The lesson of the Sun in Taurus is learning that using power must be tempered by selflessness and sexuality by judgment. Earthly power used in the service of the ego and personal gain leads to tragedy and suffering. Its user becomes a tryant. Sexuality is also a power, that when misused, can be destructive of relationships and self-respect. The Taurian must solve the paradoxes of allowing the expression of these powerful human needs while containing the power of human instincts to comply with social and ethical mores.

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The Myth

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One myth that might illustrate this lesson is the story of king Minos of Crete and his insult to the Sea god, Psoidon. Minos, a son of Zeus himself, was one of three brothers contending for the throne of Ancient Crete. But he called to Psoidon, god of the Oceans, to send a bull out of the sea as a sign that he was the one chosen to be king. If the sign was granted, he pledged to sacrifice the bull to the Ocean god. Psoidon complied and sent him a bull from the sea. But upon seeing the magnificent animal, Minos was taken by greed, and decided to instead sacrifice the best bull of his herd and to keep the Bull from the sea for his own herds.

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The selfish act angered Psoidon, and he retaliated by asking Aphrodite to have Minos’ wife, Pasiphae, fall into lust for the bull. And she, in turn, prevailed upon the master craftsman, Daedalus, to build her a wooden cow within which she might “receive the bull”. The mating occurred, and Pasiphae subsequently delivered a child. But the child had a horrible bull’s head. Thus, was the Minotaur born. As he grew up, the Minotaur proved so ungovernable and terrible that Minos had Daedalus built a labyrinth into which the Monster was placed. There he was fed young men and women in the darkness, for human flesh was what he demanded for his food.

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Minos was known far and wide in his day for his wealth, which was based upon sea power. Yet at the heart of his empire there was a horror in the darkness of the labyrinth, and his empire stagnated.

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The Journey of the Taurian

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The Seeker on his Hero’s Journey, like Theseus who himself was sired by Psoidon and eventually killed the Minotaur, must travel into that dark place where he meets the Minotaur--the dark, bestial form of his own Father and the Terror waiting at the center of the dark labyrinth of the mind. Like Theseus, each of us must redeem that aspect of ourselves, Minos, who sinned against god by choosing to use his earthly power to benefit himself rather than by honoring his responsibility and debt as a servant of that Oceanic Power.

Taurus is ruled by Venus, the planetary version of the goddess Aphrodite, and it was--after all--Aphrodite who laid the curse upon Minos’ wife. Goddess of Love that she is, there are aspects of the goddess who carry darker import than others, for only Aphrodite and the daimon Eros were able to “possess“ humans.

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Aphrodite was unique among the Greek pantheon for she was open to carnal love with both mortals and gods. The body is sacred to Aphrodite. Thus, she is often portrayed naked. She is actively sexual, assertive, and confident. She is the image of relative sexual equality and was the goddess of courtesans. Conjugal satisfaction, procreation, desire and satisfaction, adornment and culture, beauty and the erotic arts all belong to her. She links instinctual sexuality and the cultural arts of love. But she is in no sense a wife, although her arts belong to all wives.

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Her list of powers would seem to be uniformly positive, but her arts are double-edged for when irresponsibly employed or undisciplined, the results can be tragic. And in this case, Aphrodite’s arts lead to a bestial mating that produced a monster and a tragedy for Minos’ kingdom.

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The Sigil of the Bull

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The image of the Bull, the sigil for Taurus, is an ancient symbol of the King and Queen conjoined, united in passion. It has both masculine and feminine aspects. The Bull is the manifestation of powerful instinctual drives within humanity, including the instinct to power and sexuality. The Bull is not evil in itself, but when out of control, it can be deadly, violent and destructive--for it represents animal passions.

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Sexual activity in itself is not evil either, but when not regulated within relationships and social contracts, it too can produce tragic consequences. Women born under Venus-ruled Taurus have to be careful in employing their arts of love, for these arts can prove destructive in relationships and life as well as joy-producing. For Taurus is a very instinct-driven sign. Sexuality is a key element of their needs and drives. Giving in to these instinctual drives outside of social conventions or relationship agreements can prove destructive, as it did for Pasiphae and Minos. Even when not discovered, the person will find deep within herself--in the labyrinth of her unconscious mind--a monster that, in time, will devour her life and the happiness of her kingdom.

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The masculine aspect of the Bull is reflected, perhaps, in Aphrodite’s husband, Hephaistos, the Divine but ugly craftsman of beautiful things. He is the creative aspect behind Aphrodite, the beautiful goddess. While he is unlovely, he creates beauty. And from the masculine, although sexuality may not possess the allure it does within the feminine form, the sexual impulse can take the form of creativity and the development of beauty in life. But a delicate balance must always be maintained between the uncontrollability of the sexual impulse and its procreative and cultural manifestations. Whenever the beast gets out of control in someone’s life, tragic consequences can occur.

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The Seeker must solve the paradox of the Bull: the attraction and joy in the sexual impulse balanced against the need to control and discipline the impulse and channel it into creative and sexual expression. Too harsh a repression of one’s sexuality, and the mind splits from the body, and pathology results. The person becomes overly intellectual and uncreative, and in the darkness of the unconscious mind, a monster grows from these unmet sexual needs. Too profligate an abandonment to sexuality or the creative impulse, and the person can lose herself and her self respect in bestial affairs or in his art.

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Each of us must learn to “dance with the bull” as did, perhaps the Cretan Bull Dancers of long ago, vaulting over the horns of charging bulls and lightly landing, balanced in their devotion to the good of themselves and others.

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The Task of Taurus

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The task of Taurus is to find that balance in one’s life and hold it, to find peace, serenity, and tranquility. Taurus is so very physical and sensual. She seeks to touch and be touched. She longs to touch the earth, the branching trees, to walk barefooted in the grass. She revels in sensuousness.

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Many Taureans are called into Nature, seeking Silence and Peace. And Nature, in her wildness, is extraordinarily sensual. Escaping the crowds of humans and never-ending noise is their greatest wish. There, without thoughts or sound, they can just be. When they can find that silent place and hold to it, they can control the beast within and live in balance.

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The weakness of Taurus is a need for security and human instinct is often inclined to seek safety and security. When Taurus give in to the need to feel secure, they can be seduced into an accumulation of Things. Materialism is a trap. The search for security and the accumulation of things can prove a lure into stagnation, for growth virtually always demands a choice step outside self interest and into the Unknown. Confronted by their withdrawal into materialism, many become stubborn and defensive, not desiring to surrender their safe, rich, comfortable lives or control of their lives. At some point, Taurus will have to choose: stagnation in the search for security and things versus choosing change and transformation in one‘s life. If they choose stagnation, as Steven Forrest says, “All is lost!”

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Bibliography

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Steven Forrest, The Inner Sky (Seven Paws Press: 1988).

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Liz Greene, The Astrology of Fate (Samuel Weiser: York Beach, ME, 1984).

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More recently, a branch of psychiatry known as 'Self Psychology" has emerged from the work of psychiatrist Heinz Kohut to contradict the Freudian viewpoint. Kohut, initially a Freudian, departed from his support for Freud's biological arguments that man is naturally solitary. He came instead to argue that the maturation process involves a tension between two poles of the 'self.' One 'pole' is that of ambition (Freudian), which drives the individual to achieve in life to meet her needs. The other 'pole' is that of 'the idealizing self', which helps the individual to experience herself as okay even when needs are frustrated because she is supported through intimate emotional support from an idealized 'other'--such as a mother or father figure who is able to share their strength and objectivity. Ideally, the infant and growing child will realize full and unconditional love, understanding and support from both parents as she grows and tests herself against the world.

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 Introduction

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For a couple of years, I taught a course titled: “Creating the Work You’ll Love”. It was an unusual course, with lots of opportunity for self-examination. Many interesting and inquisitive students passed through our classroom, but I’ll never forget one particular person—a young woman—tall, thin, anxious, and extremely religious. A fundamentalist, she claimed to believe only her Bible and could not open up to topics which might challenge her beliefs. It became apparent that she was holding onto her religious beliefs as though they were a life preserver and she was at sea in constant storms, because she could hardly bear to be in her body. She, it turned out, was suicidal, and during the semester, tried to kill herself at least once. Married with children, she could hardly bear to leave her home, but even there, she was depressed and felt as if she was coming apart.

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She mentioned that she felt little for her husband, and her children increased her anxiety because of the demands they made upon her. She regularly saw a psychotherapist, but it wasn’t helping—at least during the time I knew her.

I wanted to help her, but-being untrained and unable to break past her religious beliefs-I had to accept that I could not help her if she could not bring herself to open up to new perspectives about what was happening to her.

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This lady was ill. She was unable to face her life, but didn’t realize why not. She simply felt as though she was coming apart, and any stresses or demands upon her fragmented her further and was translated into a need to flee. And so she tried to escape into religion.

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But she was unable to escape, because the problem was within her self—and she was unable to escape her self.

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I’ve met a lot of people much like this lady, and it seems that there are more and more of them as this world grows more intense and stressful. Pressure without causes them to retreat within themselves, but inside they feel overwhelmed by the world and unworthy of living at all. A part of them fights to stay alive, searching constantly for reasons to keep trying, reasons for living, but they are in constant, unrelenting psychic pain, and that part of themselves which is in pain seeks anyway to escape—even through death. These people may become easily suicidal, as the pain of unworthiness and feeling unloved and unwanted in the world becomes too much.

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The Need to Be Loved

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Many of these individuals share the common experience of being an unwanted child and/or a child whose creative ability was suppressed or humiliated. When still in the womb, their mothers feared the birth experience, the changes in life a child might bring, the responsibility of raising an unwanted child, loss of sexual attractiveness, or the humiliation of their swollen pregnant bodies. Even in the womb, the child comprehended being unwanted or resented or even hated, and its spirit shrank from coming into the world. Souls often express this as a chaotic lesson for the parents. But small spirits have an issue with this: No one is this lesson more appropriate for than a mother who gets her needs met through her baby! For the baby itself is a new being with its own unique needs.

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New parents have many new lessons to learn. They are often very young themselves. Inexperienced. In love with one another, but not yet ready to be mature adults. Many were rushed into marriage prematurely, driven by sexual needs and/or their rebelliousness as young people attempting to break free from their parents. They need more time to understand themselves and the new responsibilities of marriage itself, yet suddenly they are thrust into parenthood. And the transition is often too much for young mothers. They may respond positively on the surface, but underneath they are frightened of what is about to happen to them, and they want things to remain the same.

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The child in this case is unlikely to ever feel as though his or her parents really wanted it. It is likely to have experienced early rejection from its mother and to continue to feel as though it was unwanted. Efforts by the child to earn love and approval by “being good” were not rewarded. Until at last, it gave up trying, deeply convinced that it was unworthy of love. As it grew, it projected outward its inward experience, experiencing the world as a hostile, frightening place, without emotional support or love. Feeling unworthy, it engaged in self-sabotage and self-deprecation as it attempted to find happiness in its life.

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It instinctively puts itself below other people in child-parental relationships and in so doing, reveals its lack of self assurance and feeling of equality. It feels a constant terror of annihilation by events or people, and feels that life is a constant experience of loss and battle for survival against all odds. This kind of experience fragments the personality into a self which fights to survive, a self which feels unworthy of love and feels itself dying constantly, and an unrelenting, judgmental conscience which ruthlessly represses the individual’s own legitimate needs because he knows he is not worthy of having happiness or having its repressed needs met. The "self" which fights to survive and pursues spiritual goals relentlessly is sometimes referred to as "The Seeking Self." It is the aspect of this personality which is caught in a compulsion to become "better" and can’t stop itself from seeking unattainable outcomes.

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As teens, such young people become easily depressed, attracted to dark thoughts, clothes, and friendships. Emotionally, the person experiences an overwhelming sense of chaos, terror at being inferior and incapable of meeting their own needs. They feel disoriented, uncertain about what they should be doing, often get confused, and are likely to be disorganized. They tend to be habitual procrastinators, feel isolated, left out of the world, with few friends, and little feeling of happiness with their lives. They are often highly spiritual, but their spirituality is a form of escapism. In their spirituality, they ruthlessly deny their natural physical needs, such as their emerging sexuality, and vulnerability, their fears of being humiliated or made fun of by peers, by demanding from themselves "goodness, compassion for others, and selflessness" in order to earn love from a judgmental God. Or they may compromise themselves and sense of self, give themselves away sexually to be accepted, or fall into being a follower. This type of spirituality in fact decimates the persons need to exist, for their yearning for safe harbor and love from a heavenly Father who is not here with them as mother or father is a denying of life in the body. The body can shut down. The immune system is suppressed. The person becomes open to illnesses of the immune system, like cancer, and heart or circulatory diseases, such as heart attacks or strokes. The body can go into shock and death may result.

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These persons are not outgoing and do not easily express their fear or chaos because it makes them feel even more inferior to others. They are as likely as any of us to cover up how they really feel. Those who would be their friends find them withdrawn, closed up, unwilling to discuss what is really wrong. They desperately need someone to vent to, but can’t bear for friends to see how “defective” they are inside. They intensely fear being rejected or criticized and usually can’t bear to take the risk of rejection. And therefore the very thing which might help them heal themselves, they deny to themselves: friendship and the love of others.

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Physically, they are constricted and inflexible, bound up in their musculature, tight in their skeletal structure.

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Energy levels are likely to be below average for these persons.

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Many may be fanatically religious in an attempt to ‘reach up’ seeking safety and rescue from a loving god. For most, their belief or hope for a loving, forgiving, miraculous savior or God is the only bulwark against a hostile, frightening world.

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Because they feel a sense of incomprehension at the world and how it “works”, they want to be shown how to live by others. They lack any sense of self-responsibility or ability to determine their path or meet their own needs. Life may just "happen" to these individuals, without them ever feeling as if they have a thing to say about it.

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When life gets too much for them, they escape by withdrawing into themselves, being absent mentally and emotionally, and withdrawing into fantasy or daydreaming. They may become inveterate readers, withdrawing into stories of other’s lives, needs, success, that they might feel that they are participating in their successes. It is not at all uncommon for them to be very "mental" while at the same time being unable to express their humaness emotionally; very inactive physically, repressed or frigid sexually, and rigidly one-sided as they force themselves into a strait-jacket way of living to be acceptable and approved of.

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The problem is that, due to very early rejection by the Mother, the child feels unprotected, unloved, and unworthy of love. The Mother may be conscious of this, or not. She may communicate this through acting indifferent or by being overly controlling. She may stifle her child’s creative efforts and learning by constantly correcting or by disregarding what she wants.

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But whether the baby’s perception is accurate or an illusion, the effect can be the same. She feels unable to cope with the ordinary reality beyond the home. And in the home, she feels unlikable, lacking in confidence, often inferior to others, lacking a strong sense of self! She may react by resenting her children and spouse because of their expectations upon her. She escapes into herself constantly, outwardly demonstrating spaciness, forgetfulness, unworldliness, fantasy, isolation, disorganization, and confusion.

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The child in growing up, dissociates her pain from her earlier rejection by her Mother, repressing the feeling whenever it comes up, rejecting the possibility that her mother (or father) did not love her, but unconsciously yearning for her. She may continue to be dependent upon her mother’s approval, while inside being seethingly angry. Anger at the Mother may lead to early rebelliousness, even rejection of her. But whenever she seeks for love outside herself, she in unconsciously looking for the image of her Mother. To feel loved again, she will even surrender her power to a man, or an employer, or even another mother-like woman, who gives her what she never got from her real Mother.

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It often becomes impossible to admit that this might be the issue. Admitting this is likely to force this person to confront her own feeling of inferiority openly—a very hard thing to admit. Of course, the issue is not that the person is actually inferior; it is that she feels inferior. The issue is that her sense of self was crushed. This inner feeling of inferiority and unworthiness, is eventually projected outward onto others who then appear superior in many ways. For such persons, the world is filled with assertive, even aggressive people, who get what they need, who find love, recognition, and approval in the world. But to this person, the world is indifferent, or hostile to their survival; hostile to their happiness; unsupportive.

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The final issue is that she is constantly seeking for the love she missed as a child. She attaches herself to other persons, usually women, who might “explain things” or show her how to be well or successful. She seeks spiritually for protection, support, love, nurturing missing in her life. Lacking love and emotional support, her underlying emotion is one of FEAR. She won’t admit it because she usually won’t recognize it for that. She does recognize her stress and overwhelm, but doesn’t feel her fear because she is so heavily armored.

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I believe that it is essential for such individuals to recognize how they are depriving us all of their Creativity. Through their inner withdrawal, they are sabotaging their own creativity and happiness. It is simply that they project their own feelings of inadequacy onto the outer world and behave anti-socially and seem inept. They act the way they feel.

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But they are hard people to be around, so most people experience their energy as unconscious anger, fearfulness, negativism, depression, vampirism, and hopelessness.

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These are very creative, imaginative persons, but they believe they have nothing to offer. Of course, the repressed aspect of themselves which is being expressed in fantasy and spirituality is CREATIVITY turned away from the world. So they turn all their energy within and turn it into escapist fantasy. Rather than dealing positively with the outer world’s challenges, they work on themselves instead in realms of dream and imagination. Fantasy offers some hope for healing, for it turns the losing into lessons as the individual recognizes the lessons in every past experience.

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How to Help Oneself

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Among the self-healing initiatives such a person might consider are:

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Exuberant sexuality. It is imperative that she begin to feel her own body and experience pleasure in her physical embodiment, so that the experience of being in the physical is experienced as a pleasurable experience instead of always a painful experience.

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Staying present in any manner necessary. No daydreaming or indulgence in fantasy or escapist behavior. Get busy…the more physical—not intellectual-- activity the better.

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Learn how to deal with change and how to confront others to get your needs met. This always takes some time so this person shouldn’t hurry or expect too fast results. Take small steps each day. Build slowly a self-confidence that you can manage life’s events. These steps do not need to involve getting other people to do for you or give you what you need, but simple actions of your own that have demonstrable results, like household jobs, lawn work, completing what you begin etc.

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Get to know yourself and your emotional reactions. Begin watching yourself: your body feelings, your emotions, your thoughts. Try a formally organized meditation program to still your mind so you can pay attention to what is going on inside and understand how to self-assess. You need to be able to recognize how you are responding to unconsciously buried memories; you have been programmed to hate yourself without understanding how. The program must be disinterred from your past and thoroughly reviewed to understand the sources of pain. How you feel about yourself is a lie, but it is a lie which you accepted because nothing you tried worked to bring you love, success and a feeling of having power over your own life as a baby.

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Spend time in Nature and choose activities which create pleasure through the senses. Life is experienced through the BODY, and pleasure in the body is the ticket to freedom from loss and pain. So seek physical, emotional, and sensory pleasure to feel yourself and life as pleasure. Choose what you want to do or be. Take time for yourself to pursue love, interests, hobbies, enjoyment of any kind that helps you "feel yourself." Keep trying if it seems slow at first. Just choosing yourself above others expectations will gradually improve your self-image. The act of choosing onesself usually requires a re-assessment of one’s ethics, because society gears everyone to feel guilt when they put themselves first. Especially women have difficulty with this. But this is an issue of self regeneration when the sense of self has been decimated by loss and trauma. It is a good time beside to learn how to meet one’s own needs by changing one’s sense of ethics so that you are capable of putting yourself first and capable of expressing love for yourself!

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The terror at the world must be faced and “gone through.” Every time fear comes up in a life situation, go through the situation instead of choosing escape. But tell someone about how you feel. The fear must be expressed and talked out; then, a realistic assessment can be attempted to decide how to deal with the issue. Confront instead of giving in. Here, taking responsibility for ones own healing feels essential. This can be an exercise of discovering the power one lost years before. Begin by deciding to give yourself the privileges to be who and do what you want. Stop denying yourself the simple pleasures you’ve done without for years. Consider this a treatment program; feel good, enjoy yourself, give yourself the good things you always felt guilty about and denied yourself.

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Find friends who will “stand by you” as you confront your fear, who will stand with you as you confront others. You can use brothers or sisters for this if need be. Have someone to talk with about your feelings. Have someone you can call whenever you become depressed and especially if you begin having suicidal thoughts. Investigate and become involved with a community suicide watch program.

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Pursue creative projects without worrying about what others think of your work. Do creative things for the sake of your own pleasure. Do these for the sake of doing them.

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This condition splits the energies of the body at or near the waist. These persons hold their energy high, tend to be intellects but have little feeling of their bodies. Pursue physical activities which open up the hips, and hold the attention on the lower half of the body, like full-body massage, skating, soccer, yoga, dance, or Tae Kuan Do.

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Spiritually, this is a particularly difficult issue, for the love you seek from Above must inevitably come from your own love for yourself! In any case, you need the love here, in Life, for it to do you any good now! Be in love with yourself. And wait until after Life to get whatever Love there is to get “out there.”

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The need is for the individual in this situation to learn to work with themselves towards the time when they regain their sense of mastery in this world, of getting their own needs met and of feeling their "aliveness" in their bodies. This is a work of years and is often done in solitude. All of us have been programmed to seek the solutions of our problems outside ourselves; find a psychotherapist, or read a book, or follow an advice column in the newspaper. This work is delving into one’s own subconscious to "dig out" one’s own unconscious reactions to the world and rediscover the reasons for them. Even then, you’ve got to discover how to heal yourself. The answer is in letting go, but never letting go of your self, your own happiness, your own pleasure, your own feeling of competency. Mostly, what is let go are our fantasies, our incomprehension of ourselves, our foolishness, our illusions, our expectations, other’s demands upon us, family expectations, society’s values and judgments, our comparisons with others, our dependencies, our silly judgments of ourselves, our automatic reactions to put our selves down or repress our own legitimate needs. This is extremely hard work and takes years--not months. But it can be the most rewarding work one has ever done. This is work on one’s own soul.

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Find the opportunity to sit down with your parents--one at a time, if possible--and explain how you felt they influenced you in growing up. This does not have to be a hostile, confrontational accusation, for the truth is you didn’t see the whole truth about their own lives as you grew up. But they need to see how much you needed but never got, so that they can take responsibility for their own part in your difficulties in learning self-love. If in your own pain, you hurt family members, this is the time to apologize and take responsibility for the hurts you yourself might have imposed upon others.

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Wellness includes an ability to separate oneself from one’s Mother Need without damaging ones balance or, hopefully, one’s natural and healthy relationship with one’s parents. For men especially, this is a difficult transition, for gaining independence involves recovering those portions of one’s self which are entangled within what is called "the Shadow" portion of the unconscious mind. Part of those entanglements involve the Mother’s continued neediness in one’s life; for example, the mother’s need to fulfill her own dreams through her children; the mother’s demand for attention or compensation from her children for her suffering and sacrifices to give her children what they needed growing up; the grown-up child’s continuing need for nurturing from the mother after separation; and the grown-up child’s continued dependency upon his or her mother for approval and support. In other words, the "apron strings are still tied" to the grown up child. The Shadow is the memory repository of repressed knowledge which an individual has "forgotten" and is unaware is driving their emotional reactions in life.

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Work on remembering your dreams, learn dream interpretation, and begin to keep a journal of your thoughts, feelings, and dreams. Many our mental health and self-reconstruction issues are mirrored in dreams. Dream analysis is one of your prime targets for learning about your "lost selves" and repressed human instincts which are crying for healing and expression.

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 These are very hard lessons to learn. Feeling one’s own Spirit, one’s own love for self or others, is the major advance in this topic. Few books or workshops on self-love will do anything except intellectually engage the topic. “Knowledge about religion” doesn’t change our programming, our fear, our lack of feeling in our bodies, or our feeling of unworthiness. Day by day, one chooses oneself over others, over work, over parents, over guilt, over fear, and eventually, you may begin to experience yourself and feel a budding sense of self. Day by Day, one chooses to do what one wants rather than what one feels he has to do, and eventually, you may begin to experience your worth.

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This blog entry is not offered as professional advice, but more as my own experience and discoveries as I myself experienced this same issue. I hope that my losses and pain, and what I’ve learned from my own journey within, is helpful to others who experience the same issue.

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What is nature spirituality? It is an ancient organic field of knowledge and practices that has no sharp boundaries, since it continues to grow and change. But there are several things we can say about nature spirituality to help describe it for those who have no direct experience with its teachings:

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Messenger between Heaven and Earth,
The Unexpected, An Omen of Death,
Shapeshifting, Power of Languages,
Scavenger of the Darkness (Unconscious).
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Like Coyote and Mantis, Raven is an animal which frequently appears in the creation myths of the First Peoples. Raven can be wise, assiduous and heroic, but it might also be greedy, cunning and foolish. Raven is unpredictable. Raven is chaotic happenstance, change in the form of coincidence (or synchronicity?) at the worst time. Because of Raven, we might experience catastrophe or miracles. Who can tell? Life is a constant surprise.
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The Norse god, Odin, had a pair of ravens who served him as messengers. Their names were Munin (memory) and Hugin (thought). So too do our own thoughts and memories serve to link us to what is divine because our own minds are the Mind of God.
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Ravens are found wherever there is death. Death in life is simply change, dropping our compulsions to constantly relive the past and repeat our self destructive beliefs, behaviors, and ways of thinking. Descending in the Underworld, while still living, is the Hero’s Quest, which begins with the Dark Night of the Soul, or shamanic death, in which a person is torn apart by animals of the underworld so the he can be reconstructed or remade. Death-death is physically dying and descending into the Underworld to be eaten as are other animals; ravens are the scavengers of the Underworld and feed on the dead. They humble mankind by showing us that as we eat other beings during life, we are eaten after we die. We return to the Earth as do all other life forms. We are not the Masters of Heaven and Earth we sometimes believe we are. We are subject to the same Laws of Matter and Life as all other beings.
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By showing us our light and dark sides, Raven links the Light and Dark sides of existence. Raven teaches us that life as it is—with both positive and negative circumstances—is essential. He brings messages to the dreamer from the Unconscious (as thoughts or memories), and are thereby the agents of change in our lives. Raven ’s message is that mankind is not simply made to live as beings of light and happiness, but also darkness and suffering. We are not to reject our dark, unconscious, instinctual sides, but accept them as a part of who we are. Accepting this is the first step to understand the wholeness of love, for love cannot expand if we are not allowed to experience its complements: hate and indifference.
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Raven is watchful for danger. It is especially watchful for Hawks and for Owls who are Raven’s enemy, for if either finds Raven’s nests, the sky will rain death. Raven will mob Hawks or Owls for miles to drive them away. Owl is a creature of the Moon, symbolizing the power of the dark feminine, while Hawk is a creature of the day and symbolizes the light masculine. If you are a Hawk or Owl person, expect Raven--chaotic happenstance--to pursue you. So fly high and silent. Once at height, Hawk ignores Raven, so take the high road to be well in this case. If you are an Owl person, you carry the power of the dark feminine, e.g. the Unconscious Feminine. You can be cruel and without mercy. In the darkness, no one challenges Owl, so open to the darkness within you. You will discover that this is only one aspect of self.
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Wherever Raven is, magic is there. Magic is the ability to let go of the past and change—death and rebirth. Like the Fool in the Tarot, Raven is both foolish and wise. He is trusting, innocent, dark and magical. Raven is the flash of lightning in the dark. Who knows what will happen? He keeps life fresh and exciting with his magic of life and change

Psyche was a mortal woman born to a King of Greece. Although not immortal, she was the most beautiful child in the land, and as she grew into her teens, every man that saw her was amazed by her beauty. But instead of having a court of lovers, men idealized her and worshipped her. Her earthly beauty was too bright to touch, and no man felt worthy of her. So Psyche was lonely and in her loneliness, wondered why she could feel no sense of intimacy with any young man.
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The Goddess of the Kingdom was the Great Goddess Aphrodite. Aphrodite watched Psyche grow up with mounting jealousy of her beauty and in her thoughts wanted to humble the young beauty. So when the King and Queen, disturbed by their daughter’s lack of courtiers, went to her Oracle for a ’seeing’ about who Psyche should marry, the Goddess spoke through her Oracle saying that Psyche should marry Death.
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The Goddess’ Word was Law, and so the King and Queen prepared Psyche for her marriage. They carried her to the top of a mountain, chained her to a rock, and left her to be ravished by the Monster Death. Because Psyche’s fate was to meet Death, the mood of the marriage procession was somber and more like a funeral than a celebration. So she was taken up the mountain in her beautiful dress and left alone in the darkness to meet her mate.
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Aphrodite watched this with satisfaction. And wishing to inflict even more suffering on the young bride, directed her young son, Eros, to go to the mountain top and pierce the maiden with one of his magic arrows. Anyone pierced by Eros’ arrows would fall madly in love with the first being they saw, and Aphrodite wanted Psyche to fall in love with the monster Death as a final insult and torture. But startled at the Earthly beauty of the young woman, Eros fumbled his bow and arrow accidentally pricked his own finger on the arrow. And so Eros fells in love with Psyche.
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Not wanting Psyche to be the bride of Death, Eros secretly asked the West Wind pick the young woman up and float her gently into a nearby valley where she will be safe. The valley is a paradise and, carried gently down into the valley, Psyche was very grateful at being saved from her fate and for finding safety in this beautiful place. But she had no idea who has saved her.
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Eros came to her at night, hiding his face, fearing that his powerful mother will discover his betrayal. In the dark of night, he told Psyche that he could come to her only at night, and that she must never ask him questions nor ask to see his face. Each night he came to her and she slept beside him, wondering about him, who was he, where had he come from, but Eros steadfastly refused to tell her who he is or why he must hide his face from her.
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Psyche had two sisters, who were not particularly beautiful. They too grew up alongside Psyche, but being ordinary had become ever more jealous of her. After her disappearance on the mountain top, they started searching for her to discover what had happened to her. They soon discovered her living in the valley, but could not get down to her. So they stood on the heights and talked to her.
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Eros warned Psyche against her sisters, saying that their questions would cause trouble. If she honored his request to ask no questions and allow him to remain unknown, she will bear a son who will be immortal. But if she insists on asking questions or disobeying him, her child will be a mortal daughter. And if she disobeys, he will be forced to leave her.
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Psyche promises to honor his request, but is lonely for her family. So she begged Eros to allow her sisters to visit her in the valley, and he finally relented.
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Unknown to Psyche, her sisters were scheming to destroy the happiness of their more beautiful sister. They saw that Psyche was living in a fantasy about her lover, and they wished to destroy her happiness. So when they came to visit, they told Psyche a lie, saying that her suitor was a serpent, a monster, who was deceiving her. They said that when she bore its child, it would consume her. In her fear, Psyche believed her sisters. That night, she secreted a lamp beside her bed and a knife under her pillow. When Eros fell asleep, she would light the lamp and cut off the head of her monster lover.
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But once he fell asleep and she lit her lamp, she saw that her lover was a god?more, he was the god of love--the most beautiful male god on Olympus. Aghast at her mistake, she dropped her knife and stumbled, pricking her finger on one of his arrows. She is suddenly deeply in love with him.
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But hot oil from the lamp in her other hand spilled and dropped onto his shoulder. Eros awoke and saw the one he loved standing over him in the light. He realized that she had betrayed him! Being a winged god, he leaps up into the air, but Psyche clung to him. As he flew from her, she was dragged out of the valley and fell onto the barren slopes of the mountains around the secret paradise. Meanwhile, Eros returned to the House of his Mother.

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Psyche was emotionally destroyed. She first thought about committing suicide, but after awhile goes within herself to attend to her chaos. After a period, she walked to a nearby river. Here, she met the cloven-footed god, Pan, who was sitting beside the flowing water holding Echo in his lap.
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Soon, Psyche was coaxed into telling Pan her sad tale. She asked him what she must do to find Eros again to ask him to come back. Pan told Psyche that she must pray to the god of love, the god who understands when someone is inflamed by his arrows. Of course, the god of love is the very god she loved and lost. She must humble herself before her lover.
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But also in order to find Eros, Psyche must confront the terrible power of Aphrodite, the mother of Eros. Psyche fears the Goddess and does not want to confront her, so she goes first to all the other temples to ask other gods to intervene. None will. So finally, Psyche surrendered and went to one of Aphrodite’s Temples. There she was confronted by the powerful Goddess, who totally humiliated Psyche, reducing her to a scullery maid and reducing her to tears. But because Psyche asks her to see her son in a sacred way, she gives Psyche four tasks to test her.
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For the first task, Aphrodite showed Psyche a huge pile of assorted seeds. To accomplish the first task, she must sort these seeds into separate piles before nightfall. If she fails, she will be put to death. Aphrodite left. At first, Psyche thinks of suicide, but then she converses with an ant in the chamber. The ant agrees to help with her task. Shortly, an army of ants comes to her rescue and helps Psyche sorts the seeds.
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Aphrodite returned at nightfall, saw the task had been accomplished, and grudgingly admitted that the good-for-nothing Psyche did tolerably well.
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For her second task, Aphrodite told Psyche she must go to a field nearby and gather golden fleece from the rams gathered there. She was to be back by nightfall, on pain of death! Again, Psyche despaired and thought of suicide, but by the river she was addressed by the reeds on the bank of the river, which told her not to go near the rams during the daytime hours for she would be battered to death if she did. Instead, she must go at dusk and find the fleece which the rams have lost on the brambles and branches of their meadow. This way she could find what she needs without directly confronting the dangerous rams.
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At nightfall, she returned to the Temple and gave Aphrodite the fleece. Again, Aphrodite is surprised by the achievement of the young woman.
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For her third task, Aphrodite tells Psyche that she must fill a crystal goblet with the water from the River Styx. With this task, Psyche faces certain death, for the Styx is a circular river which tumbles from a high mountain, disappears into the Earth, goes down into the depths of Hell, and circles back up within the Earth to the top of the world. Psyche collapsed in shock, overcome by the impossibility of the task. But when Aphrodite left, the eagle of Zeus dropped out of the clouds and, alighting beside her, asked for the goblet. Clutching the goblet, the eagle flew to the waterfall and filled it with water. Returning, it presented the filled goblet to the shaken Psyche. This time, the great Goddess is astonished at Psyche’s accomplishment!
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For her fourth and final task, Psyche faces her most difficult task-- task impossible for a mortal. She is to go to the Underworld and ask Persephone--goddess of the Underworld and Queen of Mysteries--for a cask of her beauty ointment and return it to Aphrodite.
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Psyche, again despairing, went to a tower from which to hurl herself to her death. She knows that she cannot do this task unaided. A spirit in the tower, though, stopped her and promised to help her. She was told that she must find the breathing hole of the Underworld and entering into the cavern, follow the tunnels down into the Earth. She was to carry two pieces of barley cake in her hands, two halfpenny coins in her teeth, and sufficient fortitude to pass several difficult tests. She is warned not to help anyone, for in the Underworld, her energy will constantly be drained away. If she does not care for herself, she will not be able to make it back to the world of the living!
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Psyche found her way to the cavern, and followed the ’pathless path’ down into the Earth. She reached the River Styx, and there, met a lame man driving a lame donkey laden with sticks of wood. Some of the sticks fell to the ground. Despite what she has been told, she stopped to help the lame man pick up his wood.
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Then, she came to the ferry man, Charon, with his patched boat. He demanded one of her coins to carry her across the river. During the passage over the river, a drowning man called out to her for help, but she remembered the spirit?s instructions and refused. The man drowned.
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Now in Hades, Psyche walked on towards the palace of Hades and Persephone. Shortly, she met three women weaving the strands of fate on a loom. For the price of a barley cake, they offer Psyche an opportunity to weave on the loom herself, but she remembers the spirit’s instructions and walks by, refusing to weave.
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Next, Psyche confronted the guardian three-headed dog of Hades, Cerberes. To escape this terror, she threw one of her two barley cakes off the path and while the three heads of Cerberes fought over the bit of food, she slipped by and went on up the path.

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Finally, she reached the Hall of Persephone, the Queen of Mysteries, and was invited to participate in the feast. She knew that eating the food of Hades will bind her to these realms however, so she refused gracefully. She then approached and asked Persephone for the cask of her beauty ointment. Persephone agreed to gift her the cask without asking any questions, but told Psyche that the cask she will carry with her ’carries a mysterious secret.’
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Then, Psyche retraced her trip back out of Hades. She used the second barley cake to pass by Cerberes and the second coin to buy her passage back across the Styx.
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In sight of the light of the world, she paused, remembering the unearthly beauty of Persephone and wondering what the box might hold. Tempted, she stopped to open the box, but within was nothing at all! The ’nothing’ issued forth, and she fell into an infernal and deadly sleep in sight of the light.
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At this point, Eros, her young lover, came to her rescue. Eros had, after awhile, escaped from the imprisonment of his mother, Aphrodite, learned of Psyche’s distress, and flew to her side. He wiped the deadly sleep from her face and put it back into the cask; and awakened her with a prick of one of his arrows. He admonished her for having succumbed to her curiosity, which nearly killed her and then left her to her task of taking the cask to Aphrodite.
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Meanwhile, Eros flew to Olympia and approached his father, Zeus, to plead the cause of Psyche with the Gods. Zeus reprimanded Eros for his poor behavior, but finally honored him as his son and promises to help. All the gods were called together, and Hermes was sent to bring Psyche to the court.
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Zeus announced to the assembled gods that Eros’ tyranny of love has gone on long enough, and that it is time that he settled down. He was to be married to Psyche that they may grow together. Zeus gives Psyche a goblet of immortality and instructs her to drink from it. This brings her immortality and the promise the Eros will never again be parted from her.
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The marriage was held with all the pomp and ceremony that the gods are known for. Even Aphrodite relented and felt well about her son and new daughter-in-law.
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In time, Psyche bore a daughter, who was named Pleasure.

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Commentary

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How do you read a myth?

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Literal Interpretation
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A literal Interpretation would have it that this is a story of a young woman’s coming of age, trying to adjust to a new relationship with an immature suitor/husband, and then a humiliating confrontation and trial with her mother-in-law. But even on the level of an literal interpretation, there are important lessons.

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• The idealization of young beauty separates and isolates a young maturing woman. She is left without the ability to get close to her companions or experience a normal life. Without intimacy, she will live a lonely and anxious life, as many young movie stars discover, without getting a normal sense of reality in the world.
• Psyche was to be married to Death. The marriage ceremony was Psyche’s funeral, for a death is required of the young bride. She is leaving behind her a childhood and being thrust into a role, that of wife and mother, which will require her to grow up extremely quickly. Whether she has gained a strong sense of who she is or not, she must become self-less, supporting her often immature husband’s expectations from her and usually dealing with motherhood as well. Often young women have no idea that they are losing their childhood when they marry.
• The young Eros never allows Psyche to "see" him. Coming to her only the the dark, he is an unknown to her. And so it is often in marriage. Young suitors/husbands are all too often emotionally unavailable to their brides, hiding their vulnerabilities, sadness, failures, frustrations in life, relationship problems with their parents and more. Unwilling to be vulnerable or to appear weak in front of their new girlfriends/mates, they don’t talk about their feelings or sense of failures or overwhelm in their lives. As a result, the new couple really don’t know one another at all. They are in love with their own projections onto one another of idealizations.

The young Eros is still tied to his mother’s apron strings and under her power. Until a young man can cut his dependency upon his mother to feel self-assured and independent, he has not made the transition to manhood. Otherwise, whenever he is unable to cope, he "runs home to mother."

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Psyche allows her family to meddle in her relationship with her lover/husband, to disasterous effect. Young wives need to keep their families at a distance in their marriages, as should the husbands, while they work out their problems and needs together. It is hard though for families to let their newly-wed children go. Many mothers especially want to continue to "be involved" in their sons and daughter’s lives, offering advice and suggestions, and adding to the new couple’s difficulties in making a marriage work. Sometimes these interventions amount to meddling and can destroy a fragile relationship.

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Psyche finds at last that she must go through a humiliating test by her lover’s mother, as all new bride’s must go through. She must prove her worth, so to speak, by meeting the mother’s challenges. Whether these tests amount to preparing family meals or money management or dealing with the stresses of motherhood or fitting into the expanded family, these are tests all new brides will face.

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Psychological Interpretation

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Today, depth psychology teaches us that myth IS psychology. And within the myth lie the patterns and structures of Mind.
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Psyche represents the anima of the male. Eros represents the animus of the female. Anima and animus are internal psychic images representing the carriers of our soul. The anima mediates the barrier between the conscious and unconscious mind of a man. And the animus mediates the barrier between the conscious and unconscious mind of a woman.
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Usually, most humans are unaware of their animas or animus because they are so unconscious. Awareness of these carriers of soul generally comes only through depth psychoanalysis, using dreamwork or recall of awaking dreams.
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Psyche is the old Greek word for "soul". Eros is the old word for "Love", referring to sexual love. The myth psychologically is about the soul’s journey to knowledge of love and her "testing" in the realm of matter and death. The myth also is about the ascent of the Spirit, as Eros goes to Zeus in the end and is accepted as a Son.
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The soul (Psyche) must learn about love by immersion in the realm of Matter, and so Eros also represents her human male "host." Similarly, each human male must learn to relate with and communicate with his soul’s energy, his anima, in order to find meaning in his life and live out his life story.
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Each human female (Psyche) must learn about her inner power (which stems from knowledge of her inner masculine, or animus, and so she must learn to relate with and communicate with her sexual soul force within--which has an intelligence few realize), in order to find meaning in her life andlive out her life story.
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Learning to communicate with one’s anima or animus is normally done through dream work.
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These dream images act to assist us in our shadow work and in balancing the masculine and feminine energies within.
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Psyche (soul) wins her power by passing her tests as a woman cooperating with Nature; and then descending into the Land of the Dead (Hades) and returning with Penelope’s Beauty Ointment. Henceforth, she will always carries the Beauty of the Realms beyond the Veil. The secret to beauty, it turns out, is only the death of the ego and realization of selflessness.
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Eros (spirit) wins his power by breaking the domination of his Mother and healing his Mother Complex. He becomes a man, and in so doing is accepted by his Father as a man. He knows himself by discovering, accepting and loving his inner feminine energies which bind him to life on earth.
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Eros is already a god, or daemon, and a son of Zeus; thus a woman’s soul is a god to her and she is closer to the Mystery than is a man and knows of those realms intuitively.

Archetypal Interpretation
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Deep in the Collective Unconscious, there are archetypal energies playing out a myth. For the most part, people are unconscious of these energies and so they are at the effect of their unconscious urges; they "are lived" by the myth that is defining who they are and

what is happening to them.
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One goal of the individuation process is to dream the myth one is living and thereby become more conscious. Even where they are unconscious of the myths they are living, they experience a meaningful life when they accept the story which is living them.
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When one recognizes the myths they are living, they then are able to elect to follow the pattern outside into the outer world or refuse the myth. The consequence of resisting the myth may be surrendering meaning in one’s life and facing the Universe without it. The choice usually requires that the person have gone through the individuation process and "know himself", gaining some consciousness to face the Universe without the support of superstition or outer dogmas. If the individual accepts his myth, it becomes a destiny instead of a fate--a destiny that determines how he or she will die.
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To live the myth of Aphrodite, Psyche and Eros is to experience all the roles, feelings, and dynamics. The myth speaks to the experience of a young man entering into a relationship with his anima, or an image which holds the numinosity of his soul. It speaks of his difficulty in breaking the power of the Mother Archetype in his life, removing the projection of his anima which he cast upon his actual mother, and to open a dialog with his inner feminine.
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Opening such a dialog means that he will have to descend into the Land of the Dead, drop the defenses of his ego, and begin to follow the images arising in his dreams--to "know her" who must be obeyed, to learn of her own wish to be here in life as herself, to heal the wounded gods in the "complexes", to honor the soul-wish to be well again, and to accept his journey through life as his responsibility and "reward" for loving "her" and himself.

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There is no promise that his life will turn out well, happy, successful--and in fact it well may not, but these tragic possibilities are also part of the "reward" of his journey.
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However, the myth also speaks to that young man’s experience with a human woman, upon whom he has projected his anima. His ability to communicate and relate to his anima within is correlated to his ability to communicate with and relate to an outer woman.
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He must earn the respect of his father by becoming a colleague rather than a son and accept the responsibilities of fatherhood and husband-hood himself.
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He must grow up and become a man.
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And that, in essence, is the archetype of individuation itself.
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"Every socioeconomic system also generates an underlying myth, a story that defines the possibilities and the obligations of life in that particular time and place. The American myth, fostered by a seemingly inexhaustible supply of apparently free land, is the story of starting with nothing and ending up with the comfort, affluence, and security. Its psychic dimension is the story of starting out as nobody and ending up as somebody. For the first two centuries after European settlers arrived on these shores, the story involved a place and a state of mind called the frontier. However discouraging one’s present situation was, there was always the frontier. There you could begin over again. There, all accounts reverted to zero. There, all people toed the same starting line. There, yesterday’s loser might be tomorrow’s winner.

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In a famous paper read to the American Historical Association meeting in 1893, Frederick Jackson Turner announced that the frontier was gone. Population densities had increased to the point where there were no longer significant blocks of unsettled land left. But the frontier remained a fact of the imagination in America long after it ceased to exist on any map. It survived partly because myths are rooted in a deeper psychic level that population figures can reach. But it also survived because it had imperceptibly blended with another story that was better grounded in the facts of the late nineteenth century. That other story, likewise, traced the path from poverty to wealth and obscurity to fame. That later story was the rages to riches tale of the young man who started with a modest job and did so well at it that he was promoted. . . and promoted again. . . and again until he because the boss of the whole show.

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Without missing a beat, the American myth left behind the frontier and moved to the bank, the store, or the factory. And in its new incarnation, the myth transformed the old promise into new terms: wealth was still limitless and access to it was still universal, but now it involved a job and not a piece of land. Anyone could begin with any job and work his way up to the top. Jobs became the stepping stones for social advancement and personal fulfillment.

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To get a job was to plug in to the system through which wealth was distributed in American society. To expand the pool of that wealth, the society simply needed to keep generating new jobs. It was true that periodic recessions caused the job level to fall temporarily, but as with any rising tide, the ebb was always followed by a greater flow. Like recessions, the gradual mechanization of American work took away jobs too. But the huge expansion of consumer markets offset those losses, and the tide kept rising.

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Until now. For reasons detailed in the first chapters of this book, the tide has turned and jobs that are disappearing are not being replaced. As we saw, that does not mean that no work remains that needs doing. On the contrary, work needing to be done is all around us, but it is no longer so easy to box it into "jobs."

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Job seekers send out hundreds of resumes and they answer job ads in droves, but they report that the jobs are all taken. Then, they try again. And again. They respond to the unconscious pull of the old mythic story that says that the job is the gateway to success, and they keep responding to it long after the jobs have disappeared--just as people kept looking for the frontier way of life long after there was no frontier actually left.

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Losing a core social myth of this sort is much harder than losing any number of jobs: it undermines the very reality that people live in. The world doesn’t feel the same any longer, and people don’t feel at home in it. The shadows seem longer and the wind seems colder. People feel exposed and lost and confused. The floss of the job myth marks one of those dividing lines in history that makes an earlier period seem in retrospect to have been simpler and easier to live in--simpler even than the past really was. You can be sure that we will look back on the age of jobs in the same way that people of a century ago looked back at the world of the frontier farm. We will idealize it. Nothing makes it so clear that something is passing than the aura of meaning and comfort that begins to surround it like a halo of warmth and light. A telltale sign of the transition is the sense of mourning and disorientation that we feel as we grapple with t