Tonight I participated in the Mystery of Eros and Psyche, part of the Liturgy of the Fellowship of Isis.
Here is my report:
At the Invocation to Venus at the beginning, I felt her lift my head by my chin. I couldn't really see Her when I looked, and she told me to use the sacred water from my altar to clear my vision, so I washed my brow with it.
The Rite and the story that it tells touched me profoundly. I will try here to impart the wisdom that I feel that I received:
Psyche did not mean to draw the worship from the Goddesses. She did not know the consequences of the adoration of mankind, when they paid attention to her rather than to the Divine. She did not realize that the world would fall into disorder as a result, which is why she approached the Delphic Oracle to ask aid.
When it came to the period of contemplation, it felt like Juno, Ceres,
and Venus spoke to me each in turn. This is the gist of what I was
told.
Psyche erred in thrusting forward the Flame of Truth. Truth should not be used as a weapon. Let the light of Juno's lamp gently illuminate, and see what it there. Witness. See the contours. As a result she burned Eros, and drove him away.
Every act performed in love of spirit is an act of worship of divinity. The Goddess does not abandon you; you fail to reach out to Her instead reaching out for the material that cloaks Her and that She shapes. When you reach for the matter of a thing, be it a physical object or objective or a feeling you wish to experience, rather than seeking to interact with Spirit through it, you do as the mortals who abandoned the altars of Juno, Ceres, and Venus did. Always act in Spirit. Always act in the Goddess. Your every act will then be an act of worship, a part of the Divine dance and interplay. Do not abandon Juno, Ceres, and Venus for Psyche. Discourage others from doing so through you as well. To ignore the Goddess is to leave yourself vulnerable, without their aid and guidance.
I asked for all of their aid, and the aid of my Matron, in accomplishing this. It seemed clear to me that it was not to be a constant struggle of the mind. It was a way to act, and to be.
My personal contemplations, post-ritual:
When I first read the rite and wanted to perform it, it was because I was seeking a Rite that would help me unify disparate parts of myself. The Student at the beginning asked about how to reconcile Love and Truth.
However, when I performed the Rite, the focus seemed to be different than what first attracted me to it, and I think that that is telling, given the revelations that I received. I was looking for one thing, a thing in myself, and answer to a greater wholeness. I did not find it in the way I thought I had.
Venus speaks of the love and beauty that is in the moment, that is always about. That the what is accomplished through force and bloodshed yield fruits of pain over time. Every moment is filled with it. She reminds us that the weeds are as lovely as the carefully planted rows. That there is a well of ecstasy inside all of us at every moment. This is the Love.
The Truth is what I had been overlooking: that that beauty is imminent. There are things all around me that I am neglecting in favor of things so far-off as not to be here.
I am still absorbing these things, still letting them sink in, and I have a study guide to complete for this ritual. I hope I can find the union of Love and Truth within me, two principles that I have always considered important. I hope to absorb the gnosis of these things fully, and that the gentle light of Truth will help me to understand the topography of the Love that is all around me.
Even if it is not the fusion that I thought I would achieve when I first read the rite, I hope that I find it. I was drawn to it for a reason, it is an important lesson that I must pay heed to in my life and ways.
I hope to do and be in Spirit, and never leave the altars neglected. Love spirit. Love Love.
Blessed Be
