I see Hermes as a small, slender man. (Of course, this isn't actually how he really looks, for he is the master of many disguises, and is actually one of the oldest, possibly indigenous, gods of Greece. But I think it pleases him to appear in this manner.) Thin and wiry, with tousled reddish-brown hair that never seems to lay straight. He's got a ready laugh - in fact, he's always laughing about something, especially when others don't find it funny - and even when he's angry his lips are turned up in a grin. His eyes are very intense, somewhat out of place in his otherwise unassuming visage. They are very old eyes, very wise, and a little cruel. They are tricky, elfin eyes - taking in everything, constantly plotting - but they reveal very little of what's going on behind the surface. You never know what Hermes is actually thinking - just that he is, and that he's constantly two steps ahead of the game.

That's usually because he invented the game, whatever it is. All games are his - and he plays them very well, because for Hermes, everything's a game. A con. A trick. He loves making bargains - and then trying to find the loophole, the unforeseen way out of the deal. Not because he's lazy, or greedy, or won't keep his word - he always keeps his word, or at least the letter of it - he just thinks it's more interesting that way, and when you're a god, amusement is the most precious thing in the world. He values that in a person - cunning, quick-thinking, daring, balls. If his opponent shows chutzpa Hermes will gladly take the lesser hand. Too often he finds people dull, boring, cowardly, too willing to take the safe road. Someone who stands out, who has that brazen, reckless courage, who's got brains and knows how to use them, who isn't going to let a little thing like laws or conventional opinion stand in the way of them getting what they want - that one catches Hermes' eye and will have himself a most valuable ally.

Of course things won't be effortlessly easy after that - oh no, what fun would that be, what kind of a game would it be if there were no obstacles to overcome? But what'll be different is that this person will find themselves much luckier. Certain coincidences will begin to occur - tools falling into place, enemies tripping up at the last minute, that sort of thing. The odds will now be in their favor - because chance is the plaything of Hermes, but he dispenses it only to those who catch his eye. Unless, of course, it will amuse him to bestow it to the unworthy - only to have it yanked away and watch them fall. Sometimes there's no rhyme or reason to what happens - beyond the fact that it amuses him, and really that's the only reason he needs.

Hermes is a powerful god, much more so than he normally appears to be, but that suits his sense of things. He works behind the scenes, taking a secondary role, as a messenger or go-between, one who quietly takes care of everything while others get all the credit. But it's better that way. Too much attention, too much limelight is restrictive. And Hermes is constantly moving. He doesn't want to be the one in charge, the one who makes all the decisions - the one who gets blamed when everything goes to shit. And it amuses him to see lessers getting all the credit, because he knows the real score, the true story - hell, he's the one who tells it. No, he's much happier being the enforcer, the captain beneath the Mafia boss. That way when there are power struggles, he's not in danger of getting whacked, because everyone needs a good, loyal captain who knows his stuff. And Hermes certainly knows his stuff. Why else would Zeus have appointed so many tasks to him? Olympos would fall apart without him - and yet, Hermes isn't really an Olympian.

Sure, he's among the chief gods - but he doesn't really belong there. He doesn't really belong anywhere, because Hermes is an outsider. A stranger, constantly on the go, constantly between two things. His is the peripheral, twilight realm, on the borders and fringes. Safety, security, conventional things, the home - he has no part of any of these. He's a traveler, a gambler, a refugee; his people are the loners, drifters, gamblers, thieves, businessmen, magicians, and poets. All who inhabit that liminal realm on the fringes of society. He is dangerous and new. Rebellion, change, the birth of new ideas, the breakdown of old habits and the established order. Inventiveness. That dangerous idea "why?" Why are things the way they are? What would happen if…? The edges, the sharp pointy lines of the square that grind down the ordinary. This is Hermes' realm.

And of course, that is also why he is a god of spirits, of the dead who are not yet in Haides, those restless violent beings who dwell on the edges, the fringes of society, trapped between this world and that to come. Poltergeist phenomena - things moving, disappearing, violent, disorderly, weird - comes under his sway. This is frequently how he gets our attention. You can almost be sure that your prayers to him will be answered when things start disappearing or reappearing in places you know they weren't just a short while ago. Often there is an element of humor to the pranks - which of course brings us back to the smile and laugh of Hermes, that constant reminder that he knows more than he's letting on, that he knows how things really work, as opposed to how they simply appear to work.

And so it's not surprising that Hermes is the god of magic, for that is the essence of magic. To discover the real workings of the world, the hidden mysteries of nature, and how to manipulate them to cause desired effects. Speech brings things into being, organizes possibilities, cuts off some and opens up others, transmutes thought into the physical, conceals as much as it unleashes. And so it is that the word, especially the spoken word, belongs to Hermes, who knows how to bargain with it, how to establish the imaginary rules of commerce - a favorite game of many - and how to transcend these things with it.

And such is Hermes, a wily, winding, crafty god!