Your astrology chart holds the key.
Your Venus sign tells what you need to be in love, and
Your Juno sign tells what you need to marry.
It’s that simple.

In this FEMTalk, hosted by San Francisco Bay Area’s Ripe Paradigm just for women, you’ll . . .

• Discover how to use the ancient wisdom of astrology to attract—and keep—your ideal partner.
• Learn what your “type” is and how to spot it in potential partners.
• Learn what you offer in relationship that you have always taken for granted—and how to work it for maximum attractiveness.
• Become the radiant magnet of desire you were always meant to be.

What You Need In Romantic Love Is Not The Same As
What You Need In Marriage
Find out what they both are.
Satisfy both needs for a lifetime of love that’s both erotic and stable.

If you’ve been enjoying my blog, you will love this talk.  Come see me in person and learn how to awaken and honor these primal goddesses in your life–and watch all your relationships blossom!

When:  May 9, 2011
Time:  7-10 PM
Where:  Berkeley, CA (near University Avenue, exact location released when you register)
Cost:  $15

This talk is filling up fast—register today on the Ripe Paradigm website and I’ll see you there!

warmly,

Jamie Kahl
Pandora Astrology
Berkeley, CA

PS. At the FEMTalk, you’ll have an opportunity to find out how to access your own unique Golden Goddess of Love and Beauty (Aphrodite/Venus) and your own personal Queen of Heaven (Hera/Juno).  You’ll also come away with a free gift worth double what you paid to attend the talk.  You don’t want to miss this!
PPS. Sorry you missed it? If you’re seeing this notice after the FEMTalk is over, invite me to speak at your women’s group, at no cost: pandora@pandoraastrology.com.  I look forward to meeting you!

Venus is finally going direct today.  In celebration, one final post about Eros and Psyche, because we’ve arrived at the end of the story.

The tale of Eros and Psyche might also be called, “How The Soul Got Her Wings” because the ultimate end to this story is not only the restoration of love to the psyche, but also the immortality of the soul.

Upon being restored to Eros, Psyche is fed on ambrosia by his father, Jupiter, lord of all the gods.  This makes her a goddess and she is welcomed to the table at Mount Olympus with the other deities.  This is an unlooked-for benefit of seeking love.  Psyche’s journey, which was only ever intended to bring her back into communion with love, has done so much more.  She has deepened as a soul and finally is rendered immortal.

The message here is clear:  to find true love, you must not seek it outside yourself, but only love truly, and not only love, but immortality is your reward.  This is a true, “happy-ever-after” because it is more than just a fantasy.  This happy-ever-after was earned and is therefore sustainable.  The beauty of a goddess is eternal, but the beauty of a mortal fades, unless she does her soul-work.  Then she takes her place among the stars.

There’s one thing I didn’t tell you as the story was going along.  All that glorious lovemaking couldn’t fail to have an effect—when Eros flew away, he left Psyche pregnant.  In anger, he told her that her child would be mortal, not divine.  Psyche pursued him and did all her tasks while carrying that child, never knowing if she would see him again.  When Psyche drinks the ambrosia, her child is also rendered immortal.  That child is named Pleasure.  And how perfect is that?

Does This Apply To You?

Are you ready to love without bargaining for what you will receive for the gift of your love?  Are you ready to go into your soul’s darkness for love?  Are you ready to sort yourself out?  Are you ready to do the tasks that will restore love to you?  If you are, then even Aphrodite cannot stand in the way of your eternal love.

This thread is dedicated to my husband, who does the work of love as well as inspiring it.

Psyche receives a lot of help in the completion of her four tasks, often at the very moment when she has given up.  Where does that help come from?  It appears as if by magic from resources that are close at hand, but the power behind that help is Eros himself.  He stirs the ants up to help Psyche sort the seeds and he breathes wind into the reeds that tell Psyche the secret of how to gather the golden fleece.  The eagle that fills the crystal goblet is sent by Zeus (Jupiter), who is Eros’ father and is helping him.  And Eros himself shows up to gather up the stygian sleep and cram it back into the box so that Psyche may return with it to Aphrodite’s temple.  Without love to inspire her every move, how could Psyche ever reawaken love?  And so he is her helper, but he cannot do these things for her.

Eros has his own story, which is the negative space around Psyche’s story.  His is the story of how erotic love connects with the soul and matures into intimate love.

Eros represents erotic love.  He is portrayed in Greco-Roman mythology as a mother’s son, a male principle that arose from the feminine.  But even Love had to grow up and leave his mother.  Eros’ journey begins when he first catches sight of Psyche (having been sent to kill her by Aphrodite).  He pricks himself with one of his own arrows and falls in love with her.  This means he must change from devoting himself to beauty to devoting himself to soul.

Instead of killing Psyche, Eros has her carried away to a hidden castle where he lives with her.  But he is a god—love is an eternal principle, a divine thing, and it cannot live forever with that which is mortal.  The marriage between Eros and Psyche is inherently unsustainable as long as Psyche is not a goddess.  Eros has married beneath himself, captivated by Psyche despite knowing that she would age and one day die.  You might say he was hanging around a girl from the wrong side of town.

A story is no story without setbacks.  What did Eros do when Psyche lifted the lamp and viewed him in the light?  He flew away to his mother, Beauty.  Eros’ part of the story is about how erotic love must learn to stop revolving around the beauty (Aphrodite) that gave birth to him and start instead apprehending the soul inside what he loves.

The tale of Eros and Psyche is a tale of converting passionate love into intimate, enduring love.  Passionate love is intense and consuming—if you were to try to live that way on an everyday basis, it would burn your life away.  Enduring love is less intense, but it is what passionate love turns into when it learns to bear the light of day.

At the beginning of the story, the Soul (Psyche) is in love with Love itself, and by the end she has taken a hard look at Love and deepened her soul.  Love is already divine; the soul has to earn her divinity.  At the beginning, erotic love (Eros) is in love with the beauty that aroused it (his allegiance to Aphrodite) and has to sneak around to explore his connection with the soul (Psyche) and even leave her to return to beauty.  Ultimately, the soul wins him over and Eros gets to have, not just sexuality with beauty, but sexuality with soul.  Not just erotic love, but intimate love.

Put another way, the psyche falls in love with love, but love itself is in thrall to the beauty of the beloved and needs to learn to love the beloved’s psyche.  Love is the offspring of beauty and is devoted to beauty, but upon encountering the soul, love is awakened and made conscious.

The message here for the Soul is:  Do your own soul-work. A mature lover will see your depth and not run to Beauty to escape encountering the Soul.

The message here for Love is:  Beauty is enthralling, but connection to the Soul is what’s needed to create the enduring connection that will allow Love’s expression over a lifetime.

There’s one final post in this thread, Psyche Is Made Immortal . . .

How heartbreaking it is when a girl first discovers that other girls will sometimes pit themselves against her and compete over boys.  She discovers this in childhood or teen years, so that by womanhood she knows all too well the ways that other women cannot be trusted.  A woman who really knows herself and believes in her own lovability does not have to compete or to make preemptive strikes against other women who might compete with her.  And a woman who understands sisterhood and the primal bond between women is safe for other women to relate with and trust.

In the myth, Psyche has aroused the anger of a goddess, Aphrodite, who insists on attempting to kill her, even though Psyche has no pretensions and wishes men weren’t worshipping her so inappropriately.  Psyche’s business is that of the soul and she would rather leave the business of beauty to Aphrodite, which is where it belongs.

Psyche also has to deal with the jealousy of her two sisters, who poison her against her husband, claiming that he is a frightful monster instead of the finest lover she could ever imagine.  Psyche never asked for all this feminine attack, nor for the beauty that aroused it.  She would rather have been of middling beauty and marriageable.

Psyche’s response to both these feminine attacks is a truly soulful one—she loves and trusts her sisters and she takes on the tasks of Aphrodite.  Because of this response, she is cast on a soul-journey at the end of which is her husband Eros, erotic love regained.

What Does It Mean?
The sisters represent binocular vision.  Because there are two of them, depth can be seen.  While Psyche lives with her husband in the dark, she cannot see him truly.  Her sisters press her to shine the lamp on him and to consider that he may be a monster.  Until she is willing to consider that he has ugly depths as well as divine ones, she cannot truly look at him and thus she remains innocent and in the dark.  Her sisters counsel her to have a sharp knife handy, so that she can cut off the monster’s head.  So she comes to her husband with both lamp and knife, prepared for the worst by her binocular vision, which includes the capacity to see evil in addition to good.  This is no error on her part, it is only what the soul can do, and it’s all part of the greater plan.

Psyche’s sisters serve an important purpose—the purpose of the shadow.  They force Psyche to wholeness and conscious awareness by making her look at her lover’s dark and ugly side.  When she sees who he really is, and that his wings are not the wings of a gargoyle or a dragon, but the wings of the very god of love himself, she is shocked at what she has done.  In her confusion, she pricks herself with one of Eros’ arrows and falls in love with him again, in full consciousness of who and what she loves.  “It is said that Psyche was the first mortal who ever looked at a god in his true splendor and lived to tell the tale” (from She, by Robert Johnson).

Additionally, in her confusion, Psyche drops hot oil from the lamp on his shoulder, which causes him to awaken and catch her in the act of seeing him.  He knows that he cannot stay, because his allegiance is still to his mother, Beauty (Aphrodite).  He has also not loved in the light of day and so does not know the soul (Psyche) of the woman he lives with.  And so he flies away, as he must, because he is also not mature.  Not yet.

Does This Apply To You?
If you are a woman, do you embrace sisterhood?  Are you aware of the unspoken code among women, the “non-competition clause” that says you should never attempt to seduce another woman’s man and disrupt her household?  Have you ever aroused the wrath of other women by your behavior?

Unfortunately, this is something often learned the hard way, by competing or being competed with.  But for women, sisterhood lives right next door to self-esteem:  love other women and you love yourself.  Every woman deserves to be worshipped—no one woman can claim another’s altar.  And beauty alone cannot hold a relationship together—it needs soul-work.  That’s what Psyche learns.

Read about Eros’ Hidden Task here . . .

At this point in the story, Aphrodite is determined that Psyche must be done away with.  So she devises the most difficult and diabolical task of all:  a journey to the land of death itself—the underworld.  Mortals are not allowed to go to the underworld—the only way to do it is by dying.  So this is both task and puzzle.  How is Psyche to go there if she must die to do it, and however is she to come back?  It is impossible, and so her first response is a fit of tears, as it always is.  But help is near and Psyche hears a voice emanating from the very tower she had come to throw herself off of.  The tower itself speaks to her and gives very specific instructions.  The tower tells her how to find a path to the underworld and tells her to take two coins and two honeyed barley cakes with her.  She will encounter a donkey-driver, a drowning man and the three Fates—she is not to help or be distracted by any of them.  Above all, she is to save the honeyed cakes for Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the underworld, because when she throws him a cake his three heads will fight over it and allow her to pass.  She is to put the coins in her mouth, so that she may pay Charon, the ferryman who will take her across the Styx in his boat, for both crossing and return.  And Psyche’s mission is to ask Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, to fill a special box with a magic cosmetic, that she may return with it to Aphrodite.  Aphrodite has definitely given her dirty work to her daughter-in-law.

What Does It Mean?
This part of the story is loaded with meaning.  Psyche must go to the underworld.  She again gets divine help, this time from a tower, which represents solitude.  Using solitude, she is to go into her own underworld and to fetch something from its Queen that will bestow beauty.  When a person knows her own underworld and is master (queen) of it, she indeed has access to a special, mysterious beauty.  To do this difficult task, Psyche must avoid those who would drain her energy and attention:  the donkey-driver and the drowning man, who are forever in need of help and will never be saved by it.  They will always and forever need help again.  Also, the three Fates are a distraction—and who, upon meeting the Fates, would not want to stop and ask the questions only they can answer, such as “what is my future, how long am I to live, will I find happiness?”  But these questions are a distraction from a life of freewill.  Psyche must avoid superstition and pass them by.

Psyche take the tower’s good advice, successfully avoiding all these hazards and is then undone when she is at the very verge of success.  Having distracted Cerberus, paid Charon, avoided those who would steal her focus and obtained the box’s contents from Persephone, she is on her way back up the path when she is seized with curiosity and a desire to use the cosmetic herself.  “Why should I not make myself beautiful for my husband, since I may see him soon?” she wonders.  She opens the box.  Big mistake.  Turns out the box contains a deep, deathlike sleep, which overpowers her and puts an end to her progress right then and there.

Here’s where Eros re-enters the picture.  He’s been watching all these proceedings from Mount Olympus, where the gods dwell.  He’s been hanging with his dad, remember?  He knows Psyche is on the brink of success.  So he flies down to the underworld, gathers up that “beauty sleep” and shoves it back in the box.  This wakes Psyche up and he sends her on her way.  A contract is a contract and upon completion of these tasks, Aphrodite will have to pay up.  Which she does.

Aphrodite ultimately is won over by Psyche’s earnestness and persistence.  She actually dances at their wedding-feast, now celebrated with her blessing.

Does This Apply To You?
I want to point out here that one of the most important of Psyche’s superpowers in all this is her ability to inspire and accept help.  Even the very stones of the tower gain the ability to speak that they may advise her.  By this point in the story she has received help from creatures of the earth (ants) and air (eagle), as well as the plant kingdom (the reeds) and the mineral kingdom (the tower), as if she had uttered the Native American cry, “All my relations, be with me now!”

This task has the nature of Water about it, as underworld journeys always do.  This part of the story asks:
Are you open to this kind of help?  Are you this vulnerable?
Do you have appropriate solitude in your life?
Are you willing to go into your own underworld and do you know how to avoid being distracted by those parts of you that are, and perhaps always will be, needy?
Can you forego superstition, stop seeking for answers from others, when they are best found within yourself?

This brings us to an interesting question about the myth itself—was it a bad thing or a good one that Psyche failed at the last minute?  Perhaps it was a necessary part of the story.  I don’t really know.  This may be something that every person’s psyche needs to decide for itself.

Read the next part of this thread: Psyche’s Hidden Fifth Task, Dealing with the Wrath of Other Women . . .

Aphrodite has another task for Psyche.  This time, she is to fill a crystal goblet from the Fountain of Forgetfulness and return with it to the goddess.  But the way to the fountain is up a high, craggy mountain with no path at all, and guarded by monsters.  Psyche’s first response is overwhelm and panic, just as usual, but by now someone else entirely has noticed her dilemma, and that’s Zeus.  Otherwise known as Jupiter, King of the Gods, Zeus happens to be Eros’ father and by now he’s decided that Aphrodite has taken this whole thing too far.  He decides to step in and sends his eagle to help Psyche gather the Waters of Forgetfulness.  Upon the eagle’s back, Psyche flies to the mountain’s top and the eagle stretches out his wing so that Psyche can climb out on it and safely catch some of the waters in the crystal vessel.  Then she returns with the goblet to Aphrodite who is, of course, livid.

What Does It Mean?
Now why on earth would waters from the Fountain of Forgetfulness matter—and why would it take help from an eagle to get them?  The eagle is a bird with uncanny eyesight—it can spot prey from extreme heights and swoop down to capture with great accuracy.  The eagle, and its extraordinary vision, represent perspective.  With the help of Zeus’ eagle, Psyche gains perspective on her situation.  This gives her access to the ability to forget.

And why, you ask again, would the psyche want to forget?  Because when love is lost, hurtful things are said and done.  We already established in the previous post that aggressive action doesn’t serve anyone.  But what to do with all those hurtful memories?  Forget them.  Yep, that’s right.  Forget.  Saving up a list of hurtful things to throw back in your partner’s face will not bring love back.  But moving on and refusing to dwell on them begins to create an environment into which love can return.

Does This Apply To You?
Are you willing to forget the painful words and actions of your lover?  Are you able to put aside and deliberately forget hurtful things your lover has said or done?  Can you use eagle’s eye vision to gain a broader perspective on the situation, so that you may know what to remember and what to forget?

This task may seem related to Water, but actually it’s related to Air.  The eagle is a bird, a creature of wind and lightness.  The eagle gets the perspective that comes with distance.  This task is about conscious awareness and deliberate forgetting—and these are mental actions.  It’s about getting the eagle’s-eye view of things, a higher perspective.  It’s about consciously choosing where to cut your losses.  It’s about deciding to forget about the stuff that doesn’t really matter.

When you love someone deeply, you see into his soul, right down to the very bottom of it.  And when you visit the bottom of a person’s soul, sometimes things are said that your lover might wish to take back.  Some of those things may be related to their own soul-work, they may predate your appearance in their life, they may belong to him alone.  Certainly it was rude of him to splatter his ancient soul-slime all over you, but it’s just as rude of you to hold him to words spoken when he was in the pit of despair.  Everyone’s pain belongs to him alone and when you have shared another’s pain with him, sometimes the kindest thing you can do is forget.

Read about Psyche’s Fourth task here: The Underworld Journey . . .

Aphrodite is very angry that Psyche has completed the first task.  She sets another, very difficult and this time dangerous task for the mortal woman.  It seems there are some very fierce rams that graze by a river and these are sun-rams, with coats made of pure gold.  Psyche is to gather some of their golden fleeces and return with the shiny wool to Aphrodite.  Psyche is quite sure this cannot be done and takes herself to the river, intending to throw herself in.  There the reeds growing by the river’s bank speak to her and tell her the secret way she can gather the golden fleece safely.  During the heat of the day, when the rams are at their most violent, she must evade them entirely, but follow them at dusk and gather their wool from the thorny bushes where it has been caught.  If she is persistent, she can gather enough this way.  Thanking the reeds for their wise advice, Psyche does this and presents Aphrodite with the wooly gold, infuriating her once more.  “You must have had help!” storms the goddess, but it doesn’t matter, because the task is fulfilled.

What Does It Mean?
Psyche has to face aggression in this part of the story.  She is advised that her best approach to aggression (the rams) is an indirect one.  Do not fight back, she is told, do not make yourself a target.  Instead, wait until the rams have moved on, then take what you need.  Do not let greed and aggression press you to take more.

The aggression represented by the rams is both within and without.  It is the anger one feels at having to repair a relationship and it is the anger one confronts in their partner who feels the same.  ‘Why doesn’t love just work?’ we ask ourselves.  ‘Why does something start out so beautifully and then go so terribly wrong?’  It is an insult to the very instinct of love.  Yet the initial passion is inherently unsustainable and this anger is a natural response to that fact.  Evading the anger, avoiding inflaming it is the way to gain access to the gold it produces.  That gold is the spark that can reignite passion.  Angry words are a misuse of passion.  Evasion of anger allows one to gather the passion and direct into more useful channels.

Does This Apply To You?
It is human to react to love’s departure with anger.  “Why don’t you love me anymore?” is an outrageous question to have to ask.  “You said you’d love me forever!” also comes to mind.  “You took a vow!” might even make an appearance.  But these angry questions are not helpful.  Inciting aggression in oneself or one’s partner does not cause love to spontaneously return.

In your anger that love has flown away, have you become too aggressive?  Love cannot be forced to return, but its gold can be gathered gently.  This task has the nature of Fire about it—how well do you manage your own heat, anger, assertion, aggression?  Can you channel your fire or will it destroy you?  The psyche must understand its own fiery nature before love can be restored.

Read about Psyche’s third task: The Waters of Forgetfulness . . .

As her first task, Psyche is presented with a huge granary filled with a tremendous variety of seeds.  Aphrodite tells her to sort each type of seed into its own pile and to have them all separated by sundown, and then Aphrodite stalks out, knowing how hopeless this is.  Psyche confronts the piles, then bursts into tears, completely overwhelmed.  While she is crying, some ants crawl out of the cracks and begin to organize the grains.  Soon a whole army of ants is busily engaged and the piles grow until, by nightfall, all the seeds are neatly separated.  Psyche thanks the ants and awaits Aphrodite’s return.  Aphrodite is infuriated and Psyche is on to the next task.

What Does It Mean?
The ants are a sort of totem-animal for Psyche.  They are industrious, practical and earthy. This task has the nature of Earth, as if to say that the human psyche must manage the practical aspects of life.  Life does in fact go on, tragedy notwithstanding, and so this task asks, Can you get through the day and do what you have to do to maintain your life while you wait for love to return?

Psyche has been asked to “sort herself out,” to separate one thing from another, to put all the like things together, away from the unlike things.  In this way she can be relieved of her overwhelm at the way her life is falling apart without Love in it.  Sometimes you need to just put one foot in front of the other and to do the tasks that are right in front of you, as an affirmation of life and of your ability to cope.  Doing this task frees her to take up the next with a clear head.

Sorting the seeds is like Psyche asking herself, “What are my needs?  What are my boundaries?  What things are essential to me?  What can I tolerate and what can I not tolerate?  What do I want?  What is good and what is bad for me?”

Does This Apply To You?
Is there some part of your relationship that needs sorting out?  A working relationship should meet the real needs of both partners, yet it can be hard to know which “needs” are true needs.  Sometimes what seems like a need is actually a black hole that can never be satisfied, while a true need is fillable, is satisfiable.  Do you know what your true needs are and are you willing to have them be filled?  Do you know what your partner’s are and are you willing to help them be filled?

Here’s another thought:  boundaries are not just external, they exist throughout any whole.  A whole with an external boundary and no internal gradations of boundary is just like a chicken egg you might cook for breakfast:  hard and fragile on the outside and soft and defenseless in the middle.  A healthy relationship has boundaries throughout, some soft and some hard, to protect aspects of the relationship from spilling over into other spaces.  You yourself are a system and you need these kinds of boundaries too, or else your private life would be spilling over into your work-life and vice versa.  The Sorting of the Seeds is a sorting-out, a distinguishing, a separating of one thing from another.  It is the first task to do when a relationship needs sorting out.

Read about Psyche’s Second Task, Gathering the Golden Fleece . . .

Upon first discovering that Eros really has gone, Psyche panics.  We know this because the first being she encounters after her husband’s flight is Pan, the woodland goat-god.  The word “panic” is rooted in Pan, because he is a god of madness.  Psyche finds herself talking to Pan because she is nearly mad with grief and confusion.  Pan gives Psyche good advice, however—he tells her to go straight to Aphrodite and apologize.  Psyche is afraid and wanders around visiting a bunch of other gods’ temples before she finally ends up at the temple of Aphrodite.

Naturally, Aphrodite is very annoyed that Psyche is still alive.  “Why didn’t that good-for-nothing son of mine kill her as he was supposed to?” she wonders.  But a true supplicant cannot be ignored, and Aphrodite cannot just do away with Psyche in her own temple.  So she sets about giving Psyche four impossible tasks, hoping that she’ll die before completing them.

That Psyche meets Pan is fortuitous for another reason:  she needs to understand how to handle panic, because she’s about to experience a lot of it.  Aphrodite has nothing but trouble planned and Psyche will have to cope with her first panicky response to each step of this difficult journey.  It’s better to learn it sooner rather than later!  And what Psyche learns is “have your panic, but don’t be attached to it.  Let the feelings move through you and help will be near.”

Psyche’s Four Tasks, Four Duties On The Way To Reclaiming Love
Psyche must complete four tasks before she can be restored to Eros, or true love.

The First Task is Sorting the Seeds
The Second Task is Gathering the Golden Fleece
The Third Task involves the Waters of Forgetfulness
The Fourth Task involves an Underworld Journey

(. . . because what tale of lost love would be complete without an underworld journey?)

Watch for more about these tasks coming next in “Sorting the Seeds“. . .

Has your relationship gotten stuck?  Has romantic, erotic love gone away?  Have you been working at restoring love?  Today look for special insight.  It could arise spontaneously from within or it could come from conversation with other people.  Look for a new understanding that reframes your relationship or how you behave in it.  This insight could come anytime between October 26 and 30.

(If you’re just starting this thread here, please begin here.  Then what follows will make more sense.)

Love Flies Out The Window
When Eros awoke to find Psyche watching him by lamplight, he knew his identity had been revealed.  He could no longer stay.  Dismayed and angered that Psyche had done exactly what he’d asked her not to, he flew away and returned to his mother, Aphrodite.

Did Eros want to leave Psyche?  Of course not.  He was just as in love with her as she was with him.  But he couldn’t maintain their relationship in the light of day, for fear of being caught by his mother, Aphrodite.  Unfortunately, keeping his identity a secret had become a point of vulnerability for Eros, a vulnerability Psyche’s sisters exploited.  They aroused Psyche’s curiosity and fear, claiming that he was a terrible monster and goading her to get a look at him in the light.  Psyche was afraid, but didn’t really believe them.  She wanted to know Eros truly and love the person he was, instead of keeping their relationship in darkness.  So she lifted the lamp over him.

Romantic love is a delicate thing, a dance of illusions.  We want to look and behave our best when we are in love.  When the illusion is shattered, love flies away in fear.  Isn’t it ironic that we come to relationship to be seen and then can’t stand it when it happens?  When she lifted the lamp, Psyche had no idea what that simple act would cost her.  But all the pain that ensued was necessary pain, because without it, her marriage could not tolerate the light of day.  Her desire to see Love face-to-face was the catalyst for doing the work necessary to restoring Love to her marriage—but this time in the daylight.

Let me say this again in a different way.

The human psyche craves love, and will accept it, even if given only in darkness.  The psyche recognizes love as benevolent until fear and jealousy creep in.  When goaded by dark emotions, the psyche will become curious to see the face of love, but upon being looked at too closely, romantic love flies out the window and the psyche has to do inner work in order to restore love.

Have you had an experience of love “flying out the window” in the last several weeks?  Have you shed light on some aspect of your relationship and found that it is not what you thought it was?  Have you or your partner run away from being seen?

Psyche’s journey has begun—has yours?

Read “Psyche Panics” for more insights about this powerful myth.