Orpheus

What does this mean for you? There is a loving and sensitive nature to you that can probably be found in artistic pursuits whether it be music, writing, or simply finding joy in the little things in life. As Orpheus, both nature and people are drawn to your sense of creativity and sensuous aptitude. There is a light inside you that compels even the darkest of things to transform into something beautiful. 

As Orpheus does, you have perhaps seen the darkness parts of life but managed to survive and make it even sing to your own tune. His and your story begins something like this: Long ago, Orpheus was said to be the greatest musician in the world, surpassed only by his father, the inventor and patron of music itself. It was said that even the trees, flowers, and plants of all sorts curled closer to listen to his sweet song, sang from his lips and plucked by the golden strings of his lyre. The animals ran to hear him too. Nature itself loved him for his song. Even more so, once Orpheus found himself in love. 

Eurydice was a tree nymph, born beautiful from the wood and earth itself. She too listened and loved his song. It was upon their wedding day, when Eurydice walked down the aisle, about to arrive and stand hand in hand with her husband-to-be, that a snake bared its fangs and struck her ankle, injecting into her a deadly poison. 

Heartbroken and desperate to find her, Orpheus made his way into the Underworld. Many heroes have taken a similar plunge, but none before had managed to steal a soul of the dead and bring it back to life. Attempting the impossible, he could only attempt to do it with what magic and power called to him best–his song. Past the rivers of Forgetfulness and Fire, he arrived at the throne of Hades and Persephone themselves and poured out his soul into his lamenting song–his love of Eurydice. No other has dared to seek the deathless pair that ruled the dead, nor has any other dared to sing and call upon the empathy of death. From his song, it is said that the dead stopped their hollow screams, that the Furies sobbed, and the damned found momentary paradise. Hades and Persephone both shed tears and took pity upon the hero, accepting his proposal to imbue her once again with life, but with a heavy caveat: Eurydice could follow him into the upper land of the living, but only if he, Orpheus, didn’t turn back to look at her before they arrived at the surface. 

Back the way he came, Orpheus was initially hopeful, confident that the shade of Eurydice loved him enough to follow in his footsteps, back to him and back to life. But…as the journey towards the surface went on, a doubt crept into his heart, creeping and crawling with slippery claws that gnawed at his hope. Halfway up and almost home, his doubt only worsened until finally…He turned. The horror on her face struck him first, right there, only inches away and silent as the dead, their shared hope shattering in her eyes, plain to see. He could only watch her then for a second longer, before she was instantly sucked back into the depths of the Underworld, for he had not kept his deal with Hades. He had turned back. Orpheus would not see her again until the day he died. 

The ancients might have understood this story as saying that one cannot truly cheat death, but today, we might be able to see something a bit more in the depths of this story, for when you look into the abyss, the abyss stares back as the philosopher Nietzsche once said. For while Orpheus may have loved and lost, he also gained perspective. He gained the sight of death, of something seemingly unreachable, invisible to the normal person, and came out of it, despite it all, alive. No hero goes through trial without pain, without horrors, without seeing what could be the end.

And how did he get through this? 

With his song. 

With what was his song, could very well be your art, your writing, your imagination, your knowledge. The pursuit that calls to you is perhaps what saved you in your time of need, what kept you from falling too deeply into the depths, or perhaps, what saved you while you were in the depths of despair, depression, anxiety, stress, and more. You too, have loved and lost, much like Orpheus, and his story may call to you, and hopefully the story you share one day with your own pursuit may call to someone else. 

Do not forget, dear Orpheus, that your song, your story and personal magic, can bring even the darkest of days forget itself, and be reminded once more of the beauty of light and life.