HERCULES THE LEGEND AND THE MOVIE

HERCULES-HERACLES A SUPER HERO!


Hercules-Heracles, among all the Greek heroes and Gods, was a real super-hero. He defeated monsters and great warriors and  the most amazing thing of all was: THE TWELVE LABORS! Maybe no other Greek god or hero is as famous as Hercules. Let's talk about his deeds and labors.

Hercules that was the name given to the Greek Heracles. He had to achieve amazing things. Several movies had been made depicting his glory and fame. Usually he is shown as a body builder with huge muscles; but his strength was not physical. It was a spiritual strength, same as Samson in the Bible.

 He had to fight against two serpents when he was a baby. His whole life was full of challenges. Never a regular human being could ever do all the great tasks he did. Yes, he was the son of Zeus and had his genes.

Fighting against the serpents when he was a baby means the need of fighting against the negative serpent (Desire). Heroes have self-control and therefore, they control their own desires. That is the path to become a great hero. That serpent is the serpent that was in the Garden in Genesis. We all must fight it and defeat it. Hercules did it at the very beginning of his path.

Do not ever take the symbols as they are. We need to understand the meaning, otherwise they lack sense. I tell more about Hercules on the article: GREEK HEROES AND GODS or HEROES IN MYTHS, IN ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS AN DIN MODERN LIFE (Both links at the bottom)

Hercules-Heracles is maybe tone of the most favorite ancient heroes and we could even say he is a super hero. Some people belief he is more than a myth and actually a real human whose life was depicted in a mythological way. Actually, I am one of them. All those great heroes of ancient mythology were real, but their lives were depicted in a symbolic way.

Check these movies:

HERCULES (English):

HERCULES (Spanish)


The great hero had to pass several trials to become the kind of hero he was. They were the 12 labors:

1> THE NEMEAN LION.

   The lion is a symbol of strength, power and authority. It is ancient symbol of the law. All the traditions say we fell and were expelled form the Golden Age. That fault comes with us and we keep making many mistakes; usually because we do not know the laws of the universe. So, we need to pay our debts. Fighting the lion means fighting the law with good deeds. How can any body deserve to get a superior level of spirituality if that person has debts with the law? First is the first: You most pay your mistakes and faults before any superior advance.


2> THE LEMAEN HYDRA.
   That evil monster was just a symbol and not a real monster. It is Mara in Buddhism. It represents the mind. All those heads coming out from the Hydra are our thoughts. Controlling the mind is essential to fulfill the other tasks. Otherwise, your mind will make you weak in front of harder deeds. A mind without control is under the power of the senses and therefore, under the power of Illusion. How can you see the difference between being under illusion and not being under it? There is not way if you are under the power of the mind.


3> THE GOLDEN HIND OF CERYNEIA.
   Here Hercules most get the Pet of Diana without hurting it. Hercules most strike it with his arrows, but without hurting it. This task needs perfect concentration.In other words, a perfect control of the mind. Now you can understand why controlling the mind is so important. it was a task of pure mental control. Once a person has that then he/she is ready for the great deeds!

4> THE ERYMANTHIAN BOAR.
   The boar is a symbol of wild instincts. We all should control those instincts to be more human. Violence, hatred, revenge, anger, etc. are so destructive; but we all have some of them. Just check the world. Violence is everywhere. So in order to achieve spiritual development we have to control our behavior, our instincts.

5> THE AUGEAN STABLES.
   This is a great representation of the mind in a state of total chaos. We need to purify our mind. First we need to control it; but then we need to clean it from all those horrible negative thoughts. The root of a bad behavior comes from negative thoughts. Revenge comes to you r mind first, then you act.

6> THE STYMPHALIAN BIRDS.
   The birds represent thoughts. See? first you control the mind, then you clean your mind from negative thoughts; but these thoughts are deep down into the subconscious. Either you defeat them or they defeat you.  Athena, the goddess of wisdom, comes to help Hercules. This task requires all the intelligence and real wisdom to be fulfilled.

7> THE CRETEAN BULL.
    The bull is a symbol of power. Nevertheless, power can destroy your values. It does not matter how strong you are, you should always keep in mind that arrogance can destroy your relationships and admiration. control the bull with humbleness and kindness.

8> THE MARES OF DIOMEDES.
   These animals symbolize animal passions hidden within each human being. Controlling them is important for the inner development.

9> THE GIRDLE OF HIPPOLYTE.
   Hippolyte was queen of the Amazons, the great women warriors.Ares, the god of war, give that belt to Hippolyte. Hercules with other warriors went to visit her. The queen of the amazons received Hercules; but the goddess Hera told the amazons that Hercules was coming for their queen. So they went ready to fight. Heracles killed the queen before he was attacked and he took the belt after a great fight.
The belt is an ancient symbol of control of inner energies. this is a representation on dissolving any desire related to losing energies.

10> THE CATTLE OF THE MONSTER GERVON.
   In order to take the herd, Herrcules had to fight Orhtus, brother of Ceverrus. Orthus was a two headed dog. But the great hero defeat him easily. It was not too hard to get the herd, but the real task was to take them back to Greece. He had several problems to do so. One bull escaped and it was taken by king Eryx. Heracles had to fight against him to get the bull. Finally he accomplished the task.
Here Heracles is teaching us perseverance to defeat any obstacle.

11> THE APPLE OF HESPERIDES.
The Golden Apples that had the power to become immortal to the person who eats them. Sounds amazing, right? Well, our hero had to get some apples on this labor; but he did not know where they were. He was looking for them all around. He found Prometheus, the one who took the fire from the gods. He told Heracles to get Atlas to go for the apples. So Hercules asked that favor to Atlas. the latter accepted if Hercules could hold the world while he go for the golden fruits. The great hero accepted. Atlas came back with the apples; but he said he would take them to Eurystheus himself. Heracles did not refused the offer; but he asked Atlas to hold the world so he could put some pads on his own shoulders. Atlas grabbed the world back again and, of course, Hercules went away.
A great lesson that shows Hercules was not foll at all. These apples represents the real wisdom and the power that comes from wisdom. It takes a lot of courage and effort to get them. That is why not many wise men are around.

12> BRINGING CERBERUS FROM THE UNDER-WORLD.
Cerberus, the horrible dog with three heads living in the underworld, was the most important and dangerous task for our hero. The idea was bringing Cerberus from Hades to the world of the living beings. Nobody came back alive after going into the underworld. Hercules had to prepare himself for the battle. The great Heracles passed through the Eleusinian Mysteries before starting this labor. Why? Because he need extra power to face such a beast.It is easy to picture it was a really awesome fight; but Hercules defeat the beast and took it to Eurystheus.
Cerberus is a symbol of the inner and deepest desires of any human being. Those deep desires are in the subconscious. A real hero needs to understand those deep desires, in other words, he needs to purify the subconscious. Just after that he becomes a real hero.

All these twelve labors are just mere symbols teaching us the need to change our way of life. They teach us about courage and boldness. They are telling us about the fight for success. Yes, we do not need to fight big monsters or beasts; we do not need to look for Golden Apples. But we need to overcome our own fear and traumas; we need to face our negative thoughts and negative emotions. We really need to find what is holding us back.

The great ancient myths are not just mere tales for kids. Actually thy are for adults able to understand them and ready to change the way of life that we have. We all are entitle to have a better world; but it will never happen if we keep the path of our lives without any change. The whole world is a mess and it is up to us to build a better world.





MORE FROM CULWISDOM:

PLATO: THE ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE!

GREEK HEROES AND GODS.

HEROES IN MYTHS, IN ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS AND IN MODERN LIFE

ZEUS-JUPITER: THE FATHER OF THE GODS.

ZEUS-JUPITER: THE FATHER OF THE GODS.

Greek myths of heroes and gods are awesome. They are really immortal because we talk about them over and over. Zeus (Jupiter for the Romans) is the greatest and usually the most not understood god. He is depicted so human that it is easy to think he was human or even less than human. He is depicted so human that it is easy to think he was human or even less than human. All the stories about being a lover boy and chasing mortal women give him a bad reputation.but... Did you ever think of its meaning?

 How can anyone think he was doing that in a literal way? If he were doing that he could not be a god and even less the Father of the Gods.

It could be easy to copy the myths and say something like "Well, that was the way gods were." But smart people goes beyond the literal meaning. My blogs are for open minded people and for those searching for something different.

What a great title: The Father of the Gods. Isn't it?

What all these myths mean? let's see...

MEANING OF MYTHS, SYMBOLS AND PARABLES

WHY WISDOM IS NOT CLEAR OR DIRECT?

Wisdom is for everybody, but it is not for everybody. Wisdom comes to all human beings, but not all of them are able to understand it.
You can explain whatever you want to everybody, but we, teachers, know that not everybody understands what we explain. It takes a special faculty to grab knowledge and make it part of our life.
Well, if not everybody can understand wisdom then, how can we help those who are not able to understand it? The answer is really simple: Explain them what is enough for their level of understanding.

Obviously we can teach basic mathematics to kids, but when they are ready we can explain them algebra and later calculus and so on. The more they know the most they understand. Easy, right?

Well, MYTHS, SYMBOLS, PARABLES WERE MADE FOR THOSE WHO ARE NOT READY FOR THE WHOLE TRUTH; BUT THE DEEP MEANING OF THEM ARE FOR THOSE WHO ARE READY AND ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THAT HAT IS REAL WISDOM.

Those who are not ready for the real thing will be happy with the literal understanding without a real analysis of the meaning. Those people take everything in a literal way. They believe the planet was made in 7 days and men were created from mud just because the Bible says so. But how a planet can be created in 7 days when all the planets in the universe took millions of year to be formed? How can a toy of mud become alive? How can people believe that? Those are tales for kids. Please, note this: I AM NOT SAYING THE BIBLE IS TELLING LIES. I AM SAYING: DO NOT TAKE THE MYTHS, SYMBOLS AND PARABLES IN A LITERAL WAY. I explain some of these meaning on my blogs. Just check around and find them.

THE MATTER OF A SYMBOL, A MYTH AND A PARABLE IS THE MEANING. Symbols, myths and parables are only tools to express a high wisdom, actually I mean the original wisdom. The wisdom that ancient Masters like Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Quetzalcoatl, etc. had.

Whoever takes all these symbols in a literal way is making a huge mistake. Wisdom does not depend on interpretations. Wisdom requires a special language for those able to understand it.

Myths are talking about real things, but is a very symbolic way. Those Greek heroes are telling us about real deeds we all can do, but those monsters that were killed by Hercules, Perseus, etc. are just representations of tasks we all have to fulfill in order to get a higher level of consciousness. The serpent (My favorite symbol) has many meanings that I explain on the article: THE MEANING OF THE SERPENT (Check for link on the bottom).

Parables, myths and symbols are a language understood by...

HEROES IN MYTHS, IN ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS AND IN MODERN LIFE.

INTRODUCTION.

Greek heroes like Hercules and Perseus inspire many lives. Thor and the great Nordics gods too. The myths of heroes and gods have a magical touch that make us love them mover and mover. Heroes are everywhere in ancient civilizations and nowadays we have the modern super-heroes to entertain us.  Actually modern super-heroes come from the idea of ancient heroes and gods from mythology.

Heroes inspire our life. We always need someone to trust, someone who is an example for us. We love heroes and heroines too. Life without them could be really meaningless.

Heroes from our ancient past inspired many generations. Their deeds were told everywhere and when time passes by they became myths. It does not mean they did not exist. It means their life was left to us as mythological. Why? Simple, the art of decoding the great realities is written in symbols. It is never told in a mere profane language. 

All ancient cultures had a great knowledge or wisdom for the high hierarchies and priests.  Regular people had not the knowledge to understand real wisdom. It had always been that way. 

Hercules, Perseus, Thor, Quetzalcoatl, etc. existed. They are not mere myths, but their deeds were written in symbols and they became myths.

One example: Buddha. It is said when he was born he talked and explain what he was coming for. Moreover, he gave seven steps and from each step lotus flowers came out from the ground. How can we take that in a literal way? There is no way I could believe that happen as it was written. Nevertheless, I do not say it is a lie. I say it is written in a symbolic way. The “talking” represents the higher level of consciousness that being had. In ancient times, the power of talking was a symbol of intelligence and power. Those seven steps represent the seven chakras, which he had worked in past lives and he is bringing to this new life to become THE BUDDHA, THE AWAKEN ONE!

Now let’s talk about some heroes from different cultures, from those great civilizations.

THE MIGHTY HERCULES:

No, he was not a body builder. That strength represents a spiritual strength and not a physical one.  Nature has one law: THE STRONGEST SURVIVE! The spiritual path is a natural path and therefore it has the same law.

SAINT VALENTINE’S DAY.

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION.

It is a very popular day in the modern era. Nevertheless it started in the Anglo-Saxon countries, but it extended to the whole world, especially now with the internet. There are several theories about how this celebration started. Well, in the Nordic countries birds start to mate and form it this period of the year is related to love and/or creation. Eventually the “Day of Love” became the “Day of Love and Friendship.”

Esther A. Howland started, in 1840, to sale cards which were called “Valentines.” Now day because of our technology we can send ecards, which are very popular. She was using drawings of  Cupid (The Roman god of love) or hearts.

Aphrodite and Eros were the gods of love, in the Greek mythology. They were Venus and Cupid, for the Romans. LOVE IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND POWERFUL FORCE IN THE UNIVERSE, BUT JUST A FEW PERSONS CAN UNDERSTAND THEM AND FEELTHEM AS THEY ARE! That is why myths have that powerful attraction to the great souls! Read this article: MYTHS OF LOVE.

 Here you have some alternatives for free Valentine’s cards: egreetings, dayspring and ecardia (Just click on any of them and you can send a nice ecard to the one you love):

Egreetings

Daysrping

Ecardica

 SAINT VALENTINE!

Who was Saint Valentine? Actually the question should be: Who WERE Saint Valentines? According to history there were several of them: Valentine of Rome (Valentinus presb. m. Romae) and Valentine of Terni (Valentinus ep. Interamnensis m. Romae) and a third one was killed in Africa on Februray 14. They had been martyred!!!

The soldiers were prohibited, in the III century, to get married because the empire wanted them to be single, so they could battle without emotional affections.  Nevertheless; Valentine of Terni, it is said, used to marry the soldiers in secrecy. Valentine was sent to jail and sentenced to death when  Claudious II, the Emperor of Rome, knew it.

 It seems that those saints had nothing to do with love, at least not the way we celebrate now days. Maybe they were known as saints who spoke about love more than usual or in a very beautiful and particular way.

HOW DO WE CELEBRATE AND WHEN?

Most of the countries celebrate that especial date on FEBRUARY 14, but some countries have another date.  Brazil, for example, celebrates it on June 21; Chile on July 20; Egypt on November 4; China on the seventh day of the seventh month of the Chinese year (Lunar calendar) and in Japan this celebration has two dates: One in February 14 when women give a gift to men and then on the next month men give a present to women (Chocolate is the usual gift given on both dates)

More details? Check this: VALENTINE’S DAY.

IS SANVALENTINE’S DAY A COMMERCIAL DAY?

Now days everything is commercial even Christmas, but it does not mean you should not celebrate it. Actually, you must be grateful if you have someone to love and if you are loved. What else can be better than that?

It does not matter is the celebration became an economic celebration; the matter is to show your sympathy or love for someone. Many people see the economic influence, especially from USA; but the fact is: YOU SHOULD CELEBRATE A SAINT VALENTINE EVERYDAY, YOU SHOULD BE GLAD TO HAVE SOMEONE TO LOVE EVERYDAY. Well, at least one day can remind you about how lucky you are.

So do not stop or refrain from getting something nice and pretty for the sweet heart you have. Instead hurry up and get something good to show how grateful you are to have that especial person!

So, it is better not to forget about that person who is the owner of your heart!

SHOW YOUR APPRECIATION TO THAT PERSON EVERYDAY!



GIRLS AND LOVE:

LOVE IS SHARING AND CARING.

LOVE TAKES YOU OUT OF THE BOX!

LOVE IS ALL WHAT WE NEED!

SHOW YOUR LOVE AND BE PROUD OF IT!  

LIFE WITHOUT LOVE IS NOT LIFE.

LOVE IS THE MOST AMAZING FEELING!

LOVE IS BEYOND AGE, RACE AND BELIEFS.

LOVE IS NOT A GAME.

IF YO GOT A GIRL YOU HAVE TO LOVE HER.

ALL GIRLS DESERVE RESPECT AND LOVE

GIRLS ARE ANGELS. THEY DESERVE TRUE LOVE.

ALL GIRLS ARE LIVING DREAMS!

LOVE ALL GIRLS BECAUSE THEY DESERVE THAT!

MY HEART HAS ONLY ONE RULE: MAKE YOU HAPPY!

 CULWISDOM.

MORE FROM CULWISDOM:

REAL LOVE: CUPID AND VENUS.

MYTHS OF LOVE.

GODDESS AND WOMEN.