Hephaestus - Interpretation - Greek Mythology

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HEPHAESTUS
Hephaestus, brother of Ares, is the force forging new forms.

Hephaestus attending with the other gods the birth of Athena. Hephaestus is represented in
the extreme left holding the axis – Louvre Museum

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This god is quite predictably presented as the opposite of his brother Ares, and is a creator
of mental forms. If the masters of wisdom have made Hephaestus a blacksmith and not a
carpenter it is because his particularity as a builder of forms is to melt and weld them in the
fire of his forge. Hephaestus is not only the one to mold mental forms, as does Daedalus
who builds forms which only hold the ‘appearance’ of life, for he is the one who shapes
through the use of fire and makes appear ‘true’ forms purified by the fire of the spirit.
Similarly to the way in which Ares carries out his destruction, Hephaestus’ creations only
concern the mental forms generated for the yoga within the frame of a spiritual progression.

See Family tree 17

But Hephaestus is a crippled god; he is lame. Homer gives two different versions of the
cause of his infirmity.
In the first, he was lame from birth. Ashamed of his infirmity, his mother Hera had thrown him
from the heights of Olympus. He was taken in by Thetis, one of the daughters of Nereus “the
old man of the sea” and Eurynome, an Oceanid who sheltered him in a cave on the seafloor

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for nine years. As a token of his gratitude, Hephaestus carved magnificent jewels for the two
goddesses.
According to the second version “he was rendered lame during a quarrel between his
parents. When he took the part of his mother Hera, Zeus inflicted him with the same
punishment as had done Hera in the other version of the story. After a fall that lasted for an
entire day he landed on the island of Lemnos, where he was received by the Sintians.
According to Hesiod he was conceived by Hera alone, who sought vengeance for the birth of
Athena.

In both of these versions it is either the power of limitation, Hera, or the force of expansion of
the mind at the highest level of the overmind, Zeus, who refuse to consider the forms created
by the inferior mental planes (those produced by Hephaestus).
This possibility of the creation of purified mental forms manifests itself from the appearance
of the mental-vital in man (the cave on the seafloor), but must undergo a long period of
gestation (nine years) under the supervision of the two goddesses, Eurynome, ‘vast order,
divine harmony’, and Thetis, ‘the highest inner consciousness working at the roots of life’.
The seeker will later have to give his thanks to the divine powers which have permitted him
to develop his creative capacities: Hephaestus offers jewels to the goddesses.
Hesiod does not make him the son of Zeus, probably to avoid an association between the
effects of the limitations of the mind and the latter’s force of expansion.

Irrespective of which version is followed, the important point to remember is that Hephaestus
is a ‘fallen’ god deprived of his physical integrity, for he is lame. This is to say that he can
only fully utilise one of his supports of power, symbolised by the leg. Homer describes him as
an enormous being with spindly legs: man gives his mental creations a disproportionate
importance but they completely lack foundations, and therefore incarnation.
His fragility, and especially his lameness, are the effects of an alternation of the influence of
the energies of fusion and separation which manifest themselves in the mind through what
we call intuition and reason. This is why Hesiod affirms that he was conceived by Hera alone
in retaliation to Athena’s birth. In fact, at the level of Zeus, forms translate an equilibrium of
these two forces, while Hera ensures that the right movement, and therefore their alternation,
is respected.

This alternation produces a succession of historical phases which we call ‘humanistic

periods’ in which man is at the centre of the world, and ‘Middle Ages’ in which it is the
Supreme that is at the center. This phenomenon is comparable to the cycle of night and day
as a continuous process. ‘Night and Day draw near and greet one another as they pass the
great threshold of bronze. And while the one is about to go down into the house, the other
comes out at the door. And the house never holds them both within; but always one is
without the house passing over the earth, while the other stays at home and waits until the
time for her journeying come; and the one holds all-seeing light for them on earth, but the
other holds in her arms Sleep the brother of Death, even evil Night, wrapped in a vaporous
cloud.’ (Hesiod, Theogony 744.)

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During one half of each cycle, Hephaestus lacks a second support, symbolised by his
lameness. The forms induced by the cycles link to each other automatically, pulling us into
their motion. This enslavement will last as long as man remains a prisoner of the inferior
levels of the mind, and will only disappear completely when mind and vital had swear
allegiance to his soul.

As we have previously seen, this alternation of movements of fusion and fission are at the
origin of all the phenomena of the created universe. This is illustrated by the end of the myth
of Prometheus, whose liver was devoured by the eagle of Zeus during the day and
regenerated itself during the night. In fact, on the plane of the mind formed in humanity for
tens of thousands of years, these two movements seem contradictory as there is little
aptitude for a simultaneous action. They therefore act in alternation, generating cyclical
phenomena.

While the action of the forces of fusion and separation is easily observable in the domain of
matter and life in atomic fusion/fission, the expansion and contraction of the universe,
biological cycles, etc., it is less perceptible on the mental plane. It is however on the certainty
of the existence of such cycles resulting from an inner experience that many myths were
constructed. This phenomenon was thus described by Plato: ‘God at times himself directs
the movement of this universe in which we are, and at times lets it go…’.
Empedocles, a Greek scientist of the 4th century B.C., refers to this as an alternation of two
complementary and contradictory forces: a force of integration which he calls ‘friendship’,
and a force of disintegration which he calls ‘discord’.
In the light of current brain research, it would seem that humanity is progressively and
alternatively under the influence of one or the other of the hemispheres of the brain. At times
it is the right non linear (intuitive) side of the brain which is at the forefront, and mankind then
lives a golden age in which he is close to the gods, while at other times it is the left brain
(linear), the one which is to lead man towards his freedom, which dominates.

The mind seems to therefore be under the influence of two cycles of differing duration, or
rather under the influence of a major cycle which is divided into twelve sub-cycles of the
same nature.
The major cycle seems to extend over a period of twenty-six thousand years, which is
difficult to observe.
The sub-cycles, each of 2160 years, correspond to the zodiac signs (Aries, Taurus, Gemini,
etc.), the symbolism of which impregnates most civilisations. At that level the succession of
the two periods becomes sensitive, with the alternation of so-called Middle-Age periods and
humanistic periods characterised by an alternating predominance of faith and reason
respectively. Plato has even described political forms which succeed one another in a certain
part of the curve: feudalism, kingships, despotism, republics and empires. The author of this
work has written a yet unpublished book on this subject titled The Cycles of the Mind in
Human History.

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One must perceive this mental rhythm as one understands the succession of day and night,
as a slow undulation during which energies evolve and inverse themselves without our being
aware of it. The major obstacle to this perception is the belief that our mental activity has
always followed the same patterns, while it is in fact impossible for us to feel the vibrations of
a given period.
For example, during the current period in which dominates the separative influence in affinity
with the energies of day we ignore and reject the energies of the night, and consequently
those of death as well. This is not night in the sense of unconsciousness and sleep, but
rather the aspect of night which brings about sharing, the meeting of souls, the annihilation of
the ego identity and the development of the imaginary world. This kind of night which leads
one to forget the desire for progress and external change, which tends towards silence,
communion and immutability. It incites internalisation and fusion, which is a receptivity that
melts everything in its indistinct goodness.

For all those who are receptive this period of fusion facilitates knowledge through identity,
and therefore a knowledge of nature such as the power of healing through the use of plants.
In this state the perception of the spirits of nature also seems to be easier, as well as of the
“forces of darkness” which oppose evolution. The humanist periods which do not give these
any credence are at their mercy to an even greater extent.
The essential characteristic of a period of fusion is the primacy of what is “sacred” and its
force. It impregnates all aspects of daily life, and brings one into contact with the unknown in
an awed and respectful dread. The unquiet heart that bows down before what it does not
understand succeeds the dry and arrogant intelligence of the periods of separation.
Marveling and enchantment accompany daily experiences, and the dominating feeling is that
of the crypt, of the supernatural and of a gathering inwards. Time loses importance. There is
no more desire for great human projects, but only temples for adoring divinity. Becoming is
replaced by being. These are the periods of faith. Such is the atmosphere reigning over the
middle ages.
In contrast the period of separation originates from an energy comparable to that of day,
which pushes each individual form towards its complete expression and the realisation of its
potentialities (by ‘form’, we mean ideas, social systems and civilisation as well as men).
While man experiences himself as the centre of the world, the will for progress is everywhere
present. In the present stage of evolution, the dominant consciousness is that of the predator
which progressively replaces the spirit of oblation and sacrifice of the preceding period, and
the prevalent impulses are covetousness and the quest for power. It is the period of reason,
doubt and the negation of the Divine.

In a visual representation it could be said that the centre of consciousness oscillates

between these two poles in an extremely slow rhythm, bringing to the forefront reason and
intuition alternatively. When one of the two poles is in the lead, the other withdraws to the
background without however disappearing entirely. Thus intuition, which is the faculty of
entering into resonance in accordance to the principle of unity in all things is not completely

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absent from the period of separation which we currently live in. (In a remarkable thesis on
the psychic workings in the old times, Julian Jaynes describes this weakening of intuition
over the course of centuries until the complete cessation of prophecy in 363 BCE when,
through the lips of the last priestess of Delphi, Apollo announced that he would not make any
more prophecies. For further reference see The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown
of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes.)

Neither movement is of a higher value than the other. The movement of separation is
absolutely necessary for individuation and for the realisation by all forms of life of what
constitutes their specificity. But it cannot continue indefinitely without becoming fixed in a
universe frozen by extreme solitude and in which all things are immutably distinct, without
any contact one with the other. At each extremity of the cycle appears a seed of the opposite
movement, hence the aspiration for a more humane world of greater solidarity which appears
when humanist peace falls into decadence, as occurred at the end of the pax romana and as
seems to be the case in our current period.

The movement of separation progressively evolves towards a movement of regained union,

towards a consciousness of solidarity and unity. Then there also reappears the aspiration for
the realisation of unity with the Absolute, and therefore faith resurfaces as well. Then,
progressively, there is a swing in the predominance of influences. In its turn the movement of
fusion cannot grow indefinitely without entangling itself in a formless and suffocating mass in
which man can no longer breathe. Hence the intense aspiration for a ‘new air’ which mark
the end of the Middle Ages (the Egyptian Middle Ages of the Thinite period, the Greek Dark
Ages and the Middle Ages of western Europe).
This alternation during which we neither think nor feel in the same way in each of the phases
will maintain its hold as long as man will remain unable to elevate himself above the mind.

Creation seems to therefore be submitted to thousands of rhythmical forces of separation

and fusion which govern all human physical, vital and mental processes. There is however
not an alarming determinism, for rhythm does not exclude freedom. Thus the alternation of
day and night does not pose any obstacle to life.
But on the mental plane man has some difficulty in admitting that he is not the sole writer of
his thoughts, and that the latter can depend on numerous rhythms. For instance, the forms of
social organisation – which pass successively through democracy, empire, disintegration,
chivalrous and theocratic societal forms, kingships, absolute or tyrannical monarchies,
humanist renaissance periods and the birth of republics – all depend on the positioning of
consciousness in the human mind. They therefore follow a cycle which depends on much
higher forces than those that ordinary man can mobilise to counteract either. This cycle is
easily observable in the Greek and Roman civilisation, with an apogee of the separative
phase around 130 years BCE. While the Egyptian civilisation has always maintained the
same social structure one can notice this same rhythm, with the culminating point of the
period of separation situated at the end of the Old Kingdom around 2290 BCE.

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Even if we lack the necessary information to support the theory of a major cycle, we can
nonetheless understand that the ancient masters intuited it, situating it at the beginning of the
phase of separation of the cycle about thirteen thousand years before our era, and situating
the entry into the ‘renaissance’ period around six thousand years ago, when wisdom still
supported itself on the faculties of intuition. This is the Vedic period of intuition of which Sri
Aurobindo speaks, rather than the logical, separative mind which dominates today’s world.
But the initiates of that period were also aware that humankind, swept up into the movement
of the cycles, would sink progressively into several millennia of domination by the separative
movement. Even then, it must have seemed obvious that all spiritual knowledge which had
been directly accessible to intuition would progressively disappear, and the dark ages would
subsequently dominate the world for several thousands of years.

From then on we understand much better that the appearance of mental forms follow a
movement of alternation, and that Hephaestus, the one who ‘shapes into forms’, is obliged to
use alternatively the energies of fusion and separation at his disposal. This is the symbolic
cause of his lameness.

Mythology also describes an episode during which this god manifested a violent desire for
Athena. When she rejected him, his sperm fell on the leg of the goddess. It was wiped away
with a woolen cloth then thrown on the earth, where it gave birth to one of the first Athenian
kings, Erichthonius, the forefather of Theseus. For the part of the myth described here let us
only note that the goddess who leads towards the psychic being cannot depend on the fire
manifesting itself through a single of its components in the cycle which governs the growth of
the mind (either the logical mind or intuition), irrespective of the intensity of the
corresponding aspiration.
Ordinarily, the seeker has difficulties in comprehending that the mind could be an
indispensable tool for the quest (Athena’s rejection), but in the end he will have to realise that
what directs this quest (the kings of Athens) originates from a fertilisation of existence (Gaia)
by the form-creating mind, or in other words by the ‘process of incarnation’.

According to Homer, Hephaestus’ forge is located on Mount Olympus. His location on Mount
Etna was introduced later on to justify the existence of the natural fire there.
Some later authors say that the Cyclopes helped him in his work, bringing the ‘exact vision’
of forms which he was to mould in his forge.

The name Hephaestus induces the concepts of brilliance (Φα) and rectitude (ΣΤ). It is for this
reason that Hesiod assigned Aglaea, the youngest of the Muses representing radiating light,
to be his wife. Hephaestus is perhaps the superlative of (Η)Φ(Α), which is to say ‘the greatest
penetration of consciousness into the being’ or ‘that which shines the most’.

He was despised by the other gods and little honoured by the people, for in the phase of
alternation of the separative mind in which humankind has been situated for the last thirteen
thousand years forms can never attain perfection. However, mythology tells us that the forms

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of the future will be full of splendour. Through the cycles of the mind he prepares the ‘true’
forms; his spouse can therefore only be a symbol of Truth and Beauty. This is why in
Hesiod’s texts she is Aglaea, ‘splendor’, one of the three Graces, and in Homer’s text Charis,
‘Grace or Joy’ (a name akin to the three Charites or Graces, divinities of beauty who number
amongst the daughters of Zeus). According to the structuring characters Χ+Ρ, Charis evokes
a ‘right or real movement at the core of the being’, indissociable with the growth of inner joy
obtained in the fire of Hephaestus’ forge.

In the Iliad, this god intervenes by approaching Hera to reconcile her with Zeus, a necessary
preamble for his harmonising action amongst the gods; nothing can be done if the seeker, at
the higher levels of his being, does not bring about an equilibrium within himself between
what strives to move forward (Zeus), and what curbs this movement to ensure that nothing is
left behind (Hera). It is her limiting aspect, her excess of asceticism, which must lose some of
its rigidity, ‘uttering tender words to Zeus’ so as to avoid great disorder on Mount Olympus.
Then Hephaestus can serve the nectar to the gods, without minding their mockery of his
awkwardness; as imperfect as may be the created mental forms they contribute to the
growth of the other powers at work in the yogic process even if the latter despise them, just
as long as the right balance (the reconciliation of Hera and Zeus) is first established.

Hephaestus is at the origin of three kinds of creations. As he is a god working within the
frame of inner search his creations are all magnificent or astounding, although they are
submitted to the influence of the cycles of the mind.
To begin with, he is an extraordinary architect to whom the gods entrust the construction of
their brazen dwellings on Olympus, symbols of the establishment of solid and indestructible
frames for spiritual progression.
He also takes care of the various elements associated with this construction, such as the
stone doors of the palace of Zeus, which represent the capacities for the opening of
consciousness, and the secret latches of Hera’s chamber, symbols of this goddess’ absolute
governance over limitations.
In this function as an architect who forges by the inner fire the tools for the quest he is an
essential part of the path.
The ambience of darkness, smoke and soot of the forge depicts the difficulty of the work on
the path, and the necessity of descending into the depths of the being.

Secondarily he is a maker of extraordinary automatons which act by their own will.

In his home he is assisted by automatons of gold who have a voice and power, and who
have been taught how to behave by the immortals; they are most probably images of mental
formations that sustain the quest akin to mantric forms. (A mantra is a brief sacred formula
which can be repeated during prayer, meditation, incantation, etc. Mantras are generally
given by a master or received through inspirations or revelations.)
He also built the gods wheeled tripodal structures which he could order to come and go from
the banquet hall. In this way, he gave the gods the possibility to be fed easily – and therefore
to grow in man – by “means” which have access to the three inferior planes of the mind

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(physical mental, vital mental and intellect).
He also made a brazen dog to guard the palace of Alkinos, which is to say that a perfect
vigilance is given to he who is gifted with a ‘powerful soul force’.

He also built most of the weapons, jewelry, attire and other essential objects of the gods and
the great heroes. For instance, he designed the armor of Achilles, the scepter of
Agamemnon, the sword of Peleus and the golden cup of Helios. These afford protection in
view of the spiritual battles to come, and are emblems of the power of specific spiritual
qualities or signs indicating mastery over certain planes.
Hephaestus also created Pandora under the order of Zeus. Hephaestus is often associated
with Lycia, the country of the ‘dawning light’.

Hephaestus within us
Hephaestus is the mental force with always calls and shapes by the fire of our inner forge the
most appropriate methods for our progress in accordance with our nature.
Through his marriage with Aphrodite he supports the growth of true and pure love. But
reciprocity is not active in present-day humanity, for Aphrodite carries out a relationship with
her lover Ares.
Hephaestus also incites us to use Truth as our most trusty armour.

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