Activities of the Sushumna 193 



bolized the facility with which reason and under- 

 standing appropriate all knowledge. The very 

 term thought is said by Anna Kingsford to be " the 

 Egyptian equivalent for Hermes, the God Thaut, 

 frequently written Thoth; these being for the 

 Greeks and Egyptians the personification of the 

 Divine Intelligence," that is, His messenger. The 

 same Spirit was manifested to the Hebrew as Raph- 

 ael, like Hermes called " the physician of 

 souls; " and to the Hindu as Buddhi. 



One of the chief glories of Hermes was his con- 

 quest of the hundred-eyed Argus, which denotes, 

 Mrs. Kingsford says : " The victory of the un- 

 derstanding over fate. For Argus represents the 

 power of thetstars over the unenfranchised soul." 

 This corroborates what I have constantly endeav- 

 ored to make emphatic, that the power of human 

 thought guided by reason can change the planetary 

 currents. The powers of reason and understand- 

 ing to which Mercury guides us are above mere 

 cold intellection. It is the stifling of pure reason 

 by the exaltation of the human sense-governed 

 mind that produced the rank materialism which has 

 marked recent decades and from which Higher 

 Thought is freeing the race of mankind. 



The Roman name Mercury, by which we desig- 

 nate the planet, comes from merx, merchandise. 

 Their god was of a much more material and sordid 

 character than the Greek Hermes with whom they 



