A long while ago, when I was first starting to create YouTube Videos - I went through a phase of wanting to tell love stories of Greek & Roman Myth. Something of a Goddess Storytime Serenade. I did a trilogy, but then abandoned it, but I am feeling called back to revisit those stories. After all, most mythology and legend has multiple versions of the same tale. Even when you watch a movie with your friends, you can all watch the same film and come away with unique takeaways to what the themes and underlying meanings are.
So in honor of me finishing projects that are worthy of finishing, I am coming back to the original Greek Myth of Eros & Psyche so that we can talk about it from a spiritual lens, and deeper allegorical meaning perspective. Many fables and fairy tales, have deeper meanings for your conciousness, simply waiting for you to be ready to recieve the information. I already did a first round telling here. It's a pretty lengthy tale, and I do have a habit of meandering off the main story topic - but I think it's decent ;)
Additionally, Mythology Source does a good job of summarizing the story:
The Golden Ass, part of the Metamorphoses written by Lucius Apuleius in the 2nd century AD, is a Roman-era work that tells of the romance between Eros and a human princess and how she was elevated to godhood after many trials and tribulations.
Now firstly I wanted to get into Eros. Eros in the context of being a god; has a few potential origin stories - as gods and goddesses do. One is that he is a primordial god; that is, the embodiment itself of LOVE. Meaning that we would have just been created (not having a "father or mother"). The other origin story is that Eros is actually Venus' son. We will be taking on Eros as being Venus' son in the context of this story; because it actually shows this more cruel and jealous side of Venus. And I do think that this is important. After all, who the hero is and who the villian is depends on a whole lot of context. And many of the best epics have characters that are more than black & white, but are instead varying shades of grey.
Now let's talk about Psyche. She is symbolized by a blue butterfly; as a way to symbolize transformation. In the story, she is a unique goddess because she starts out as mortal. Psyche is born a mortal princess, and is considered so beautiful that admirers from around the world came to give her offerings. Because of all of this adoration, Venus got very jealous. How could a mere mortal be even potentially considered more beautiful than the goddess of LOVE and BEAUTY herself. As a result, she asked her son Eros (who in some circles, especially around Valentines Day is known as Cupid) to use one of his arrows to make Psyche fall in love with a hideous man as punishment for her offense (of being gorgeous) - this is a shadow aspect in women that I think we need to look at.
The rest of the story ends up with Eros & Psyche falling in love, and undergoing trials and tribulations. Venus is not pleased that her son fell in love with the very woman that she saught to destroy and ends up acting just like the evil queen in snow white. In the end, Eros circumvents Venus and goes right to Zeus. In the end Zeus offers Psyche ambroisia and she becomes a goddess and immortal. Interestingly enough, because Psyche is now also a goddess with her own doman - the Goddess of the SOUL.
I produce a show with an amazing organization called Decriminilize Nature called "Restoring Our Roots", and we deal a lot with entheogens and psychedelics as far as how they may assist in our healing and our relationship to the earth. Psyche does not represent the mental aspect of humanity - she represents our immortal soul.
Psyche became the goddess of the soul, which the Greeks believed had to endure hardships before a person could attain true happiness. Her daughter Hedone was the goddess of pleasure.
That through LOVE, that is how a human soul becomes eternal.
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