McCall Gathering 2007, Part 53

Labor XII

The Capture of the Red Cattle of Geryon (Pisces)

JJ: The twelfth and final labor is the capture of the red cattle of Geryon in Pisces.

Proceed to that dark place called Erytheia, the red place it is, where great illusion is enthroned, where Geryon the monster of three heads, three bodies and six hands, is lord and king. There is a king there that unlawfully holds a herd of cattle that are red in hue. Hercules is to take these cattle and then herd them to the sacred city where they will be safely taken care of but he is to beware of the Shepherd and his two-headed dog. He is to invoke the aid of Helios, the god of the sun.

Okay so Hercules was commanded to go and capture these red cattle and take them to the sacred city. So again he contemplates, how am I going to do this? First of all he has to get to the land of Erytheia and he had to cross a body of water and he does not know how to cross this body of water so he meditates for seven days and lo and behold a bright object falls in front of him. It is a big cup – a symbol of the Holy Grail or something like that and he gets in this cup and sails across this body of water and arrives in the land of Geryon where he goes after the red cattle.

As he goes after the red cattle he finds he has to fight the Shepherd and his two headed dog. He kills the two-headed dog right off the bat because he is a lot stronger now and he does not have to fight so hard because his strength has increased now he is in the twelfth labor. The Shepherd says, “no do not hurt me and I will cooperate,” so he lets the Shepherd live and takes him along with him. Then he goes and finds the cattle and begins to herd them toward the sacred city and as he does this he has all kinds of obstacles along the way.

A giant threw a boulder at him and he caught it and just threw it off to the side. Other people tried to hurt him, a wrestler came and tried to overcome Hercules and he could not. Thieves came in the night and tried to steal the cattle and Hercules had to go and run them down and bring back the cattle. All kinds of things happened on the way to the sacred city to disrupt the cattle and each time Hercules had to keep gathering them back together but eventually he got the cattle to the sacred city where they belonged.

This is the twelfth labor and we all know that the Piscean age savior was Jesus and He is symbolic of Hercules in the twelfth labor. Who are the red cattle?

Audience: The disciples?

JJ: The red cattle are the people that are looking for a teacher and he has to go and gather them. In order to get to them he has to overcome the Shepherd and his two-headed dog. The two-headed dog represents matter and the pull of matter and also astral force. The Shepherd represents thought. Hercules killed the dog because it represented the lower forces that were trying to prevent him from helping the cattle but the Shepherd plead for his life and he let him live because the mind was capable of assisting him so the Shepherd (mind) continued to assist. In the Bible the Shepherd that took care of the sheep so to speak, the followers were called sheep and the teachers were called Shepherd’s and the Shepherd’s were praised if they led the people correctly and they were criticized in the scriptures if they did not lead them correctly. So you had good Shepherds and bad Shepherds and this particular Shepherd was bad to begin with because he was associated with his two-headed dog on the astral but he decided to repent and elevate his thoughts.

Hercules felt the Shepherd’s thoughts could be elevated to a useful level so he let him live and come along. The cattle represents us as people that are followers of Christ and Hercules of course also represents us and the Christ within ourselves. We have the Christ within ourselves that has to herd us and the red symbolizes our lower nature. He has to herd us and our lower nature to the sacred city and the sacred city represents a number of things, especially the soul. The mission of Christ is to deliver us to our soul nature and deliver himself to his higher nature and then his mission is finished.

The Labors of Hercules is quite interesting and I have been tempted to re-write the whole thing to add some interpretive thoughts. The basic labors themselves and their teachings are very fascinating and they have a lot to teach and a lot of correspondence to humanity.

Audience: I thought the Labors of Hercules went counterclockwise?

JJ: They did. Counterclockwise is from Aries to Pisces and in the Zodiac Pisces backwards to Aries is clockwise according to DK. It is a bit confusing because Aries to Pisces seems to be the normal direction. But as far as incarnation goes and apparently looking at the Zodiac in the sky Aries to Pisces is counterclockwise.

Audience: Are the labors always taken in order?

JJ: I think what happens in real life is that they are not always in order whether you are going clockwise or counterclockwise and what will happen is you will go through a sign and if you do not learn the lesson then you will go back and if you are not ready to correct the mistake, because sometimes when you make a big mistake you have got to have a little rest and recreation in between before you have the inner fortitude to correct it. So sometimes you will come back in a different sign and have a break because they say doing something different is really a rest. So you do something different in another sign and then you go back. I think there is fluctuation back and forth.

I have studied a number of individuals in their lives and sometimes they go from one sign to another and the progression is like clockwork and then it will be all out of sync and then I think it goes back again but I do not think it is an iron clad black and white thing. For instance, when Hercules found the doe it says that he went back a number of times – apparently in the same sign but was it all in one sequence? I do not know. Maybe he performed one labor, did three of them in sequence went back and chased the doe again because he liked chasing after it for it was fun after he knew what he was doing.

None of these labors are black and white and no rules are applicable in all circumstance. Like it says in Ecclesiastes “There is a time for war, a time for peace, a time to hate, a time to love, there is a time and purpose for everything under heaven.” And so we cannot really look at anything completely in black and white because there is an exception for all things. Once we are on a certain path there is always some reason to detour for a period of time and take care of something. That is what makes it hard to put it into a mathematical formula for a lot of these things just apply as general rule.

Copyright by J J Dewey

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