CREATURES OF MYSTERY 
181 
authority, thus showing how general was the belief that the 
serpent did, in some way, bring good fortune.) 
The variations in the form of the caduceus are many and 
interesting. The wand is sometimes found without the wings, 
but never without the serpent. The difference consists prin¬ 
cipally in the relative positions of the wings and the serpents, 
and the number of folds made by the serpents’ bodies around 
the rod. 
According to Madame Blavatsky, the original symbol fig¬ 
ured a triple-headed serpent, but the center head became the 
nob of the rod, and the two lower heads were separated. Kir- 
chen says that the caduceus was originally in the form of a 
cross, and was invented by Thoth, the Egyptian Mercury, to 
symbolize the four elements proceeding from a common cen¬ 
ter. In Greece, however, its origin can be traced to the herald’s 
staff, and it was at first a simple laurel or olive stick, decorated 
with garlands or entwined with fillets of white wool. 
In Greek mythology, the caduceus was the magic instrument 
with which Hermes, the Good Shepherd, either lulled the 
weary to slumber, or roused the sleeping into wakefulness. 
The w’ord caduceus suggests duce, a leader, and ca, the great A. 
(We find this same term applied to Benito Mussolini, one¬ 
time ruler of all the Italians. They called him Duce, meaning 
the Great Leader.) 
It represents the staff or scepter of dominion between two 
serpents, the emblem of life or preservation, hence it was 
always borne by heralds, of whom Mercury, as the messenger 
of the gods, was the patron, and whose office was to pronounce 
war or declare peace. Of both of these it might be consid¬ 
ered the symbol, for the staff or spear, signifying power in 
general, was employed by the Greeks and Romans to represent 
Juno and Mars, and received divine honors all over the North, 
as well as the battle-axe and sword, by the latter of which the 
god of war, the supreme deity of those fierce nations, was 
signified. 
Farlong, in his “Rivers of Life” (vol. 1, page 223), gives 
the origin of the caduceus as follows: “It would seem that the 
caduceus of Mercury, that rod of life, is due to the fact of the 
