Is Beauty or Suspicion Guiding Your Soul?
Hermes: Emissary of the Gods, Interpreter, and Psychopomp
Why, even a deathless god who came upon that place would gaze in wonder, heart entranced with pleasure. Hermes the guide, the mighty giant-killer, stood there, spellbound. - Homer The Odyssey
The Greek god Hermes, known as Mercury to the Romans, has always fascinated me. God of boundaries, roads and travellers, thieves, athletes, shepherds, commerce, speed, cunning, and wit. A sort of divine jack of all trades, surely the most talented of gods?
He is also the psychopomp or “soul guide” ushering the souls of the dead from the land of the living to the entrance of the Underworld. He wore winged sandals and a winged helmet, carrying the caduceus, a winged staff intertwined with two snakes having sex, looking very much like DNA.
impervious to external influence
Hermes is clever, lively, and quick, like the liquid metal mercury, also known as quicksilver. From Hermes we get hermetic, meaning airtight, impervious to external influence.
From Mercury we also get mercurial. A word with many meanings. Often thought of as subject to unpredictable changes of mood or mind. This is a shallow understanding of the emissary of the gods. Mercurial means willing to change anything at any time, except one’s core values, to reach one’s end goal. Passionately focused on a vision. Relentless in pursuing what's important.
emissary and messenger of the gods
The psychopomp has a connection to psychotherapy too. The therapeutic relationship is meant to provide a hermetic seal, an airtight impervious container, within which the soul can heal.
During a therapy session my psychotherapist called me mercurial, which I mistakenly took as meaning ‘moody’. Until she explained, “Mercury is the emissary and messenger of the gods, the interpreter and communicator. You have a talent with words, to get your message across by changing how you say it depending on who is listening.” My ego certainly felt better from hearing this!
Hermes, the interpreter and communicator. This brings me to another element of language derived from the messenger of the gods.
Hermeneutics
Hermeneutics is the theory and method of interpretation, understanding and communication.
The world is immensely rich with sensory information, far too much for us to take in. We have adapted to this existential abundance with clever cognitive tricks, such as interpretive pattern recognition and unconscious processing.
In fact, we relate and connect to the world, and each other, through the continuous application of unconscious frameworks. Without these meaning-making frameworks we would be faced with sensory chaos. An overload of uninterpreted information.
Hermeneutics are the lenses or frameworks we use to make sense of the world. To interpret sensory input and information in general. They are part of our meaning-making apparatus, helping us separate signal from noise. We are not particularly conscious of them, but we need to be.
Hermeneutics of Suspicion: Appearances are deceptive and distractive
I have become aware of the increasing use of the hermeneutics of suspicion. Specifically, claims that people, organisations, and systems cannot be trusted, that things are not as they appear. There is always a hidden agenda, a secret motive, and that any information that doesn’t fit your chosen narrative is misinformation.
Salient examples are phenomena such as flat Earth theory, QAnon conspiracies, and the ongoing divisions caused by the Covid pandemic, media censorship, and political partisanship. What is common through these otherwise disparate phenomena is the lens through which interpretation is taking place.
I am not arguing against suspicion, there is misinformation, corruption, bullshitting, and propaganda in the world. These are all best met with at least scepticism, if not outright suspicion.
But when suspicion is the primary, or worse, only lens we apply then we are in trouble. This leads to dismissing anything that does not confirm our existing beliefs. It kills dialogue, growth, and understanding, whilst fuelling paranoia. Authoritarianism is often propped up by the singular application of suspicion to anything that does not fit the chosen narrative.
To relate to the world through the lens of suspicion is to feel ill-at-ease, to assume people are lying to you, or are out to hurt you. It is a source of anxiety, aggression, and disconnection. Living with only suspicion you would not be able to trust the ground you stand on, or the food you eat, or anybody you ever met. This is hardly worth bearing as a way of living.
Hermeneutics of Beauty: Appearances disclose the depth of reality
Most people use the term beauty to refer to aesthetic appearances, the surface of things. But beauty is much deeper than this.
Beauty is where appearances disclosure the depth of reality, where appearances are not deceptive or distractive, they are truth. Beauty is the revelation of truth through embodiment.
A simple example is every time you place your foot on the ground and you trust the ground will behave as it should (i.e. be solid and support your weight) you are using the hermeneutics of beauty. Or when you fill a glass with water and expect the glass to act as it appears (i.e. hold the water so you can drink it) — this is beauty — the disclosure of reality.
Without the hermeneutics of beauty you would not be able to get out of bed in the morning, in fact, you wouldn’t even trust the bed you were in to hold you. We unconsciously apply the lens of beauty in order to function.
We all depend on beauty to ground us in reality, as such, it should be our primary lens to view the world, but it should not be the only one we use. To relate to the world through beauty alone would quickly lead us into trouble. It would be very naïve of us to trust everything!
So it is clear that we need both beauty and suspicion to be grounded, to function, and to move beyond naïveté and paranoia. To relate to the world in a deep and meaningful way. To have the quality of connection that enriches our lives, we need to be aware of the hermeneutics of beauty and suspicion.
Conscious Use of Hermeneutics
The most important skill we can develop in relation to hermeneutics is to become conscious of them. This is closely related to cognitive bias, in particular confirmation bias.
I apply suspicion to ideas that I do not like, or agree with, and I apply beauty to things that I have already decided are true. No doubt that some of the time I am bullshitting myself and interpreting in order to confirm my own biases.
When I pay attention I can tell I am being suspicious, this as an opportunity to ask myself why I am doing so? What cognitive biases might be activated?
Beauty is a bit more of a default setting for me, so recognising when I am positively biased towards something is a little more difficult as the feeling is more subtle.
But none the less, being conscious of hermeneutics is possible with practice. It is extremely valuable in developing quality connections, rooted in reality, which enrich our lives. As well as mitigating the misery of anxiety, suspicion, and disconnection.
Once again, to be clear, I am not advocating for blind naivety. There are wolves in the woods, monsters in the dark, and hoaxes and scams abound. Suspicion is a valuable lens to help navigate a perilous world. But not everything is the work of an evil cabal, not everyone that we disagree will cause us harm.
If we learn to become conscious of our interpretative lenses, then perhaps Hermes, the emissary of the gods, will guide us to heal our souls.