Up: [[Journeys]] Related: [[Greek Mythology]] Created: 2026-06-07 Psyche, which means “soul”, was the mortal daughter of royalty. She was so stunningly beautiful that people worshipped her instead of [[Venus Aphrodite - Looking for the Positive]]. Venus, angered by this, commissioned her son, Cupid, to take revenge. Instead, he falls in love with Psyche who, similar to [[Orpheus - A Chosen Descent]], ends up losing him because of her doubt. Then follows a long and involved story where Psyche has to perform a series of four seemingly impossible tasks for Venus. ### Descent The descent comes with Psyche’s final task. She is to journey to the underworld to bring back a box of Persephone’s beauty. Thinking that the only way she can achieve this is to kill herself, Psyche climbs a high tower intent on jumping from it. The tower comes to life and stops her, giving her instructions for going to and navigating the underworld. ### In the Underworld Psyche follows the tower’s instructions to the letter. She carries cakes of honeyed barley in both hands and holds two coins in her mouth. She ignores, as instructed, people pleading for her help and gives the cakes to Cerberus, the three-headed watchdog, to distract him, and the coins to Charon the ferryman for her trip from the underworld back to the upper world. Everything works beautifully until Psyche is back in the light of day, whereupon her curiosity and desire for more beauty gets the better of her, she opens the box, and falls into a deep sleep. Note: All’s well eventually, but that’s beyond the scope of the descent story. ### What This Story Means for Our Descent - When we engage with the unconscious, we have to surrender to a wisdom beyond our conscious understanding (the tower). A surrendered descent is guided. - There will be trials, and practical actions will need to be taken. - We have to follow the guidance provided by the unconscious. This will come to us through messages from the unconscious such as from dreams or tarot cards. Trust that these messages are purposeful and relinquish your ego’s desire for control. - There are some truths of the unconscious that can be grasped, but others will remain hidden just as in the box of Persephone’s beauty.