Jack and the Beanstalk

[macausland]

Or as they say in Scotland: 'We're all Jock Thomson's bairns'.

[spiral]

Or as they say in Scotland: 'We're all Jock Thomson's bairns'.

You typed those words right from my keyboard.

[spiral]

Back to Hermes and the caduceus.

I must admit that I find it difficult to add anything about the caduceus. Maybe it's a blind spot. We all all have blind spots, we look at a problem we just can't solve it. There is lots about the caduceus in TME, something about "morris dancing" and "binding testicles".

I have my doubts.

Still I can't argue, normally I like to prove Harper and Vered wrong by a staged reconstruction, I believe it is known in the trade as experimental archaeology, but on this occasion I confess I "bottled" it.....

Maybe someone else would like to give it a go and report back?

[hvered]

As god of travellers, Hermes' caduceus is an ankh. As a symbol it's as recognisable as the Christian cross would become



Hermes is also god of flocks and herds who hobbles and castrates; the caduceus as medical symbol is another instance of Borry's reverse engineering as it were.

[spiral]

As god of travellers, Hermes' caduceus is an ankh. As a symbol it's as recognisable as the Christian cross would become

Hermes is also god of flocks and herds who hobbles and castrates; the caduceus as medical symbol is another instance of Borry's reverse engineering as it were.

Nope, I just can't see it. It is a Spiral blind spot.

Your ankh looks to me like the sun (the circle) on the horizon (the cross) casting a shadow or reflection (the staff).

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/File:Ankh.svg

I can remember it in ME as a device that would help a megalithic traveler, see ME pg 40 ff .

But the caduceus?

[spiral]

More interesting is the beanstalk......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvzMBL6ZD50

[hvered]

Beans, and playing cards, are still associated with fortune-telling. Beans are very nutritious yet apparently were eschewed by certain sects; it may be they had a more important use even than nutrition, perhaps as weights. Card-players still win 'tricks'.

[hvered]

Treryn Dinas, a headland on the south-west Cornish coast, was "conjured up from the sea by a giant adept in magic". The nearby rocking- or logan-stone has a deep hole containing an egg-shaped stone that if removed would bring about the downfall of Treryn Castle. It is next-door to Lamorna Cove, not much of a beach though 'Half-Tide Rock' could be a useful indicator to approaching mariners.

The egg-shaped stone sounds like a foundation stone or omphalos. Unusually, the giant in question had a name, Miendu, which is said to mean 'black face'. Could be a mining connection; mien is French for 'mine' as in belonging to me but this side of the Manche myn may refer to mine as in mining or simply meyn i.e. stone. And, of course, it's bad luck to take stones away from the site.

[Boreades]

I forget things.

Have we discussed the similarity between
1) a beanstalk growing up a pole
and
2) the Rod of Asclepius
?

As in, (1) is the children's fairy-story version of (2), hiding in plain site, for the wise initiated folk (like us) to recognise.

The Greek Rod of Asclepius is associated with medicine and health care, yet frequently confused with the staff of the god Hermes, the caduceus. It is similar to the Jewish Nehushtan. Not forgetting that Moses and Aaron, while still in Egypt, had to prove their abilities as court magicians by handling snakes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nehushtan

[Mick Harper]

That is a good spot, Borry. So-o-o obvious. Of course beans are sacred to the Pythagoreans/Megalithics for reasons which don't seem to bear scrutiny. I once grew beans on an allotment and not a single one became a bean. Apparently this is still a joint world record. Not that I make a big thing about it or anything.