 Dear Friends,
About a 6 weeks ago I was sitting on the beach with my eyes closed and suddenly 'saw' a big, silvery-gold coloured golden retriever bounding towards me whose name, I felt certain, was Hermes. An odd thing, as normally I don't feel close to dogs and we've resisted having one throughout our married life. We had all sorts of excuses: Geoff's allergic to animals, we were travelling around all the time, we were working too hard and wouldn't have time to care for a dog, we needed all our spare time for our children, and so on..... But Hermes was so lovely! Geoff and I spent the rest of the day fantasizing about this dog, but then, when we went home, cold reason gained the upper hand once more. We thought maybe we shouldn't get a dog just yet, so soon after our sons leaving home. Perhaps we were on the rebound??
Then, during her talk about Atlantis at the Cygnus Birthday Celebration on 11th August, Diana Cooper took us on a guided visualisation to meet 'our' dog. And there was Hermes again. He felt so real it brought tears to my eyes. That was when I knew that Hermes wasn't just going to befriend us in our dreams. He was going to come bounding right into our lives, whatever our excuses might be.
And you can guess the rest: still mentally convinced that discretion was the better part of valour, we were just driving along the following week when we happened to see a sign saying 'golden retriever puppies for sale'. Well, after 'seeing' Hermes – with Diana's help – not just once but twice, we couldn't resist just having a look, and yes, one of the puppies was very pale, and very male. He came and rested his head on my foot. Our hearts were won. The dog of our dreams!
So we've been fully occupied since then, as you can imagine! Not for nothing is this gorgeous puppy called Hermes, messenger (angelos) of the Gods. He has already brought us many messages – blissful ones, like seeing how totally happy and absorbed he is, when he walks along with his little tail wagging and his nose to the ground, and being reminded to be just that happy and absorbed ourselves – releasing our tensions, forgetting our worries, simply inhaling the delicious earthy smells and feeling the breeze on our faces.
And Hermes has brought us more serious messages, too. Lessons of self-knowledge, for instance – noticing how, as we learn to connect with this furry ball of joy and enthusiasm, all our past conditioning and fears come to the surface, just as they did when we were bringing up our children. Why else would we be so stern when we say 'down Hermes', 'no biting', or 'sit'? Are we afraid that Hermes will grow up to be a growling monster if we don't 'train' him? Do we fear that his all-consuming passion for chewing things has some deeper significance than simple animal exuberance? Can't we trust his innate goodness, as we would like others to trust our own?
So, just as our sons taught – and are still teaching – us, Hermes too is helping us to consciously disconnect from past conditioning and fears, to question the meanings past conditioning may make us attach to his behaviour, and to connect with him in a new way: from the truest, deepest, clearest and most loving place possible. Above all, we are learning to trust more than ever the love in Hermes and the love in ourselves. It is a constant act of inner listening – is it love and trust that inform what we say and what we do with Hermes, and how we perceive him? Or are we still being driven by conditioning? The advice you get in all those doggy training guides may be well and good, but our first guide has to be this love. That's why we think that learning to be true to love – and hence to the highest in each other – is Hermes' greatest message, one that we'll go on learning throughout his life and ours.
So thank you Hermes for helping Geoff and I to realise that we should allow you into our lives, and not just into our dreams.
With much love from Geoff, Ann and all of us at Cygnus.
Photographs © Cygnus Books 17-Oct-2006
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