Eros Opposite Psyche: Mirrors

“Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you. ” -Kahlil Gibran

November 24th 2018: The waning Gemini Full Moon meets Eros retrograde at the moment he exacts opposition to his soulmate Psyche in Sagittarius. Venus is back to direct motion in Libra, opposing Uranus retrograde who recently returned to Aries, in a grand cardinal square with the lunar nodes.

The Psyche and Eros asteroids have a cyclical dance of one conjunction followed by three oppositions. Eros is always retrograde for the second opposition. Click here to read about their first opposition in Scorpio/Taurus last August:

In the myth of Psyche and Eros, he goes to extreme lengths to connect with his soulmate, but then he refuses to let her even see him. Eros represents our fear of being truly seen- he’s usually associated with sexual desire, which makes sense when you consider that the part of our identities that form our orientation to sex and sexuality is usually the part that fears being seen the most. Our Eros is the part of us that both longs for and runs from sacred union; our Eros is our subconscious desire to expose whatever it is that we work the hardest to hide.

Eros is in Gemini, the sign of duality, polarity. The Moon’s presence with Eros retrograde here really expands the theme of desperately wanting- while simultaneously hiding from- the “other.” The Moon card in Tarot often points to deliberate obfuscations.

The archetype of Gemini is Twins, which is often mistaken to mean “two of the same thing” but it really refers to duality: In this realm, reality can take on infinite forms, and all forms exist somewhere on a spectrum of duality, of opposites.

Psyche in Sagittarius is a powerful spark of individuality, cleansed and educated by her transit through Scorpio, spreading her wings like a matchstrike, stretching out the soul’s layers towards the higher self, towards ascension and evolution, towards the light.

When asteroids Psyche and Eros connect it’s important to look at Venus, as the mythological mother of Eros, and mentor of Psyche. If you’re not sure why I’m referring to Venus as Psyche’s mentor, click here to read my re-interpretation of the classic myth:

Venus is in Libra, resonating with Eros’s themes of duality and our orientation to the “other” (air signs are about us). She is building opposition to Uranus is in Aries, resonating with Psyche’s themes of independence and the shocking spark of self-realization (fire signs are about me). The symbolic similarities between Eros opposite Psyche and Venus opposite Uranus are stunning and invoke images of infinity mirrors, mise en abyme, and of course, Twin Flames.

There have been many people in my life I’ve considered soulmates- some of the most notable examples have been my romantic partners. But there is only one person whose presence in my life resonates with the label “Twin Flame”

Words are powerful symbols and they can mean whatever we want them to mean. And it seems as though there are as many “definitions” of what a Twin Flame relationship is, as there are people who have experienced this type of connection. But there are common threads through these stories that are relevant when we’re talking about countless thousands of people all claiming to have very similar once-in-a-lifetime experiences: When they first meet, both people feel like they instantly recognise each other, leading to the belief that they have known each other in past lives; There is complete and total soul merging sexual abandon, unlike anything either of them has ever known; One person pursues, the other person runs. Usually after many years the pursuer finally understands that pursuing is useless. Likewise the runner finally understands that running is useless. They both come to a spiritual understanding that the love between them is eternal but there is no possibility of a stable, long-term relationship in the real world.

melissa-mccracken-synesthesia-painter.mirror

Melissa McCracken’s synesthesia painting of the song Julia written and performed by John Lennon, with mirror image added. Click here to see the original and learn more about Melissa McCracken

There are many people in long-term, stable relationships that refer to their partners as their Twin Flame. There also seem to be many many women who are in love with unavailable men that use the label Twin Flame to rationalize their obsession with someone who doesn’t want to be with them. Like I said, everyone is free to use words however they want to. But for me the crucial elements of the Twin Flame experience are that the attraction is openly reciprocal, and that the spiritual dimensions of the sacred union literally bend reality to the point where the relationship is temporally unstable.

Connected Forever, Together Next To Never. Twin Flames destroy each other’s illusions about love, relationships, and morality. Our souls aren’t designed for that sort of thing to be an everyday occurrence.

Psyche and Uranus hold the key to the meditation on the gnosis, and the process of acquiring gnosis, from the Twin Flame experience. At the end of Psyche’s transit through Sagittarius she meets the Sun in conjunction on the Galactic Center, forming a trine to Uranus on December 19th.

On April 6th 2019, Psyche in Aquarius forms her third and final opposition to Eros in Leo– and that will be the first Psyche-Eros opposition in decades to occur with Psyche direct and outside of her retrograde shadow. Stay tuned for all this and more.

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