binary oppositions (Escape From Evil, p. 10] ) of his being divine (the spark of God within you) but also more noticeably than we human animals, Hanuman serves as a cultural symbol and figure who represents and mirrors the human condition by authentically and openly standing in the moiety of his being: he is fully both god and ape. Hanuman has the language and social skills of a diplomat combined with the animal features of strength and loyalty.
Hanuman's moiety suggests that the way that he symbolizes ourselves is the way Becker envisioned: half god, half animal. (In Escape From Evil, Becker calls us "half=-god, half worm." Because of the clarity of the iconography, we know and acknowledge that Hanuman is half-human, half-ape. Becker structures our human experience by a "moiety" (Escape , p. 10) that we share one dimension of life with the animals: our physical bodies, and habits around eating, sex, food, etc. and yet, at another level, as the pronoun "I" becomes the nexus of our symbolic construction and perception of reality another dimension of being human surfaces: the symbolic self. Note that in chapter 5 of Denial of DeathBecker makes it clear that he uses the term "symbolic self" to serve as an equivalent to notions of soul and spirit. It is fitting to acknowledge Hanuman as the model for the perfect human being. Hanuman is especially honored as the perfect servant of Lord Rama. How does servanthood contribute to the moiety of Hanuman's persona?
Becker says, human beings, partly due to our habits of transference want to submit to a leader or God and that therefore servanthood is the highest form of heroism
I take that to reflect a simple honest observation that if we took a significant poll, it is humble servants who will receive the highest accolades and most votes. Many reflect with respect and wonder when they think about rare souls such as Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama and Gandhi. Becker's idea that "servanthood" is the heroism we most admire argues for applies to the wide respect for Hanuman as the model bhakta (devotee) Completing this symbolism of Hanuman as an intelligent, linguistically capable, socially-adroit and martially disciplined servant, we have one last note to consider: Hanuman's iconography frequently depicts him opening his chest allowing us to view that inside his heart one would always find Rama and Sita, the model husband-and-wife, King and Queen. Sita symbolizes -- among other attributes, the perfect Indian wife -- pati-vrata (vowed to her husband).
A touching story near the end of the Ramayana recounts that when Hanuman was challenged about why he supported and served Rama so devotedly, Hanuman removed any and all his jewelry then as he opened his body to expose his bones. What they saw was that on each of his bones repeatedly appeared the name Rama.
Hanuman is the perfect bhakta (devotee; lover of God), the perfect minister, the perfect warrior -- and most importantly looking at Hanuman's moiety, the perfect servant -- all despite the fact that he is part monkey. Hanuman's secure integration of the two aspects of his moiety, divine and animal, exemplifies what Becker called the "hermaphroditic image." The magnum opus of alchemy includes the work of integrating spirit and body. Relating this to the broader scheme of Becker's thought, Hanuman is the perfect Hero, the perfect cosmic hero and the perfect Knight of Faith.
After 18 semesters of reading and teaching the story and attending three stunning dance performances of the Ramayana in Bali and Jogjakarta, I might have wondered if the Ramayana would continually open its symbolic treasuries and bestow even more mysteries.
Today I read a description of Hanuman as half-god, half-ape. This is not news. I've heard and taught this for decades. But the writer followed up this casual definition by asking, "Get it?" Now I rethought the question and the character of Hanuman. As a new understanding and appreciation of Hanuman dawned on me, I realized I had never probed the implications of his persona deeply. Further this was my first time working with Becker's themes and methodology. Today those tools provided a key to at least one understanding of Hanuman I had not seen before.
Since Hanuman shares important resemblances to Hermes and I am building on and applying ideas such as Ernest Becker's notion of the "hermaphroditic image," I want to work on these relationships. The hermaphroditic image is a metaphor Becker adopted from mythology and which also carries etymological roots in alchemy -- where it means the that body has been transmuted into spirit. The union of the spirit and body, god and mammal, or in Becker's anthropological terms, the moiety of the symbolic self joined to an animal body, points to the connection between Hanuman's symbolism and Becker's ideas.
To understand how Becker adopted an alchemical analogy to his anthropology we need to understand that the hermaphroditic image was a symbol of the "great work." The sexual intimations in the term "hermaphrodite" refer macroscopically to the sun and moon, and microscopically to the "inner marriage."( hieros gamos) In the inner marriage the nous (higher mind) and the psuche refine and purify the corporeal body into a spiritual body. In the inner marriage, the physical body becomes dedicated to and empowers the spiritual heart and mind to greater wisdom and greater compassion. As the emerald tablet concludes: "Thus have I spoken of the great work of the sun.
Some legends give the reason for Hanuman's jaw and cheeks being so great with the following story: Hanuman son of Pavana, the son of the wind God saw the rising sun and thinking it a fruit, jumped up to eat it. In some accounts, Indra struck him down with a lightening bolt.
We see that Hanuman is like a human, but differs greatly by being more like ourselves than we usually want to know. Hanuman is an exaggerated version of ourselves and his situation is an exaggerated version of the human condition. We clearly see the "moiety" (i.e., complementary pairs; dyads, binary oppositions (Escape From Evil, p. 10] ) of his being divine (the spark of God within you) but also more noticeably than we human animals, Hanuman serves as a cultural symbol and figure who represents and mirrors the human condition by authentically and openly standing in the moiety of his being: he is fully both god and ape. Hanuman has the language and social skills of a diplomat combined with the animal features of strength and loyalty.
Hanuman's moiety suggests that the way that he symbolizes ourselves is the way Becker envisioned: half god, half animal. (In Escape From Evil, Becker calls us "half=-god, half worm." Because of the clarity of the iconography, we know and acknowledge that Hanuman is half-human, half-ape. Becker structures our human experience by a "moiety" (Escape , p. 10) that we share one dimension of life with the animals: our physical bodies, and habits around eating, sex, food, etc. and yet, at another level, as the pronoun "I" becomes the nexus of our symbolic construction and perception of reality another dimension of being human surfaces: the symbolic self. Note that in chapter 5 of Denial of DeathBecker makes it clear that he uses the term "symbolic self" to serve as an equivalent to notions of soul and spirit. It is fitting to acknowledge Hanuman as the model for the perfect human being. Hanuman is especially honored as the perfect servant of Lord Rama. How does servanthood contribute to the moiety of Hanuman's persona?
Becker says, human beings, partly due to our habits of transference want to submit to a leader or God and that therefore servanthood is the highest form of heroism
I take that to reflect a simple honest observation that if we took a significant poll, it is humble servants who will receive the highest accolades and most votes. Many reflect with respect and wonder when they think about rare souls such as Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama and Gandhi. Becker's idea that "servanthood" is the heroism we most admire argues for applies to the wide respect for Hanuman as the model bhakta (devotee) Completing this symbolism of Hanuman as an intelligent, linguistically capable, socially-adroit and martially disciplined servant, we have one last note to consider: Hanuman's iconography frequently depicts him opening his chest allowing us to view that inside his heart one would always find Rama and Sita, the model husband-and-wife, King and Queen. Sita symbolizes -- among other attributes, the perfect Indian wife -- pati-vrata (vowed to her husband).
A touching story near the end of the Ramayana recounts that when Hanuman was challenged about why he supported and served Rama so devotedly, Hanuman removed any and all his jewelry then as he opened his body to expose his bones. What they saw was that on each of his bones repeatedly appeared the name Rama.
Hanuman is the perfect bhakta (devotee; lover of God), the perfect minister, the perfect warrior -- and most importantly looking at Hanuman's moiety, the perfect servant -- all despite the fact that he is part monkey. Hanuman's secure integration of the two aspects of his moiety, divine and animal, exemplifies what Becker called the "hermaphroditic image." The magnum opus of alchemy includes the work of integrating spirit and body. Relating this to the broader scheme of Becker's thought, Hanuman is the perfect Hero, the perfect cosmic hero and the perfect Knight of Faith.
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