cupid and psyche: a story of love part 1

unseen

Once upon a time when the world was young, mortals believed that all elements in the heavens and on the earth were connected. Humans saw that while a breeze silently and gently guided a leaf in its autumn journey, their dance — silently and gently — also altered the sojourn of the breeze. They saw gods and goddesses in the heavens, in the seasons’ passing, in the forests’ life and sounds, and in the seas’ thunderous waves. They understood these supreme beings as powerful presences, each defined by unique attributes and limited by human-like frailties. Gradually, shared stories told of how life’s challenges and triumphs were affected by and affecting the moods of, squabbles between, and relationships among the gods and goddesses.

It is during this time that we first hear the love story of Cupid and Psyche, a young god and a mortal female. This story begins when Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, learns that her temples were in a state of neglect, the fires in her altars had turned to cold ashes, and her favorite towns had been abandoned. She heard that mortal men were journeying from everywhere to the childhood home of Psyche, a mere maiden, to gaze upon and admire her beauty and grace. In a jealous rage, Venus ordered her son, Cupid, to use his powers to make Psyche fall madly in love with the vilest and most despicable creature in the world.

Marriage and Mourning

Thus it came to be that when Cupid looked upon the beautiful Psyche, he fell passionately in love. It was as though he had pierced his own heart with one of his arrows. The intensity of his infatuation left him so stunned that he was unable to comply with his mother’s request. He instead sought the advice and comfort of Apollo, the god of truth, for his heart was heavy with the knowledge that his love for Psyche was an act of silent disobedience and disloyalty to his mother.

Through the years, mortal men continued to pay homage to the exquisite beauty and grace of Psyche. Yet, she did not fall in love and was not loved by any mortal man. Her father’s distress about Psyche’s unmarried state and questionable future led to his seeking an audience with Apollo’s oracle. With great despair, he heard that his daughter was destined to marry a fearful winged serpent. With feelings of sadness and helplessness, the family arranged for Psyche to be dressed in deep mourning, took her to the summit of a rocky hill, and ordered her to wait for the being that was to make her his wife.

Psyche stood alone at the top of the hill, unable to do other than what her family had bidden. She was frozen with terror and convinced that her death was imminent. Sobs of anguish and despair echoed through the silence of the valley as a sweet and gentle wind wrapped itself around her and lifted her up to the heavens. It is said that she regained consciousness in a magical place of abundance and beauty.

Abiding with an Unseen Lover

Each morning as the sun roused the morning pastels of dawn, Psyche would awakened to find herself alone in her new home. She would smile enchantingly, knowing that this day would bestow upon her all her earthly desires. Yet, if you were to enter her dressing room unnoticed, you would soon see her smile tightening with resignation and self-reproach. Feelings of loneliness filled the emptiness within her, for she knew that, from this day forward, she would find her companionship not with a family member or friend, but rather with a shadowy being.

Psyche set out each day committed to be grateful that her family was no longer embarrassed that no man had asked for her hand in marriage. As she was only a mortal woman, she saw no choice other than what had been preordained by Apollo’s oracle. She came to realize that when the sun’s light no longer touched the western sky, her feelings of turmoil and loneliness would be soothed. For it was during the darkness of the night when an unseen presence that she believed to be her husband would lay alongside her, only to be gone by morning.

to be continued… 

lens-artists challenge: capital

Solidarity Action with Unis’tot’en Water Protectors

(Yinka Dini – People of this Earth) Unis’tot’en – People of the Headwaters

The Unis’tot’en (C’ihlts’ehkhyu / Big Frog Clan) are the original Wet’suwet’en Yintah Wewat Zenli distinct to the lands of the Wet’suwet’en. Over time in Wet’suwet’en History, the other clans developed and were included throughout Wet’suwet’en Territories. The Unis’tot’en are known as the toughest of the Wet’suwet’en as their territories were not only abundant, but the terrain was known to be very treacherous. The Unis’tot’en recent history includes taking action to protect their lands from Lions Gate Metals at their Tacetsohlhen Bin Yintah, and building a cabin and resistance camp at Talbits Kwah at Gosnell Creek and Wedzin Kwah (Morice River which is a tributary to the Skeena and Bulkley River) from seven proposed pipelines from Tar Sands Gigaproject and LNG from the Horn River Basin Fracturing Projects in the Peace River Region

The Unist’ot’en Camp is an indigenous re-occupation of Wet’suwet’en land in northern “BC, Canada.” The Camp is on high alert in response to the Coastal Gaslink’s application for an injunction, as well as served notice for a civil lawsuit to claim financial damages for “occupying, obstructing, blocking, physically impeding or denying access” against the Camp on their own unceded territory and denying the collective hereditary leadership of the Wet’suwet’en.

‘Wiggus’, the Wet’suwet’en word for respect. In the landmark Supreme Court Decision of Delgamuukw Gisday’wa Wiggus it was defined as “respect for all living-beings, starting with oneself”.

The Unist’ot’en Camp has been a beacon of resistance for nearly 10 years. It is a healing space for Indigenous people and settlers alike, and an active example of decolonization. The violence, environmental destruction, and disregard for human rights following TC Energy (formerly TransCanada) / Coastal GasLink’s interim injunction has been devastating to bear, but this fight is far from over.

Who is bankrolling the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline

Coastal GasLink is a project of TransCanada Pipelines Ltd., the same subsidiary of TransCanada behind the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. The 420-mile Coastal GasLink pipeline would carry fracked gas from northeast British Columbia to LNG Canada, a massive proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal that exemplifies the sector’s climate and human rights impacts.

JPMorgan Chase

Bank of Montreal

Deutsche Bank

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce

Go to Mazaskatalks.org to see if your bank is invested in fossil fuels

Divestment is the opposite of investment. It is removing your funds, benefits, capital and stock from companies and approaching institutions asking them to remove their money out of companies for either ethics and/or financial reasons.

In this era of “reconciliation”, Indigenous land is still being taken at gunpoint. INVASION is a new film about the Unist’ot’en Camp, Gidimt’en checkpoint and the larger Wet’suwet’en Nation standing up to the Canadian government and corporations who continue colonial violence against Indigenous people. 

Fossil fuels have been utilized as our primary energy source since the industrial revolution in the mid 18th century. Fossil fuels have provided jobs as well as heat and electricity before and during our lifetimes. The problem is that the extraction process and burning of fossils fuels have caused extreme pollution of low income (indigenous, Black and People of color) communities, threatened sensitive ecosystems and is causing green house gases to climb at all-time highs. The world is now heating at an unprecedented rate: storms, hurricanes and other natural disasters are becoming more frequent and powerful than we have ever seen. In the midst of the 6th mass extinction and overall threat of climate change, we need to oppose all future fossil fuel expansion projects, and make a just and fast transition to renewable energy.

This week’s post was made in response to the lens-artist’s challenge by Viveka – capital. It was created to advance global awareness of the Costal Gaslink Project.

opinion

I am puzzled about how life simply seems to go on while there are so many ongoing wars and wars within wars. I ask, “How do I go on with my daily life blinded to the manifestation of so much suffering…so much destruction of lives, hopes, dreams and procreation of anger, trauma, and rejected/negated refugees?” “Do I have an unconscious belief in an impenetrable barrier between those in unknown parts of world and I?” “Does identifying people as those and them serve to further eradicate them from humanity…to lessen a moral imperative?” “What kind of world would it be if humans were forced to silently pause during the duration of pounding missiles? or maybe…during frozen moments of time between bombings?”

multi-tasking: cell gazing while protesting

no war

“The US and Britain have been making war in the Middle East for 18 years without pause. The “conflicts of 9/11” must rank among the cruelest and most costly and senseless of the post-imperial age, says Simon Jenkins.

Unknowable thousands of civilians have died, and billions of pounds’ worth of property been destroyed. Christianity has been all but wiped out in the region, and some the finest cities in the ancient world have been bombed flat. No audit has been made of this. The opportunity cost must be unthinkable. What diseases might have been eradicated, what climate crisis relieved. “

cited: the guardian, 11/15/19

early morning reading: unease

…first I myself must find the right pattern, my own pattern

“4 July. [1941]. I am full of unease, a strange, infernal agitation, which might be productive if only I knew what to do with it. A ‘creative’ unease. Not of the body – not even a dozen passionate nights of love could assuage it. It is almost a ‘sacred’ unease. ‘Oh God, take me into Your great hands and turn me into Your instrument, let me write.’ This all came about because of red-haired Lenie and philosophical Joop. S. reached straight into their hearts with his analysis, but I still think people can’t be reduced to psychological formulate, that only the artist can render human beings down to their last irrational elements.

“I don’t know how to settle down to my writing. Everything is still much too chaotic and I lack self-confidence, or perhaps the urgent need to speak out. I am still waiting for things to come out and find form of their own accord. But first I myself must find the right pattern, my own pattern.”

cited: Trans: Arno Pomerans, An Interrupted Life The Diary of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943. pg. 26

six word saturday…’ped’es’train’ is someone traveling by ‘foot’

‘ped’es’train’ … abstract street photography
Nikon D750 f/7.1 1/500s 85mm

-ped a combining form with the meaning “having a foot” of the kind specified by the initial element:

Hop on over to Debbie’s (Travel with Intent) to join Six Word Saturday

ORIGIN OF -PED

< Latin -ped-, stem of -pēs -footed, adj. derivative of pēs foot