LOVE IS:
- Unconditional – it is compassionate
- Supportive of growth and healing
- An encouragement of expansion and wellbeing
- Conditional – ‘I will only love you IF you become or do this’.
- Critical and judgemental of the state you are in now
- Stagnation – repetitively going over with the re-living and re-creating of ‘what happened’
These ‘labours’ reflected different challenges of consciousness, each symbolically represented by the outer-world trial Hercules encounters.
One of Hercules’s darkest trials was meeting the ‘9-headed Hydra’ – a scary swamp monster with lots of nasty heads. Yikes!
Stay with me here if this is all sounding very mythological, the relevance to everyday life will soon be made apparent.
Each Hercules challenge is metaphoric. When we explored them on our course the challenge invariably showed up in our life in some way – not literally, of course, but in some form or other, sometimes as a soul-level ‘test’, ending with a new level of awareness.
The 9-headed Hydra symbolizes our ‘inner demons’ – some of the darkest aspects and shadow sides that may be locked away in our unconscious, or perhaps not so locked away, depending on how owned or disowned they are.
These ‘inner demons’ can be things like hatred, revenge, envy, punishment, fear, guilt, greed, judgment, competition, lust, narcissism, victimhood, jealousy, control, pride, etc. They may be less dark aspects but detrimental ones nonetheless, like isolation, worthlessness, arrogance, defensiveness, etc.
You may have particular self-defeating patterns that are more prominent in your life in general or at a given time.
Any ‘inner demons’ been raising their Hydra heads?
Any that you have experienced as more prominent than others in your life that block you from greater love, happiness and success?
What is interesting and poignant to understand is that when Hercules tried to kill the Hydra by chopping off her heads, 2 more would grow back in place of each one he chopped off!
This symbolizes that when you attack or judge your darkness, it simply grows stronger. What we attack, we compound.
We all have our human ‘stuff’ – ego traps, darker layers of consciousness that may exist within, and within humanity itself.
What are you doing with yours?
Stuffing them away? Compensating for them? Feeling guilty or ashamed about them? Hating them? Denying them? Judging them? Punishing yourself for them? Dumping or projecting them onto another?
Judgment doesn’t work. Neither does guilt. Neither does playing ostrich – at least not forever.
Acceptance does. Forgiveness does. LOVE does.
It is easy to love the beautiful in you, but it is the ugly parts (TMT!) that need your love the most”. ~ Lazaris
These darker repressed aspects lose power when they come to light and are
uprooted and exposed. With the fresh air and warmth of the sunlight (our loving
awareness), the Hydra is weakened (the slimy swamp monster dries out).
In the myth, it is not until Hercules severs the main ‘one immortal head’ with a golden sword (sword of love) that the Hydra dies.
This symbolizes how we may have one root issue/core wound/fear that may lie beneath and be feeding many of our other negative patterns.
Towards the end of this particular month when my personal Hydra heads had been surfacing from my unconscious (was thinking about getting a bunch of balaclavas!), I paradoxically had a very blissful awakening experience.
A huge opening to love occurred and I became saturated with exquisite love and bliss. It was an extremely potent spiritual ‘meltdown’ in the positive sense – a beautiful love-immersion that dissolved what had been surfacing for healing and release. It felt like a deep cleanse of mind, body and soul.
It is love that purifies, heals, liberates and transforms, returning you to the truth of who you are, and the true loving nature of reality, and the eternal truth that you are indeed loved, loving and loveable, ever and always.
Rather than attempt to ‘slay’ your darkness, have compassion, forgive yourself, seek to unveil and own your true loving nature and to love yourself unconditionally as much as possible, and open to the unconditional love that is there for you in every moment.
Ultimately, only love is real.
Very often when we are most in need of love we are furthest from it. If this feels like the case, start by giving yourself and the universe permission to love you, and affirm your willingness to receive that love, even if you feel for some reason you do not deserve it (though you always do). The truth of who you are is wholly innocent. You are a divine being of love and light, born of love, returning to love.
Much love,
Aine
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