I wrote two similar articles about Marianne Williamson’s and Tulsi Gabbard’s healthcare vision. I’ve already deleted the other one because Williamson endorsed Bernie. I decided not to delete this one because I think it’s an important angle on the Medicare for All issue, but I want to be clear that I think my criticism of Williamson is now irrelevant–her decision to drop out of the race and endorse Bernie was an act of good faith. She might have a different view than Bernie on this issue, but she is still part of the progressive movement.
Traditional medical providers may consider alternative medicine a rival to Western medicine, but their patients have given their stamp of approval by spending $35 billion a year on alternative medical treatments, sometimes called CAM (complementary and alternative medicine). So it’s not surprising that some of the nation’s biggest hospitals have recognized the lucrative potential of alternative medicine and are now joining forces with alternative medical providers.
What are alternative treatments exactly? According to an article on policymed.com
While there is no official list of what alternative medicine actually comprises, treatments falling under the umbrella typically include acupuncture, homeopathy (the administration of a glass of water supposedly containing the undetectable remnants of various semi-toxic substances), chiropractic, herbal medicine, Reiki (“laying on of hands,” or “energy therapy”), meditation (now often called “mindfulness”), massage, aromatherapy, hypnosis, Ayurveda (a traditional medical practice originating in India), and several other treatments not normally prescribed by mainstream doctors.
There has long been support in the U.S. Congress for alternative medicine. This includes dietary supplements, which have been strongly supported by Orin Hatch among others. However, you might be surprised to learn that this coalition is now a direct rival to Bernie Sanders’ Medicare For All proposal, and not just philosophically speaking. This rivalry is currently playing out in the presidential campaigns of Marianne Williamson and Tulsi Gabbard, who each have an interest in holistic medicine. Williamson has a list of alternative medical services on her website, and A Course in Miracles is itself an alternative approach to health care. Gabbard’s bipartisan initiative for marijuanna reform, while it is an important step toward criminal justice reform, includes alternative health care interests represented by Chanda Macias, MBA, PhD, CEO and owner of National Holistic Healing Center in DC. Marijuanna is an important ingredient in alternative therapies. In addition, one of the closest and oldest connections to Gabbard’s family, Chris Butler, offers alternative health services centered around yoga. In 2002 Yoga was the 5th most commonly used CAM therapy.
A survey released in May 2004 by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine focused on who used complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), what was used, and why it was used in the United States by adults age 18 years and over during 2002.
According to this survey, Yoga was the 5th most commonly used CAM therapy (2.8%) in the United States during 2002.
It may be somewhat surprising to learn that holistic practitioners oppose Medicare for All. The explanation for this begins with the fact that insurance policies don’t typically pay for alternative therapies. Patients pay for them out-of-pocket, and that suits practitioners just fine. If their treatments were covered by insurance they would have to abide by certain guidelines, and they prefer to treat their patients according to their own criteria. Furthermore, if taxes were increased to pay for medical care, in other words, if people knew their health care was already paid for, and if that care was freely available, it would seriously effect the bottom line of alternative practitioners. So alternative medical providers have a stake the status quo, like insurance companies. Where does that leave us as far as a political strategy is concerned?
You might be thinking that if alternative medicine is cheaper, changing the way practitioners practice might be a solution. After all, integrative medicine, which combines traditional treatments with alternative medicine, is a growing industry and several candidates have stressed the importance of preventative medicine. But unfortunately, chronic disease isn’t going to disappear and there is no scientific evidence that alternative therapies can address these illnesses as well as traditional medicine.
On the other hand, there seems to be general agreement that Western medicine needs to change its focus. Its medical infrastructure was designed to combat infectious diseases, and it works well for that purpose. However its success with infectious agents has brought complex chronic diseases into focus, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. Chronic diseases now account for three fourths of our health care spending.
In other words, preventive measures are important, but there is also the problem of whether patients are able and willing to follow those preventive measure. At some point, the effects of low-wage jobs, unaffordable housing, and the lack of clean water and healthy food will come into the picture. In addition, alternative and integrative medicine are not free.
There are improvements to the current system that must be made, but they will take time. In the meantime, Medicare for All is desparately needed. And it’s favored by the majority of the population. In this light, resistance from practitioners of holistic medicine seems rather self-centered. And considering the other forces arrayed against single-payer insurance, resistance from alternative interests is the last thing this country needs.
The AMA is currently allied with other industry groups in the fight against Medicare for All as a part of a group called “Partnership for America’s Health Care Future,” which is spending millions of dollars and is backed by the American Hospital Association, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and America’s Health Insurance Plans, which includes Cigna, Anthem, Centene and other health insurance giants.
I have recommended that taxpayers cut off discretionary spending as a response to the government shutdown and looming default. However in the last week there has been little Congressional response to the lobbying efforts of business groups. There is a simple explanation for that: the shutdown is fueled by ideology rather than political and economic expediency. It has come to the point where a radical group of Republicans feels free to ignore the money interests that helped get them elected. Unfortunately, they are still listening to the biggest of these money interests, think tanks and PACS which are run by people who don’t have to worry about votes or balance sheets.
Take, for example, Ted Cruz. He would not be a Senator today without the help of The Club for Growth and Senate Conservatives Fund. Together, in the 2014 cycle, they gave him $1,021,648. This is more than 55 percent of his total contributions. His other top contributors are banks, lobbying firms, and of course Goldman Sachs. You might expect Goldman’s input since his wife is a vice-president there, but the bank shows up as a contributor to other radicals as well. Cruz wants to wipe out Affordable Care. What he doesn’t say is that it won’t affect him either way; he has health insurance from Goldman Sachs through his wife. Then there is the other disturbing contributor that keeps coming up when you look at the finances of Cruz and others in this radical group, Berkshire Hathaway.
Before I get to the main point of this post, I would like to point out the irony of this situation. Business has always thought it had an alliance with the Republican Party, and against the rest of us. That is, against employees. Consumers they like. They didn’t seem to object when women were being called sluts, maybe because they sort of liked the idea of not having to pay for employees’ birth control. And of course, they’ve always been fine with holding down the minimum wage. A weak labor union is a good labor union. Affordable care? Not if it means they have to pay. And yet it never occurred to them that the stingy, mean, unjust spirit behind this thinking would turn on them. What did they think would happen?
On second thought, my main point might backfire. I was going to suggest that business use its clout to end this, but who would they be most likely to help? We already know the answer to that question.
If the Congress hasn’t resolved this by Thursday I recommend the following: no one goes to work, no one drives, we buy only necessary food items. Employers who fire anyone at that time for any reason should be boycotted.
[I don’t have positions in Goldman Sachs (GS-PC) or Bershire Hathaway (BRK-A).]
Update:
I’ve been thinking about my recommendation. I don’t think it was too extreme considering the seriousness of the threat, but because I wouldn’t be risking as much as many of you I’ve decided it’s not a good idea. Things seem to be looking up so it may never have come to that, but at least I can remove the stress of thinking about it.
After reading Eric Alterman’s article in The Nation, I think I’ve been influenced by those calling for face-saving gestures from the Democrats. Such gestures are necessary, they say, so the Republicans will let the government carry on its routine business.
In any relationship, face-saving politeness is cause for concern–both for those who find themselves being excessively polite, as well as for those on the receiving end of the politeness. Politeness toward those responsible for the government shutdown begins to look like the behavior reserved for an abusive spouse. It’s based on fear.
If we want to discuss negative tendencies in government, we’d eventually have to include both parties. However, theoretically, the government is us. Fear has no useful purpose in it. Still, it is increasingly difficult to police the government, mostly due to the role of corporate money. And corporate money favors the Republican Party. You would think they would be more worried when even large amounts of money are not enough, and hostage-taking becomes necessary.
But let’s assume for a moment that the Republicans have a point when they say the President won’t negotiate with them any other way. Ignoring the fact that Affordable Care is the law the next questions ought to be, do Republicans have a better answer to the medical crisis, and do they really care whether the poor have healthcare? Apparently not, judging from their rhetoric and previous legislation.
Alterman is right…we should forget about the face-saving. New memo to the Republicans: Open the government and extend the debt limit.
If you were hoping for a debate over Affordable Care on September 25 in Phoenix, you would have been disappointed. What was clear at the town hall conducted by Mayo Clinic and ASU Foundation was the panelists’ exasperation with the political debate about who pays for medical care. Contestants are so wrapped up in their squabbling that substantive issues never enter into it. In the meantime, people are dying.
How might people spend their time if they don’t feel compelled to debate the Affordable Care Act? They might address the problems that still exist regardless of whether the Act goes into effect.
The panelists at Wednesday’s meeting were ASU president, Michael M. Crow; Mayo Clinic Vice President and CEO, Dr. Wyatt Decker; and Dr. Richard Carmona, Surgeon General of the United States from 2002 to 2006. This town hall was part of a collaboration between Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University, but similar collaborations have been taking place with Mayo in Rochester and Mayo Clinic in Florida. Although Mayo Arizona has been working with ASU for about ten years, there was a new development in June of this year, a $1 million grant awarded to Mayo Clinic by the American Medical Association. Mayo Clinic is one of eleven applicants who received the grant, part of the AMA’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education program, aimed at the creation of a new model of undergraduate education, but its effects will go beyond these eleven schools. Selected schools will form a learning consortium to spread best practices to other schools.
The panelists were all justifiably proud of Mayo’s record. First, Mayo Clinic is the safest teaching hospital in the nation. Also, Mayo’s costs are lower. Lower costs were attributed to the fact that doctors are employed and not in private practice, so they don’t benefit from any procedures and tests they order. And Mayo charges a flat fee for procedures. This means that if there is a poor outcome, it is the clinic that loses money, not the patient and her insurance company. Great care is taken to make sure things are done right the first time around. For more on Mayo’s Model of Care see: Mayo Clinic Model of Care
However, in spite of Mayo’s good record, none of the panelists claimed to have the answer to the medical crisis. On the contrary, they made it clear that the system is unsustainable and that it can’t be saved as it is–not by money nor by increased efficiency.
Not only is the system unsustainable, it is self-perpetuating. In other words, it is difficult for those already in the system to think of a way to solve its problems. Therefore, their goal is nothing short of the creation of a new kind of person through educational reform; a new kind of doctor with a broad and comprehensive understanding, not only of the medical system, but of human behavior and the structure of society.
I appreciated the humility of the panelists in the face of the looming medical crisis, but I hope this town hall was merely the beginning of the discussion because I have a few concerns.
Dr. Crow shared a quote to the effect that industries fail because they don’t understand what people want. I would hope the panelists remember that the survival of the medical industrial complex is not the concern of medical consumers. If the industry is at fault in this crisis, maybe it should fail.
He also stated that the system used to work, but because times have changed it no longer does. Is this true? What is the definition of a working system? I’d like more discussion about that.
Finally, I would like to suggest that the proposed additions to the curriculum are part of the old way of thinking Mayo is trying so hard to escape: evolutionary theory, psychology, cultural anthropology. I’ve discussed some of the problematic ideas that stem from these disciplines, but my main objection is they’ve been used to justify the categorization and control of human beings. They shouldn’t be accepted without question.
I think the town hall was a positive start, so I say these things in the spirit of a conversation. The panelists’ initiation of this conversation certainly beat the competition in the House of Representatives.
Now about Affordable Care. Although nothing was said about it at the town hall, Mayo’s FaceBook page does provide a link to a video with the following information: The clinic estimates that doctors will see a decrease in payments for services of at least 10 to 20 percent. On the patient side, insurance premiums will go down but many policies will have high deductibles, ((cnbc video: Mayo Clinic and Affordable Care. Available: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?play=1&video=3000201514&6415814=1.))
Of course, insurance policies already have high deductibles. If the Republicans have plans to improve that situation, they aren’t saying.
Clues about the occult foundations of American Healthcare from India and Scandinavia
The use of the caduceus of Hermes as a symbol of the medical profession was the subject of Dr. Walter Friedlander’s book “The Golden Wand of Medicine.” You can read my summary of Dr. Friedlander’s book in Hermes Trismegistus and American Healthcare. Friedlander posed many questions about the use of this symbol and its adoption in the United States in 1917. Today, runaway healthcare costs and inaccessibility of medical care have revived interest in the caduceus of Hermes, the liar, thief and trickster god. Who is Hermes, and does his caduceus form the occult foundations of American healthcare?
Friedlander focused mainly on Hermes in Greek mythology but there are echoes of this deity in other parts of the world. Additional clues about the nature of Hermes are provided by Edward Moor’s “The Hindu Pantheon” and Georges Dumézil’s “The Stakes of the Warrior.” These accounts give strength to Dr. Friedlander’s identification of the caduceus of Hermes as a malevolent influence. We begin by identifying deities similar to Hermes in The Hindu Pantheon by Edward Moor.
Nareda
One of the points Friedlander made in his book is that it is not known why the Greeks chose to associate Hermes with the Egyptian Thoth, who has a very different personality. Moor’s description of the Hindu deity Nareda provides the answer. According to Moor, Nareda or Narada is a key figure connecting the Hindu scriptures to Hermes. Narada has many of the characteristics of Thoth. He is “a wise legislator [and] great in arms, arts, and eloquence;” he is also an astronomer, and a musician. He invented the Vina, a sort of lute…and was a frequent messenger of the gods. In these and other points he resembles Hermes, or Mercury. Some think he is the same with Thoth.
In the Hindu Pantheon, Nareda is one of the ten lords of living beings. In the Sivpuran, which contains the doctrines of the worshipers of Siva, Nareda was born from Brahma’s thigh. However he is also said to be the offspring of both Brahma and Saraswati. He was one of the seven Rishis.
The histories of Krishna often introduce Nareda. They say he is only another form of Krishna himself…Crishna (in the Gita, p. 82) speaks of his ‘holy servants, the Brahmans and the Rajarshis.’ He says, ‘I am Brigu among the Maharshis…and of all the Devarshis I am Narad.’ (P. 80)
Buddha and Woden
According to Friedlander, there are five main historical accounts of Hermes. In the classical period the Homeric version of Hermes changed to become associated with inventing, buying and selling. This was probably the influence of Rome and resulted in the Greek Hermes becoming associated with Mercury.
In Moor’s Hindu Pantheon, Buddha has been said to share the same character with Mercury. So has the Gothic Woden. Each gives his name to the same planet, and to the same day of the week: Budhvar, in India, is the same with Dies Mercurii, or Woden’s day–our Wednesday. Buddha, Booda, Butta, and others are mere varieties, in different parts of India…and so ‘perhaps is the Bud, or Wud, of the ancient pagan Arabs. Pout in Siam; Pott, or Poti, in Tibet; and But, in Cochin China, are the same.’
Noah
It was mentioned in American Cosmology and Arlington National Cemetery that many of America’s founders were believers in the doctrines of Hermes Trismegistus and that when he was discredited as an historical figure, he was replaced by Noah. In the Hindu pantheon, the seventh Menu was Vaivaswata, or child of the sun. He is the one saved on the ark and therefore the father of the whole human race. The seven Rishis were said to be with him on the ark, although they are not mentioned as fathers of human families. However, it is also said that Vaivaswata’s “daughter Ila was married…to the first Buddha, or Mercury, the son of Chandra, or the Moon, a male deity, whose father was Atri, son of Brahma.” Because of this, Vaivaswata’s posterity are divided into two branches called the Children of the Sun, from (Vivaswat, the Sun) his own father; and the Children of the Moon, from the parent of his daughter’s husband. One of Vaivaswata’s other names is Satyavrata, whom Sir William Jones thinks corresponds to the Italian Saturn.
Aesculapius, Hermes and Parvati
In Hinduism, Parvati is the sacti or energy of Siva. She has many additional names, the most common aside from Parvati are Bhavani, Durga, Kali, and Devi, or the Goddess. Ma is a name of Bhavani in her personification of nature, and under the name of Bhavani she represents the “general power of fecundity.” She has connections both to Aesculapius and to Hermes.
According to Moor, “The word Cala, or Kala, signifying black, means also, from its root, Kal, devouring: whence it is applied to Time, and, in both senses in the feminine, to the goddess in her destructive capacity. In her character of Mahacali she has many other epithets, all implying different shades of black or dark azure: viz. Cali, or Cala, Nila, Asista, Shyama, or Shyamala, Mekara, Anjanabha, and Krishna.”
Wilford said that the river Kali, the Nile in Egypt, got its name from Mahacali, who, according to the Puranas, made her first appearance on its banks in the character of Rajarajeswari, also called Isani, or Isi. That river is also called Nahushi, from the warrior and conqueror Deva Nahusha, or Deonaush, who Wilford thought was probably the Dionysius of the ancient Europeans. Dionysius is often portrayed with similar characteristics to Nareda and Krishna. (Some writers have suggested that Dionysius was a Minoan deity–I think the fact that he was born from Zeus’ thigh makes that doubtful, but more on that later.)
Mahadeva as Ardha Nari
Sir William Jones thought that in her character of Bhavani, she was “Venus presiding over generation, and for that reason was sometimes portrayed as having both sexes. He refers to her bearded statue at Rome, the images called Herma-thena, and in those figures of her which had a conical shape.” (Hermes is also said to be a hermaphrodite)
In her form called Bhadra-Kali, Maha-Kali, and by other names, she is eight-handed, ashta-buja. In one image of her one of her right hands holds something like the caduceus of Hermes, without snakes.
Badra Kali
Friedlander said that the caduceus of Hermes was originally topped by a figure-eight with the top open.
On the other hand, Mahacali also has the names of Amba, or Uma; and Aranyadevi, or goddess of the forest. She is Prabha, meaning light; and Aswini, a mare, the first of the lunar mansions. It is said, “In this shape, the Sun approached her in the form of a horse, and, on their nostrils touching, she instantly conceived the twins. Her twins are called Aswini-Kumari, the two sons of Aswini.” They are beings of importance in the identity of Aesculapius. The house cock is one of the Goddess’s symbols; Friedlander said the house cock was a symbol of Aesculapius.
Surya and Esculapius
(Moor’s spelling)
It is believed that Surya, (the Sun) descended frequently from his car in a human shape, and left a race on earth. They are equally renowned in the Indian stories with the Heliades of Greece. His two sons, called Aswina, or Aswini-Cumara together, are considered twin brothers, and painted like Castor and Pollux. But they have each the character of Esculapius among the gods. The story says they were born of a nymph, who, in the form of a mare, was impregnated with sunbeams.” (Jones. Asiatic researches, Vol. I. p. 263.) Esculapius’s symbol is not identical to the caduceus of Hermes. He carries a rod with a single snake. Many consider it a more appropriate symbol for a healer.
Fourteen Gems and the Beverage of Immortality
There is a Escuapius-like figure among the Hindus, who had a different sort of birth. In the notes on page 342 Moor says, “…I do not recollect that Dhanwantara, the Esculapius of the Hindus, has an attendant serpent like his brother of Greece. The health-bestowing Dhanwantara arose from the sea when churned for the beverage of immortality. He is generally represented as a venerable man, with a book in his hand.” He was a physician and was also one of the fourteen gems obtained when the ocean was churned for the recovery of Amrita, the beverage of immortality.
The Caduceus of Hermes Gets Wings
Friedlander said the staff of Aesculapius had snakes by the 5th century BC, wings by the 1st century AD, and snakes and wings together by the 15th or 16th century. There is a picture in Moor’s plates of Krishna with a winged figure, who Moor thought was his divine spouse Rukmeny. Moor calls this picture ‘singular’. He seems to be saying that the caduceus of Hermes may have developed from the staff of Aesculapius.
Woden/Odin, as characterized by Georges Dumézil
If the caduceus of Hermes symbolizes the occult foundations of American healthcare, and if this symbol is associated with the Hindu deity Siva, Scandinavian mythology describes the nature of these influences. The connection with Odin, or rather the relationship between Odin and Thor on the one hand, and Siva/Rudra and Vishnu on the other, is discussed by Georges Dumézil in “The Stakes of the Warrior,” where Kṛṣṇa represents Viṣṇu as his avatara.
Dumézil presents legends from Scandinavia and India, which have similar patterns and themes, and discusses the comparison first in terms of his theory of the three functions, where Odin and Thor represent the magical sovereign, and the champion or warrior, the “first and second entries on the canonical list of the gods of the three functions.” The problem, he attempts to solve, is this: Although the elements of the stories are too similar to be coincidence, in the Rg Veda, Rudra (Mahadeva or Siva) and Viṣṇu don’t fit, individually or together, in the trifunctional structure. He says the Vedic Viṣṇu is an associate of Indra at the second level (warrior) and although he is above Rudra in the hierarchy, he doesn’t fit in the first level, or that of magical sovereign, and the two of them, Rudra and Viṣṇu don’t interact. It was Hinduism that later gave them trifunctional characteristics. (Actually, Dumézil says the Indian gods still do not have a definite trifunctional aspect, although Hinduism put Viṣṇu and Rudra in a more oppositional relationship.) Further, Rudra operates more on the third level as a healer and herbalist, and on the second level only as archer, alone or in his plural form Rudrāh. Also there are problems with fitting Odin and Thor into the trifunctional structure in the Scandinavian legend.
In fact, in the tales of the Scandinavian Starkaṑr and the Indian Śiśupāla, there seem to be strong similarities between Odin and Rudra, even though, hierarchically speaking, the similarities should be between Odin and Viṣṇu. Both Odin and Rudra have a weakness for the demonic, and in the end, must be rescued or have things put right again, in Odin’s case by Thor, and in Rudra’s by Viṣṇu (or Kṛṣṇa).
Others, besides Dumézil have listed physical and mental traits of character and behavior shared by these two seemingly different deities, Odin and Rudra.
Both are tireless wanderers, they like to appear to men only in disguise, unrecognizable, Odin with a hat pulled down to his eyes, Rudra with his uṡniṡa falling over his face; Odin is the master of the runes as Rudra is kavi; and above all the bands of Rudra’s devotees, bound by a vow, endowed with powers and privileges recall sometimes the berserkir, sometimes the einherjar of Odin. This sovereign god, this magician, unarguably has one of his bases in the mysterious region where the savage borders on the civilized. Like Rudra-Śiva he is often, in terms of ordinary rules, even immoral…Like Rudra-Śiva, he has his taste for human sacrifice, particularly the self-sacrifice of his votaries. More generally, like Rudra-Śiva, he has in him something almost demonic: his friendship and weakness for Loki are well known; but Loki is the malicious rogue who, one fine day, in arranging the murder of Baldr, takes on the dimensions of a ‘spirit of evil,’ of the greatest evil.
By contrast, Thor, like Viṣṇu, exterminates demons, or giants (although he is also sometimes aided by Loki or Thjalfi). According to Dumézil, the “overriding difference” between the pairs of Odin-Thor and Rudra-Viṣṇu is that “Viṣṇu–in the only sense that matters here–is superior to Rudra-Śiva, even constituting his ultimate recourse, while Odin, notwithstanding his impudences with the giants, is superior to Thor, hierarchically speaking and apparently also in the degree of esteem accorded him by human society. His complexity, his magical knowledge, the post-humous happiness he assures his followers in Valhöll, all make him theologically more interesting.”
For these reasons, Dumézil categorizes Odin and Rudra-Śiva as the “dark gods,” and Thor and Viṣṇu as the “light gods…Each of the two heroes, the Scandinavian Starkaṑr and the Indian Śiśupāla, belongs entirely to the dark god and is opposed by the light god. But the structures are almost reversed by the fact that in Scandinavia the dark god holds the first place, being more important in this life and especially in that to come, and that consequently his favor is the more desirable, the light god having only an immediate and limited range; whereas in the Indian legend it is the light god who is in the spotlight and directs the game, and whose favor in this life and in the hereafter is most fervently sought, while the dark god acts only implicitly, without showing himself, through the “Rudraic” nature of the hero.” Dumézil concludes that the Scandinavian hero, the favorite of Odin, is the good hero, while the Indian hero, a type of Rudra-Śiva, is the evil one, apparently because of the hierarchical superiority of Odin, or his function as magical sovereign.
The Question of Incarnation
According to Moor, only the Gokalast’has adore Krishna as the Deity; other sects of Hindus condemn him. “The anathematizing of Krishna is not confined to the Buddhists, but is common to other sects of Hindus equally hostile to his claims to deification.”
It is told in the Puranas how:
Krishna fought eighteen bloody battles with Deva-Cala-Yavana, or Deo-Calyun, from which the Greeks made Deucalion.” Deo-Calyun was a powerful prince who lived in the western parts of India. In the Puranas he is called an incarnate demon because he resisted Krishna’s ambitions, almost defeating him. However, Krishna was victorious in the eighteenth battle through treachery.
The title of Deva is not of course given to Calyun in the Puranas, but would probably have been given him by his descendants and followers, and by the numerous tribes of Hindus, who, to this day, call Krishna an impious wretch, a merciless tyrant, an implacable and most rancorous enemy; in short, those Hindus who consider Krishna as an incarnate demon, now expiating his crimes in the fiery dungeons of the lowest hell…
The process by which Hermes’ caduceus came to symbolize medicine is full of confusion and mistaken associations. There may have also been an element of guile worthy of Hermes the trickster.
Hermes Through the Ages
Ancient historians knew of several different Hermes. Their characteristics vary, yet it is often assumed that all traits belong to the same god. Dr. Walter Friedlander separated historical accounts of Hermes in this way:
1. pre-Homeric Hermes
2. Homeric or archaic Hermes
3. Traditional or classical Hermes
4. Thoth
5. Pseudo-Hermes Trismegistus or Hermetic Hermes.
Pre-Homeric Hermes
Pre-Homeric Hermes was associated with stone boundaries, or Herms. Herms were phallic symbols and thought to avert the evil eye. This Hermes was a fertility god, but not a vegetation god. He was a psycho pomp and so was associated with ghosts. Herms were often put at crossroads.
Homeric (or Archaic) Hermes
In Homer and Hesiod, Hermes may have had weak ties to medicine. He cured impotence, bestowed sleep, and brought the dead to life. He continued to be a psycho pomp, but he was also a messenger, ambassador, bringer of good luck and wealth, the god of athletic contests, and inventor of shoes. He taught people how to make fire with sticks, played the lyre and pipe or syrinx. He had bawdy humor, was a schemer, a thief, and associated with the number four.
Traditional or Classical Hermes
There are two divisions for Classical Hermes; traditional Hermes and Hermes-Thoth.
The attributes of archaic Hermes persisted in traditional Hermes with changes in emphasis. In both versions he was a messenger, psycho pomp, trickster, inventor, and craftsman. He was concerned with those who used the roads, those who bartered, and those who wanted to prophecy. But he was explicitly made more than a messenger. The biggest change from the archaic was the emphasis on commerce and merchants. He became the inventor of buying and selling. This was probably the influence of Rome, which resulted in Mercury’s power becoming identified with the Greek Hermes. Hermes was not adverse to lying and fraud. Basically, he had characteristics that were not unique to healers.
Traditional Hermes
According to Greek myth, traditional Hermes was also involved in the birth of Dionysus and several others, often taking the child from a dead mother. The Roman Aesculapius was himself the son of Coronis and Apollo. In a jealous rage Apollo killed Coronis, not realizing she was pregnant. Apollo then sent Hermes to deliver the baby while the mother lay on her funeral pyre. (It is possible that Aesculapius was considered a healer because of his association with the goddess Hygeia.) Hermes also delivered a baby from the dead Callisto. He delivered Pan, Helen, and Heracles. He assisted in the birth of the Dioscuri, Castor and Polydeuces. Aristaeus was the keeper of bees, son of Apollo and Cyrene. Hermes took him to Gaia and Horae, the hours or seasons, who fed him nectar and ambrosia and made him immortal.
Hermes-Thoth
Both Hermes-Thoth and Hermes Trismegistus were Egyptian. In the 5th century B.C. Herodotus referred to Hermopolis as the place where ibises were buried, and where Thoth was worshipped. Hermes became associated with Thoth through the Greek creation story. The gods ran to Egypt in fear of Typhon and disguised themselves as animals. Jupiter was a ram, Apollo a crow, Bacchus a goat, Juno a cow, Venus a fish, and Mercury was an ibis. Greco-Roman authors assumed on the one hand that the Egyptian god Hermes-Thoth had different characteristics than Aarchaic Hermes, but they spoke of them as one. Much of Egyptian religion was connected with magic and so Thoth probably had more connections to medicine than Greek Hermes.
Hermes and Thoth Compared
Thoth’s other attribute was a scribe for the gods. He was Thoth, lord of writing and of books, at least by 2900 B.C. Thoth was the heart and tongue of Ra, or the reason and mental powers of Ra, and the means by which his will was translated into speech. However neither archaic nor traditional Hermes were the mind of Zeus. Thoth’s wisdom had to do with accumulation of knowledge, but also with prudence of heart. He invented astronomy and math. His statue was in the library of Egyptian scholars. Both Thoth and Hermes were associated with magic, but Thoth’s magic was that of a serious god, the essence of right and truth, not a trickster. Plutarch and Diodorus Sisulus thought Egyptian Hermes was a psycho pomp, but did not consider that to be a characteristic of Thoth. It is not clear why the Greeks chose to associate the two.
Pseudo-Hermes Trismegistus or Hermetic Hermes
Two additional characters became identified with Hermes-Thoth, philosophic pseudo-Hermes Trismegistus and alchemic pseudo-Hermes Trismegistus. These together are Hermetic Hermes. According to Clement, both Plato and Diodorus Sisulus attributed invention of the arts, philosophy, science and medicine to Hermes Trismegistus. However, he is connected to western medicine mostly through alchemical medicine.
Hermes Trismegistus and Medicine
There are actually three Hermes in the Hermetic Corpus. About the second century A.D. there appeared writings ascribed to a certain Hermes Trismegistus. Friedlander thought the true authors may have been Egyptians teaching philosophy and religion with the ides of Plato. They lived near Alexandria and may have been influenced by Jewish, Persian and/or Gnostic thought. The oldest philosophical/religious text was not written before 100 B.C. Most were written by 300 A.D. and all were written by 400 A.D. They were put together by 1050. A “huge historical error” was derived from these writings when Lacantius (260-340 A.D.) and Augustine (354-430 A.D.) accepted Hermes Trismegistus as ancient and authoritative because he predicted the rise of Christianity. Friedlander thinks Philosophical Hermes is connected to medicine mainly because of Augustine and Lactantius and this may be why some European doctors in the 16th century began to use the caduceus.
Three Times Great
In 1182 Robert of Chester said that there were three Hermes, and “three times great” was changed to “triplex” or 3-fold, although in Egypt, “Three times great” had been an honorary title for Thoth. Chester said the three Hermes were Enoch, Noah, and the king-philosopher-prophet reigning in Egypt after the flood. Francis Bacon repeated this idea and said that King James (1605) was a king-priest-philosopher.
Alchemical Pseudo-Hermes
Alchemical pseudo-Hermes came into being some centuries after the philosophical one, although alchemy was known in earlier times. Alchemical Hermes Tristmegistus was considered authoritative since the 7th century, although he is not currently distinguishable from the philosophic Hermes Tristmegistus. Egyptian alchemy claimed to change metals into gold, based on the theory of transmutation, which was based on the “unity of matter”. This required the use of a tincture–the philosopher’s stone. Greco-Egyptian alchemy came to Europe by the 12th century by way of Arabia.
Mercury was considered an essential element since ancient times. The symbol is the same for the element Mercury and for the god Hermes/Mercury. In the field of medicine, Paracelsus (1493-1541) replaced Galenic medicine and its humors with three principles, sulfur, mercury, and salt. Mercury was the spirit, sulfur was the soul, and salt was the body. In medicine, alchemy tried to heal by correcting the body’s chemical process.
Alchemy and the Soul
American General Ethan Allen Hitchcock (1798-1870) said that alchemy concerned the soul. This was popularized in the literature of psychology by Herbert Silberer and Carl Jung.
The Caduceus in the United States
In the early 20th century a debate arose in the United States over the appropriateness of the caduceus of Hermes as a symbol of the medical profession. Fielding Garrison and Colonel John Van R. Hoff, U.S. Army retired, defended its use. Others, such as Colonel C. C. McCullock Jr., Medical Librarian of the Surgeon General’s Office said it was not appropriate. There were also dissenting articles in medical publications. However, the defenders of the caduceus symbol in medicine were unmoved by arguments against its use. The U.S. recognized the caduceus as a symbol of medicine in 1917, although some organizations later returned to using the staff of Aesculapius. These include the American Women’s Medical Association, the Arizona Medical Association, and the Medical Library Association. (This may explain why Mike Stathis mentions Arizona’s Mayo Clinic favorably.)
A Connection Not Mentioned by Friedlander
One connection that has not yet been made with Hermes’ caduceus concerns the historical struggle by male doctors for supremacy over traditional female healers. Hermes, a male figure loosely associated with medicine, may have been useful in the efforts of the men of “science” to replace women in the healing arts, although the question remains as to why they chose Hermes rather than Aesculapius. Perhaps Hermes’ other attributes, such as his connection with commerce, were important to them. In Europe this process took place earlier than in America, which would explain Europe’s earlier use of the caduceus. The last bastion in this assault was female midwifery. In America, Garrison’s defense of the caduceus took place about the time a new anesthetic, “twilight sleep”, was being offered to women who gave birth in the hospital. The changeover from midwives to male doctors continued during the decade following the adoption of the caduceus of Hermes. Hospital birth had largely replaced midwifery by 1930.
Among medical professionals who complete most of their work outside of the operating room, OBGYNs are the best paid. Overall, they are the third highest medical earners in the United States.
I have already cited Mike Stathis’ book, “America’s Healthcare Solution,” which is the source of the following summary. I chose a few connections that seem the most crucial. It’s not my purpose to fully describe the debate and the proposed solutions, only to use this information in pursuit of a new way of talking about healthcare.
At this time, healthcare is the fundamental national security interest of the United States. To put this into perspective, Libya could never match healthcare in economic urgency. Further, the decision to ignore Libya will not cure what ails us. The healthcare crisis has overriding potential for harm largely because of its effects on American business, especially since the advent of NAFTA. It is well known that healthcare costs have increased much faster than other basic necessities. Because health insurance in America has been employer-based since World War II, high costs have directly affected employers’ ability to compete with foreign companies whose governments provide universal healthcare. This turn of events leads to strategies of outsourcing, freezing pensions, and relocating overseas. For Americans the ensuing loss of jobs means the loss of health insurance.
Regardless of politicians’ claims, there is no fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans on this issue. The democrats have proposed and continue to defend a plan that won’t solve anything. It is claimed that forcing the uninsured to buy insurance will help solve the crisis. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, many Americans with full health insurance are not covered adequately. “Of the two million personal bankruptcies each year in America, more than one-half are attributed to medical bills or medically related events, accounting for the nation’s number one cause of bankruptcies. Furthermore, of the one million Americans filing for medical bankruptcy each year, most had full medical insurance…in fact one could argue that America’s health insurance system does not provide true medical insurance. Rather, it resembles a pre-paid medical plan with co-pays, deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses that can add up fast.” For their part, the Republicans simply obscure the issue with patent lies meant to retain the old system with all its fatal flaws.
It can’t be denied that lobbyists who continue their treasonous activities for the “medical-industrial complex” deserve much of the blame. Whatever the initial cause may be, their activities have led to widespread abdication of responsibility on the part of lawmakers and even healthcare professionals. Again, the same interests control both Democrats and Republicans, so any perceived differences are illusory.
As so often happens, once the seriousness of the problem is understood, it only seems to illustrate the impossibility of a solution. One begins to wonder whether healthcare is the problem, or something more fundamental? How can a solution be found or implemented when all parties have become so invested in the status quo? On the surface, the question provides the answer. Feasible, short-term corrections have been proposed; the failure to act indicates a lack of will. The problem with this analysis is it lumps all the players together as the source of the problem and discourages further attempts at reform.
That said there is an interesting element of the current reform legislation that might tie this debate to its underlying structure, the bedrock of principle. I refer to the use of the commerce clause as a legal basis. In order to discuss the significance of the commerce clause as a justification in current healthcare reform, it will be necessary to examine the history of the symbol of medicine in the United States since 1917, the caduceus of Hermes, god of messengers and merchants.
