“I am the secret clear stream running beneath the surface of the earth and you are
my constant dream, love of my soul running with me beneath the surface of the earth.
We are Eros and Psyche.”
As I feel the gentle mystical warm breeze on my skin today, I think of zephyr. Zephyr was the God of the West Wind and of Spring; it is a soft gentle breeze and was historically a word used to describe fine cotton cloth. But for me, zephyr is about the tiny calling of love as it is that which moved one of the greatest love stories. For those of you familiar with mythology, it was Zephyr who gently swept away mortal princess Psyche to the castle of god Eros upon his command.
Let’s dive in.
The myth of Eros and Psyche, or Cupid and Psyche, was a tale first appearing in The Golden Ass [Latin: Asinus aureus], which is a novel by Lucius Apuleius from the 2nd century AD. As most other myths and tales though, there are many versions spanning the centuries, and here is one of them, which I myself was told and know.
Psyche was a beautiful mortal girl with constant suitors desiring to marry her. Her beauty was ethereal and immortal which made goddess Venus jealous, so she sent her son Eros to harm Psyche – though what happened was that he too fell in love with her. So instead of harm, he decided to put a bit of a veil around Psyche, so that suddenly no more suitors came to ask for her hand in marriage.
When the suitors magically stopped and there were no prospects of their daughter marrying, Psyche’s parents felt discouraged and frustrated, and went to seek the guidance of an oracle whether their daughter would ever marry.
The oracle spoke,
“She is destined to marry. Her husband will be found on the top of a cliff, though he is a fierce winged serpent!”
The parents protested this creepy prediction, but Psyche left the house and climbed the mountain bravely to meet her destiny. There, on the top of the cliff, the gentle warm breeze Zaphyr carried her to a beautiful palace where she was tended to and cared for like a most beloved queen.
Each night an unseen lover in human shape would join her in bedroom. Psyche didn’t know it but this was Eros who disguised himself as the winged serpent, so that his mother wouldn’t find out that he disobeyed her orders.
Eventually though, Psyche grew homesick and invited her sisters in the palace. The sisters became jealous of all the wealth and abundance of Psyche and no matter how much she told them that the winged serpent treated her in the kindest way possible, they convinced her that he was probably a ugly monster, so she must see his face.
That night, shaken and doubtful by her sisters’ words, Psyche lit an oil lamp to see her beloved’s face while he was sleeping – and what she found was a most beautiful man in her bed. But when an oil drop fell on him, Eros woke up in horror, crying out, “My love, why did you do this? Were your sisters’ advice more important than trusting me and the love I show you? Now you’ll never see me again.”
At this moment the gods intervened, and the palace, along with Eros, all disappeared. This set off Psyche on a set of long adventures until she finally found Venus and humbled herself in front of her. Venus gave her a set of almost impossible tasks to complete, but with the help of Eros who had already forgiven her because he never stopped loving her, Psyche succeeded in completing the tasks. Jupiter intervened soothing Venus, turned Psyche into an immortal and blessed her marriage with Cupid. A baby girl was then born who they named Pleasure.
Cupid and Psyche by Friedrich Paul Thumann
The tale of Eros and Psyche is a tale about true love, soul love, deep love.
As any other eternal love story, there is romance and passion, Eros is the god of desire and love after all, but there is also depth and spiritual meaning.
It is a story of fate, faith, trust, soul connection, purification and redemption despite loss and separation. Eros, meaning desire, and Psyche, meaning soul or breath of life, remind us through their union to breathe life into the desires of our soul.
Their story is one where body meets soul for the purified true love to become capable of transcending time and space. It is a reminder of the importance of trust and self-love first in order to raise our vibration to be resonance with such higher consciousness, so that the divine is experienced through our physical body. It also reminds us that it takes two to make a relationship work.
Truth and trust are vital for building the foundations of love; and both partners must be honest about their selves from the start. And always, like in the other tales of both real life and fantasy, we need to walk a patience of rhythm – for patience is the mark of truest love; patience opens the soul of matter.
The love story of Eros and Psyche reminds us to fight for love, to fight for what we feel and trust it even when we can’t see it, to stay true to our values and hearts and do things because of how we truly feel and not because of some validation; to nourish love once we get it and to never ever get lazy with love. Their story reminds us that love really does conquer all – if we let it and follow its path.
We see through what we feel.
In some paintings Eros wears a blindfold, while Psyche herself was in a dark room. We need to learn to see through what we feel. Learn to trust yourself in the dark. Learn to know how you feel in the dark. To follow the path of love is to go beyond the ego, and to go deeper – to go deeper in attempt and courage to dissolve some of the pre-conditioning of this world.
To follow the path of love is to hear the still tiny voice within us and notice the whispers in the tree’s leaves. To follow the path of love is to trust beyond the boundaries of our eyes.
To breathe life into the desires of our soul.
Follow the desire in your heart, trust it and know that if you have a true desire for something, it is because you are meant to experience it, and this is your soul preparing you for it, as it is making its way to you.
So enjoy aligning with yourself to such a vibration so that your desire comes into your experience – into the nurturing environment that you planted with the soil, seeds, water and sun life. Allow it to come home to you where it belongs. And when it does – treasure it. What you seek is seeking you. What you seek is seeking you. It has no other way to go but return to you.
Don’t worry. You may fear that you are falling into something unknown, unseen. Maybe it feels familiar but you just can’t see. Don’t worry. Maybe you are sensing parts of yourself flying away from you, out of your control and this falling gains momentum, becomes more powerful and the distance between what was and where you are now is widening.
Whether it makes sense or not – it doesn’t matter – trust it – we were never meant to know it all anyway. In the space of the unanswered questions, hold yourself there in comfort and peace – like laying your head on your pillow. Take these questions out of your beautiful mind – of how or why or when – carve the peach free from its stone and as tempted as you are to climb back into the pulp, don’t. Allow things to be shapeless for a moment, allow yourself to just be savored as sweet nectar and to fall – and you’ll end up where you need to be. It’s safe to trust what’s happening.
Follow the path of love and the flow of destiny will be assured. Desire will lead you to where you need to be. Don’t doubt the sacredness of the unfolding. Trust the cycles of the land, and trust the timing of the land and of your life.
No matter how long it’s been without it, at any given moment you may have it.
The word zephyr also reminds me of zahir; and zahir is the world of our body, because once we connect to someone or something soul-known and felt, zahir becomes our sense of being where we can no longer get rid of this feeling/sensation as it starts possessing the entire body/mind.
Follow the voice of your heart and the whisper in the trees. Especially when it’s a soft gentle warm breeze … follow always the zephyr.
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