Hermes Runs the Game

In this brilliant, original and disturbing book, the author links Greek gods and archetypes, especially that of Hermes, with the events of the last 25 years, and especially those since 2020 involving global deceit, subversion, tight narrative control and divisive psychological operations based on false dichotomies – of which many people are still unaware. Stephen spent a decade studying at a traditional yoga centre, with an infusion of ancient Indian and Greek philosophy – the latter very much in evidence here and beautifully illustrated with many vases and other artefacts. Ancient Greek philosophy is in fact a form of European indigenous wisdom with its own systems of initiation into the mysteries. Hermes is a multifaceted figure characterised as trickster, psychopomp (guide of souls), of travel, borders, technology, and communication – transgression also makes Hermes the patron of thieves, tricksters and gamblers, connecting with the goddess Metis ruling over navigational cunning and stealth.

The themes of inversion and sacrifice run through the analysis, beginning with the inversion of rationalism and mysticism by Plato, as explained in detail in the work of Peter Kingsley, which I have reviewed in these pages. Like Kingsley and McGilchrist, Stephen laments the decay of Western civilisation with the loss of its original connection to its source, of symbolic, mythological and analogical thought, and therefore of morality rooted in spiritual vision. Consensus reality is a function of authoritative narratives mediated by language, and Stephen reminds us that we in the West live within a myth of scientific materialism and rationalism, which educated elites take entirely for granted. He is hard-hitting in his analysis of Covid messaging and of sophisticated use of behavioural psychology in nudging us towards compliance and conformity, where we were encouraged to trade our soul and body for a so-called normal life. Freedom became conditional on obedience.

Since the advent of propaganda and mass media in the 1920s, the general public has been exposed to a barrage of persuasive advertising conveying the idea that material acquisition can lead to happiness. Since World War II, these techniques have been developed in an unholy alliance between psychiatry and the intelligence services, especially the CIA with its 1950s programme MK-Ultra (they funded the famous studies on obedience by Stanley Milgrom at Stanford) and its infiltration of mainstream media with intelligence operatives in Operation Mockingbird. The most sinister aspect of such conditioning to which a whole chapter is devoted is the deliberate use of rape, torture and drugs, reinforced through psychologically abusive programming and deprivations – all this is documented by survivors, with references provided. (p. 15, pp. 221-247) None of this appears on the mainstream public radar, so most people are entirely unaware of this outrageous underbelly.

At a societal level, a series of public traumas beginning with 9/11 and the staged anthrax attacks have kept us in a state of chronic anxiety and fear and therefore more susceptible to control and passive acceptance of loss of civil liberties in the name of safety and security (see States of Emergency by Kees van der Pijl). On the outside edge of credibility for most people is Stephen's linking of fires and floods to weather manipulation and directed energy weapons – both used to drive a causal connection between human activity and climate change (ironically, these two activities are undoubtedly human). Stephen asked if a true ritual of freedom can be extracted from the inverted ritual of domination: 'Can we, learning from Hermes, out-trick the inverted life – into – death – into – more – death initiation of the technocrats and be twice-born – that is, life into – death – into – true – living – and become fully-human, fully-divine.' (p. 25)

Interestingly, the Greek pharmakon denoted both medicines and poisons (the symbolism of the snake also involves both poisoning from venom and healing), while the related pharmakos means scapegoat – drugs are known to have negative 'side-effects', as Stephen documents in the case of the Covid shots (pp. 40 ff.) – this will be well-known to some readers and less so to others as the whole topic has been off-limits for most governments, partly because of the extent of potential payments for injuries (these are my personal views based on my own independent research). Stephen points out that many of the reported effects are related to blood (Steiner maintained that blood represents the life-force), such as clotting, myocarditis and the strange twisted fibres found in corpses by morticians (pp. 194 ff.) Significantly, blood is traditionally associated with all forms of human sacrifice – also symbolically in Christianity (p. 233). He speculates quoting Elana Freeland that these may be related to the presence of graphene and synthetic proteins behaving like nanosized machines. Beyond this, there is a great deal of historical detail about the history and patterns of animal sacrifice in Greek culture as a background to human sacrifice and its relation to contemporary child abuse with its Satanic ritual overtones. At the very least, there needs to be much more thorough an open investigation into missing children and child trafficking (also in Ukraine).

The third part describes the light of initiation with its birth> death> rebirth structure. This takes various forms, including confirmation and bar-mitzvah, then initiation into secret societies with an undercurrent of worldly influence and control, then transformational mystic and shamanic initiations. A separate chapter is devoted to Plato's Symposium and the figure of Diotima. Drawing on the work of his friend Peter Kingsley, Stephen explains Plato's undermining of Parmenides, replacing mystical being with philosophy as rationality; the mind needs to be brought to stillness and transcended. Interestingly, Steiner shares Plato's conflation of the rational with the mystical, replacing 'the radical unity of Parmenides' being with the quasi-existent Forms, as abstract ideals.' The way to truth is no longer through altered states of consciousness, but rather through thinking. The modern psychedelic renaissance is reversing this trend. (p. 284)

The chapter on the shadowless living light is the most profound, linking initiation and sacrifice through death, where the mystical sacrifice is that of the ego in order to allow communion with the holy: 'one cannot separate initiation and death. Sacrifice of self equals initiatory death.' Stephen provides a remarkable equation based on the prologue of the Gospel of John: 'the Logos is the Theos is the Phos (Light) is Zoe (Life) is Aletheia (Truth).' (p. 297) He argues that both Hermes and Christ are incarnations of the logos, and there are statues of Hermes carrying a ram (cf Christ as Shepherd and the Lamb of God).

The heart of the matter is expressed by the Sufi Mystic Ibn Arabi, which is worth quoting in full:

'Listen, O dearly Beloved! I am the reality of the world, the centre of the circumference, I am the parts and the whole. I am the will established between Heaven and Earth, I have created perception in you only in order to be the object of my perception.

If then you perceive me, you perceive yourself. But you cannot perceive me through yourself. It is through my eyes that you see me and see yourself, Through your eyes you cannot see me.' (p. 305)

In other words, being or light or consciousness is the only reality understood by Greek initiates in the stillness of hesychia. Our personality or self is therefore a construct of being and consciousness that are intrinsically real. Hence Kingsley saying that 'understanding the illusion only comes after the understanding of reality, not before… there is no deception apart from reality, and no reality apart from deception. The deception Is what is real.' (p. 308 from his book Reality) A deceptive narrative can seem entirely real to those who accept it.

Empedocles goes a step further in characterising the two complementary principles of Love as binding and Strife as liberating. In becoming absolute stillness, 'the delusion forgets you because you no longer interact with it, and when it disappears, and you along with it, what remains is the true ground of being, reality itself.' For Hazrat Inayat Khan, the veil of darkness brought him to light and to the realisation 'that all souls are my soul, and my soul is the soul of all.' Walter Russell, also quoted, arrived at the same conclusion: 'God is Light. God is Universal Mind. Mind is Light. Mind knows…' Then Iamblichus: 'The world as a whole, spatially divided as it is, brings about division throughout itself of the single, indivisible light of the gods.' (p. 314)

The human paradox or duality is that we live as both human and divine, a point also made by Jeff Kripal – the social ego and the Divine, the human and superhuman. There is a fascinating appendix detailing Rudolph Steiner's prophecies for the 21st century, especially the nature of the adversary forces of Lucifer and Ahriman that seek to demoralise and materialise us, so that we are now in the situation, according to Michael Minnicino, where 'we either create a Renaissance – of the fundamental principles upon which civilisation originated – or our civilisation dies.' I agree. Steiner maintained that there has been a concerted effort – in our own time by global technocrats advocating the soulless merging of human and machine partly through AI so as to control our inner landscape – to steer us away from our inherent divine connection that is our true human fulfilment by achieving cosmic consciousness. A truly bold and illuminating study.