The Sun Opposite Neptune & The Eleusinian Mysteries w/ Astrologer Christopher Renstrom

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Demeters' Myth & The Sun Opposite Neptune

On Today’s Episode You’ll learn…

🌔 The enigmatic interplay between the Sun and Neptune, fostering a space for exploring life's unsolvable mysteries and encouraging a deeper contemplation of our place in the cosmos
🌕 About the Myth of Demeter, illustrating the delicate dance between mortality and immortality
🌖 How the profound transformations guided by Pluto's journey, unveil cycles of rebirth and deep-seated changes

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You’ll also get to learn from 3 legendary teachers who have over 100 years of collective experience!

And you have the opportunity to custom tailor this experience for you and your unique needs… Learn more at astrologyhub.com/workshop

Transcript

[00:00:00]

Intro

What does mystery mean to you? Is it something to be solved, or is it something to be revered? Next on Horoscope Highlights.

 

This podcast episode is sponsored by Astrology Hubs Academy. Wherever you are on your astrology journey, we have a class that will help you get to the next level.

hello, my name is Christopher Renstrom, and I'm your weekly horoscope columnist here on Astrology Hub. And this week I wanted to talk to you about the Sun Neptune opposition taking place on September 19th, followed by a Sun Pluto trine taking place on September 21st. But, before we begin, did you know that you could read about the transits for your own sign and subscribe to my weekly newsletter?

Just go to astrologyhub. com [00:01:00] slash horoscope. Again, that's astrologyhub. com slash horoscope to subscribe. Let's talk about that Sun Neptune opposition followed by a trine to Pluto. This is a very important aspect that's taking place. Now, some of you might say, important aspect, uh, around this time of year.

The sun has been opposing Neptune and tronning Pluto for a number of years there, Christopher. And I would have to say yes, yes, I agree. But the reason why this is so important is because this is one of the last times that we're ever going to have this configuration. What's been going on for a number of months, and will continue for a few more months as well, is Pluto going back and forth from leaving the zodiac sign of Capricorn and entering Aquarius and then deciding to, I think I'll go back to Capricorn for a little while.

And that's what Pluto has been [00:02:00] doing this year and will do again. next year. So this alignment of planets right at the end of the degrees that are, uh, being referenced here, the, uh, Neptune is that towards the end, in the last couple of degrees of Pisces and Pluto is in the last couple of degrees of Capricorn.

The Idea of Mystery

So with the sun forming an opposition to Neptune and then forming a trine to Pluto, that got me thinking. That got me thinking about the idea of mystery. What is a mystery to you? Is a mystery, something you read in an Agatha Christie novel where you sort of follow all the different clues and you join Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple in Getting everyone into a room and going down your list of the things that gave away until you're ready to dramatically point at someone and say, you, you were the one who's guilty.

And the person is like, yes, yes, I did. And I killed my sister. I hated her. [00:03:00] I hated her. Okay. That could be a mystery. of a sort. Um, and that's a mystery that can be solved. It's like a detective's mystery. But there's another kind of mystery, and that's the mystery that is described by the planet Neptune.

It's a mystery in which There is no answer. Now, it's not like when you're in religious school at a young age and you ask, like, you know, uh, why is there death or why do bad things happen? And, and the, uh, nun, okay, I'm giving away my religious background here, you know, the nun says, you have to put your faith in God.

And that's like the answer. And it's, and it's always found terribly lacking. It's not that kind of a mystery. It's a mystery. Well, it can deal with profound ideas. Absolutely. But it's a mystery that in the contemplating of it, that's the experience. Okay, that's the thing that resonates. That's the thing that speaks to the soul or that moves the soul.[00:04:00]

It's not, as I said, a mystery to be exposed. Uh, but it's a mystery to be revered. It's a mystery to, to, to give a space to in your life. And it's a mystery that in just the asking or the observing of this mystery, something invisible, something inarticulate, something mysterious. begins to move you. And this is where we're getting into the realm of Neptune.

Virgo, Demeter & A Little Greek Mythology

Now, when we have a sun Neptune opposition, okay, the sun is taking sides, it's taking sides with the zodiac sign of Virgo, and Neptune is on the other side, meaning that it is six signs away from Virgo, or six months away from September in the calendar. And that of course we know is going to be the zodiac sign of Pisces.

Virgo is a fascinating sign. I've spoken about it quite a bit and honestly I don't need much prompting to [00:05:00] speak about it again, but today I'm going to limit my remarks to the archetype, one of the archetypes, one of the deities that is connected to Virgo. When one thinks of Virgo, which is often depicted as a woman in a field, surrounded by wheat, and that's in reference to Spica, the star of wheat, that is right there in the center of the constellation of Virgo.

Uh, one is put in mind when you're familiar with Greek mythology is a very obvious parallel, and that parallel is Demeter. Her Roman name is Ceres. And Demeter is the goddess of the grain, and Ceres, of course, the name or word Ceres, the name Ceres, really, is where we get our word cereal. Okay, so grains come from Ceres, wheat growing in the fields, providing, Basically food that can be turned into bread, uh, which we, which we eat and [00:06:00] consume, uh, those of us who are not gluten free, um, but, but back in the day when no one really cared about gluten free, and we're going back to ancient Greece, okay, bread was very, very important, uh, it was a very important foodstuff, um, and so, and so Virgo is very much about the goddess Demeter.

And, we see this reflected because Virgo is the zodiac sign of mothers and daughters, and we know that Demeter in the Greek pantheon, and what I mean by the Greek pantheon is Mount Olympus, where all the gods hung out, um, and looked down upon the affairs of humanity. Every god had something that they were known for.

Every god had something that identified them. Hermes was identified by his caduceus. Mars was identified by his sword. Zeus was identified by his lightning bolt. Poseidon, the trident. Hades, the three headed dog, Cerebus. [00:07:00] The thing, that identified Ceres, Demeter, how you, if you were looking at statues or portraits of the different gods and goddesses, you would know that it was Demeter, was her child.

She had a child. She had a daughter named Persephone. And this, idea of mother daughter and the bonding of mother with her daughter is something that's very integral to the zodiac sign of Virgo. The idea that she had a daughter and that the daughter identified Demeter is actually a really big deal in ancient Greece.

And the reason why it's a big deal in ancient Greece is because Greece was a patriarchal society, meaning guys in charge. Um, and when you have a patriarchal society where you have guys in charge, they do lots of things like, go to war and beat up each other and steal each other's things and, you know, stripped down to their thongs and You know, oil up their bodies and get, you know, guys in charge.

Okay. So, so this is [00:08:00] what guys do, uh, when they're in charge and they also do things like cover, come up with governments and things like that, but they sort of add other things like slavery and the disenfranchisement and exploitation of women, but. That's the point. Demeter was an unmarried goddess. Okay, you have to remember Hera is married.

Aphrodite is married. Aphrodite is married to Hephaestus. Um, but Demeter is an unmarried goddess and she has an, an out of wedlock child who's a daughter, who's a girl. And in ancient Greek society, the worst thing that you could be was a girl. All right, says a few things, but we're not going there today.

But anyway, the worst thing that you could be was a girl, and in fact women, girls, were seen as infinitely disposable. If a family had too many girls, they would, uh, leave the infant girl out on the side of a mountain, what they called exposed, they would leave her to the element, and it's basically what you did with [00:09:00] unwanted puppies or kittens.

Um. Pretty rough. So for, for, for what was seen in Greek society as really being the lowest on the social uh, rank to be celebrated as the highest, you know, as the goddess celebrating her daughter, celebrating women, celebrating something that only women can do and men cannot, which is to give birth, celebrating something that women are in charge of, which is the family line, and men cannot.

That goes to the goddess Ceres, that goes to

Sun in Virgo Opposite Neptune in Pisces

the

goddess Demeter. Hello, everyone. My name is Georgia Stathis, and I'm part of Astrology Hub's upcoming Health, Wealth, and Fulfillment Workshop series, and my portion will be on decoding your chart, overcoming your blocks to abundance. What I'm going to try to teach you, and I think I will teach you, is how your Saturn placement can point to fears that may be holding you back, which keeps you [00:10:00] from prospering financially.

The second thing we'll be covering is how your Jupiter placement, often said to be where you're abundant, can also be where you overdo a little bit or overspend. We'll also be talking about the 2nd and 8th houses, and I will also be covering how the early family story can Make a person have a view of what becoming wealthy or maintaining wealth is about.

There's a lot of intricate little pieces that I'm going to share with you as well as some really fun tools on judgments, on possibility thinking, on making reasonable requests, but you have to attend the workshop to get those tips. Find out more about the workshop at astrologyhub. com forward slash Georgia workshop.

so , with, [00:11:00] this opposition, between the sun in Virgo and the Neptune in, uh, Pisces. What we have here is a kind of split between life on this world, and Demeter was a goddess of agriculture, so she's very much involved in life in this world, okay?

Uh, she teaches humans how to make crops grow. She and Saturn, by the way, are the only deities who are integrally involved in the affairs of humans. Mercury kind of, uh, dances in and out. You know, he pops up here and there and helps people to find the things that they've lost or get to where they want to go.

But Saturn and Ceres are absolutely involved in the survival of mankind. These are two agricultural deities, and I'll get to that another time. Uh, so here we have What we, what we would pretty much understand is the practicality of Virgo, the, the day to day lifeness of [00:12:00] Virgo, uh, the checking off of the to do lists of Virgo, the industry and the work of Virgo opposite Neptune and Pisces.

Neptune is the modern ruler of Pisces. And so opposite. mystery. All right. Opposite something that just leaves you struck silent by, by, by the immensity of its unknowableness, but also the immediacy of its visceral experience being struck by mystery. If you've ever been struck by mystery in your life, there's no word, words for it.

You might have an outpouring of tears even, or just a, you know, as, as you experience it because it's so beautiful. So. ineffable. And one of the beauties of mysteries is that they cannot be explained. It's also one of the most galling things about mysteries, because everyone tries to explain them. And if they find out that you believe in a [00:13:00] mystery, they'll call it superstitious, they'll call it silly, they'll call it irrational, you know, they'll be condescending, and all these sorts of things.

And that comes from people who have no imagination in their lives. That comes from people who have no mystery in their lives. That comes from people who have no God in their lives. They only have the things that are, uh, the good things you should do, and the bad things that you point out in other people, and there's no immensity to their compassion.

There's no depth to their experience of the divine. in themselves, all right? And that's something that's relegated to Neptune, and that's something that also appears in the sign of Pisces. It's not to say that Virgos don't have this. Virgos do, okay? They can be drawn to it. They can be mesmerized by it.

This is actually something that's been acting in Virgo's life for a number of years because of Neptune's opposition. But there's a kind of an [00:14:00] easiness to it. Like, like, Can I trust it? Am I going to be fooled? Am I going to be seen as gullible? Am I going to learn that there's a man behind the curtain?

Okay, um, and, and, and, and, am I going to be ridiculed or made fun of or, or made to feel the fool? You know, this is something that Virgos actually have a great apprehension about, uh, because that actually had very high stakes earlier in our society. Um, so here we are, we're talking about a son opposite Neptune, we're talking about an experience of mystery, a yearning for mystery, perhaps, because it's an opposition, a sense that I want to go to that mystery place, but I don't know if I can and, and what is my reaction to mystery?

Am I going to be drawn to it? Or am I going to be drawn to it? Or, and, and, and am I going to stop myself short? Am I going to say, no, no, I, uh, I can't go there. This is almost like the [00:15:00] quandary, which is being brought up with the Sun Neptune opposition.

Hymn to Demeter

So, the idea that I wanted to share with you, well, when I thought about these planetary aspects, they reminded me of A little chapter.

It's a little episode that takes place in the myth of Demeter. It's the hymn to Demeter, actually, is what it's called. And just to sort of set it up, uh, Demeter, uh, whose most prized love in her life was her daughter Persephone. One day she says goodbye to Persephone and her playmates and Persephone is maybe about 12 or 13 and, and they go off to, to play, in the, in the fields to go off and pick flowers and, and things like this.

And if you've got any sort of passing familiarity with Greek mythology, You know that that's a bad thing. Okay, nothing good is going to happen from going gallivanting with your girlfriends and picking flowers. Something bad [00:16:00] always happens. Um, and so indeed that's indeed what happens.

Uh, Demeter has, has sent her daughter Persephone off with her, her playmates, uh, to pick flowers and gallivant and tell stories and share secrets, you know, out in the fields. And she's got about her work. And, um, she looks up and she, she, she hears these, the, the sobbing, these cries, these, these squeals of panic.

And she, and, and she looks up and turns around and the playmates have returned from, from, um, the fields and, and they're full of tears. And, and they're incredibly frightened and they're very panic and, and they've turned to her and they don't know what to say. And EMR is like, well, what is it? My child?

What is it? And they're like, You know, and she's like, something happened? And then she's like, where, where's Persephone? Where's my daughter Persephone? And they're like, that's where Tim flies. And she's like, what, what happened? She's like, we were out in the fields picking flowers. And Persephone saw an especially beautiful [00:17:00] flower, very dark flower, and she picked it.

And then suddenly, suddenly the earth opened up. And, and she was like, what? The earth opened up, and everything was full of a black cloud. And, and just, we. We don't know what's happened. She's vanished. Help us. And she's like, you, you stay here, you, you calm yourselves. Um, here, uh, have something to drink, have some barley mead or something like that.

But, um, you know, have something to drink to, to calm yourselves and, and I'll go out and find out what happened. And so she, and she was like, where were you picking yonder meadow? And so Demeter heads off to yonder meadow. I don't know what is yonder meadow. So she heads off to yonder meadow and she's like, Persephone, Persephone, Persephone, and we all know that feeling of something or someone being lost.

Many of us might know it with a dog or a cat we call out, but some of us might have had the horrible [00:18:00] experience, the experience of losing a child. in which you go out into this familiar territory, you call out and there is nothing but silence, you look around and everything that was familiar about your life has been transformed into a foreign country.

Everything that was comfortable, everything that was day to day has been transformed into something frightening. And something foreboding and something treacherous. So Ceres, realizing Persephone is not answering her, no matter her calls, okay, begins to, of course, um, ask The nymphs ask the Nereids, ask the spirits of nature, and no one's seen it.

I mean, there were references to a dark cloud suddenly, but no one's seen it, and, and, and they don't know where she is. so, Demeter is like, okay, [00:19:00] I'm gonna have to like take this up a little bit more. And she calls, um, to Hermes. She's like, okay. Listen, you, you know, Mr. Messenger God, Mr. like, FTD flower man, Mr.

like, you know, running hither and thither on the, on the planet Earth. Do you know what happened to my daughter Persephone? And Hermes is like, something happened to Persephone? And she's like, yes, she's gone missing. And he's like, whoa, gone missing? And she's like, yeah, where is she? And he's like, I haven't seen anything.

Really. No, no, I haven't. Honestly. Huh. So then she takes her case up to Mount Olympus, and she waits for each of the gods and goddesses to return from their, um, from their adventures, or their sojourns, or their infidelities, and things like this. And they show up. There's There's, uh, uh, there's, there's, well, Hestia never goes anywhere.

And so she asks Hestia who's over the coals and Hestia's like, I haven't seen anything, but these burning coals that I tend to every day. Um, and she's like Aphrodite. [00:20:00] And she's like, what do I care about Persephone? I had the most wild night last night, Mars, Mars. What do I care about Persephone? I've been like, you know, mixing it up with men and getting them ready for battle.

For, for warfare. Hephaestus, I've been busy at my labors. Hammering out things like shields and swords for, for Mars, who's always such a demanding customer. Hera, I unfortunately haven't seen a thing. I've, I've been, well, only looking at my husband cheating on me on a constant basis. And that's where my attentions have gone.

You know, and finally she's like, Zeus. Do you know anything about the disappearance of my daughter Persephone? And Zeus says, Nope. Nope. Not a thing. Not a thing.

Well, then I'll go looking for her. And that's exactly what Demeter does. She goes looking for her daughter, Persephone. So Demeter begins a mystery. The first sort of mystery that we're talking about. A whodunit! What [00:21:00] has happened to my daughter? What has happened to my daughter? What are the clues? And who's a witness?

And how am I going to find out? So this is the first type of mystery that Demeter embarks upon. Now, uh, there is a story about Demeter and Persephone, and it's a very complex story, and it's a story that I'm going to tell in full. Another time, but here I wanted to share with you something that I felt was very resonant for the planets for today And that is an episode in the story of Demeter okay, so as we said Demeter has gone off in search of Persephone so this is the Agatha Christie mystery that, that, uh, I began describing, uh, where she tries to find her Persephone is and Demeter takes up two torches, two torches so that she never sleeps at night.

Okay. Two torches to light her way. And she goes and she takes these torches and she looks in caves and she looks in [00:22:00] hollows and she cross examines. The nymphs and the Nereids again, uh, there's so many nymphs and Nereids. You could have nymphs of the forest, Nereids of the rivers, and brooks. And she cross examines and asks all of them.

She asks Pan, the god of nature. No one has seen her. No one has seen Persephone. And so she decides to go among the company of men. And so she does, but because she is a goddess and she is so splendid and men and women would be struck dumb. By her appearance, she takes on the disguise of an old crone. She takes on the disguise of an old woman.

Not too old, older. And there's a reason for that, and I'll get to that soon. She actually takes on the guise of an older woman. And she goes and she searches all these towns and villages, and everyone has not seen her. And finally she comes to a place called Eleusis, which is a very small kingdom, and uh, it's a, it's a place that.

will go on to become [00:23:00] famous for the goddess Demeter having visited here. Because this is where the goddess Demeter founds the famous religious ritual, which is called the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Eleusinian Mysteries, named for the kingdom of Eleusis. And it was a set of mysteries that everyone was sworn to secrecy.

Okay, you could not talk about what you had witnessed if you had performed or been asked to participate in these mysteries. But yet, at the same time, and there's a Virgoan theme here as well, anyone could participate in these mysteries. Meaning, men could participate in the mysteries. Men participated in any sort of religious function.

In fact, they dominated religious functions. They still do in some religious practices to this day where women are not allowed to, uh, be the charge, be in charge of the ceremony, uh, whether it's a priest or whether it's, you know, someone who is saying [00:24:00] mass or whatever form of mass. Um, and, and that has its root in, in, in, in ancient Greeks where men performed the rituals and women just.

You know, sat there. But here in the Ellucian Mysteries, which were founded by Demeter, um, anyone could participate, men could participate, women could participate, and many more women than men did, slaves could participate. Okay? So this is something where you could be a respected gentleman participating in the mystery of, uh, uh, Lucas.

But you could be standing side by side with a slave, a woman, or even. A child. All were invited. All were invited to participate in the Mysteries of Eleusis. Okay, so what were the Mysteries of Eleusis? It was in the kingdom of Eleusis, where Demeter, disguised as an old woman, uh, was welcomed by Queen Metanara.

Okay, so Demeter has taken on a disguise, a disguise of an old [00:25:00] woman, of an older woman, and she is greeted by Queen Metanara, um, who sees her, and she invites her into the palace, and she offers her, offers her hospitality, and she offers her, offers her, uh, bed to sleep in, food to eat, and all these things.

And Demeter, you have to remember, Demeter is a goddess, and gods and goddesses look down on human beings. I mean, human beings are known to the gods and goddesses as the dead ones. Okay, we made up a nicer word for it, which is mortal versus immortal, but If you go back to the ancient Greece, human beings are, uh, referred to as the dead ones, okay?

It wasn't even like mortal, they're alive for a while, it's just like dead to me, okay? That's how low human beings were in the estimation of the Olympian gods and goddesses. So Demeter is struck by the kindness of this woman [00:26:00] who You know, she's been walking as an older woman through towns and villages.

Remember, it's a patriarchal society, many people aren't talking to her, many people are telling her, move on, move on. You know, they might treat her like she's someone who's homeless, you know, or, or, or, or a stranger, you know, they want nothing to do with her. But she comes and the Queen Metinera welcomes her and invites her into her palace and says she can bathe here, she can rest here, and she can, uh, eat, eat here, refresh herself, restore herself here.

And, um, Demoner, uh, says to the Queen, I, I, I want to return something out of my gratitude to you. And the Queen is like, you, you really don't need to. You're, you're welcome here. Rest. And, and she's like, I will rest. And, and, and I will, I will bathe and I will feed myself. But I also really do want to return the favor that you have done me.

And Matinara is, um, okay. And she's like, is there anything I can do for you? [00:27:00] Here the Virgo, is there any way I can serve you? Virgo is the zodiac sign of, uh, work, health, and service. So she's, she says, is there anything I can do to serve you? And Metanara says, well, I'm having some difficulty breastfeeding my infant, and could I bring you on as a nurse.

I'll pay you very, very well. And she's like, you do not have to pay me well. I would be more than happy to nurse your child. What's your child's name? And Metanara says, Demethon. Um, he's, he's a wonderful boy. And, uh, he is the prince. And, um, you know, I don't seem to calm or comfort him as well. Um, if you could perhaps nurse him, that would be a wonderful thing.

And Dem and Demeter, disguised as as the nurse, says, Well, let me see the child. And she sees the child, and she smiles over the child. And, um, and so, uh, Demiphon smiles back, and there is an immediate bond between the two of them. And, [00:28:00] um, and, and so she nurses, she nurses the child, uh, Demophon. Um, but Demeter's idea of nursing is different than a mortal's idea of nursing would be.

Okay, now a mortal's idea of nursing obviously would be breast milk. Okay, you nurse the child and, and, and there's breast milk and you, and you coddle and you bond. Okay, Demeter's idea of nursing is that, um, you Well, it's not breast milk. Okay, Demeter's idea of nursing is not breast milk. Demeter's idea of nursing is to feed the child the food of the gods.

Okay, and the food of the gods is Ambrosia and Nectar, alright. So she feeds the child Ambrosia and Nectar, and she also thinks Or what occurs to her because being with demophon, being with the child has brought [00:29:00] up her own longing for her own child and her own grief and her own anxiety and and her own loss.

So she gives the child Ambrosia nectar, but she also wants to give demophon. immortality. To make Demaphon a god like, like her, okay? She's a goddess, he's a god, but to make him a god, to make him an immortal, to make it, and because she doesn't know the fate of her own daughter. So that he will never die. He will never be referred to as a dead one.

So what she does is that she feeds, she nurses Demophon Ambrosia Nectar, and she takes Demophon each night, you know, when he's wrapped up in his swaddling clothes, and she takes him every night. And, um, she goes to the open fire and she places Demophon [00:30:00] like a log on the fire. And she watches him roast.

Well, Demiphon doesn't roast. In fact, Demiphon kind of like, you know, he's a little baby. He's like, you know, he giggles. And his eyes reflect the flames. And he sort of like grasps at them, you know. And Demeter looks over him and he's… giggling, you know, and she lets him sit on the fire like a log every night, you know, and after a while she picks Demophon up out of the fire, which already is a miracle, okay, because Demophon didn't squeal in pain, Demophon has not been burned, okay, she, she retrieves Demophon from the fire, takes him onto her and puts him to bed where he naps peacefully.

Why is she putting Demophon on the fire? She's putting Demophon on the fire to burn away the mortal parts. All right? [00:31:00] She's burning away the mortal parts. She's feeding him Ambrosia and Nectar, and she's burning away the mortal parts each night so that he transforms. from a mortal into an immortal. All right, so Demeter does this every night and this goes on for a couple of weeks, uh, until one of, uh, the queen's handmaidens, uh, who's coming in to check in on Demethon sees this taking place.

You know, and goes and tells the Queen. And she goes, she wakes up the Queen, and the Queen is, what, what is it, Handmaid? And, and Handmaid, Nameless Handmaid says, um, the nurse is putting Demophon in the fire, and, and I, I, I fear for his life. And she's like, she's what? She's putting him in the fire, and I fear for his life.

Show me the way. And so she, she races and the queen watches, uh, Demeter, you know, she's, she's already placed Demophon in the fire and she's kind of waving and chuckling and Demophon's like, you know, back from the [00:32:00] flames. And she's like, you're a little, who's a little boy, you know, and things like this. And the queen is like, what are you doing?

What are you doing? And she races towards the fire and she picks Demeter out of the fire. And even then part of the cloak, part of the arm, not the cloak, but uh, the arm of the queen is burned. And she, and she, she, she reels from the fire and holds her baby. And she's like, what are you doing? Get away from me.

Get out of my sight. And Demeter is like,

get out. of your sight? And the queen is like, yes, it's you, it's no creature. And she's like,

get out of your sight. Do you know who? And the queen doesn't know who she [00:33:00] is, but she can tell from that tone. It's not good, but she holds her baby close. And she's like, who are you? She is like, and Demeter's like, I am Demeter. And off peels away the face that she was wearing. But Demeter also holds it down a bit because if she were to show her true splendor, it would destroy the queen and her baby.

You know, so she kind of finds a medium light, medium transfer of appearance, you know, transformation. And she says, I am Demeter, goddess of the wheat. And the barley. And the queen is like, oh my goddess. And she's like, exactly. Me, get out of your sight. What a joke. And she's like, I, I apologize. I'm so sorry.

I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm so, I'm so very, very sorry. Um, is, is there anything I can do? Is there anything [00:34:00] you can do? There is nothing you can do. You have insulted me! And she's like, oh, I'll do anything. The handmaids have left. Okay, they're like, oh my god, the queen's in trouble. There's a goddess. We're leaving. Okay, the handmaids have left.

But maybe they're in earshot. They still want to hear what happens. Okay, and the queen falls before her and she, and she says, I, I, I beg your, I beg your forgiveness. Please, please. And Demeter looks at the queen, and she sees her crying out, but even in her supplicant, even in her, uh, you know, mortifying herself, she still holds the child close to her.

And Demeter sees that, and her resolve, her anger, her ire softens. And so, she says to the queen, You have interrupted a most sacred rite. [00:35:00] And the queen's like, I did. What rite was that? And she's like, I was in the process of turning your child. into an immortal. Isn't that something you would have wanted?

And, and, and, and, and the queen is like, yes, yes, absolutely. Can you? And she's like, no, no, you have interrupted the process. The process cannot be picked up again after a pause. He will not be immortal. He was almost immortal, but now he cannot be immortal and he is susceptible to death. That is your mother's love.

That is what your mother's protection has won him. And the queen is like, I am so sorry. I am so sorry. But Demeter, looking at the queen, much like [00:36:00] we might look at a buzzing bee or insect, wondering if it's in a plight or in distress, vaguely, from our superior place in size and immensity and domination of the world.

Demeter looks at her and she says, and she says, I think I know what you feel. And the mother's like, what? And she's like, you call it grief. Am I correct? And the queen says, yes, yes, yes, it's grief. And she said, you're feeling grief because your child is now susceptible to death. She's like, yes, but I also have my child.

And Demeter's like, you do, you, you do have your child. And she's like, Yes, and I wanted to protect my child from [00:37:00] something you didn't understand. Am I correct? She's like, mm hmm. And so Demeter says, I want you to do something for me. And the Queen says, yes, yes, absolutely. Because Demeter is moved by the Queen's grief, the Queen's protection, the Queen's love of her child.

All things that Demeter understands from her love of her child. And Demeter says to the Queen, I want you to build something in my honor. And the Queen says, yes, yes, what, please tell me, tell me. At this point, the handmaidens have, have gathered, you know, and gotten behind their Queen and also are in, in, in gestures of, of obedience to the great goddess.

And she said, I want you to build me a temple. I want you to build me a temple, which will create a place where I can teach you mortals. my secret rituals. And the queen is like, yes, yes, of course. And she said, upon the completion of this [00:38:00] temple, I will tell you what the next step is. So the queen immediately orders that a temple be built.

And a gorgeous temple is built at Eleusis for the goddess Demeter. And at that point, Demeter goes into the temple and she shuts herself up inside. And when she shuts herself up inside, she allows not a seed. to grow on earth until she sees her daughter again. So the temple becomes a place where Demeter shuts herself up inside, removes herself from the company of mortals, but she also removes herself from the company of immortals, resolved that nothing will grow on earth.

until she sees her daughter again. And that, of course, is the rest of the story of the abduction of Persephone and the things that result from that. But the reason I'm stopping and really focusing on the mysteries of Eleusis, the origin of the [00:39:00] mysteries of Eleusis, something that bonds a goddess to a human through the feeling of maternity, through the feeling of a child's love.

Okay. This is a goddess who celebrates her child, the love of her child. She meets a queen who messes up the immortality of her child. And so it can not be redone. It has been undone. Her child dies, actually a young death. But what she sees in that, what Demeter sees in that and what she's moved by that is.

The grief, the loneliness, the hurt, the pain, and through all of that, not a distancing, not a, not a, I cannot let myself feel that pain, you know, so I'll treat things, she doesn't see a distancing, she sees a holding of the child and, and, and, and, and a protectiveness and a love of the child. And this is what moves.

[00:40:00] Demeter. This is what moves Demeter to do something that no other god or goddess does. And the entire history of Olympus, what she does is that she teaches her mystery and her mystery is the mystery of life and death. Now much of ancient literature refers to the Homeric hymn to Demeter, which is an episode that I've been sharing with you.

The plays of Sophocles and Euripides talk about it, as well as Aristotle and Poznesus. Indeed, the Greek lyric poet Pindar once wrote, Happy. is he who sees this mystery before descending underground. He knows the end of life. He also knows its beginning. And I want you to hear those words [00:41:00] again. Happy is he or she, and remember it was more she's than he's.

Happy is he who sees this mystery before descending underground. He knows the end of life. He also knows its beginning. Those initiated into the Ian Mysteries enjoyed an unwavering happiness when it came to the approach of their final days, while others, those who were uninitiated had only misery and after death a murky dark.

The Eleusinian Mysteries

Why am I talking about this today? First, we have. a whodunit that turns into the revelation of a great mystery, one of life's great mysteries, which is the understanding of life and death. [00:42:00] Okay. At this point in the myth, Demeter doesn't know anything about Pluto, you know, or what's happened to her daughter.

She doesn't know any of this. And that's what makes this episode so remarkable. This understanding of life and death. Okay, these mysteries that people would come from all over, it was like the Delphic Oracle, the, the Eleusinian mysteries, people would come from all over to be initiated into the mysteries, they were sworn to, to secrecy, really upon death.

And many people, I think just about everyone. Kept it, all right, uh, before it deteriorated into sort of, you know, some kind of like festival or something like that, and then they weren't really the Ellisonian Mysteries anyway, they were kind of like, I don't know, a Burning Man get together or something like that.

But, um, but here, when it was still that, okay, still sacred, okay, people kept the oath because it was [00:43:00] part of their communion. And so what they got was not only a knowledge of what the descent into death was, but they got knowledge or an understanding that it doesn't end with death. We all know Hamlet's phrase, uh, uh, the undiscovered country who's born, no traveler returns.

That appears in Hamlet's to be or not to be speech when he talks about death or what lies on the other side of death. And he describes it as an undiscovered country who's born, no traveler returns. Born means destination, but it's obviously a play on the word born to be born. And, and it, kind of hints or asks the question of rebirth.

And these are all gathered together here. Now, we can take some educated guesses about the mystery, you know, and what it's talking about. An educated guess, my particular guess, would be that Demeter is goddess of [00:44:00] agriculture and the crops, and what she's teaching is basically seeds. You know, a plant, uh, of, uh, bears its crop, it flowers, it goes to seed, and from those seeds, they return to the earth, and next spring, out of the earth, those seeds bring life, and they flower again.

Uh, reincarnation. I'm, Greeks, I'm not quite sure about that, although, um, although there was some, uh, Orphic mysteries played around, definitely, with the idea of reincarnation, um, but, I'm not quite sure they're going to go so far as to say reincarnation, but there is something about the wheel of life and death and of the idea of a return, that when you die, you just don't die, you know, that, that, that there is a sort of coming back.

Okay. And this is kind of inferred all agricultural societies, um, on, on, on earth, you know, societies in which agriculture was the mainstay of how the civilization lived have [00:45:00] some a form or version of reincarnation. That's really where it appears, and it's, it's, it's mirroring the, the agriculture cycle that you flower, you die, but your seed comes back, and so you continue.

Nowadays, we'd say, oh, our species continues through reproduction, but other societies went more. They were talking about the seed you carried within, and that is where we hit, or talk about, or address Pluto. Pluto is a planet named after the god of the underworld, uh, where things were buried, like corpses, or, or civilization, or precious metals.

And in fact, Pluto means wealth, and its reference is to precious metals. Gold, silver, uh, precious metals, oil, um, but the original idea of Pluto was grain. Okay, because from grain you have, have, I mean, you made bread, basic food stuff, and we still refer to daily bread as either nurturing or some of us still, if we remember the 70s, you [00:46:00] know, know that bread meant money.

Okay, so, so the association of Pluto, grain, and money is, is, is there. But what goes on in this episode, with the introduction of the Licinian mysteries, is that Demeter herself, is in charge of this agricultural cycle. She doesn't need a mate or a counterpart. Okay, not only that, Demeter, she cannot make the child immortal, but she can show you what is immortal in you, all right?

And this is where we get to Pluto in the astrological chart. The sun may be opposed, Neptune, it's opposed to great mystery that cannot be described or articulated. It's followed by a trine to Pluto, and the last degrees of an Earth sign, Capricorn, and, and here. It's referring to something underneath that's emerging and coming out.[00:47:00]

We have two suns in astrology. One is the sun in the sky, and so that's the sun in the chart, okay? And then we have the dark sun, and that is Pluto, because the dark sun refers to the molten core of the earth. Which approximates, I think, is about the same temperature as the sun. Okay, it's, it's, and, and, and so there's an inner sun, which is inside our globe, and then there's an outer sun.

And, again, when something is planted in the soil, you know, when the seasons change, when spring comes around, it, some, it knows instinctively, can we say a seed knows instinctively, it's responding to something, where it snakes through the darkness. And, and pops up through the soil as a sprout, and it lives again, all right?

This is connected to the mystery, and it's connected to Pluto. So the image that I also want to talk about is the image of, uh, I don't know if you can see it behind me, the [00:48:00] child in the fire. Uh, there you see Demeter. you know, sort of tending the fire, tending the flames as the child's like they're in the fire.

It's from a wonderful illustration. Um, Pluto is the planet of ordeals and the transformations that arise from them. It talks about the descent down into the underworld, or if you're familiar with alchemical imagery, it's the salamander in the fire. Okay. The thing that burns away. Okay. Thing that burns away the dross.

Okay. Or what Demeter would refer to as the mortal parts.

What We Can Expect

For those of us who have been experiencing Pluto and Capricorn as a very powerful transit. Okay. That's anyone born under the sun. It's also going to be anyone born under the cardinal signs, Ares, Cancer, Libra, the signs that square. And it's also going to be, the earth signs, the other earth signs, Taurus [00:49:00] and, Virgo.

Okay. There's been this year as long since 2009 transformation arising from an ordeal that began in 2009 and now we're coming to the end of it. And it's promising. rebirth. For many of you, you've probably already experienced like, oh wow, my life really is reborn, you know? And for those of you, you may still be in the last stages of that delivery, okay?

Particularly if you're born in the last degrees of Aries. Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. And so, you're snaking through that darkness, but you know you're responding to something that's going to get you to break through the light. You're at the last stages of the burning away of your mortal parts. Now, what would be a psychological equivalent of a burning away of the mortal parts?

A burning away of the anxieties. A burning away of the fears, a burning away of your [00:50:00] old self, a burning away of the old skin that wrapped around you, a burning away of old beliefs, a burning away of old convictions, a burning away of old roles that you played in your life, you know, you may even be facing something that is very dire and hard right now and there's a Burning away of that fear, and there is instead something maybe, it's more than a courage, it may almost be a sort of like, being called forth, being called forward into, into something that's so difficult, you know.

Astrology is never about mastering the fears. It's about living with the fears. Astrology is never about mastering the anxieties. It's about turning the anxieties into a fuel that burns away, that brings [00:51:00] about the rebirth, that issues forth something in you that is immortal, you know, whatever your word for that may be.

And, and instead of that being something that you wait for to occur at the end of your life, it's something that's occurring in your life right now. Think of it almost as a cornerstone that's being laid in place to the new foundation of who you will be, who you feel that you are becoming. And it will change the whole architecture.

Of your life, this, this, this touching base with your. under self, your seed self, the seed that you have carried with you since your conception. All right. And the seed that has continued in the growth and evolution of your life as you live it. [00:52:00] This is something that I want you to contemplate. This is something that I want you to meditate upon.

This is the wonderful mystery. that has no articulation, no words, no definition, no reason, no answer. This is the wonderful mystery that I want you to embrace in your life this week and to celebrate.