When I was born, my father named me’ Mervat’, a Turkish corruption of ‘Marw/a’- the holly well from which ' Abrahams’ wife managed to fetch water for her son (Ismael in Koran and Isaac in the Bible!).
Only to know much later that ' Marw' is in fact a special type of stone that points to the presence of water underneath it or in its vicinity, which is the same as Herm/ Herma the origin of ‘Hermes’!
Also, as a child, my attention was drawn to a commercial on the Egyptian television in the form of a short-animated film set to beautiful music and lyrics. It was modelled on a simple fairy tale of a young prince who fell in love with a beautiful young princess, and the only way for him to win her heart was to obtain a small treasure hidden in a cave in a remote part of the land, the road to which was lined with all sorts of risks.
The treasure was in fact nothing but a ‘bottle of perfume’ called “Kismet”, a word that in the Arabic language means “destiny”. At that time, I did not know anything about the ‘Book of Thoth’, the ancient book of learning which the Egyptians attributed to Thoth, the god of wisdom who brought the arts of civilisation to humankind.
I did not envisage too, that one day I would become a psychiatrist- one of those who claim to have some understanding of the human soul (Psyche in Greek). ‘Psyche’ was driven by curiosity to know the nature of her lover ‘Eros’, and in her pursuit of such knowledge, ‘light’ was necessary to see through the ‘darkness’ of the night that envelops it. This is the journey of the soul in her quest to gain the sum of knowledge that is hidden inside, the inner vision or “insight” that guides us all out of darkness to the safe shores of wisdom.
The same journey took me to that part of Egypt where my father is buried, and wisdom was born. It took me to ‘Hermopolis’, the place where “being” is seen as perpetual “becoming” and the knowledge of yesterday is nothing but a well of inspiration for tomorrow.
Mervat Nasser
Founder of New Hermopolis