Hermanubis

The name "Hermanubis" is a Hellenistic fusion, combining "Hermes" (Greek for messenger, guide, and psychopomp) with "Anubis" (Egyptian god of mummification and the afterlife). This composite deity emerged during the Ptolemaic period in Egypt, reflecting the cultural exchange between Greek and Egyptian traditions.

Or Hermes Anubis "the revealer of the mysteries of the lower world" — not of Hell or Hades as interpreted, but of our Earth (the lowest world of the Septenary chain of worlds) — and also of the sexual mysteries. Creuzer must have guessed at tiie truth of the right interpretation, as he calls Anubis-Thoth-Hermes "a symbol of science and of the intellectual world". He was always represented with a cross in his hand, one of the earliest symbols of the mystery of generation, or procreation on this earth. In the Chaldean Kabbala (Book of Niimhcrs) the Tat symbol, or +, is referred to as Adam and Eve, the latter being the transverse or horizontal bar drawn out of the side (or rib) of JIadam, the perpendicular bar. Tiie fact is that, esoterically, Adam and Eve while representing the early third Root Race — those who, being still mindless, imitated the animals and degraded them.selves with the latter — stand also as the dual symbol of the sexes. Hence Anubis, the Egyptian god of generation, is rei)resented with the head of an animal, a dog or a jackal, and is also said to be the "Lord of the under world" or "Hades" into which he introduces the souls of the (lead (the reincarnating entities), for Hades is in one sense tiie womb, as some of the wi-itings of the Church Fathers fully show'.

The figure of Hermanubis, a fascinating confluence of Hellenic and Nile Valley mythos, offers a potent lens through which to view the perennial human quest for meaning within the seemingly mundane. Blavatsky, in her characteristic expansive vision, points to him as "the revealer of the mysteries of the lower world," a phrase that immediately challenges our modern, often dualistic, apprehension of reality. The "lower world" here is not the infernal abyss of later Christian theology, but rather our terrestrial plane, the very ground of our embodied experience.

This interpretation aligns with the Hermetic axiom "As above, so below," suggesting that the secrets of the cosmos are mirrored in the processes of our Earth, including, as Blavatsky notes, "the sexual mysteries." Anubis, the jackal-headed guardian of the necropolis and guide of souls through the Duat, represents the profound transformations inherent in life and death, decay and rebirth. When yoked with Hermes, the nimble messenger of the gods, the psychopomp, and the patron of alchemists and magicians, Hermanubis becomes the divine intermediary who facilitates not just passage, but understanding. He is the one who can illuminate the generative forces at play in the material world, the cosmic dance of creation and dissolution that animates all existence.

The cross he is depicted holding, a symbol of generation, further underscores this connection to the fertile, creative power of the Earth. This is not a passive reverence for the material, but an active engagement with its inherent dynamism and its capacity to reveal deeper truths. Mircea Eliade, in his seminal work on shamanism and the archaic techniques of ecstasy, would likely see in Hermanubis a figure akin to the shamanic mediator, one who moves between states of consciousness and realms of existence to bring back knowledge that can heal and transform. Carl Jung's exploration of the anima and animus, the archetypal masculine and feminine principles, also finds a resonance here, as Hermanubis can be seen as embodying the integration of these forces, essential for wholeness. For the modern seeker, Hermanubis invites us to see the sacred not as something separate from our earthly lives, but as intrinsically woven into its very fabric, waiting to be unveiled through attentive observation and spiritual inquiry. He reminds us that the greatest mysteries may be found not in distant heavens, but in the fertile soil beneath our feet and the intimate cycles of our own being.

RELATED_TERMS: Hermes Trismegistus, Anubis, Gnosis, Alchemy, Psychopomp, Theurgy, Syncretism, Mysteries