The Making of a Love Goddess - Manifest the Love you want.
The complicated, messy, wonderful and terrifying feeling that is love is omnipresent in our lives. Some of us are searching for it, others want to turn their backs and forget about it for good, but nevertheless it seems that we never fully escape it. Now, it is February and whether you think it’s a silly, marketing-based event or not, Valentine’s Day is on the horizon. Honestly, I for one think we should just get into it this year. Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean rushing out to buy all the commercial trappings you can find at your local ‘essential shop’. Instead, let’s choose to embrace love for all it’s good and bad this month. Greek mythology has provided us with some of our most famous love stories; below are three classics. Perhaps you’re in a stage of life looking for new love, maybe you’re getting over a relationship and are worried about what the future might hold, or perhaps you want to forget everyone else and fall back in love with yourself; these stories are ancient, but their morals never age. (We apologise for the cis-gender normative stereotypes present here, but I assure you they’re not the focus.) Take the themes present and adapt them to your individual lives. We’ve added some thoughts on how to do that. Enjoy!
Orpheus and Eurydice
Orpheus, the son of Apollo, is said to have been divinely gifted with music, charming all those who heard him. One day, while performing on his lyre, he meets the wood nymph, Eurydice. Sparks fly and they’re instantly in love. Not long after, they get married. Upon leaving the reception, Eurydice is bitten by a snake and dies instantly. Orpheus cannot accept this and hatches a crazy plan to go to the underworld, talk with Hades and bring Eurydice back up to earth with him. Eventually he convinces Hades to let Eurydice go, but there is just one catch: as they walk back up to earth, Orpheus is forbidden from turning around to check that Eurydice is following him. Hades tells him he must trust that she will be behind him all the way and only turn to face her when they have both left the underworld. He agrees, but just as he is nearing the edge of the underworld, Orpheus convinces himself that he can no longer hear her footsteps and Hades must have lied to him. At the last moment, he cannot control his doubts and turns around. Of course, she was there all along, but just as Hades had warned, Eurydice is thrown into the dark and sent back into the world of the dead. Orpheus is beside himself with grief and from then on wanders the earth in a depressed daze. Eventually, he is ripped to shreds by a group of drunken mad women. The end. This is obviously a very condensed version, so feel free to read the whole thing here.
I think there are a few lessons we can learn from this story, but I’m going to focus on issues of trust. For about 15 years now we’ve been able to check up on our partner’s location, communications and general background history. Basically, it’s getting easier and easier to track our partners every move and yet that seems to not be enough. Jealousy and suspicion are still driving huge wedges between us. Not to sound like a complete cliche, but what is love without trust? Sometimes the power of trust has a stronger impact than love. Trust enhances love. We can love someone because we once trusted them, but as soon as that trust is destroyed, the initial love that was built on trust isn’t enough. Trust not only allows us to believe others, but it allows us to believe in ourselves. When it comes to loving ourselves, we often doubt our instincts. We need to extend this trust to our own gut and know that our reactions are valid and have the power to lead us in the right direction. To manifest more trust in your relationship or life, get yourself an emerald. This stone is known to enhance unity, unconditional love and loyalty.
Repeat the mantra: By giving trust, I receive love.
Emerald on matrix
Eros and Psyche
In the story of Eros and Psyche, each is a representation. Eros, sometimes known as Cupid and the son of Aphrodite (goddess of love), is the embodiment of intense love and desire. Psyche personifies the human soul. She is the symbol of the soul purified by passions and misfortunes, prepared to enjoy eternal happiness.
The story of Eros and Psyche is long and complicated, with a few troubling aspects to the 21st Century reader (ie: unless it’s some sort of consensual game, we don’t recommend sleeping with someone who won’t tell you who they are; or perhaps don’t trust the person who forces you to complete endless, impossible tasks to ‘win’ their love. But hey, these are BC standards, so who are we to history shame). In short, Psyche is the most beautiful woman known to man, even Aphrodite is jealous. So overcome with envy, Aphrodite commands her son Eros, or Cupid, to shoot his arrow into the most hideous creature he can find and embarrass Psyche into falling in love with it. Eros can’t bring himself to do it. Instead, he lies to his mother and takes Psyche to his palace to be his wife in secret. Eros knows it is frowned upon for morals and gods to marry, so he only comes to psyche at night and will not reveal his identity to her. Obviously over time, she becomes curious as to who she is married to. She spies on him one night with a lamp and realises it is Eros. Relieved she turns to leave but unfortunately wakes him up by spilling lamp oil on him. Eros claims that now she knows who he is they cannot be together because he is a god and she is mortal, he takes off into the night leaving her behind. Heartbroken, Psyche goes to Aphrodite for help. She is given three impossible tasks to get him back. With some help from the gods, she is able to complete two of the tasks but luckily is rescued by Eros before having to complete the third. Psyche becomes immortal herself and eventually is reunited with Eros. She gives birth to their daughter ‘Pleasure’, and the trio, Psyche (soul), Eros (love) and Pleasure have been complicating people’s love lives ever since.
Traditionally, we are told that the moral of this story is love will find you and true love will never really leave you behind. These are both valid points and definitely worth remembering, however I want to add a slightly controversial takeaway from this: Sometimes things are for the greater good and taken out of your control. In the detailed version of this story, Psyche has two sisters who get married before her. She is sad and lonely because of this, thinking she will never find her own love. But the truth is, if she had married one of these generic guys like her sisters she would never have found the true love that was waiting for her all along. We try so hard to force the things we think we want or should have, that often we don’t step back and question whether there is a bigger picture to all of this. We see this theme also shown in Eros’ protection of Psyche. (I want to reiterate that I am not advocating for the specifics of this marriage arrangement). The larger concept is that Eros saved Psyche from a life of certain misery and gave her every happiness and reason to trust him thereafter. Psyche is justified in the curiosity she feels, but pushing and forcing things to be precisely how she expected ultimately led to her downfall. Relationship therapist and writer, Dr. Lisa Firestone tells us, ‘…think of love as a verb. Love is dynamic and requires action to thrive’. While this is definitely true and does require some action, sometimes that action can simply be to let go of control. Just as the last story advocated for trust, this one advocates for letting go and knowing the love that is meant for you will find you. The stone Labradorite, known for its ability to help you see things in a new light, can help with this. Use this stone while repeating the mantra: Control is rooted in fear, the energy of surrender accomplishes more than the energy of control.
Labradorite
Alcyone and Ceyx
Our final story is that of Alcyone and Ceyx. Ceyx, the king of Trachis and Alcyone, daughter of the god of wind, are a beautiful, happily married couple. Distressed by the death of his brother, Ceyx decides to cross the dangerous sea to speak to the Oracle of Apollo. Alcyone attempts to talk him out of the journey, but no, he is determined to make the treacherous trip. Unfortunately, this couple had become quite cocky with their beauty and perfection so Zeus uses this moment to carry out some long-awaited vengeance. Throwing a lightning bolt into the sea he creates a vicious storm that throws Ceyx from his boat and ultimately leads to his death by drowning. Left at home alone to worry, Alcyone prays for his safe return completely unaware it is already too late. Eventually, Hera takes pity on her and sends Morpheus (the god of sleep) to tell her of Ceyx death. She immediately wakes and runs to the shore to find his body. Zeus, compelled by the strength of their love and feeling guilt for his earlier rage decides they should be reconnected. Distraught, Alcyone threw herself into the sea, but before she drowns Zeus turns them both into kingfisher birds so they can once again be together and fly off into the sunset.
This story is an interesting variation on the Greek love myth because it is both tragic and hopeful at the same time. Ultimately it tells us that love triumphs over tragedy. As a contemporary interpretation, we should add that love changes form over time and we shouldn’t be afraid of letting it do so; as we age and grow so do our relationships with others and ourselves. Occasionally, as in this case, disrupting events act to strengthen the bond with one another. Our love may not look the same as we remember it, but it can come out stronger and more determined. If you have been experiencing very difficult times lately, love yourself for it and love yourself for the strength you found to get through it, even if you’re not out the other end just yet. To help with manifesting love after or during tragedy, reach for Jasper. Jasper is known to promote perseverance and determination. Try saying the mantra ‘things don’t happen to me, they happen for me’ to yourself a few times when you need a reminder of strength.
Red Jasper
The stories chosen clearly have their complications and are not perfect. Psyche is literally kept in the dark about her husband and Alcyone is expected to just sit around waiting for her lover to return. But honestly, is love ever straight-forward and perfect in every way? Love yourself, love one another, trust each other, allow things to happen for you and know in the end love will always win.
Words: Holly Westwood