Maia, Hermes and Autolycos - Interpretation

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THE LINEAGE OF MAIA: HERMES AND AUTOLYCOS

The lineages involved in the Trojan War include: the Tantalum lineage, the Trojan royal
lineage, the Spartan lineage, the Maia lineage, the Deion lineage and the Asopos lineage.
The lineage of Maia continues with her son the god Hermes, symbol of a force consciously
active in the overmind, then Autolycos “he who walks with his own light”, and finally Anticlia .

Hermes and Paris – Louvre Museum

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The lineage of the Pleiad Maia has already been discussed in the first volume of this work as
part of the analysis of the god Hermes ( See Hermes). We will only go over the essential
points here, specifying certain points which will be better understood at this stage.

See Family tree 8 and Family tree 14

Maia symbolises a ‘complete consecration’, a ‘surrender’ akin to the one defined above.
Without Hera’s knowledge, Zeus at night visited the cavern in which Maia dwelt, set apart
from the other gods, and some accounts claim that Maia conceived Hermes whilst gods and
men were asleep.
The Pleiades belong to the fourth divine generation, as do Athena, Aphrodite, Apollo and
Artemis, but except for Maia not one of them is ever described in such a proximity to the
gods. This is probably because mastery of the planes which they represent had been fully
accomplished by a number of adventurers of consciousness which integrated them into the
human sphere. On the other hand, the stage of the overmind only recently appeared in

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humankind some millions or tens of millions of years ago (Hermes was the last of the gods to
arrive at Mount Olympus). It is still imperfectly explored and therefore still belongs to the
supraconscient plane, the plane of the gods, the overmind (not to be confused with the
supramental), which is why Maia lives isolated in a cavern despite being accepted amongst
the gods.
Some say that she was the nurse of Arcas following the death of Callisto, which confirms the
correspondence of Arcadia with an advanced stage of yoga.

Hermes – some points to remember

The fecundation of consciousness by the supraconscient in a state of complete consecration
was carried out without any part of the seeker (or the individual within humankind) being
conscious of it (Maia conceived Hermes while gods and mortals lay sleeping). In fact, the
widest movements of evolution always take place in the general inconscient. Sri Aurobindo
(Savitri Book I, Canto IV) announces the advent of the supramental in a similar way:
‘As a thief’s in the night shall be the covert tread
Of one who steps unseen into his house’.

Hermes therefore represents the last mental plane which can be accessed by human
consciousness in a stable way, in a period preceding Homer and probably taking place even
prior to ancient Egypt. It forges a link with the Supramental, Helios, which is still only
perceived in brief lightening flashes (see the last labours of Heracles), or through some of its
manifestations like Circe and Aeetes.
Hermes is the only god to appear in the fifth divine generation, thus making the
supraconscient ‘descend’ into the human and bringing together gods and men.
As the deity of the surpassing of limits in the ascension to the world of Spirit Hermes must
also allow a descent into the depths, for evolution is a process of both ascension and
integration. He therefore represents a spiritual power which can lift the barriers that separate
us from the deep subconscient and the corporeal inconscient. Hence his role as
‘psychopomp’, guide of psychic souls who escorts the shades of mortals into the kingdom of
Hades, where takes place the reunification of Spirit and Matter.

We have also seen that the seeker who reaches the overmind at first tends to attribute to it
realisations originating from the light of the psychic being, while these are only mental
experiences (Hermes steals Apollo’s herds).
As the herald of the gods Hermes transmits the truth originating from the higher planes of the
Spirit, but he cannot do so without causing distortions. For however high they may be, the
mental planes cannot access the totality of Truth, and are certainly not able to express them
at lower planes without creating distortions. Instead, through its contact with Truth through
identity, the psychic being manifests itself on the mental plane in a more precise way (Apollo
and Artemis).

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Hermes’ characteristic elements or attributes are his Caduceus and his winged sandals.
The Caduceus is a symbol which reveals in a single simple form the widest Knowledge about
human evolution and the domains of Consciousness – a few words about it will be written at
the end of this work.
The winged sandals allow a very swift progress along the path without being halted for long
months or years by various obstacles. They also grant access to the highest worlds of the
Spirit.

The children of Hermes

The most well known of Hermes’ children is Autolycos, ‘he who is his own light’, borne by
Philonis, ‘she who loves evolution’, herself the daughter of Deion, the youngest of Aeolus’
children. Free of any external reference, this expression of the overmind sometimes
attributes to itself realisations which are not its own. This is why Autolycos is sometimes
described as the greatest of thieves, more skilled than even his father.
He is Ulysses’ grandfather. He entered into a union with Amphithea, ‘all which concerns the
inner divine’, and with her engendered a daughter named Anticlia, ‘humility’, as well as
several sons. Anticlia entered into a union with Laertes, ‘the complete engagement of the
unified being’, and by him bore Ulysses. Only Hyginus places Laertes within the lineage of
Deion.

Some of Hermes’ other children have been previously mentioned in this work, including
Abderos, the companion of Heracles, Eurytus the Argonaut and Cephalus, all of them
representing different impulses of the nascent overmind.

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