#74 | Hercules | Part Two | Entangled in the Wild

We left him when he was in that Virgo task and we are also in Virgo season . So in that task where he's just being quiet and still he's watching for that hind , the deer with the golden antlers , he's getting deep down into the forest and into the mud and into the moss and he's covered in the textures of the forest .

He's just watching and waiting and watching and waiting , and he does that for an entire 365 days . He does that for an entire year . Just in this process of watching and waiting , we can imagine , like in this Virgo season , hopefully we're finding a little bit of this .

If we can just get still and not engage in any of the chaos of our lives where possible , then in the background , almost like in the back of our minds or the back of our souls or the back of our beings , there's this sifting and sorting process that is going on and I think it's very instructive that in that third task of Herculescules he is going through

this sifting and sorting a process which you know , as I imagine it effectively , is the result of his solar labor , where he's wrestling that great lion under that big mountain in the cave , wrestling it with his bare hands , and the lunar labor , where he's in the swamplands and he's taking on that hydra and each head that it cuts off , two more come up in its

place . These are the solar and the lunar labors as pictured in myth . And as he takes on those labors he also takes on two very distinct wounds . We could call that the father wound and the mother wound , or the solar wound and the lunar wound . And so in the solar wound , aka the father wound , he achieves this great task .

He takes that great lion back to Eurysius the king and he plunks it down , and Eurysius wants nothing to do with it . He rejects the labor and doesn't bless Hercules for who he is . And that's where he puts on the lion's mane and keeps that lion's mane on really for the rest of his time as a hero .

And so we can feel that initial wound of the , the closed downness that happens . It's kind of like , um , you know , the , the shadow side of leo , archetypally , this isn't for individuals , but for the archetype itself is that , um , that heroic wound that we have ?

It's , it's like the , the armor that has to be worn on the quest of life , that crown that we put on , that is the lion's mane and the arms of the lion that are crossed or tied in a knot just in front of the heart .

So when we sometimes have been wounded by life , um , you know , not getting what we want , not not witnessed for who we are , for our special gifts and our skills , we can sometimes carry this particular wound around . And so that is one element that is sifting and sorting .

During his third labor and in the second labor , that other part , the lunar wound , is also somehow in the background sifting and sorting , and we saw that because you know he could see that his club wasn't working . Every time he cut off one of the heads of this water snake , two more would grow up , grow back .

Cut off another head , two more would grow back until eventually . He has an excuse , my language . Here he has what we would consider to be a clusterfuck , where he's just got poisonous fumes being breathed himself in all different directions .

And let's not forget the attachment wound that happens here , in that the hydra is connected and attached to his leg whilst also breathing these fumes to him , so he can't really get closer and he can't get further away .

He's very much stuck there and um , that's , you know , in the modern , in the modern day , a lot of that is the exploration about attachment styles and insecure attachments and how we can feel either that very needy kind of energy , the anxious attachment style , or avoidant attachment style , where we try to get away .

In this sense , the image of the Hydra gives us both extremes of that . Where there's the attachment happening , uh , there's the , there's the insecure attachment or the anxious attachment , where there's a holding on of the hydra to his leg , and also the avoidant , where he's being , the fumes are being breathed into his mouth almost to get him away .

So he's partly being pulled in and partly being pushed away . And as he goes through that he you know , essentially he he continues to come up with solar solutions to lunar problems , but at least he starts to , you know , refine it a little bit .

When he cuts off one head , he really spends time with it , he cauterizes that wound before he goes to the next head , he gets the help of his uh , nephew , iolus . So he realizes you can't do it alone and in that sense he does get himself engaged in the task at hand .

But it's almost like with hercules's mentality he's not really able to handle what is being um being presented to him in the form of the hydra , and so eventually he buries the immortal head and the wound that he takes with him from that . Just like when he left the solar journey , he took with him that lion's mane .

He took with him the jaws of the lion which he put over his head . He tied that knot in front of his heart . That's the wound that he sustained from the solar journey . The wound he sustains from the lunar journey is a little bit more subtle , actually , which is understandable , because lunar is more subtle a frequency than solar .

He takes with him the blood on his arrows , so he dips the arrows in the blood of the hydra and he takes those with him . So today we're going to be able to explore , you know , what was the result of that taking the blood of the hydra with him . How did that end up for him ? And we'll find out soon .

So , yeah , in this third labor he's really able to just wait , watch , spend time , and you know , I'm hoping for all of you out there that are listening , during this Virgo season that we've just wandered into , and that you're also getting the time just to take a breath , just to allow things to sift and sort in the background .

You know , a few of the things around Virgo I often go to are the tales of Cinderella and Psyche . And Cinderella is asked to sift and sort between the good and the bad lentils that her stepmother has thrown into the ashes , and it's the birds that come along . So nature comes along and does that for her .

So she doesn't try to sift and sort through things with her mind , with her conscious mind , it's more her animal side , or an instinctive side , is able to sift and sort , and of course , with psyche .

You know the , the stepmother in that story , which , who is aphrodite , throws down um , all of these seeds , a big pile of seeds , maybe nine different types of seeds , and um , again , she doesn't try to do that with her conscious mind , she doesn't get down and try to do that herself , she allows the ants to in and then they just sift and sort and sift and

sort , without her participation in that journey , really , apart from just allowing which is really one of the great things that Virgo is there to learn , or is there to teach us the allowing process of everything to sift and so , in the background , so we can really see and it's uncharacteristic of hercules , as I said last episode , that he puts away his club , he

puts away his arrows , he puts away his sword and all of the weapons that he's been given by the gods , um , and he just , he just watches , he just spends his time , um , just being with it , just being with it , just being with this deer , letting the deer lead , and then eventually , with great precision , he's able to fire that arrow that binds the two legs ,

bring it back to Euryceus , the king , and then bring it back and put it back in the fields .

He doesn't harm the animal at all , he doesn't harm anyone or anything in that year the animal at all , he doesn't harm anyone or anything in that year and in that sense , he is able to really allow all of those experiences that he's had to find their place in his own psyche . We can see that within virgo's process too .

As the sixth sign of the zodiac , it's already been through five signs , so it's been through aries , taurus , gemini , cancer and leo , and then in virgo , um , it's kind of like the making peace with all of those different things that happened and all of those signs , as the first six of the zodiac are very deeply personal .

Um , so all of these experiences , whether that's , you know , that's usually from childhood and into your adolescence and perhaps into the 20s , and all of these experiences that we've had of love and loss and fights and wars and pain , um , and all of these different things we've been through , this is the period during Virgo time when all of that , as I said ,

finds its place . And then that individuation process given that it follows up from Leo , and that Leo process , virgo's able to really complete something there . And by the time we get to the end of Virgo , we've been through half the zodiac and we have to ask ourselves if we're ready to go above the horizon now and open to the next half of the zodiac .

And that is where we are for part two , because that's exactly what happens for Hercules in these labors and it's very rich and complex and textured , and I've been spending time really just pulling out all of these details .

So hopefully today I'll be able to present that to you in a way that you can really feel in your own bones and in your own soul and in your own body . So I invite you to reflect on this next section of Hercules labors with your whole soul and not just with the mind , and hopefully we can go on a little journey together .

So , yes , the Hercules is , and you know he's completed that third labor and he's ready to move on to the fourth labor . He's completed , therefore , let's say that , that process of lunar solar and then the hermetic sifting , and now he's completed .

Therefore , let's say that , that process of lunar solar and then the hermetic sifting , and now he's ready to move on . And what is it to move on from Virgo ?

Well , as we'll be exploring today , the next sign after Virgo is Libra , and that is a really interesting section of the zodiac to look at , particularly because if you go from the horizon where aries starts , and then you go down six , by the time you've gotten to the six , you've come back to the horizon and you're ready to move up into the upper world , from

effectively going down into the underworld . We're ready to move up into the world . And so the , the process between virgo and libra is essentially ruled by . You know , virgo is , is , is virginal and chaste , um , and so therefore ruled by artemis , the goddess of the hunt , the goddess of the wild , the goddess of chastity , and she ?

Um and the followers of artemis are really dedicated to the hunt and they really have no time for relationship in any way , um , apart from with each other and with other fellow hunters , hunters , and usually people of the same sex , but definitely not opening to that um , that more romantic thing that is ruled over by the next sign , which is Libra , which is

ruled over by the goddess Aphrodite . Libra's ruling planet is Venus , and Venus , in the Greek , was known as Aphrodite

. So we can sort of sense that we're going to be entering the tension between Artemis and Aphrodite , and it's something that I've spent a lot of time thinking about .

It's something that I'd love to do an entire podcast on , and I probably will in the future , but I'd like to take a glimpse into it now , and fortunately the story gives us the images of that , because Hercules , for his fourth task , is tasked with bringing back alive the Aramanthian boar , so it's a wild boar that is out in the countryside and even just in

that first thing , if you think about the deer side of nature . So more the gentle , and the beautiful and the , I guess , a little bit more docile . You know , a deer isn't going to be causing too much trouble out there in the wild , especially this particular hind , as they call her , who's really not causing much trouble out there in the wild .

And then the boar is like a whole different side of nature , essentially .

So it's interesting , given that it's a boar , because we have two sides of Artemis the deer side , which is the friendly and beautiful side of nature , that nature is healer and replenisher and one that will bring you back to your essence , but also the other side being the boar , which is the wild and unruly and effectively untameable .

The boar was also sacred to artemis as , uh , as the moon goddess , because the shape of the tusk of the boar was like a crescent moon . Um , and so we do get the sense of the boar being somehow linked to Artemisian consciousness .

But and this is a big but here the fact that it's the Aramanthian boar is very significant because it reflects on a story where one of Apollo's sons , who was called Aramanthus , was blinded by Aphrodite . And he was blinded by Aphrodite because he came in and saw her naked while bathing , and so to punish him instantly , aphrodite took his eyes .

So that's an interesting story . And it reflects also on a story of Artemis , who also was seen bathing , but rather than take the eyes of the man who saw her there , she turned him into a stag and then made him run out of the cave . And as he ran out of the cave , his own dogs caught the scent and ripped him apart . That's the story of Actaeon .

So you can see that Aphrodite and Artemis they have all these stories that have a lot of similarities , but there are key differences in them because , effectively , the two of them are forever rivals and enemies of each other .

As I said , artemis doesn't want us to be in that kind of love sensation , doesn't want us to be in the romance of things , doesn't want us to be in the sensuality and sexuality of life .

And um , aphrodite absolutely does want all of those things and encourages those things through her son , eros , and always trying to get people to fall in love with each other and fall into bed with each other . And um , you know , that's who she represents .

She represents the erotic side of life and artemis in some ways represents the non-erotic , although she does have an erotic relationship to nature . So she is in full communion with nature , but she's not in that one-to-one depth that Aphrodite is looking for us to get ourselves involved in .

So as a result of aramanthus , who's apollo's son , um , being blinded , apollo metamorphosizes himself into a boar and spears adonis . Now this is very significant because aphrodite and adonis is a great , tragic love story and we all know the uh , the name adonis .

I'm sure adonis is even today used for a beautiful man um , anyone that has that beauty to them is called adonis , and and that was very much adonis , the uh , the mortal man whom aphrodite took a liking to because of his beauty .

But when she did take that liking to adonis , in some ways it was like a betrayal of her essence , because Adonis was a hunter and that's not something that Aphrodite is involved in at all .

As I said , everything in Artemis' world is not in Aphrodite's world , so they very much are like these mutually exclusive things , and so when Aphrodite does get together with Adonis , she actually becomes almost Artemis-like . So she starts running through the hills and hunting alongside Adonis .

She kind of completely loses herself in her essence in this relationship , and then that ends in tragedy , because Apollo turns himself into the boar and spears Adonis and so she loses the one that she loves so much . It's mirrored in the story of Artemis and Orion , because Orion was this hunter .

Sorry , orion is a hunter who Artemis who's sworn chastity , who never wants to get involved in any love of any form , especially with a man . She sees this man and she just is completely taken by him , and so they begin to hunt together . I've done a whole episode with Jason Holley on Artemis and Orion , and then that , essentially , is the betrayal of Artemis .

You know Artemis betraying herself . She's told herself she's not going to fall in love and then she falls in love with Orion . It turns out that Orion is a great hunter , but he doesn't know when and where to stop , he doesn't know where to draw the line and in fact he's been sent by the king to wipe out all wildness .

So this , this person that she falls in love with , is essentially um betraying everything she stands for and as such , that's when she sends the scorpion out into the uh , the stars , the constellations , and sends orion out as a constellation as well and forever .

That scorpion is uh is tracking him and tracing him as part of the scorpion motif , of , of betrayal and revenge and these kinds of darker sides , darker shades of uh , the human emotional life .

So you can see , then , that in the orion story , artemis betrays her nature as a chaste , virginal goddess and in the adonis story , aphrodite betrays her nature as the goddess of love and connection , because she becomes the huntress and artem becomes the lover . And this is kind of the way it is between these two .

There's always that little bit of tension , and that's because they rule either side of the horizon . Aphrodite is trying to get us out into the world , out into the connections , out into love , out into all the mayhem that love brings , all the heartbreak that love brings and the ecstasy , like the ecstasy and the agony of that world .

And Artemis is trying to keep us safe from that and instead dedicated to our craft and what we're here to do and what we're here to be , and just really keep us on target in that way , because she has that bow and arrow right , because as an archer she's just like , needs to focus exactly on what's important and can't have all of that fuzzied up by some kind

of love , and as humans rather than as gods and goddesses , as humans , this is a very clear and obvious place for all of us where we are caught in between um virgo and libra . And this this is not anything to do with your personal chart right now . I'm talking about like , almost like , as phases of development , you know .

Think about the time in your life that you're virginal , and then the transition , uh , when you lose your virginity , when you entertain the first lover , when you go into that first relationship , and generally the chaos that comes out of all of that . So Artemis is ruling over .

There was this process that Artemis and the followers of Artemis would go through , called the dance of the she-bear , and that was when girls were ready to move from that phase of maidenhood and into the next phase of being ready to be in relationship .

But interesting , isn't it , that it's the she-bear that they embody in order to be ready for that , because they're going to be opening themselves to something completely new and something that could really throw them off , where they could completely lose themselves in that situation .

There could be violence there , there could be all sorts of things waiting for them on the other side , and so artemis was very careful to protect and then put through , put , uh , young girls through that rite of passage so that they would be ready for anything that might occur in that next phase . So what should happen then ?

As Hercules is making tracks and getting ready for this , he in fact takes a little detour of this , a very instructive detour , and goes down to visit his old buddy , follis , who lives in a cave . In a cave , and phallus is a centaur . So already we get the image of the centaur , we've got the wildness . We know that .

You know he's been tracking that deer , he's been coming to his own senses , he's been sifting and sorting between the solar and the lunar journey and now he's gone to visit a centaur on his way to take on this wild beast . The images here are already speaking to what's going on , aren't they ? Now , pholos is a centaur .

He's the fourth generation descendant of Hermes , so Hermes is his great-great-grandfather , then Pan , hermes' son , pan the goat god , salinas is his son , and then Pholos is the son of Salinas , so he's four generations of Hermes . So he's a storyteller , he's a soothsayer , he works with the entrails of different creatures in order to tell the future .

That's his position . He's a great storyteller , he's great company , he's kind of that classic hermetic person . Lots of things to say , you know , in that line of the Geminis of the world and the strong mercurial types of the world . Tons of things to talk about , always entertaining when you're around them .

So of course , hercules goes down there and then discovers that Phyllis has a jar of Dionysian wine that has been sealed for four generations . So we go again get this theme of four generations , this fourth generation of Hermes , and also he has had this jar for four generations . Very curious imagery taking place here .

Um , so you know , he knows he , the stories that I've heard about this is he shouldn't really have it because he's , you know , a trickster . We don't quite know why he's got it , probably shouldn't really have this jar but definitely shouldn't open . And he's been told don't open it . But hercules doesn't read the situation that way .

Hercules is like no , you were told not to open it until this moment . You know , you were told to , to keep it sealed until this moment . And this is the great moment . You know , your great friend and the great hero goes on this big ego trip about a great , heroic friend , hercules . I mean , when else is Hercules ever going to be in town ?

What a legend I am . Starts to big himself up and Hercules and Follis is like , oh man , I don't know , I don't know . So he thinks about it for a little while . He cooks some meat up for Hercules to have . He eats his own raw . I like that little detail of the story .

Follis just eats the raw meat , hercules eats the , eats the cooked meat and he's like look , you know , there's pretty good meat , there's pretty good food here . Okay , why don't we just open it up then ? And so this is the moment when dionysian wine so imagine this wine . Dionysus is the god of wine , agony and ecstasy , the revelry .

You know , dionysus is a bit like aphrodite in that he wants us to be in connection . He wants us to be with each other . He wants us to be in the sensuality , the enjoyment of having a body . He wants us to come out in the forest and dance all night . He wants us to connect .

He wants us to imbibe in wines and ambrosias and other substances and get basically out of our minds and enjoy each other's company at that other level . Now that is , um , that is what has been sealed here , and so you can sort of get the sense that that isn't what is happening just yet . And so what's going to happen when we open

it up ? Well , of course , our fantasy would be by opening the dionysian wine , it turns into this great party , they start playing music and they start having grand old time . They drink this delicious . I can only , we and all of us can only imagine , you know .

I mean , there's some great wines in the world , but I don't think we can really imagine what it is to have dionys wine especially , that's been sitting there for four generations , so it would be very much ready for consumption at that point and that is a seriously vintage . Four generations , that's a deep vintage there that you'd be experiencing .

But instead of that , as soon as the lid comes off , that's what Melanie Reinhardt always looks at when she's , because she's the master of centaurs , and she she'll always say the lid comes off when phallus , when the phallus experience happens , when you're in a phallus transit , the lid comes off and the lid comes off and the smell is so intoxicating and it goes

through into the forest and the wild centaurs in the forest smell this delicious smell and they just charge it wherever the smell is and they just start attacking . You know throwing rocks , throwing all sorts of things at Hercules , and so immediately he goes into heroic mode , he pulls out his arrows and his club and he's smashing them away .

You know killing one after the other . As soon as an arrow even grazes these centaurs , they die immediately . Uh , due to the blood of the hydra being on them , which is such a strong poison that has that effect it can kill instantly .

And so he's running after them , chasing them , killing them , runs , this you know this way and that , chasing them along , um phallus hangs back there and off they go running and , uh , eventually they arrive , the , the centaurs themselves , the wild centaurs that they're fearful now of hercules and his strength . They scatter off in all sorts of different directions .

Actually , um , hercules can't follow all of them , but he follows the ones that try to take refuge , refuge in chiron's cave . And if you've listened to the podcast , you know about chiron . Chiron is , um , he's the healer god , um , he's the foster son of apollo . He uh you can go back and listen to my episodes on chiron , which there are quite a few .

Astrologically , he was discovered in 1977 , on november 1st , and uh , he has been um very much a deep part of astrology ever since .

If , in my mind , um , you know , looking at chiron in the chart is extremely useful for discovering not only the wound , like early wounds , and the gifts that come from the wound , but also potentialities , healers or who have a strong , you know , capacity for mentorship , or or strong teachers , these kinds of , or even elders .

You'll find that a lot in their chart . So Hercules fires off an arrow at one of the centaurs whose name is Elatus , which you've got to think is something about elated here . So we're still kind of getting a few signatures or a few nods to the Dionysian agony and ecstasy experience .

Fires one off , it kills Elatus , but then it's deflected off of his arm and it lodges itself into Chiron's knee . It off of his arm and it lodges itself into Chiron's knee . Now , as we know , chiron , he's half this , half that that's . You know , he's half , half horse , half human . He's , uh , half mortal , half immortal .

And that part about being half mortal , half immortal is really fateful here , because it doesn't kill him like it does the other centaurs because of his immortality , but it does wound him because he's not fully immortal .

And so the lodging in his knee is very instructive , because it's like the wound that he sustains on his animal side , which is psychologically , we could say , the wound that we all sustain through chiron , on the side of our instincts , particularly as um civilized western civilization , and what have you ?

You know that that wound we sustain is , uh , is on our ability to be animal , which in a way is represented by dionysus and represented in some ways by a Aphrodite .

You know , when it of course the the best sensual and sexual experiences , the way we , when we're completely out of our minds , out of our heads and fully in the moment , fully in our animal selves .

And this is what gets injured in this moment , as a arrow flings off Elatus and then lands in Chiron , so the blood of the hydra then infuses his whole blood and he experiences such such extreme pain he can feel that fire , like the inflammation going through his whole body , he's wailing and he's in extraordinary , extraordinary pain .

Now , you've got to remember that Chiron , at this point , he'd been alive for many years , something like 800 years . He'd been around for a really long time .

He'd been around since , you know , cronus had left , had fled the clash of the Titans , so he's been around a long time and there was a certain weariness that had been coming in and creeping into his life anyway , and , um , there's something of this wound that also , you know , kind of signaled to him that it's time , it was time , um , for him to to move on

and to find a different experience , but some say that through the wound he was able to more deeply connect with wounds and that made him such a powerful healer in the exploration of his own wound . So it brings up that archetypal force of the wounded healer , which is a very , you know , deep one to consider .

In fact , as a side note , I was just in a place called mendocino it's in it's north of san Francisco , about three hours drive north of San Francisco , and I was with Michael Mead , who was on the podcast in January , and a few different poets and musicians a hundred men in there and that was very much an exploration of the Wounded Healer archetype .

With things like this , I like to keep them deep in the container and not release anything . It's like the ancient rituals were held as secrets , the ancient mystery traditions were held as secrets , and I think there's something very valuable to that .

But I will say that it was an incredibly powerful experience and it was amazing to see the outpouring and the discovery of the gift that lives right next to the wound .

And that's definitely a big part of michael mead and his um , his teaching , and although I haven't seen his astrology chart , I would say that Chiron in his chart would be very pronounced and very profound in his chart . I don't really doubt that .

In fact , in our episode together he and I discussed Chiron consciousness at length and we particularly discussed that part in the story where Chiron then is freed and he meets prometheus and he offers you know , prometheus is stuck in the rocks , uh , he's got the uh , the griffin eating away at his liver and he offers that , uh , he should take his place in the

rocks . Zeus looks down on this and sees it . You know we got to also give hercules his credit here . Hercules is the one that kills the bird , kills , kills the griffin classic hercules there take care of the most immediate thing .

And then , um , and then , you know , zeus uh , sees this act and it's almost like it was a sign that now he's ready to free both prometheus and chiron . So you know , prometheus is the one that stole fire from the gods and gave it to us .

That's , that's another wound of humanity that we have all of this genius and all of this fire , but we can also use it to destroy the earth . And then chiron and his wound and our wounded instinctive , our wounded nature , effectively , our wounded animal side , our wounded nature , effectively , our wounded animal side , our wounded animal nature .

So those two come together , with Hercules there and Zeus being a part of it . So you can see that as a deep healing process for humanity and you know we really hope , as we move into this Pluto and Aqu aquarius phase , that there's something like that on offer for us .

You know , some some way to come back into the tension of the opposites especially you know that's one great opposite the , the tension of the animal consciousness and the technologies that we come up with it with our minds , and maybe , if those two could come back into communication with each other , we would have a chance at , uh , you know , healing at a deep

level in this absolutely mad world that keeps unraveling in front of our eyes .

So if we come back to Follis here , having just followed Chiron's story to its very end , if we come back to phallus , he's back in his cave and you know , being a descendant four generations down from hermes , he's very inquisitive and he's very curious about things and so of course he can't really help himself .

He's looking at this arrow and it really just grazed this centaur lying dead in front of him . He's like my God , how does some little graves like that kill such a big beast as this , like what a strange thing . So he picks up the arrow , he's turning it around , he's looking at it like what is this magic ? You know , what is this capable of ?

And as he's doing that , he drops the thing right onto his foot and he dies instantly . And you know Hercules , who's chasing off of these other centaurs either he feels it in his bones or maybe he's sent word of this or somehow he knows that that's happened and he stops chasing and he goes back and he shows a deep grief for his friend Phyllis .

He does an unusually elaborate ceremony for him at the foot of a mountain which he then names after his friend Follis , so he names it Foller Mountain . And it's a touching scene where he really honors this loss of his dear friend .

And I bet he probably feels a little bit guilty at this point of pressuring him to open that original bottle of Dionysian wine , or jar as it was in those days . Opening that jar really did bring out all of the chaos and the mayhem of everything else that happened .

So this is the thing about that curiosity Sometimes it can kill the cat or kill phallus or kill the centaur , in this case , and , um , you know , a sad end for our friend phallus .

But if we look back at um , at that jar , you know it's an interesting one to spend time with , because this is a good myth when it comes to those processes that are addictive .

You know there's something about that wine that is the substance or the thing that , um , that we kind of can't help ourselves but to come back to again and again and um , and it can lead our lives to this kind of chaos .

But I think treating this as a myth , on that from the mythic level can also say yeah , but if I don't open the dionysium wine , then I don't get all of that sort of joy and ecstasy and all of the good stuff that comes from opening it up and letting my life be not so under control .

So you know , the answer surely isn't to sort of keep everything under wraps and under control . But then again , sometimes we do need to do that if the addictive process has just taken over our lives and we really have no control over it .

This sort of thing gives birth to the you know , this part of the myth at least gives birth to processes around addiction , like Alcoholics , anonymous and all of the different variants of that , and I've actually had a conversation that I'll be releasing on the podcast soon with a man named bryce .

He's from um , he's from colorado , and he set up a whole system , a whole bunch of houses , um , that uh , treatment centers for addiction and uh . I've already recorded the podcast with him and I'll be bringing that to you sometime over the next couple of weeks . So look out for that one .

We'll be just talking about addiction and I hope to come back in a follow-up podcast to that to discuss some of the things that we discuss , because he's really found his salvation in the AA process and I ask him a few questions about that .

We get into some good discussion and so you guys can have a listen to that , and then we'll come back to talk a little bit more about addiction .

I know it's a big topic and it's a deep one to explore and I think there can be a lot of great symbols that we can get into that can help us to explore it at a deeper level within the mythic material For instance , the sirens that sing a sweet song and draw the weary sailor to the side of the boat .

So I'll be getting into more of those sorts of myths after that conversation with Bryce is released , after that conversation with Bryce is released .

So , yeah , all of this is before Hercules even actually goes and does his labor . You know , at this point he still hasn't actually embarked on it .

So you can see , like , even in this transition , which I see as the transition of the equinox that takes us from virgo into libra , which will be traveling , traversing together later in this month , around september 21st , 22nd , the equinox is every year , um , that's that's the moment that we are also drawn from that um artemisia and virgo consciousness and into the

liberan . That's not to say that every time in that time of year , something like this will happen . But it's just myth to um , to contemplate , and isn't it interesting that we have , you know , the stars and everything our ancients gave us , uh , stories that we are able to , you know , if we're willing to contemplate at that particular time of year .

So we'll be able to . You know , here we are kind of at the end of August , here we'll be able to go back to those images as we make our way up and over into the other side of the horizon . Now , the actual um , the actual labor itself .

Well , you know , um , essentially all that happens really is that hercules goes um , makes a bunch of noise and uh , and stirs up the boar and then chases it , tackles it , wraps in chains , puts it on his back and brings it all the way back to that marketplace that's in front of the kingdom .

Remember that he's no longer able to bring what he gets from the Tars in to the kingdom because Euryceus has banned him from doing that . And Euryceus , meanwhile , is in a brass jar under the uh , under his own castle , basically quivering because he's so fearful . He really has no courage .

He's a symbol of a man with absolutely no courage and no spirit and no heroic . He's like the anti-hero as far as the anti-Herculean . He has no heroic bone in his body and so Hercules drops it there . But then he gets pulled off into Jason and the Argonauts and their adventure .

So he drops it there , but he doesn't take on the forelabor yet , his friend Hylus , who to be honest could be a lover of Hercules , for all that we know he's a young man , hylas . He and Hylas head off into this great adventure of Jason and the Argonauts . So he goes on a big side quest .

On that side quest , hylas actually gets pulled in by a few nymphs in the forest and Hercules leaves behind Jason and the organ organauts to go and rescue him from what he thinks might be his doom .

So we can sort of hear , within all of these images and stories , you know we're again back in that tension of uh , of artemis and , and you know , staying on target , staying with jason and the organauts , staying on the heroic and following the love that he has for hylus and then hylus following that , that siren sound of the nymphs , so he's actually drawn into

the sensual world as represented by those nymphs who are all sitting around singing songs , having a grand old time . So that there you go . We have , uh , all of that um for you today . Uh , plenty of images in this one to go off and uh , just on a personal note , I've just been to that amazing time that I had in , uh , in mendocino .

I also had the opportunity to go down to santa barbara where I spent some time with martha alter heinz , who's um , who's a fellow astrologer , and we went on down to the Pacifica Graduate Institute , sat in the libraries , read some Jung and Hillman and other books , and amazing spot down there .

If you're anywhere near Santa Barbara , you might want to go and check out Pacifica Graduate Institute set up by Joseph Campbell and James Hillman and some incredible people down there . We've talked to Saffron Rossi on the show . She's working down there . We've talked to Saffron Rossi on the show . She's working down there .

She's a professor and just a beautiful area of the world . So I went down there , then I went up . It was almost having initiatory processes and next week I'll actually be heading to Greece , which I'm really excited about .

I will be spending time around Mount Pelion , where all of this story that I've just given you today , where all of this story effectively happens . And that's the beauty of Greek mythology . When you're actually traveling through Greece , you see the blurring of history and mythology again and again . You see it .

You know you can kind of like go to places like chiron's cave , or you know you could be at the , where the three crossroads , where the three roads meet , um of oedipus and and his journey . You can see the places and you know if you're in , you can see the actual labyrinth . So you can sort of ask yourself , well , is this a myth ?

You know like how much is it kind of like part historical , part myth , and you know it's a great way also to just be in the land where all of these myths were dreamed up .

So I'm hoping to put a podcast out from Mount Peleon , from Chiron's , from the place around where Chiron's cave is , and we'll be able to talk a little bit more Chiron from there , and then we will obviously pick up the next part of Hercules .

But in the meantime , I'll put out the conversation that I have with Bryce and I hope you enjoy that and some of the exploration around addiction and addictive process . Well , thank you for joining me today . I hope you enjoyed it and I will see you next time . Thank you for listening to On the Soul's Terms podcast .

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