The Queen of the night, whose large command Includes all the sea and half the land....... Samuel Butler, in Hudibras

 
 

In many of the depictions of the Goddess, whether they be statues, pottery, coins or carved gems, she is shown with her servant and confidant, the god Hermes, later called Mercury. Hermes is now better known as the messenger of the gods, but his original role was to guide the spirits of the dead to their place in the afterlife. Hermes had a living, breathing counterpart. In myth, he is the hero Heracles, whose feats in life earn him a place in heaven. The high priests of the ancient religions saw themselves in this role--they were mankind's link to the Goddess, they shared her powers and secrets, and they joined her in the heavens when they died. The successors to the high priests, whether druid; cabalist or English romantic poet, also had this belief.  European cabalists invoked Hermes Trismegistos, and Nostradamus refers to 'hermetic' practices in his Centuries. Note that the Centuries, Nostradamus' cryptic verses, follow the Goddess' tradition as the inspirer of poetry. In a later chapter we  look at the long line of poets who regarded themselves as devoted to, and captive of, the Goddess; but let as now look more closely at what I have just suggested.....that there has existed a continuous secret history of the Goddess which has spanned the millennia since before Troy to our modern times. There are three possible explanations of  this ........ The secrets of the Goddess have been handed from occult master to pupil in a long-standing secret society; The lore of the Goddess is implicit in our language; culture and oral traditions, and so can be rediscovered by inspired individuals from time to time, or The Goddess exists, and inspires individuals from time to time.