“No, one is not twenty-one again, but one has earned the gravitas, through life experience, to find that same youthful flame of passion again to create a unique, very personal life.”
~ The Astrology of Midlife and Aging, Erin Sullivan
One profound moment I can recall when myth and literature merged in my life started with a long stick, or some call sheath, of fennel and a stencil of Chiron.
“…so, it was left to Heracles to arrange a bargain with Zeus to exchange Chiron’s immortality for the life of Prometheus, who had been chained to a rock and left to die for his transgressions.”
~ Apollodorus, 2.5.4
Santa Monica Mountain Promethean Fennel sheath
They were in opposition to each other for a few years. I sat between them in my living room. Fennel was cut from a plant from my front yard. It stood about as tall as me. As it dries, a thick fennel stick becomes stronger and more resilient.
It rests near my hearth. The Chiron stencil is upon the wall in my living room. Art, I created years ago when my oldest son was young.
Yet there they were. I learned about the mythology that tells a story of Prometheus. He brought fire to humanity in such a fennel stick.
For this sacrifice he was punished and tortured by Zeus. Bound to a rock, and so the story goes.
“Prometheus, it is the logos—that is, knowledge, consciousness, in a word—that lifts man above nature. But this achievement brings him into a tragic position between animal and God. Because of it, he is no longer the child of Mother Nature; he is driven out of paradise, but also, he is no god, because he is still tied inescapably to his body and its natural laws, just as Prometheus was fettered to the rock.
Although this painful state of suspension, of being torn between spirit and nature, has long been familiar to man, it is only recently that woman has really begun to feel the conflict. And with this conflict, which goes hand in hand with increase of consciousness, we come back to the animus that eventually leads to the opposites, to nature and spirit and their harmonization.”
~Jung, Emma. Animus and Anima: Two Essays (pp. 11-12). Spring Publications. Kindle Edition.
As if a secret story was told only to me. I finally comprehended it clearly. I imagined dancing around while holding hands with my two dear friends. I finally stumbled upon a hidden myth that it was Chiron who set Prometheus free.
The day I found this out. My living room bounded with joy. Here in my little living room, I came to understand this mystery! I felt liberated as well in a magical way.
It took me a great deal of time to see this, but there they were in opposition to each other. Yet not them but the struggle was in me. I mused so many imagined ideas. How much longer was it that I also stumbled upon the quote from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s prose from “Prometheus Unbound?” I suddenly read the passage and knew the truth of what I read.
A conversation between the earth and moon. Prose describing the liberation of Prometheus towards the heavens.
Chiron, in Greek mythology, one of the Centaurs, the son of the Titan Cronus and Philyra, an Oceanid or sea nymph. Chiron lived at the foot of Mount Pelion in Thessaly. Unlike other Centaurs, who were violent and savage, he was famous for his wisdom and knowledge of medicine.
The moment Chiron sets Prometheus free.
The Earth
The joy, the triumph, the delight, the madness!
The boundless, overflowing, bursting gladness,
The vaporous exultation not be confined!
Ha! Ha! the animation of delight
Which wraps me, like an atmosphere of light,
And bears me as a cloud is borne by its own wind.
The Moon
Brother mine, calm wanderer,
Happy globe of land and air,
Some Sprint is darted like a beam from thee,
Which penetrated my frozen frame,
And passes with the warmth of flame,
With love, and odour, and deep melody
Through me through me!
– Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound
– 320 _ 330 Prometheus Unbound
I cried. my heart almost leaps out with him towards the heavens. Overjoyed how this all came together. I bear witness to this. Now I share my joy here. To at least know in a creative way, how liberation may be viewed by the earth and the moon. Also, I address humanity … we need to see how precious literature merged with mythology is. To feel it and be inspired. To know the hope, it offers us now!
Now to take this story further. Finding out that I will be working with Uranus, which is now in opposition to Uranus in my birth chart. I am taken down on a path to know Uranus better. To know myself better as well as humanity. I realize as we get older, we all share in this journey. Be it consciously or unconsciously. I want to know Uranus better consciously.
I already know Uranus better than I knew. I stumbled upon a book that made me realize all this time I had a relationship with the Uranian myth through what I have known about Prometheus.
“…the planet Uranus was reflected in the myth of Prometheus: the initiation of radical change, the passion for freedom, the defiance of authority, the act of cosmic rebellion against a universal structure to free humanity of bondage, the urge to transcend limitation, the intellectual brilliance and genius, the element of excitement and risk.
So also Prometheus’s style in outwitting the gods, when he used subtle stratagems and unexpected timing to upset the established order: he, too, was called the cosmic trickster. And the resonant symbol of Prometheus’s fire conveyed at once several meanings—the creative spark, cultural and technological breakthrough, the enhancement of human autonomy, the liberating gift from the heavens, sudden enlightenment, intellectual and spiritual awakening—all which astrologers consider to be connected with the planet Uranus.”
~ Tarnas, Richard. Prometheus the Awakener (pp. 20-21). Spring Publications, Inc. Kindle Edition