Welcome

Speaker 0:08

Hello friends, and welcome to episode six of Darkness and Light. I'm your host, Wendy Rule, and this is a podcast about myth and Magic and nature. So as this episode lands, we are deep in Gemini season. Our Moon is waning after the beautiful Sagittarius Full Moon about four days ago. And it's waning toward the Gemini dark on June 14th, where the Sun and the Moon join together, concentrating that Gemini energy. And I always like to consider when the Moon is waning, that it's moving toward that next Dark Moon, that it's got an intention in mind to reach that Dark Moon, just like the Waxing Moon has the intention of reaching the Full Moon. In this episode, where we're diving into the gifts of Gemini, our guide will be the god Hermes, who is Mercury to the Romans and is the god of change, of communication, of thought, and of so much more. I'm excited to share my insights and my relationship with Hermes with you. And this episode is also extra special because I'm welcoming my first guest to Darkness and Light. We're going to be joined by the wonderful Laura Tempest Zakroff, who is an author, a visual artist, and a witch. So I look forward to sharing her insights with you later on in this episode. But first, let's get to know this Gemini energy and its ruling planet and god Mercury.

Gemini Info

Speaker 2:21

Gemini is an Air sign, and it is Mutable Air, air that wants to change. There's three different ways that each of the signs can operate in astrology. Cardinal - beginning things, Fixed - completing things, and Mutable - changing things. So we have Air coupled with mutability. And air is already mutable. Air wants to change. It doesn't want to stay fixed and anchored like earth does or water does. It's in this constant state of change, expanding to fill the available space or moving like the wind through trees. We even talk about the winds of change or a breath of fresh air. So of all the Air signs, Gemini channels that energy of mutability, of changeability. And think of all the things that air does for us, obviously breath, and therefore life, but it also carries sound and scent. And esoterically, the Element of Air is associated with our thoughts, how we communicate, with freedom, with travel, with movement. Gemini asks us to embrace change, and the quickest thing that we can change in our lives are our thoughts. Gemini

The Planet Mercury

Speaker 4:21

is ruled by the planet Mercury, our closest planet to the Sun, being so close to the Sun and so fast. Mercury takes only eighty-eight Earth days to move around the Sun. And because Mercury is closer to the Sun than Earth is, just like the planet Venus, he goes through phases, always very close to the sun from our perspective here on Earth, we might be very lucky and catch a glimpse of Mercury in the pre-dawn sky, or likewise, just after sunset. But often he is caught in the sun's glare, so he appears and disappears. He is that mutability. He moves from light into darkness, from the above to the below.

Meet Hermes

Speaker 5:22

Hermes' main role on Olympus was to be the messenger to the gods. He runs messages back and forth between gods on Olympus, between Earth and Olympus, Earth and Sky, down into the Underworld, between gods and humans. And that reflects the planet Mercury's fast motion, zipping around here and there. He wears this broad-brimmed hat that has wings on it. The hat is called a petasos, it's a traditional traveler's hat, so he's connected with this energy of movement. And he has sandals with wings on them, so you can never quite pin him down. He's elusive, just like the planet. Hermes is not only the messenger god, he's also the guide of souls into the underworld. That moment of transition from life into death. Hermes is there to guide us across the threshold into the Underworld and say, yep, everything's changed now. But I'm here, this God of Change. I think his birth story is really well worth sharing because it says a lot about him. First of all, he's born in a cave, so there's a sense of the hidden. His mother is Maia, and Maia is the eldest of the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, that beautiful group of stars that we can see in our sky that is near the constellation of Orion. And then his father is Zeus, who's been out on one of his many escapades of infidelity away from his wife Hera, hooked up with Maia. She becomes pregnant and she births Hermes in this cave. Well, on the very first day that he was born, he sets himself up as a trickster. He's precocious and clever and starts inventing things that very first day. So one of the things that he invents is the musical instrument called a lyre. He sees a tortoise and he sees its potential. He kills it, he takes its shell, he strings animal gut over it, which is what was used for strings in days of yore, and he advents this musical instrument, the lyre. He also instigates this plan to steal the sacred cattle of his half-brother, the god Apollo. He finds the cattle, and in order to hide his tracks, knowing that Apollo is going to follow the tracks of the cattle to wherever they're hidden, Hermes gets the cattle to walk backwards towards his cave. And he also makes himself a pair of sandals, puts them on backwards, walks back to his cave, so the footprints look like they are walking away from the cave where the cattle are hidden. He climbs into bed and pulls the blankets around him. And when Apollo finally works out what's happened and gets to the cave and goes, Hey, where are my cattle? Hermes actually goes, What would I know? I'm just a little baby. Look at me here in my bed, sucking my thumb. I wouldn't know anything about stealing cattle. What do you think I am? I'm one day old. Hermes makes Apollo laugh, and that sets the tone of their relationship. They actually have a really friendly, brotherly relationship in mythology. So, in order to placate his brother, who now knows he's stolen the cattle, Hermes offers him the lyre. Apollo loves it, and he takes this instrument and he makes it sing in the most beautiful way, and you know, through that becomes the god of music. So it's a beautiful exchange. And then when Apollo goes and essentially tells Zeus, hey, you're not going to believe what this little kid just did. He stole my cattle, tells the story. Hermes plays the same game with Zeus. Oh, how could I possibly have done anything wrong? I'm just a little baby, makes Zeus crack up laughing, which I really like, and becomes beloved of him and is asked to join the Olympic gods. And this is this essence of Gemini. Funny, charismatic, very clever, very inventive, and also a little naughty.

Messages and Movement

Speaker 10:38

The energy of Hermes, of Mercury, this mercurial energy, has a kind of slipperiness to it. This shape-shifting quality we also see in the metal mercury. This is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature. So it's dynamic, it moves and breaks apart into perfect little spheres and then recombines. So it's very beautiful to look at. It's very hypnotic, liquid metal. But it's also poisonous and dangerous and toxic. And I think symbolically this reminds us that all the trickery and tomfoolery of that Hermes energy also has consequences. That moving from one realm to another has its dangers just as the metal Mercury has to be treated carefully and with great consideration. So as the messenger of the gods, Hermes shares information. But not only that, that messenger quality is about connection. He connects realms, connects people, and he does this through the gift of language. A message can come in many forms through reading, through listening, through meditation, through divination. Hermes opens us to all of these possibilities. How can we connect with the world around us? So it's not so much the energy of our belief systems that this mercurial energy is interested in, but rather how our mind moves, how our mind takes on new information. So Hermes is a really great ally for anything to do with learning, with study, with research, and then communicating that knowledge and sharing it. I mentioned earlier that one of Hermes' roles is the guide to souls after death into the underworld. There's a particular name for this, the psychopomp, from psyche psychi, which is soul in Greek, and pompos is ancient Greek, to guide or to lead. So he's the psychopomp, the guide of souls, and he moves across the threshold, from the above to the below, guides the souls across and says, This is your new life now. There's only one other god in Greek mythology who acts as a guide into the underworld or back out from it, and that is Hekate , who is a Titan and is the energy of the threshold. But Hermes isn't so much the threshold. He's the one who crosses it seamlessly. So you can see how that works as a god of travel. I always ask Hermes for an easy crossing whenever I'm crossing borders, having to deal with lines of immigration coming in and out of countries. Anything to do with travel, in fact, I will ask Hermes for some help. The other day, I was going out for lunch with a friend, and there weren't any car parks in front of the restaurant in our little tiny town. So I thought, well, I'll ask Hermes. So I just sent a little message out, darling Hermes, you're so cool, you're hilarious, and asked if there might possibly be a car park. And you know what? A car pulled out exactly, this is true, exactly in front of that restaurant. It's like, thank you very much. And I think he plays little games like that. He's a fun god to hang out with, he really is.

The Crossroads

Speaker 15:34

In Ancient Greece there was a tradition to put a particular type of stone at a the boundary line of your property, or at a crossroad. And this stone was called a herm. It was a marker of boundaries, and a guide, too, for travelers. And traditionally these stones were four-sided, but really it could be any upright stone, and later on they would be sometimes carved with a head on top, and interestingly, they'd also have a phallus, a penis, carved into them. This upright phallus on this upright stone, and these were called Hermstones, and they were dedicated to Hermes. And I've been thinking about that energy of that phallic energy on the stones, and it's really not about fertility or sexuality. Hermes is that energy of the vitality, the movement of life. He's not a god of life or death, he's the movement between life and death. And when we get to crossroads, boundaries, he's there as this hermstone, reminding us that we're moving from one realm into another. Offerings were made at these ancient hermstones, offerings of food, and often these were then picked up by hungry travelers. So in English we have the word windfall, a boon that's come unexpectedly out of nowhere. We didn't have to work for it, it landed in our laps. It's a windfall. In ancient Greek, this same energy is called an Ermaeon, and this was the name for the offerings that were left at these Hermstones, Ermaon. So there's this connection with unexpected gifts associated with Hermes, whether it's a car park, an easy crossing, but also he's a god of chance and of luck as well. He can provide sudden boons, windfalls, Remain, but he can also take those away. These sudden and dramatic changes.

God of Travelers

Speaker 17:50

As the god of travelers, Hermes has a big role in the greatest travel story known in Western literature, which is the ancient Greek epic poem called The Odyssey. It's the story of the hero Odysseus, his ten-year journey as he makes his way home from the Trojan War. And this story is so important in our history that that name of Odyssey has come to mean epic journey. Odysseus has a very mercurial energy. He's described in this poem as exhypnos, clever. But if you think of those words, hypnos is sleep, exhypnos, not sleepy. And this links to one of the objects that Hermes carries, and that is called the caduceus. This is a staff with the design of two snakes twirling around it, and then it's winged at the top. And Hermes would use this when he's guiding souls into the underworld or flitting around between Olympus and Earth. But one of the things that this Caduceus can do, Hermes is able to send people to sleep with this, and also to wake them up. So I think it's interesting that this ancient word exhpnos is applied to Odysseus, who is so mercurial. So there's this link between travel and story that we see in this ancient poem, and that is combined in this mercurial energy of this god Hermes and this sign of Gemini, of journey, and then communicating and sharing that journey. So many of our most beloved stories are about journeying. Think of Star Trek, To Boldly Go, Strange New Worlds, Exploring, Adventure, Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick, Jack Kerouac's On the Road, Dante's Inferno, Journeying Into the Underworld, The Wizard of Oz, Lord of the Rings, Travel, the Journey itself creates fuel for storytelling. Because we're in a constant state of change when we travel, moving into the unfamiliar. So you have to be operating on your wits. You have to make quick decisions, work things out, discover, learn quickly. And out of this comes story, the unexpected, the unknown, the freshly discovered. So next time you're traveling, maybe offer some thanks to Hermes or Mercury for the gift of the journey, but also the stories that emerge out of it.

Commerce, Travel and Exchange

Speaker 21:14

As a god of change and of communication, Hermes is also the god of commerce and of exchange. The word merchant comes from Mercury, an exchange of energy between one person and another. An object in exchange for money, and all the trickiness that has to go into that. The back and forth, the communicating, the merchant stating a higher price, knowing that you're going to ask for a lower one, and back and forth until you reach agreement. This is classic Hermes energy. And so much travel, especially. In ancient days was due to the exchange of objects, of business, of the merchant, of merchandise. We see it now. Every time we take a drive down the highway, big trucks moving their wares, trains snaking their way across the country, full of stuff that one person wants to sell and another wants to buy. That's Hermes. And these days the realm of commerce and travel are so interlinked. Every airport has its gift store, its duty-free stores. We buy souvenirs from places that we've visited, gifts for friends. Travel and exchange are intertwined, and commerce, the gifts of the merchant, are part of that. Hermes governs this energy of exchange. A couple of episodes ago I was talking about the Phoenicians, the great merchants of the ancient Mediterranean. This commercial activity then meant there was an exchange of story, of language, of philosophy, of gods, of learning, of wisdom. So in true mercurial fashion, I'll step into that role of merchant. Give a little plug to my Patreon page where I share my merchandise story of podcasts and videos and songs and tarot and all the rest of it in exchange for the support of my wonderful Patreon community. And my Patreon page is what allows this podcast to be ad-free. So I'd really appreciate you checking that out at patreon.com forward slash Wendy Rule.

The Magical Trickster

Speaker 24:13

As an archetype, Hermes is a trickster. He shakes things up. He asks us to question reality. Reminds us that everything isn't fixed. And this trickster energy that we see as Hermes, as Mercury, turns up in other cultures as raven, coyote, rabbit, fox, these quick moving and clever creatures. There's a sense with the trickster of getting away with it. They can be slippery. It's the energy of the gambler, of the sleight of hand, but also, you know, the grifter, the charismatic cheat. Just like Hermes with Apollo's cattle. How could I have done that? I'm just a little baby. This trickster energy asks us to look deeper, to look beyond the surface, to use our wits to not be taken as a fool. Hermes channels the energy of the magician, of magic. And magic is bringing our consciousness to the inevitability of change. Everything is changing all the time. When we bring our consciousness to that, we tilt our sails in such a way that that change leads us to where we want to go. Hermes reminds us that reality is more fluid than we think. That there are other options, limitless options, this mutable energy that nothing is fixed. And rather than bucking against change, rather than resisting it, we can dive into it and direct our energy in a way that creates the world that we wish to live in. We see this mercurial energy in the tarot card of the Magician. The Magician is often portrayed with an infinity symbol above his head or their head. I think the Magician is way beyond gender, that energy of Magic that permeates everything in the Universe. So they have this infinity symbol, this sideways figure eight above their head. It's called a lemniscate. That's the name of this infinity symbol. And I think that's interesting too, given the 88 days that it takes the planet Mercury to circle our Sun, this magical figure eight of continuous flow. In some older decks like the Marseille deck, the Magician wears a hat like Hermes traveling hat, like the Petasos, this wide-brimmed hat that is kind of twisted a little to look like a figure eight. So there's this sense of Magic that's held within the sign of Gemini, the god that rules that sign, who is Mercury, Hermes, that Magic is part of this realm of Air, of thought, that we can change our thoughts, and that can change the world around us. The thought is the starting point. From there we take action, and that conscious engagement with the thought process, aligning our thoughts and our actions to me is magic.

Laura Tempest Zakroff Joins

Speaker 27:57

Speaking of Magic, I have a very special guest.

Speaker 28:02

As I mentioned before, Laura Tempest Zakroff is joining me to share her thoughts on Magic, on her connection with Hermes, and how this informs her renowned work with magical sigils. Laura, thanks so much for joining me here on Darkness and Light. I know that you're a Gemini by Sun sign, and I'm fascinated by how this special relationship with Mercury or Hermes affects your art and magic.

Laura 28:43

Being a Gemini is being in constant conversation with oneself or the universe. Obviously, the Gemini means the twins. And so you have that communication, but you also have the the statement. Each zodiac sign has its own statement, and Gemini is "I think". Which could go next to "I talk", because once you think, you have to express it. And when you're looking at deities and inspiration, Hermes or Mercury is the god of communication, as well as commerce, and the crossroads is another one that most people don't talk about. And that point of bringing messages to the world, whether it's a revelation to yourself or to your community, or particularly for me, through art. I see art as a primary form of communication. Obviously, we we can talk and we can sing and uh we can use our bodies in all sorts of ways, and all of those are types of communication. But when it comes to my most comfortable one, it comes through art.

Wendy 29:54

I've been enjoying your beautiful sigil witchery oracle deck. Can you share your insights about sigils, what they are, and how they work?

Laura 30:04

Sigils are essentially symbols made by human beings that are believed to have magical properties. And what is a symbol, but a simple way of expressing a complex idea. It's telling a story in some way. And coming into magical terms is believing that what we're saying or we're communicating is influencing or altering, changing ourselves, our environment, uh, you know, what we do agic for, right? To change ourselves, to change our environment, to change the circumstances around us. And so we are sending a message, which goes well with what Hermes does is here we are, here's a message. You know, can we command it or be in union? I prefer to be more of a magic with than magic over. As a Witch, I am more in communion or in conversation, yet again, with uh the things that I want to change, whether it's in myself or in society. So essentials are a wonderful way to do that. Especially you don't need a lot, right? You just need to be able to think about the core expression, those ideas, those ingredients, and distill them down to a simpler message, to a key that opens that door at the crossroads.

Wendy 31:24

How does your process usually begin when you're creating a sigil? Do you feel like it's a cosmic download or does it start with a thought or an idea?

Laura 31:37

I think they all start with an idea. I like to say with Magic, Magic begins with thought, but also that Magic follows the path of least resistance in knowing which way we want things to be changed and altered, right? We have to have a visualization of that. But a sigil can be used for anything, right? We can use it to be in communion with our ancestors, with deities, with spirits, we can use it to get a job, an apartment, uh, you know, bringing money in, uh, getting people to go away, you know, all those different things, uh, especially the most uh well-known ones that I've done, I think, are the social justice ones, which are about causing change in society. And those start with that idea of here is a problem, right? What do we need to solve? What do we need to change? And what are those ingredients that we want to see in the end result? So that's essentially what a sigil is.

Wendy 32:35

You've created a number of beautiful Oracle decks. What was your motivation behind creating these and how can we work with them?

Laura 32:45

So each oracle deck that I've created solves a problem. I look at um The Liminal Spirits is about tapping into the spirits of place and animals and plants and artifacts, everything that we work with. I saw that folks were having that issue of connecting outside of themselves and opening up those conversations. How do you speak to plants? How do you talk to animals, especially when they're not speaking the same kind of language that we are? So I saw that deck as an aid to help people build those relationships. Anatomy of a Witch. I thought, well, what if people could diagnose what's going on with themselves physically, emotionally, mentally, magically? You don't need big, powerful symbols. You need to look at the very simple symbols that are present across all different cultures and ask, what do they mean to you? So circles and squares and stars and all of those things that are all around you, but you maybe aren't paying attention. Which is I often warn people like, once you open this door, you're going to be like, damn it, I can see symbols everywhere. Like, welcome to the gateway of uh again another crossroads. So that helps people get their brains thinking in more right-brain, more creative, and realize that they do know those things. And that's like kind of the the big three where I was looking at. What do I see with students and when the community where people are having problems, and how can I make that easier for them?

Wendy 34:21

I've been reading your latest book, Tarot by Tempest, which is just fantastic. It offers a really unique take on how we can connect with the cards. Could you share your unique approach to Tarot with us? Tarot is something I've been working with for over 30 years. And my practice as an artist and a dancer and a witch has all influenced how I work with the tarot. And so after all this time in teaching Tarot, people are like, oh, you know, what your your approach is so different. And what it is is looking at math and the numbers, the rhythms and the patterns, uh, which is going back to communication, right? When we uh when we get a message, uh, whether it's from cardamancy or tarot or runes or whatever it is, we're looking at deciphering the patterns of the universe. And when you start to observe nature, you notice that nature moves in patterns and math and magic, music, all of those things are interrelated. So in Tarot by Tempest, I bring that challenging, uh, the challenging trio of art and math and movement together to help folks understand the tarot. hether it's the the numbers that you find in the cards or looking at the colors and the patterns, or zooming in, if you will, at the uh paying attention to the bodies, you know, how the positions and poses are. And mimicking those or working them through your own body can also help dive deeper into that divination and recognize the patterns because we are weaving the liminal, right? And that that is a sense of creating rhythm and pattern and where we've been, where we're going, uh, what's happening right now. That's what we use tarot for. Hermes is both a trickster and a magician. And I'm guessing, as a Gemini witch, that you have some interesting insights into that renowned Gemini sense of humor and how this can enhance our magic.

Laura 36:29

In terms of humor, I really believe that when you're working and living a magical life, that if you do not have a sense of humor, the universe is going to let you know and probably pummel you about it until you're like, oh, I get it. I get it now. I'm always looking for a little bit of silliness in humor because I don't think we can take everything so seriously. Like I take my practice seriously, but I try not to take myself too seriously. And it's true in my teaching, I think that people relax more when you're a little bit more playful. And they absorb more, they learn more, and realize that we again it doesn't have to be perfect and it doesn't have to be so complex and so advanced. I think that the simpler you get and the more light uh in terms of humor uh and creativity, then that's actually more an advanced practice than to go dark and deep and so serious.

Wendy 37:35

Thank you so much to Laura. I will, of course, put all the information about Laura and her work in my show notes and links to her website, where you can find her books, her visual art, her oracle decks, so that we can continue to learn from this amazing person. Thank you so much, Laura.

Wendy's Relationship with Hermes

Wendy 38:06

I'd like to share a little bit about my personal relationship with Hermes. I was born when the Moon was in Gemini. So born under a Scorpio Sun and a Gemini Moon, and I feel a really strong affinity with this Gemini energy. And it might seem that how can my Scorpio self and my Gemini self align when they seem so challengingly different? That intense Scorpio need to be deep and focused, and then that Gemini need for constant intellectual stimulation, this lateral spread, this need to learn and to know. Well, now of course I see that connection clearly. It's that Gemini moon that helps me communicate all this deep Scorpio stuff, my love of the cycles of life and death, of darkness and light. It's that Gemini Moon, that Hermes energy that connects me with music, like Hermes did with inventing the lyre. And through that music, I channel my Magic and my love of travel, and I really do love travel. I'm always planning the next adventure on my way home from the last. However exhausting it is, I still love to be on the road, discovering new things, seeing what's around the corner. And I have a really deep love of reading and of studying too. I've always loved reading. I actually remember the moment as a kid that I got it, that the secret code of the written word, you know, that mum would be reading me bedtime stories and showing me the pictures. And then I remember when I picked up a book by myself, I don't know how old I was, young, three or four, and the book was called Ant and Bee and the Rainbow. And I picked it up by myself, and I got it. I read it, and it was, I couldn't believe it. It was so exciting. And then, you know, I was totally hooked. Like I've always loved reading. I actually, you know, that's what I got my degree in is literature. Always fascinated with the written word. And then I guess about 10 years ago, I started studying Greek. I'm still a pretty dedicated student of modern Greek, and I felt that same thing happen. I'd learnt the Greek alphabet in preparation for visiting Greece the very first time and could kind of get excited about being able to decipher words like pharmacy or taxi or whatever with a few different letters. But then there was this point where I could read a page of Greek script. And honestly, I felt like Indiana Jones could have been the Rosetta Stone, you know, or cuneiform or whatever. I was so excited. This code that was suddenly available to me. Definitely not fluid in Greek, but I'm learning and I'm loving the process of learning. There's another thing that I think is really mercurial about language, and that is tongue twisters. Language as play. I think tongue twisters are hilarious, and they're designed to trip you up. That's what Mercury is often doing. Kind of having a good laugh when we mess up. Ok I'm going to try a couple. Let's see how I go: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickle peppers Peter Piper picked? I got that in one go. Alright, now this one, much more dangerous. I'm not a pheasant plucker, I'm a pheasant plucker's son, and I'll keep on plucking pheasants till the pheasant plucking's done. Just got through that one. Okay, here's a little game I remember inventing as a kid with my strange little mercurial mind. You know how we can recite the alphabet? A, B, C, D, E, F, G. We can do it quickly, A, B, C, D, F, G, etc. I taught myself to devise this game of saying the alphabet in lowercase really quickly. So instead of A B C it's A. Alright, check this out. It's my party trick..... yes, all right, enough of my silliness.

The Shadow Side of Hermes

Wendy 43:02

I want to talk quickly too about the shadow side of this mercurial energy, that clever mind that wants to keep exploring, keep learning. Well, sometimes it can mean that our mind is racing and scattered and too busy and unfocused. It can be having a million books on your bedside table, but never finishing one. This sense of being spread too thin. And the antidote to this is to slow our minds down, and we can do that with meditation, with breathing, with ritual, sometimes even with movement. So it's not just our mind churning and churning and churning. And the shadow side of Gemini, which I kind of mentioned earlier in regards to the merchant quality that commercial side of Hermes is the dodgy trickster, the one who's trying to rip you off, the scammer. When Hermes is operating well, he's the genuine guide who is helping you on your journey. But that same energy can be twisted and misused into the energy of the cheat, of the liar, of the trickster. And this grifter energy can be very charismatic. That's why it works. There's a fantastic representation of this charismatic trickster in the TV series called Better Call Saul, the spinoff of Breaking Bad. The character of Saul is a perfect example of this dark side of Hermes. He's still kind of lovable, but he's a complete grifter. The character he creates called Slipping Jimmy that fakes accidents to then be able to make insurance claims and get paid out for them. Someone is suffering at his expense in the same way that Apollo suffered when Hermes stole his cattle. But somehow he gets away with it. Somehow we still end up on his side.

Modern Tricksters

Wendy 46:03

There's also some really great representations, very positive representations of Hermes in modern culture. I think Willie Wonka is a fantastic representation of Hermes. Hilarious, kind of puts you on edge, takes us to a different realm that's outside of the normal rules of society, and then plays some games, some kind of trickster games, confuses us. There's no earthly way of knowing which direction we are going. Another great example of this mercurial energy is the character of Han Solo in the Star Wars series. Han Solo has so many of those mercurial qualities. First of all, he's a smuggler, so there's that trickster energy, and it's to do with commerce. And he's hilarious and cute. And he's, you know, a rule breaker. He even says of himself that he can talk his way out of any situation. You know, he's really clever. And I think, too, he carries that little symbol, those little gold hanging dice of that mercurial energy of luck, of chance, of possibility. That's like the windfall, the Ermaeon, that ladyluck energy. That's Hermes, too. It's a very charismatic energy, that lovable rogue. So yeah, maybe have a think about where else you're seeing this mercurial energy turn up in your life, in your friends and family. I think having an acceptance and understanding that this trickster energy really is part of so many different cultures. It's part of the human story, it can bring a bit more understanding and acceptance of mercurial people in our lives. That the gift that they bring is change, is excitement, and sometimes is upheaval too. I'm not saying we should accept all the shisty trickster stuff, but that need for freedom and change is very real in mercurial people. I think we need to honor that.

Connect with Hermes

Wendy 48:47

If we want to honour Hermes in our lives, we can do that through writing, journalling, through play. Through lightening up, allowing times in our life for silliness. We can tap into this energy whenever we travel. We can read and learn and study and grow. That doesn't have to be through any kind of conventional education system either. So many exciting minds are self-taught. This energy of Hermes, this love of learning, doesn't have to be expressed through getting degrees or higher education or anything like that. It can be. It doesn't have to be. Hermes is a rule breaker. With access to the internet, to a library, we can learn anything that we want to. And Hermes encourages that. Feed your mind, learn, grow, exchange that information.

Breathwork To Calm The Mind

Wendy 50:01

Before we do our tarot reading for this episode, let's take a moment to get ourselves into the zone and with our focus on the Alement of Air, let's simply turn our attention to the breath and use the breath itself to slow our minds. When our minds are racing, when thoughts are taking over, we can turn our attention to the breath, and it can help to soothe our minds. Let's try it for a moment. Consciously feeling the flow of inhalation in through your nose and at your own pace out through your mouth. Consciously soften your shoulders, your throat, your jaw, your eyes. See if you can just let go for a moment, breathing in and breathing out. Letting that exhale be nice and slow, soft shoulders rolling back and down, letting go of all that tension in your throat, your chest, and letting the breath lead you to center.

Tarot Reading

Wendy 51:44

Alright, let's shuffle these cards, shall we? Let's see what the god Hermes can teach us as this moon is waning toward the Gemini dark. It is the Seven of Pentacles. Lots of possibilities here, but a choice needs to be made. I'm reading from the Smith Rider Waite deck. We see a person standing looking at a very plentiful and bountiful plant or crop, and it's covered in these golden discs with stars on it, which are the pentacle, and the pentacle always speaks of the element of earth. So it looks like this person has been working hard, digging their land, and now they've isolated one of these pentacles and it's standing between his feet, is leaning on his staff. I'm saying he because it's a picture of a man, but of course, you know, be, she, they, and they are gazing at the remaining six pentacles, these six possibilities, but they've isolated one. A choice has been made, and seven in the tarot often speaks of choice. Well, I think in this context, considering we have been talking about the gifts of the mind, of communication, that it's about a choice of where we put our energy, our focus, where are our thoughts going? What do we need to actually concentrate on? In a way, it kind of speaks to that shadow side of the Gemini gifts of having a lot going on. But this is saying, no, a choice needs to be made now. Focus on one thing at a time. Then it isn't going to be overwhelming. It's an earth card that we pulled, not an air card. So it's reminding us that we also need to ground our thoughts and our choices in the physical world, that we need to take action on our thoughts. So there's all these possibilities, and there is a sense of bounty, of success. It's a great harvest. A lot of work has gone on beforehand to be able to manifest this very rich harvest. But now it's saying, well, you can't work on all of them at once. You need to focus on one thing. What's that one thing going to be? So we can use these techniques of Hermes, of Mercury, of focusing our mind, of communicating clearly, of learning, of growing, and maybe of doing some magic and ritual around this. It does look on this card like he's taking a moment's rest to fully consider where his energy is now going to go. So maybe that's what we need to do as this Moon is waning toward the Gemini Dark, to begin focusing. What is it that truly needs our attention, to not spread ourselves too thin, to maybe say no to some of the things that are on offer so that we can give our full and undivided attention to what really needs it right now.

Blessing And Farewell

Speaker 55:37

Thanks once again for tuning in, folks, and I'm looking forward to the next adventure with you in a couple of weeks. Until then, Blessed Be.