McCall Gathering 2007, Part 40

The Capture of the Doe

Next is labor four – the sign of Cancer, the capture of the doe or hind. Hercules was told go and capture this doe which is very quick on its feet and runs around in the woods, and it is very fleeting. He says this is a real simple test for you Hercules; all you have to do is go and capture this doe and take it to the sacred alter. Hercules says, well that sounds pretty simple.

There are a couple other problems involved though; there are several other people that claim the doe. Diana the hunter who claimed to have ownership of the doe, Apollo the sun god claimed the rightful ownership and Artemis also claimed ownership as well. So three other gods claimed ownership of the doe and the presiding one says to Hercules that he might have a problem with them but go and find the doe anyway.

Hercules goes to the woods and every time he sees the doe it is very quick and fleeting. It feeds quickly and then jumps into the woods again. So he searches and catches another glimpse of it and pursues it and loses it again. It is just gone, it is really a very fast little thing for it goes through the pastures and it fleets through them very quickly and then it is gone.

On top of this, the other two gods, Artemis and Diana think they own it so they do everything they can to subvert Hercules and they trick him into not finding the doe. And for a long period time he just catches a glimpse here and a glimpse there and he has the hardest time trying to track down this doe – it is not as easy as he thought it was going to be.

Then finally he catches a glimpse of the doe in a pasture and very quietly he pulls his bow and arrow out and he shoots the doe in the foot and that slows it down enough to where he is able to grab it. He grasps it, holds it close to his heart and takes it to the great central alter of the gods. The gods accept the doe and tell him this is good and they will keep it but Hercules wanted to keep it to himself because he had spent so much time searching and tracking the doe. The gods said no, that he had to let it go.

So he left it at the sacred alter and then he came back the next day and found that the doe was not at the alter but fleeting around the woods again. He said boy this is weird what is going on here I took it to the alter and now it fleeting around the woods. I thought they wanted it left at the alter. The great teacher said to him, the doe must be captured again and again and again until it is held close to the heart and you are entirely familiar with it.

Does anyone have any idea what this doe is?

Audience: The soul?

JJ: Close, something discovered through the soul.

Audience: Wisdom?

JJ: No

Audience: Soul contact?

JJ: No

Audience: The mind?

JJ: No

Audience: Intuition?

JJ: Correct, we are all disciples like Hercules and commanded to go and find our intuition and when we first begin to develop it we just see a flash of it like the doe flashing through the woods and we say what was that? And when we first catch a glimpse of it we think that there is something important there but it came and went so fast that we didn’t get it. But you get a sense this is something one must pursue because there is something important in finding the intuition. So he continues to pursue it and he catches another glimpse and another glimpse and another glimpse and he does not get discouraged. He does not quit because the more he catches a glimpse the more the disciple understands that developing intuitive powers is extremely important. So finally he catches a glimpse of the doe in the pasture and he pulls his trusty arrow and he shoots the doe in the foot. Do you have any idea what that would symbolize?

Audience: Attention, focus?

JJ: does anyone remember what the Antahkarana is in the words of the Tibetan?

Audience: The link between the monad and the personality?

JJ: It is the link between the higher and the lower self. He established an anchor with the intuition, an anchor between the material side of life and the intuition. You establish that anchor by striking it in the symbolic foot. He did not strike it in the heart – he did not kill the intuition but it established an anchor or a link and by establishing a link with the intuition he was able to hold it close to the heart as he did when he carried it to the alter of God.

When he took it to the alter of God it seemed like he would then have it forever but it was released and there it was fleeting back in the woods again. This tells us that we have to establish an anchor and then we let it go a little and leave everything in the hands of God and behold all of sudden we pursue another line of endeavor and we find that we have to pursue the intuition all over again with another line of endeavor.

When we pursue the intuition the first time it leads us to the answer of some mystery or question or some principle that we are reflecting upon and then we get a full knowledge of that one thing. Then we have to leave it at the altar but when we want to seek another avenue of learning we find that the intuition is floating about the woods again. We have to rediscover it all over again.

It is interesting the story ends with Hercules staying at this particular place and going in and out of the gate of this particular labor and pursuing the doe over and over again not because he has to but eventually because he enjoys it. After a period of time going in and out of the gate, meaning going in and out of incarnation, he pursues the doe again and again and it says eventually the doe will become a friend to Hercules and later the doe even comes up to him. They become so close together that often times the doe would come up to him and Hercules would hold the doe close to his heart for he did not even have to chase him. Now what does this tell us?

Copyright by J J Dewey

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