Co-creating with the Moon
Part of the wisdom we will have unveiled in the new moon blog is that we will not be able to fully access the gifts and tap into our full power if we refuse to do the inner work and dive into the darkness of our soul.
This blog will dig deeper into the Heroine’s journey, focusing on the many female archetypes activated for our greater good by this new moon.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, we will have collectively and individually been shaken down and have experienced in one way or another the difficult and deep feelings related to loss.
There is no denying that the way we currently cope with these feelings is going to shape our lives in the near future and my purpose is no other than to offer you my humble lights in this delicate transition.
The long square that Pluto, Scorpio ruler, formed with Eris since 2010 and peaked in 2020-2021 reveals a deeper need of transformation of our consciousness.
We should also all try to acknowledge that just like in the Hero’s journey described by Joseph Campbell we have now been called to action. Our safety, the safety of our families, our way of life or the peace of the community in which we live have all now been threatened, the comfort and habits of our life completely disrupted.
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Campbell reminds us that at this stage, a challenge or quest must be undertaken but that many heroes will show fears that need to be overcome, second thoughts or even deep personal doubts as to whether or not he or she is up to the challenge.
In other words, many will be tempted to deny it and find escape routes.
At this crucial turning point where the Hero desperately needs guidance, he or she meets a mentor figure who gives him or her something he or she needs. He or she could be given an object of great importance, insight into the dilemma he faces, wise advice, practical training or even self-confidence. Whatever the mentor provides the Hero with it serves to dispel her or his doubts and fears and give him or her the strength and courage to begin her or his quest.
Some of you might have realized that we started this journey together long ago, but it takes time to be ready and the universe knows this, the rhythm is thus slower so that we can all adjust.
To support us, we will dive deeper into the female archetypes currently activated, the wisdom of the Heroine’s journey: the dark night of the soul and the light of consciousness they currently beam on our way to help us overcome the obstacles of this very difficult period.
If nobody can currently argue that our lives have been disrupted, then where does the journey take us?
For many of you this call to adventure or quest, whether physical, spiritual or emotional, might have started this summer or this fall, following the two first peaks… or is just about to begin.
Whether you went willingly, or you might have been pushed, either way you finally crossed the threshold between the world you are familiar with and that which you are not.
In the Hero’s journey, it may be leaving home for the first time in his life or just doing something he has always been scared to do. In whatever form the threshold presents itself, this action signifies the Hero’s commitment to his journey and whatever it may have in store for him.
Finally out of his comfort zone, the Hero is confronted with an ever more difficult series of challenges that test him in a variety of ways. Obstacles are thrown across his path; whether physical hurdles or people bent on thwarting his progress, the Hero must overcome each challenge he is presented with on the journey towards his ultimate goal.
The Hero needs to find out who can be trusted and who can’t. He may earn allies and meet enemies who will, each in their own way, help prepare him for the greater ordeals yet to come. This is the stage where his skills and/or powers are tested and every obstacle that he faces helps us gain a deeper insight into his character and ultimately identify with him even more.
This time started with the many lockdowns and will continue across the whole Saturn-Uranus Square that runs across 2021 and 2022. All along, I invited you to be very clear about your values, then desires and finally emotions so that you could screen among your relationships who needed to go and who needed to support you on this journey.
WE HAVE NOW ENTERED THE INMOST CAVE
The inmost cave may represent many things in the Hero’s story such as an actual location in which lies a terrible danger or an inner conflict which up until now the Hero has not had to face. As the Hero approaches the cave, he must make final preparations before taking that final leap into the great unknown.
At the threshold to the inmost cave the Hero may once again face some of the doubts and fears that first surfaced upon his call to adventure. He may need some time to reflect upon his journey and the treacherous road ahead in order to find the courage to continue. This brief respite helps the audience understand the magnitude of the ordeal that awaits the Hero and escalates the tension in anticipation of his ultimate test.
The Supreme Ordeal may be a dangerous physical test or a deep inner crisis that the Hero must face in order to survive or for the world in which the Hero lives to continue to exist. Whether it be facing his greatest fear or most deadly foe, the Hero must draw upon all of his skills and his experiences gathered upon the path to the inmost cave in order to overcome his most difficulty challenge.
Only through some form of “death” can the Hero be reborn, experiencing a metaphorical resurrection that somehow grants him greater power or insight necessary in order to fulfill his destiny or reach his journey’s end. This is the high-point of the Hero’s story and where everything he holds dear is put on the line. If he fails, he will either die or life as he knows it will never be the same again.
This is the Scorpio territory. The deep inner crisis, Pluto’s realm.
After defeating the enemy, surviving death and finally overcoming his greatest personal challenge, the Hero is ultimately transformed into a new state, emerging from battle as a stronger person and often with a prize.
The Reward may come in many forms: an object of great importance or power, a secret, greater knowledge or insight, or even reconciliation with a loved one or ally. Whatever the treasure, which may well facilitate his return to the Ordinary World, the Hero must quickly put celebrations aside and prepare for the last leg of his journey.
The final reward that he obtains may be literal or metaphoric. It could be a cause for celebration, self-realization or an end to strife, but whatever it is it represents three things: change, success and proof of his journey.
The presence of Persephone, Eris and Psyche during this new moon all points to the rewards of an inner battle, self-realization and the end of an inner chaos.
Pandora and Circe, on another hand, highlight the possibility of remaining in self denial and lies, maintaining a thick veil on the light of consciousness.
Circe kept Odysseus on her island for years casting spells on him and his crew so that he stays.
Pandora was the first human woman created by Hephaestus on Zeus’ order and equipped by all Gods (Pan-dora literally means all-gifted) to bring evil on men following Prometheus’ mischief (he had stollen the creative fire of invention from Olympus and brought it down on Earth).
What exactly are we fighting for?
This is one of the key questions we have to answer today. And is it really worth fighting for?
Scorpio reminds us that MAGIC happens OUTSIDE of our comfort zone.
The necessary work will require deep honesty and courage.
The work starts within. It’s a prerequisite to any productive external action.
Trying to just change location or partner is doomed to fail and would deprive you from the gifts and rewards. If we want to fix our planet, the idea is not to start anew on Mars. We need to deal with its current reality and adjust accordingly.
To do so, we need to be ready to transform, go beyond (trans) the form (Saturn) and our habits (Moon) just like Scorpio does.
The world has stopped to give us a chance to see, transform and reclaim before we enter the next phase of its evolution. One thing is certain, the universe won’t stop the transformation in motion. How this will manifest in our realities depends on our capacity to change.
There is no better time than right now. When Sun (light of cosmic consciousness) and Moon (our soul essence) have just met in the sign of Scorpio.
When men fight monster and dragons on land, women go to the underworld.
What can we learn from those?
First, let’s explore the myth of Demeter and the rape of Persephone.
Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of harvest and fertility. Also called Kore, the “maiden”, she grew up to become a very beautiful girl attracting the attention of many gods. Demeter, quite obsessed by her only daughter, was however keeping all men away from her and had settled Persephone in a lush valley with many friends.
The most persisting suitor of Persephone was Hades, the god of the Underworld. He was a hard, middle-aged man, living in the dark, among the shadows of the Dead but his heart softened when he saw Persephone and was mesmerized by his youth, beauty and freshness. Knowing his chances to be close to null and deeply moved by his passion, he decided to get Persephone no matter what.
One day, while the young girl was playing and picking flowers along with her friends, she beheld the most enchanting narcissus she had ever seen. As she stooped down to pick the flower, the earth beneath her feet suddenly cleaved open and through the gap Hades himself came out on his chariot with black horses. Hades grabbed the lovely maiden before she could scream for help and descended into his underworld kingdom before the gap in the earth closed after them.
Nobody was able to figure out where Persephone had disappeared. The whole incident, however, had been witnessed by Zeus, father of the maiden and brother of the abductor, as well as by Helios, god of the Sun. Zeus decided to keep silent about the whole thing to prevent a fight with his brother while Helios wisely thought it better not to get involved in anything that didn’t concern him.
A distraught and heartbroken Demeter wandered the earth looking for her daughter until her good friend Hecate, Moon goddess, advised her to seek for the help of Helios, the all-seeing Sun god, who soon empathized and shared his secret.
Persephone in the meantime had to cope with the atrocities of the underworld but little by little accustomed herself to her new residence and started to find solace in her new royal position realizing that she could actually help the lost souls landing into her realms to find their last home.
Demeter, however, could not ignore it. She was furious at this insult and deeply hurt by Zeus silence and wanted her daughter back. To punish gods and to grief, Demeter decided to take a long and indefinite leave from her duties as the goddess of harvest and fertility, with devastating consequences. The earth began to dry up, harvests failed, plants lost their fruitfulness, animals were dying for lack of food and famine spread to the whole earth, resulting in untold misery.
The cries of the people who were suffering reached Olympus and the divine ears of Zeus. The mighty god finally realized that if he wouldn’t do something about his sister’s wrath, all humanity would disappear. He consequently tried to find another solution to both calm Demeter and please Hades. He promised to bring back Persephone if the maiden stayed with Hades against her will. Otherwise, Persephone would belong to her husband.
The crafty Hades learned this agreement and tricked his reluctant bride, who was crying all day and night from despair, to eat a few seeds of the pomegranate, a fruit which once ingested was bonding anybody to the Underworld. When in front of Zeus asked where she wanted to live, Persephone answered with her husband.
A fight ensued, and Demeter threatened to never again make the earth fertile. To put an end to this quarrel, Zeus decided that Persephone would spend half of the year with her husband and the other with her mother on Olympus. This alternative pleased none of the two opponents, but both agreed thus giving birth to the cyclical nature of our four seasons.
As we have seen the unconscious contains
Most often, we delve into these darker or lesser known places in ourselves only when we MUST. Crisis is the ultimate impetus for transformation and that is what Persephone finds herself doing… transforming.
The result of this transformation is unexpected and powerful in its effects.
Persephone shifts from a place of innocence where she:
Persephone is the eternal girl, the divine child who doesn’t commit herself to anything or anyone, because making a definite choice eliminates other possibilities. She feels as if she had all the time in the world to make up her mind and thus can wait until something moves her. She lives in a Never-Never Land, like Wendy with Peter Pan and the lost boys, drifting and playing at life.
Underground, she learns how to handle herself over time in her stressful environment and a great lesson: that she has mastery over the king of the underworld himself. It is Pluto’s weakness and fear of being alone that keeps her chained.
She goes from powerless as a screaming, helpless, kidnapped child, to a fully formed, brave queen with the realization of her own capabilities.
She develops the maturity to be happy in the light while she is with her mother in a place she wants to be and to wait patiently in the dark for the happiness she has developed the faith will surely come.
Crisis is the reason for her forced self-exploration and sudden maturity. She, in essence, meets and accepts her shadow-self. Very often this will manifest as depression in a woman’s life.
If she is to grow, she must return to real life. She needs to understand that making a choice and having a family does not mean to lose one-self. She needs to integrate the fact that those moments of dark crisis are deep opportunity for her to reinvent herself and bloom again when spring comes again.
To grow, a Persephone woman must learn to both make commitments and live up to them.
Growth requires that she struggle against indecisiveness, passivity, and inertia; she must make up her mind and stay committed when the choice stops being fun.
For that Persephone needs to learn:
Similarly, there are lessons for Hades:
Now let’s explore the myth of Psyche and Eros.
In western Greece once lived a king and queen who had three daughters. The eldest two were beautiful but the youngest, Psyche, was so incomparably lovely that no words could describe her. Most began to view her as a fresh incarnation of the goddess of love herself, Aphrodite. As word of her loveliness spread far and wide, travelers flocked to the kingdom to worship Psyche as the new goddess. In their eagerness, the people neglected the altars of Aphrodite.
When Aphrodite realized that the honors due to her were being granted to a mortal, she soon became outraged and vowed revenge. … Aphrodite ordered Eros to fly one of his arrows and make Psyche fall in love with a vile and disgusting creature. …
Time had passed, and Psyche’s older sisters had eventually married noble husbands. But though Psyche had grown more beautiful with each succeeding year, no man had dared approach her. She was worshipped by all – and she remained untouched and alone. The king, her father, consulted the oracle. To his horror he was told to dress Psyche in funeral robes to meet her spouse, for she was fated to marry a monstrous, terrifying bridegroom. On the designated day, the king and queen and all the people mournfully conducted Psyche to a high cliff, chained her to the rocks, and left the young woman to face her destiny.
Psyche waited and trembled, then felt the gentle breath of the West Wind (Zephyr). It lifted her up and carried her down to a lush, green valley. When she awoke, she saw a forest with a fountain in the center and a magnificent palace… Psyche timidly walked inside and found that the rooms were filled with radiant, golden light. Then a voice welcomed her, saying, “All that you see here about you is yours. We shall attend to your every need.” Psyche looked for the speaker but saw no one. Then a different voice offered Psyche a refreshing bath, while still another invited the young woman to a banquet fit for a queen.”
At night, under cover of darkness, a stranger appeared in her bedroom and made love to her, and so it continued until Psyche’s sisters came to visit and planted a grain of doubt in Psyche’s heart. Perhaps she indeed married a monster? The truth was that the god Eros had disobeyed his mother, and having pricked himself with his own arrow, fell in love with Psyche, and wanted her for himself. He was not ready yet to disobey his mother openly.
Although Eros forbade Psyche to look at him, she decided to approach her lover while he is asleep with a knife (in case he is a monster) and an oil lamp.
As she approached the sleeper, the light revealed an astonishing sight. Her unknown husband was none other than Eros, the handsome god of love. … When her eye caught the brace of weapons near the bed, she curiously began to examine them.
She held up an arrow, tipped with the poison that heats the blood of Eros’s victims. But because she was still trembling at the discovery of the god, she accidentally pricked a finger on one of the sharp points – and passionately fell in love with the god of love. Psyche drank in his extraordinary beauty with even more passion and began to kiss him fervently. Just then, a drop of hot oil leapt from the lamp onto his shoulder and painfully scalded his unblemished skin. Eros awakened, saw Psyche, the lamp, and the knife, and flew out of bed in a rage.
Psyche piteously clung to Eros as he flew above her head, but to no avail. He ignored her tears and pleas and scolded her in bitter words.
Psyche believed that all was lost. She left the palace and threw herself into the river, but the river, fearful of offending Eros, bore her up and carried her to the opposite bank. There Psyche encountered the god Pan… When he saw the forlorn girl, he immediately knew that she was suffering the pains of love. “Do not try to kill yourself,” he advised, “but go instead to the god of love and plead with him.
Psyche left but she wandered aimlessly. After a time, she found herself in the kingdom where one of her sisters ruled, and so she sought an audience with her. ‘I did as you advised,’ Psyche told her, “and discovered that my husband was none other than the god of love. He abandoned me with bitter words and said he knew that he had married the wrong sister. Now he means to make you his bride.’
Psyche’s sister was overjoyed by this news. She ran to her husband, inventing some excuse for her sudden departure, and then quickly made her way to the rocky promontory where the West Wind had twice carried her safely to Psyche’s former home. The sister leaped into the air, eager for the arms of Eros, and fell to her death on the crags and boulders below.
Psyche wandered on and came to the kingdom of her other sister, whereupon Psyche related the same story. This sister … met the same violent fate.
Psyche soon realized that she had no other choice than to meet the wrathful Aphrodite. She had visited Demeter and Hera first to buy some time but had received no help from either of the goddesses.
Aphrodite attacked Psyche, tearing her clothes, her hair, and striking her again and again. “Where is your beauty now, worthless girl? Do you have any strength, or value, or perseverance left? We shall test your mettle and see!”
Psyche is tortured by Aphrodite’s two maids, Melancholy and Sorrow; after some time the goddess proceeds to assign Psyche four impossible tasks:
Psyche emerges from the Underworld but then paused. She considered the jar of ointment and lifted a hand to caress her own careworn face. “Why should I simply give this to Aphrodite?” she wondered.” Why not use some of it myself, to recover my beauty so that my beloved Eros will be irresistibly drawn to me?” With that, Psyche opened the jar – and immediately fell into a Stygian sleep. At that moment, Eros felt something stir… He scanned the landscape And, spying the sleeping Psyche, Eros kissed her awake…”
He flew to Mount Olympus and professed his love. Psyche was accepted among the Olympians as the new goddess. Shortly after their child was born, a girl whose name was Pleasure (Joy).
The beginning of this myth is very similar to Persephone’s:
Psyche is lonely and isolated, first as daughter and then as wife. A soul on the verge of her destiny: wrapped in the safe cocoon of the collective unconscious. She has not been born yet: she has not left the safe womb of the goddess. She is not in love with a person, but more with the archetype or the idea of love. She rests in the state of sweet inertia. She is not an agent, rather a passive participant in her own life.
The story starts with the paradise-like unity, harmony and a seeming completion, but soon doubt and conflict sneak in, for this is the way our consciousness develop. Psyche must embark on her own journey, she must extricate herself from the suffocating bond she has found herself in.
Psyche is childlike tenderness and vulnerability (archetype of the divine child)
Eros is darkness, containment, privacy, exclusivity, and secrecy associated with erotic love.
The intimacy shared by Eros and Psyche cannot last, it must be counterbalanced by the light of consciousness.
First we fall in love with the image, the archetype of the Beloved, the animus, whose divine image is imprinted in our souls but let’s not be mistaken, the union that we seek is the desire of our own wholeness and completeness.
Psyche will have to leave the blissful palatial womb. Her sisters, whose intentions are wicked and dictated by envy, instill doubt in our heroine, acting as the necessary evil that spurs the character towards individuation.
Eros’s arrow is a reminder of the inevitable suffering that love entails. Psyche awakens to consciousness and she must leave the safety of Eros’s palace: her individuation path is stretching in front of her.
In heroic myths, the light and the knife (or the sword) are attributes of masculine heroes used to overcome dragons and other monsters of darkness. But instead of bloody combat Psyche experiences a conscious, love encounter. She encounters her inner divinity by looking at a god.
The knife she got hold of stands for the conflicts, tortures and agonies of love but was most importantly an alchemical tool of discrimination, separation and differentiation, for only that which is carefully and neatly separated can be united .
Love and Death, Eros and Tanathos, are closely connected: in love, an individual self is obliterated through merging with the beloved. Love brings mortal wounding, suffering and agony. Through death, which is an organic and symbolic part of life, she is born into eternal life by undergoing tests, purifications, death, resurrection, and ascension.
So what are this myth lessons?
Discrimination, discernment, prioritization and correct assessment of dangers are all necessary to cut through the illusion and confusion of her situation and the second meaning of this knife. It stands for the mind’s power to do so. The knife is also an alchemical tool as it separates and differentiates. Only that which is carefully and neatly separated can be united. Her goal is merging with her beloved Eros but to be able to form an alchemical union with him she has to first become an individual psychological entity
Every soul on the path of individuation is cherished by Nature (Pan) because the soul’s separation from nature is an illusion of the mind. By throwing herself into the river Psyche agrees to let go of the obsessive and patriarchal need to control the natural flow of life and time. She lets herself be guided by archetypal powers – Nature, the current of Life, and the gods and goddesses (our inborn archetypes). She is now grounded in Nature and ready to evolve spiritually
The relationships that do not feed our souls need to be eliminated (her sisters were of no help, on the contrary but she was not yet able to discriminate)
Humility and industry, patience and determination (ants) are all required to deal with the realities of life
Being at one with nature, not confronting the ferocious solar beasts openly but by gently collecting their treasures under the soft light of the moon, in other words tapping into the co-creation power of the Moon
Unifying the opposite is a must. Masculine AND Feminine. Good AND Evil. Highs AND Lows. The river Styx (“the river of hate”) was the boundary between the Earth and the Underworld. All the gods used to swear their oaths by it. On her path, Psyche is now integrating the archetypally masculine energies symbolized by the eagle: a solar bird of consciousness. Eagles are the opposite energy to the energy carried by the river Styx.
The underworld can only be navigated with a steadfast and focused attitude. When we do the inner work we should be mindful of not dwelling too long on our mistakes and failings as this could become counterproductive, see plain harmful. From a more yogic standpoint, once we have identified our toxic patterns and worked on released them, we then work on strengthening our Manipura so that we do not fall again in the same pitfalls fabricated by our ego mind
There is so much more to those two myths that I have willingly set aside, however one should not overlook the deep universal truths they reveal on the arcane of our subconscious and even if one can clearly see the heavy hand of patriarchy on their script we should never discard the gifts and insights they have carried for so long and up to our time. We keep on reenacting the same stories for thousand of years, however deep into the collective unconscious, the keys to our healing are there waiting for us to raise to their awareness and integrate them.
What do we see emerging from those two tales and the other female archetypes present during this new moon?
First that even though everything “seemed” perfect, the Heroin’s soul knew the reality to be different. In love with the idea of love, the conditioned picture of the perfect lover, our anima or animus, we can never fully love anybody before we have accepted and integrated the darkest parts of ourselves.
That many lies pave the way to our consciousness. The ego mind is infinitely resourceful when it comes to undermining our growth and will find whatever is necessary to postpone the call to action. Persephone picking the narcissus is an obvious reference to the danger of self-involvement, narcissism and not really caring for anybody else. Lies will hide other layers of lies, all based in fear, shame, guilt and self-hatred, constantly postponing change until a crisis occurs, very often manifested by this self-denial and the need for consciousness to emerge.
Note how Persephone will carry on lying to her mother when she walks out of the underworld and explains how she has been tricked into eating the Pomegranate seeds, when clearly the journey has been incredibly beneficial to her growth. There is still a desire to get the best of all worlds and to keep the image her mother had of her intact, a desire to please rather than to be authentic.
If like my guru says, we must challenge ourselves in our practice if we do not want to be challenged by life, I also believe that the Dark Night of the Soul and the descent in the underworld are also sometimes necessary for the alchemy to happen.
In both cases, as well as with Pandora and Circe, Love comes with Pain. The suffering linked to the attachment is the drive to action, the reason why the Heroin penetrates Darkness. Pain is the agent of change and the motivation to become better. Love cannot be dissociated from pain, even if we just want it to be bliss. Just like Light only exists because there is Darkness, Bliss only exists in relation to Pain. For us to aspire to Bliss and our divine nature, we must first accept, respect, honor and integrate our human (imperfect and instinctual) nature and its needs for we first start to realize that we exist in this physical and emotional world. As long as we have not accepted it we cannot move beyond it.
Both myths climax with the Dark Night of the Soul, the necessary descent in the darkness of our unconscious and the dangerous and arduous mission it entails. This process is very similar to the Scorpio phoenix where something has to die within, a story needs to be released, a toxic pattern purged in the fire of consciousness so that life can flow again, destruction leading to creativity and the rebirth of the Spring happen.
Persephone’s myth reminds us that this process is very much cyclical and if we cannot really forecast when depression will hit, we should never forget that everything is impermanent (anitya) and however hard it might be during to assimilate during this process, remember that it holds the promise of incredible gifts of renewal. Psyche’s myth warns us of the dangers associated to dwelling to long in that space and the need to remain focused on the initial reason we first stepped into darkness.
Persephone’s myth also distinguishes the several steps of depression:
The first ones incarnated by Demeter:
Once reunited with Persephone, she bestows the Mysteries on Elesis which gives joy to life and takes away the fear of death to initiates. She transformed in the the wounded healer.
The last ones are incarnated bv Persephone:
Healing is a long process but for Persephone, it is when she put her hand into the earth and assumes her role that her soul is really touched. When she starts caring about others and doing so selflessly and unconditionally, she regains vitality and power.
Through their journey, Persephone will find purpose, status and power, Psyche will find strength, discernment, commitment, intuition, unity and wholeness.
The impact of Pluto on our lives since the beginning of 2020 was there to impart a feeling of loss and trigger our transformation. Loss or pain will have been applied where we most needed to evolve, challenging our feeling of emotional safety.
As most of us might now be on the journey, I invite you to ponder on the following:
May you feel empowered to follow the path towards your greater destiny
In evolution
G
