Everywhere we look, our society seems to be breaking down. Astrologically, it makes sense with Pluto finishing up its stay in Capricorn, the sign of our cultural institutions and our society.
Another way to look at these times is that we are at the changing of the Ages, shifting from the Piscean Age to the Aquarian Age. These big shifts always bring chaos, otherwise how can we create something really new.
For right-wing Christians, we are living in the End Times. In their fearful beliefs, they see the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse riding the world: conquest, war, famine and death (as if they haven’t been the tools of patriarchal domination for millennia). Perhaps they’re supporting Israel’s and Putin’s wars because they think that Jesus will come and rapture them away.
So Sad for them. What a dismal belief. To support evil in the hope for goodness to come from it. I’m sure Jesus won’t be gathering them up soon.
Even the US presidential debate can be seen as the two sides of a dying patriarchy. One side exhibits all the shadow traits of patriarchy, while the other side exhibits a more open view of the world but is caught between conflicting needs and beliefs. Neither part wants to give up their power.
There’s a myth associated with the bigger myth of the establishment of a world of peace, justice and equality that wants to be born now as the Aquarian Age. The bigger myth is that of King Arthur and his Round Table, which comes to Arthur as a wedding present from Genevieve, the representative of the Goddess of Sovereignty. At this table, everyone is equal and it is filled with men and women of good will. This is the myth of the Aquarian Age that I will be exploring this summer with you.
But first, let’s look at the associated myth of where we stand now. It is the story of The Wasteland and the Wounded King. For isn’t that what we’re living in now – a wasteland of physical, emotional and spiritual dimensions. A wasteland where men have lost their purpose to protect life. Patriarchy is dying and yet it won’t give up and pass on its power, just like the ancient Greek gods Saturn and Jupiter. They’d rather swallow their children and the future then retire gracefully.
In a world where fictional entities (corporations) want to have the power of human individuals and machines want to take the place of human creativity, isn’t that the wound? Where men and women who have no knowledge of how the world works want political hack ‘judges’ to decide what’s important and what isn’t? Where a liar, a bully and a grafter, who is the Shadow King of our corporate capitalism, seems like a good choice of leader for half the country?
Myths are archetypal stories that help us give meaning to life. Instead of everyone freaking out about what’s going on, maybe we need to look at the meaning of what’s going on. Once we do, we can begin to name things and change things.
As I mentioned, since Pluto entered the sign of Capricorn in 2008 with the financial crisis, we’ve seen our financial system breaking down, our social systems under attack, our freedoms taken away, while corporations are given carte blanche to do whatever they want to the environment and a small minority of masculine-minded (meaning men and the women who serve them) people want to take control of our freedoms. We see a Supreme Court which is supposed to be objective and balanced doing away with established laws and freedoms.
The hypocrisy of these so called ‘Christians’ is overwhelming. I am reminded of C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength, where a corporation run by a literal criminal brain (yes, just the brain) tries to take over a town. The people working for this corporation are mindless drones who can’t think for themselves and who speak nonsense. Lewis’ story was written in 1945 but is pertinent for where we find ourselves today. If the Republican Project 2025 is implemented, that’s what we’ll have running the country – a bunch of drones answerable to Donald Trump and his co-conspirators.
It sounds like a Wasteland to me.
So let’s look at the story behind The Wasteland and the Wounded King and see what new perspective it can give us.
The Maidens of the Wells
In ancient times Logres was a rich country but it was turned into a Wasteland so that it was worth scarcely a couple of hazelnuts. For the kingdom lost the voices of the wells and the damsels that were in them. These damsels would offer food and drink to wayfarers. A traveler had only to wish for food and seek out one of the wells and a damsel would appear from out of the well with the food he liked best, a cup of gold in her hand. No wayfarers were excluded from this service.
But King Amangons broke this custom. Although it was his duty to guard the damsels and keep them within his peace, he raped one of them and took away her golden cup for his own service. After that time no damsel was seen issuing from the well and the only service which wayfarers received was done invisibly. The king's vassals followed their king's actions and raped the other damsels also, carrying off the golden cups. And so the service of the wells ceased. The land was laid waste: trees lost their leaves, meadows and plants withered and the waters were dried up so that no man might find the Court of the Rich Fisherman, he that once made the land bright with his treasures.
This story is part of the Grail Cycle – perhaps a prequel to it, for it gives a reason for the wounding of the King, who is called here the Rich Fisherman or the Fisher King. He was the last in a long line of British kings tasked with guarding the Holy Grail. The Fisher King was both the protector and physical embodiment of his lands, but a wound rendered him impotent and his kingdom barren.
While there are many stories about the Wounded King and the Quest for the Holy Grail, the main reason for the wounding of the king and the wasting of the land is due to the assault on the Divine Feminine guardians of the land. The wound is self-inflicted: it is due to patriarchy’s rejection of the sovereignty of the Earth as well as the feminine gifts of emotional intelligence and healing, intuitive knowing and imagination. Patriarchy, in wiping out knowledge of the Goddess and making women and our innate wisdom irrelevant, has created just such a wasteland for us, as it was prefigured in this story of the Maidens of the Wells.
Thankfully, the Divine Feminine is returning to our world once again, especially since the late 60s. Women are re-discovering the ancient Goddesses in all her many forms. But our western culture doesn’t honor this aspect of life fully yet: just look at how the establishment made fun of Marianne Williamson’s proposal for a Department of Peace, which is a gift of the Goddess along with Love.
And while it is good for women to find goddess guides to help us find our strengths and gifts, the Goddess is returning in a specific form in this time of cosmic transformation.
We have only to look at what’s going on with climate change to realize that Mother Earth is going through men-o-pause (men being put on pause). She has menopause's typical symptoms of hot flashes and cold sweats. Which means that She is turning into the Crone, or the Wise Elder. She is asking us to grow up and take up our purpose – to be wise stewards of her Earth.
There is a description of the return of this Wisdom goddess in, of all things, the Christian Book of Revelations. It is so interesting that the Christian fundamentalists speak of this Book and the End Times, but rarely mention Her. It’s strange because She changes the whole story and brings about a rebirth of the world.
A portent appeared in the heavens
A Woman, Clothed with the Sun,
Standing on the Moon,
Crowned with 12 Stars,
In labor, giving birth to the Savior.
My book, Wisdom’s Daughters: How Women Can Change the World, takes an in-depth look at the archetypal myths and legends that describe this mystical figure of the Goddess. And in truth, we all saw this image when astronaut William Anders, during the Apollo 8 mission, took the picture of Earthrise.
Look at our beautiful planet, clothed with the Sun, below her the Moon’s surface, and surrounding her the starry heavens. She is trying to birth a new humanity, what psychologist Jean Houston calls ‘the possible human’. But her labor is dangerous because the ancient darkness of unconsciousness, greed, domination and fear will try to kill this Child, this New Age that wants to be born.
The Goddess is returning to us as Lady Wisdom, for wisdom is certainly what we need now to deal with the issues that face us. Each of us has access to this Wisdom through our right-brain imagination, which speaks the language of the soul.
Though it seems counter-intuitive, turn within and ask what you can do for your world. Then go out and do it!
More coming on the Aquarian archetype of The Round Table and the good King – Arthur.
Merry meet and merry part. And merry meet again!
Cathy
HERO
https://om2317.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/hero/
Pearls iridescent from the Sun
Diamonds extracted from the Moon
Gold-dusted silks from
exotic worlds.
Valued in danger, chances of doom in transit
from there to here.
Fine old wood,
mellowed wisdom
tasting of Earth,
eloquently regales with tales
sage and pure.
Young Percival took knight’s oath seriously. To protect and to serve King and country.
The old King afflicted, declining, perhaps dying. Soul sickness they said.
Crops fail to thrive. Floods, droughts, oppressive climate. The peasants too sicken,
die, live while they do hungry with poverty, disarray.
In a vision, Percival beholds the Holy Grail – dazzling jewels upon a golden chalice,
generating elixir of immortality.
Filled with such reflection, he hastens in the direction of adventure. He leaves the dying kingdom
to its decline, in search of a promised land’s magical curative power. Thinking not of King or country,
roused by urgent ecstatic pounding he knows to be
his own heart.
Where do you ride, fair Percival?
Off to find the healer’s Grail?
Learn your song and tell your tale.
Become a son of Sky and Earth
and rain
to return with the wizardry you gain
some wondrous day.
Break the curse.
Expel the kingdom’s pain.
He seeks the skills of seers, demons, subtle sorceries and charms. Growing ever
stronger, healthy exercise, happy purpose enrich his will. Over terrible trials
and deceptions, treacherous opposition, ever nearer his divine prize appears.
These trials are key. They test mettle while bestowing lessons, confidence,
resource acquisition, glimmerings of wisdom. The prize glitters, shines, glows
brilliantly in auric distance, delineates focus, a clear point, fixed star to contemplate
through twisting, turning, misty mythic roads.
Sometimes the brick is yellow. Some paths are more intuitive, furtive steps in dark,
brambly forest, hostile terrain.
Percival knows what a hero does. A hero perseveres. A hero scales the tower to free
the enslaved damsel; goes where others dare not tread because fear is his worthy companion.
Trudging, fighting, sometimes dazed, momentarily forgetting his quest, he perseveres.
He need but give pause, look beyond to see his Grail shining, calling him forward.
Of course, he reaches the Grail, discovers the codes, incantations, ensorcels dragons,
defies giants, generally blazes through to capture his destiny.
Returning triumphant, he brings joy to the kingdom, drop-kicks the curse, cures the old King
of soul malady, is gifted the throne to wisely guide his subjects into delightful prosperity.
So the story goes.