Image – Artist on picture
Following the New Moon in Virgo we step into the Autumn Equinox on the 22nd September.
Initially, the themes of this time have been fitting with Virgo energies; recent themes of note and spiritual prominence have swirled around obligation, responsibilities, and duties, with them laid heavy across the mantle of our homes, our lives, and our souls.
But more than that, the energies have reminded us of the obligation we have to ourselves, and to the world, to live in our truth. That if we truly want something we must not only fight for it, but live in it, even when that’s difficult, stressful, or even painful.
Results without sacrifice are rarely lasting, or true. There are easy routes to instant success but they are hollow and will not last, because true success is built on grit, determination, and soul calling. And soul calling is never easy.
If it were easy we would never break past our cocoons. We would never transform. And from these trials, comes unwavering and learnt self belief… because we have faced our weakest moments, we have tasted defeat and despair and we have ridden them through, refused to drown in them.
That is the power of truth. Of obligation to ourselves.
The energies of the Equinox then go beyond this, for it is a time of balance, when the light and dark are equally met before the dark half of the year takes over once more in the Northern Hemisphere, but within this images of the Norns, Spiders and weavers have dominated recent awareness. (Note – Given that there is no real Celtic equivalent of the Norns, and the closeness between the two cultures in social structure, mythology and even physical proximity – it seems as though cross over in modern spiritual pathworking in this fashion within a mind aware of the Nordic traditions of fate, was somewhat inevitable.) All of these images are also cloaked in shadow, coming in dreams which are usually clear but now slip from grasp, with the Norns being mentioned and then fading out to the corners of consciousness. They slip into memory and call from the edges, not clear in their messages or even in their presence, teasing and frustrating all at once.
Þaðan koma meyjar margs vitandi þrjár ór þeim sæ, er und þolli stendr; Urð hétu eina, aðra Verðandi, – skáru á skíði, – Skuld ina þriðju; þær lög lögðu, þær líf kuru alda börnum, örlög seggja.
Then came maids Much knowing Three out of the sea (or hall) That stands under the tree; Urd, one is named, another Verdandi, —scoring on boards— Skuld is the third; They lay down laws (lög). They choose life for the children of men, speak destiny (örlög). – Völuspá 20.
It is interesting to note that whilst the Norns are considered weavers of fate, the natural weaver of the animal kingdom is surprisingly absent from Norse mythology, unlike with the Greek mythos, which made the presence of both of these themes within my spiritual peripheral vision somewhat peculiar.
The only mention of Spiders is by researchers with regards to Loki;
“One of the more intriguing etymologies of his name connects it to the Swedish dialect-word Locke (“spider”), which places Loki in the world continuum of Trickster Gods with animal forms.” – Dr. Karl E. H. Seigfried
Within modern interpretations of Spider energy, it is thought that the common number of legs and eyes to most spiders (eight) is synonymous with infinity – as the lemniscate (infinity symbol) is an eight on its side. It is also worth noting that sleipnir (off-spring of Loki) had eight legs.
The legs and the eyes are arguably two metaphorical conduits between the internal world of the human psyche, for they are how we internalise the world outside of us.
Eyes and legs do not have to be biologically literal; rather ‘eyes’ being a mechanism for how we sense the world and take in information (this can also be taken to mean our other senses such as taste, hearing and smell) and then our ‘legs’ are the mechanism for connecting ourselves to the physical world by touch as well as traversing through it (again, it does not necessarily only mean actual legs.)
Regardless, the Spider, the weaver, generally wears enough conduits of interpreting universal energy to relate to infinity.
The common thread within all of this seems then to be the act (and perhaps the ineffectuality of the act) of self definition in seeming defiance of the ever expansive human soul and psyche. Who we are as an individual is constantly growing and evolving and yet at the same time there is that element of chaos; the more expansive our knowledge becomes of the spiritual ecosystem, the greater our realisation of our overall ignorance at the workings of the universe.
If we, as human beings, are the microcosm of the Universe, reflecting it within ourselves, then the defining of the self is an enterprise in futility as we all have the genetic markers of the spiritual shape-shifter woven into our very beings.
We weave the stories of our own lives, even to the point of promoting largely useless labels of self identification, perhaps following the general fate laid down for this incarnation (perhaps not, who can say?)
And in this murky water somewhere, we find glimpses of truth about ourselves, our natures, our thoughts and feelings, that provide a kernel of truth about our inner workings.
But personal truth, such as it is, is never stagnant. It is a journey, of shadows and chaos, and the webs we weave.
Many blessings, Starlets
Stay Fluxy with an ounce of Shimmy
Love Queen of Death and Glitter Joey
