Comte de Gabalis [1913], at sacred-texts.com

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GREEK COIN, 350 B.C., FROM PHENEUS IN ARCADIA. BRITISH MUSEUM.
HERMES, the messenger of the gods, was said by the Greeks to typify and preside over the powers of the mind and to be the patron of gymnastic games. He is represented as bearing a caduceus or staff, gift of Apollo the Sun God, and emblem of the God's message to mankind. This staff represents the spine containing the cerebro spinal nervous system which is the wand of the magician, while the two intertwining serpents which ascend symbolise the positive and negative currents of
 Solar Force directed upward for the stimulation and
 evolution of the Solar Principle in man.
 Upon his left arm Hermes bears the
 Infant Bacchus, the Redeemer.
 COMPARE BACCHUS AND OSIRIS,
 NOTE Q, COMMENTARY
 CONTINUED, FOR IDENTITY OF
 THE INNER TRUTH OF
 THE GREEK AND
 EGYPTIAN
 RELIGIONS
 .