Saturday, August 8, 2015

The Sister Stars



When the goddess Diana goes on a hunt she is always accompanied by her seven beautiful attendants. These maidens are the sisters known as the Pleiades: the daughters of the sea nymph Pleione and mighty Atlas, who bears the world upon his shoulders. But once these maidens catch the eye of the great hunter Orion, the pursuers of game become themselves the pursued. 

In their frantic headlong flight to evade the advances of the amorous Orion, the youngest of the sisters, Merope, becomes separated from her siblings. What to do? Poor Merope stumbles through the woods of Arcady, searching desperately for her sisters and calling out to her mistress the goddess for help. But by now she has run so deep into the thick woodlands that her companions are no longer within earshot, and Merope is left alone and desolate.

Does this myth have a happy ending? Myths are not fairy tales, even though they share with such tales many of the great archetypes which make such retellings endure down the centuries. Fairy tales, as we know, end ‘happily ever after’, but this is not always true of myths. Myths seem to occupy a less certain reality, which perhaps ironically make myths reflect the events of our own world more accurately. Gods and goddesses in these mythic stories are remarkably human, with all-too-human shortcomings, and their illustrious immortality serves as no guarantee that they will manage to avoid the very human emotions of heartache, jealousy and anger at injustice – all of which and more are experienced by them in these stories.

But is it that we project our own human emotions onto the world of the gods? Or is it perhaps more that all the upheavals of emotions that we as mortals experience are an earthly mirror of what happens in the lofty realm of the immortals? If the gods exist then perhaps they are showing us the way; showing us that even gods can suffer heartbreak, even gods can know joys and setbacks, tears and laughter. Even for the gods there is no master plan, and no guarantees that they will live ‘happily ever after’. Like us, they just live out their lives, and cope with things as they happen. But there is a measure of trust that things will somehow work out, and the gods, for all their capriciousness, show us the way in this as well.

And what of Merope? The myth does not grant us a tidy end in which she eventually is reunited with her sisters. We are left to wonder. But there is that measure of hope. Look up into the sky on a starry night and you will see Orion the hunter still in pursuit of the six Pleiades. The stars rise and set, but they always remain the same distance from each other. However fast he might run, Orion will never catch them. And somewhere in the heavens overhead is Merope, the lost little seventh star who is still searching for her sisters. And although the story in the night sky remains as inconclusive as the myth, it also in that very inconclusiveness holds out the hope for us that a reunion with her sisters might yet be possible.






Sculptere of Merope by Randolph Rogers
Dance of the Pleiades - Picture by Mynzah from a painting by Elihu Vedder

8 comments:

  1. Oh your writing brings up such memories... a vision in my younger days awakening within my soul to god and goddess song....

    It was about 1 AM when I opened the front door to go out onto my deck to be greeted by 6 sisters, each so differently dressed, each so eloquent in their silken garb and hair blowing in the wind, galloping on their decorated horses... they were coming for the Seventh Sister who did not yet remember that she was goddess...

    It was a life changing moment, being handed the memory that we are goddess and god.. I felt so human, so weak in my human skin awakening to that memory and picking up every stone as I tried to remember where we hid the goddess handbook.... ((((((((((( hugs )))))))))))

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    1. Such an exhilarating vision.. where the sisters came to you for the Seventh Sister.... I dare to believe that we hid the goddess book deep inside of us and now delve it up again... little by little .. page by page.
      I am so grateful that you have shared this here with me... Hugs back, my siStar ♥♥♥

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  2. I wonder about the adventures Merope has had and who she has become since being separated from her sisters. Do they still long for her Or have they become a unit that simply excludes her, even in memory. Does one of them secretly pine for she who is lost? Truly we bring our own stories to the myth, eh?

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    1. Oh, yes, we do...all those questions run through my mind as well and more. It might explain why different cultures around the world have their own stories about the Pleiades.

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  3. Thank you Emma for this intriguing myth of the sisters of Pleiades. This wonderful and touching story offers us several layers of insight or meaning, and, of course, each one is meaningful and true. What touched me deeply when I read this story was the pain of separation, and how this strikes deeply into the heart of our human condition. Separation is experienced and felt in many ways. It is experienced universally. The pain of separation is ultimately a reflection of our feeling of being separated from Love, the intrinsic oneness and wholeness of existence. The myth of the Pleiades touches upon this, as does the banishment of Adam and Eve, and many other myths that contain banishment or separation. The original wholeness remains within us but in the process of creation of the universe it was hidden. It is the journey of creation to experience separation. We could say that wholeness temporarily experiences separation to eventually awaken and rediscover in a new way its inherent nature of oneness. The paradox is that for creation to occur separation was needed, but this separation was an intended play, a cosmic game of hide and seek and pure magic. In the end, all the gods and goddesses, mortals, angels and devils will lay aside their masks and laugh a big belly laugh and the journey will have made a full circle. Then we will know the meaning of these words from the Revelations, "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” But this is not a future event in time but refers to a state of consciousness that is timelessly present within us. Here, in this place, the Seven Sisters are united for eternity never to be separated again.

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    1. Thank you so much for such an insightful comment Joseph, a comment which truly touched my heart.
      To reflect upon what you say in relation to my post: who knows what life experiences Merope opened herself to in her own period of separation from her sisters? Her sisters were still able to travel what for them was a familiar path with familiar experiences. Perhaps if Merope were eventually to be reunited with her sisters both she and they might discover that she had (as it were) outgrown them, having been through a painful yet deeper awareness. In terms of her enriched life experiences, the youngest sister in that sense could well have become the oldest sister!
      Your last sentence struck a chord in me - indeed, the seven Sister Stars are united for eternity never to be separated again. Thank you again, dear friend! ♥

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  4. HI Emma..such gorgeous images..beautiful post..and always such powerful writing and insights you share that I love to ponder upon....I have always loved reading about them too,very intriguing. Thanks for shining these magical stars my way..awesome!
    Victoria

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    1. You are so welcome Victoria. The stars on your posts shine through what you write! ♥

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