Excerpt from Kurt Abraham’s latest book : PLANETARY ENERGIES AS STEPPING STONES TO COSMOS: The Planets in Color, Meaning, Picture, and Symbol.
Excerpt from Chapter 12:
CERES-DEMETER—The Divine Feminine.
The asteroid Ceres is the largest and the first asteroid to be discovered (1801). I call the first image I received ‘The High Cross of the Saintly Feminine.’ The Divine Feminine is analogous to a Goddess—a Spiritual Mother. The ‘Divine’ becomes a ‘Saint’ when entering the lower spheres and taking on a human form. The Divine is therefore made to personally suffer in the non-sacred regions. This is essentially what happens to every incarnating soul, but the silent suffering and the sainthood of women is more acute for reasons that we shall elucidate. Much suffering could be eased if men could deeply appreciate this important point.
Greek mythology provides a little window into some of the energies manifesting through the planetary system. Demeter is the Greek name for the Latin Ceres. In Greek mythology Demeter is the Goddess of corn, barley, and wheat (or agriculture), which relates her to the sign of Virgo.
Demeter (Ceres) had a daughter Core (Persephone). One day while Persephone was out in the fields admiring the beauty of the flowers (particularly the narcissus), Hades (Pluto) came and snatched her off to his Lower World (Tartarus). Demeter, grieving and inconsolable, searched everywhere for her lost daughter. She refused to return to Mt. Olympus. She wandered the earth forbidding the crops to grow and the trees to bear fruit. This was troubling to Zeus (Jupiter), as well as to other Gods. Something had to be done. Hermes (Mercury) helped in the communications-negotiations process between the higher and lower worlds. Hades agreed to let the weeping Persephone go back to her mother. Up to this point Persephone had been on a hunger strike. This non-compliance with her abductor served Persephone well, for to eat of the food of the underworld is to remain a prisoner of that region. On her return journey, however, she plucked a pomegranate from a tree and ate of it. This was reported to Hades, who then drew her back once again to the underworld. Demeter, grieving once again, renewed her curse on the earth. There was more sorrow upon the land and more communication-negotiation between the Gods. Eventually all parties (Hades, Zeus, Demeter, and Hades’ mother Rhea) arrive at a compromise. Persephone was to spend half her time in the nether regions (as Queen Persephone) and half her time with her Mother on earth. Some accounts of the myth say three months below (winter) and nine months on earth with her mother Demeter. Spring is the time when Persephone reunites with her Mother—a time when crops grow, flowers blossom, birds sing, and trees bear fruit once again.
‘Demeter and Persephone were substantially the same divinity…’ (Isis Unveiled II 505) That’s the first thing to note. There is a Spiritual Being that puts down a portion of Itself (offspring) into a lower (non-sacred) domain. This is analogous to the Soul-Personality relationship. The offspring is the personality that gets ‘abducted’ or slips further into lower regions while enjoying the narcissus—the flower that is named after the one who falls in love with the false sense of self, the personal self. All this separation-abduction-illusion, however, is in the ‘celestial cards’, so to speak. In other words, there really is a Design that underlies the surface madness (Chaos).
Hades-Pluto is one of the Gods. The relationship between Heaven and ‘Hell’ (between the Sacred and the Non-Sacred) has much to do with finding a middle ground (Earth) where redemption of lost substance (Path of Return) becomes possible. Mercury, the Communi-cator or Mediator, is an important Player on the Path of Return.
The personality becomes identified with the sphere of the non-sacred. It ‘eats of the food of the underworld.’ It develops a taste-desire for the nether regions. This identification holds the consciousness in the lower realm. The offspring, however, particularly the soul portion connected with the spiritual Mother, longs for reunion with its Divine Source.
The relationship between these two aspects is cyclic, and is therefore analogous to the seasons. There is a cyclic out-going and in-breathing to the Breath of Life. The relationship between the sacred and the not-yet-sacred is also analogous to the so-called life-death cycles of reincarnation.
Role Played by Women.
In the relationship between Soul and Personality (between the sacred and the non-sacred) women play a very special role. In many ways women are better equipped to communicate with the spiritual dimensions than are their more extroverted and egocentric (narcissistic) male counterparts. This is the point that was driven home to me in no uncertain terms in the experience I had with Ceres-Demeter-Persephone.
This brings us to the first symbolic image — the High Cross of the Saintly Feminine — [that came to the author in the “Divine Consciousness”]. The cross has two energy lines—the vertical (spirit) and the horizontal (matter). This ‘high’ cross has a tall vertical spirit post. The horizontal and vertical lines of energy are in conflict (90 degrees). Conflict brings suffering, but it is a ‘designed’ suffering that results in greater awareness (consciousness). Humankind is in process of awakening to Essence-Source.
Both women and men have their crosses. Both are stretched on the thorny conflict between Spirit-Matter. The High Cross of the Saintly Feminine, however, has a wider vista than the more earth-bound male ego. She sees more and knows more of what really counts, which is similar to the Heart doctrine.
It has been said that ‘ignorance is bliss.’ Not exactly. Ignorance is a lack of duality. Duality occurs when one mounts the cross leading to consciousness. Just as one has to build the form, one also has to build consciousness brick by brick. Building is work; building is a struggle. Ignorance is the one with little consciousness. The ignorant one doesn’t know what he is doing and what he is missing. That’s not exactly bliss.
Having greater awareness while being stretched out on a high cross is not exactly bliss either. The Divine Feminine, however, brings humankind a great deal of joy in her arrange-ment of the flowers of life, in her soothing healing tenderness, and in her loving care for the children, the hope of the future world. Of a ‘worthy woman’ it is said: ‘Her value is far above rubies…. She stretches out her hand to the poor; yea, she reaches forth her hands to the needy…. Strength and honor are her clothing…. She opens her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.’ (Proverbs 31:10, 20, 25-6)
The Masculine Force.
This second image, typifying the masculine force, came as a surprise. There is a red core (the color of Mars) surrounding by something resembling Medieval armor. The red core connotes ambition, desire, and aggression. There is a competitive drive to win, to conquer, and to prevail. The thrust of the Mars-like energy can take a negative turn into anger, belligerence, violence, and rage.
The conquering spirit has a me-first attitude that takes what it wants and rules as it will. When this egotistic will is called into question, the defensive armor wards off any attack. There is something like a fight-to-the-death attitude that resists change. Rather than yielding, modifying or adapting, the tendency is to defend the red core at all cost. Thus arguments, battles, and wars are fought over the most trivial egocentric nonsense. But then, ‘The way of a fool is right in his own eyes.’ (Proverbs 12:15).
The White Swan of Queen Persephone.
In the third image we see Queen Persephone, a beautiful White Swan, maneuvering through a sea of yellow, gold, orange, and violet. The masculine energy, the male ego, erects many formidable obstacles on the path of life. These rock structures are unbending and unmovable. They are filled with egoism and devoid of light. They are not part of the true currents of life, which is to say, rather than being part of the flow, they obstruct the flow. The wise and beautiful Swan navigates around them.
The Swan adds an additional vital something to the first image of the High Cross of the Saintly Feminine. The cross indicates the stress of pain and suffering. One endures many injustices, perhaps even on a daily basis. The Swan, however, has managed to substitute Beauty for the stress of life. She swims in the good energy of good thought, while avoiding a great many of the stressors. Her good thought is filled with intelligence (orange), with a blending of heart and mind (golden yellow), and with sensible helpful activity (violet).
This is a man’s world, to be sure, but if it were a world where women were in charge, I dare say within a decade there would be no more wars, there would be peace and there would be plenty.
The Communal Table of Unity and Goodwill.
In this fourth image we have a group of woman of various ages and backgrounds. They are sitting at long communal tables decorated with fruit and flowers. The gathering is casual, not formal. The atmosphere is relaxed. Altogether there is a sense of Unity and Goodwill. There is a Sisterhood in the making. Diverse elements (various colors) come together in the spirit of heartfelt sharing and cooperation.
Here we see women being able to achieve something of extraordinary importance. They make it look easy. They make it look inconsequential. Yet it is truly a remarkable achievement.
Men tend to bring about an outer unity through coercion, fear, pressure, will, force, and intimidation. Women bring about unity through patience, understanding, sensitivity, empathy, and cooperation. These are all qualities of the Heart, and therefore Soul. Women are much more naturally inclined to use the heart approach than their male counterparts.
When men sit together at the long table, it is generally in the warrior mood of us-against-them. Men unite in anticipation of winning, in proving themselves to be the superior players.
Women, on the other hand, unite in a congenial mood not of winning but of serving—of helping and healing. Their arms reach out to embrace the world around, particularly the needy and the suffering.
“Is it not true that unity is difficult, despite the fact that it is prescribed as the extraordinary means needed for everyone? It is difficult to contain unity even temporarily…. How many of the ills of humanity are due to insufficient cooperation! The understanding of cooperation readily brings one to cooperation with the forces of nature. Where is the boundary between the forces of nature and spiritualization? The servant of the spirit must attain spiritual omnipresence.” (HEART 373)
When a person seeks unity, he usually seeks followers and people who think like he does. Unity is more of a realization that we are all in this together, we all come from the same spiritual Source. We are all united around a high Purpose that transcends any individual player. Unity includes and, in fact, wants diversity, since diversity is far more enhancing than uniformity. Uniformity borders on the automaton, the robotic, the clone. Unity in diversity pays homage to Oneness, while it realizes the absolute splendor of Infinity.
Men will approach this subject of the saintliness of women with a prejudice that is too deep to even recognize as such. It has been culturally inbreed for ages. A few words cannot alter the psychological conditioning. If one ponders long enough, however, and gives due meditation to this important subject, and if one then walks into the marketplace and observes women quietly going about their concern of shopping for their families, and if one then also recalls the meditative insights of saintliness deeply pondered upon, one just might be blessed with a psychic realization of the saintly souls that move obscurely among us. This overshadowing psychic realization will then reveal how one can give, assist, lend a helping hand, and radiate a hidden blessing. One may be able to experience a personally impersonal joy of the divine feminine as it abounds in one’s very own time and space….
In order to get the point, it helps to realize that women are saints. Power and success are funny things when they land on the shoulders of personalities. Personalities take for granted that they fully deserve the power and success that comes their way through luck, chance, heritage, or hard work. Each personality deserves success and good fortune because, for some reason or another, personality senses a certain superiority. This is the illusion. The aristocracy believed in the divine right of kings, so if you were a member of the aristocracy you took this caste system to be divinely ordained. Why would an aristocrat even question it? Personality excuses its own faults and exaggerates the faults of others. Most races and nationalities have superior attitudes vis-à-vis their neighbors. These attitudes can be disturbing and confrontational, or they can be tucked away in the sub-conscious. Men are everywhere dominant in the power structure, and everywhere they think and believe that this is the right order of things, and everywhere in customs and in the language this sense of superiority is subtly or blatantly reinforced. The truth of that matter is that one has to be a saint in order to put up with the rule of the cretin yesterday, today, and for eons past.
From the very beginning we have placed the blame on Eve for the expulsion from the Garden, when anybody of any real intelligence knows that Eve was the smart one.
God has evidently given the brains and intuition to one of the genders and the brute strength to the other. This move was rather clever in itself, for in order to dance around the brute women had to develop more and more of what really counts and what is really important.
They say that women are the weaker sex, but one must realize that women are not weak, they are very very strong. But men are brutes. We live in a brute-civilization—bombs, guns, planes, sky-scrappers, fast cars, bridges to nowhere, weapons of mass destruction, prisons, torture—while the women whisper in their hearts, when will they ever learn, when will they ever grow up. In their heart of hearts they say, Maybe my son will grow up and be a gentleman. Maybe he will be able to set things right. Maybe he will be able to change the world. Maybe he too will someday become a saint.
God has given women the most important job in the world, that of raising the children. God had to make this a very thankless and mundane task so that men would stay out of it.
I know that there are some good men in the world and I know that not all women are saints, but what I recommend to men, even in the way of a kind of challenge, is to take this thought into the market place, as we have mentioned. Know that women are saints, and, when you walk into the markets, you too may very well see the truly unsung heroes in our cultures. You too may become psychically aware that moving among us are very saintly spirits in the form of women, hiding, as it were, in plain sight. Then be pleasant, be friendly, and be very respectful. Extend a helping hand wherever possible. Treat your mother, your sister, spouse, your work colleague as if they were queens. Realize that you are blessed and honored to have her in your presence. This thought towards women is so important, so profound, and so needed in the world today that it may very well awaken you and change your life forever.