Thomas Taylor's Version of Cupid and Psyche

Transcript (PDF)

The King and the Queen in the Quest
Presentation 9 of 12

Thomas Taylor's Version of Cupid and Psyche
Presented by Roger Weir
Thursday, March 5, 1981

Transcript:

The date is March of the 5th 1981. This is the ninth lecture in the series of lectures by Roger Weir entitled the King and Queen in the quest. tonight's lecture is Thomas Taylor's version of Cupid and Psyche. There **inaudible word** version of Amour and Psyche.

We all relate to that.

We have here at the society a very nice addition of **inaudible word or two** of Cupid and Psyche. And this is the dust cover. And it's a reprint of the first edition which the society has nicely kept in a vault. And very rarely is it ever out to be seen. but the facsimile is quite excellent. Thomas Taylor was an English Platonist at the beginning of the last century. I think that we are in possession here of all the first editions of his entire work. He was a monumental being. Thomas Taylor.

There are several scenes of thought to be refreshed and brought up. we've gotten to this juncture. And the next two lectures will be on spirit guides. And will be as you can see in a brochure divided into what we would generally style as mythological figures and historical personages. Next week will be Athena and Merlin as spirit guides. And after that Plato and Manly Hall as spirit guides. And then we'll have a concluding lecture. And then the next series which will start in April will deal with the primordial images. I've discovered that in just the basic lecturing series here since the last summer solstice, that we need to investigate and refresh our aquantinship with some basics. So, the next series will just be primordial images.

And this series has been moving towards comprehension of the place of the king and the queen in the quest. The quest being a **inaudible word or two** which generally can be symbolized by this figure. And for those of you coming, this is getting to be familiar. Those who are new can see that these link together. And this process which is the quest or the Hermetic way of searching when linked together, when given a sense of presence as a durational reality, it was referred to classically has been for hundreds of years as the great chain of being. There's a wonderful book written by Professor Arthur Lovejoy some thirty years ago called The Great Chain of Being. Sub-entitled The History of Idea. The great chain of being of course it was a Hermetic idea goes back into Pythagorean antiquity. But comes to us largely through the renaissance of reconstructing the ancient wisdom.

If you get interested the central figure in the revival was Ficino. That's Ficino. F-i-c-i-n-o. Ficino was one of these individuals like Thomas Taylor as a matter of fact. Taylor and Ficino are two of a kind. Ficino was provided with one of those wonderful opportunities to not only think but to blossom. Cosmo di Medici built a beautiful **inaudible word**. And stacked it with wonderful things to see and to eat. and people like Botticelli and so forth would go out for the weekend or the week and spent time. And Ficino translated Plato and they talked Hermetics. And these were the **inaudible word** ideas in Cosimo's villa some 500 years ago. Just as they are today in this wonderful villa. We need more gardens, but we will get there.

Thomas Taylor, of course, the same kind of figure. And in the London of Taylor's day usually what would happen is that if you had a book, like this first edition of Apuleius, it was published for the author and sold at one particular book shop. So that they are very, very rare. because there were no huge editions. There's no promotion. There was no advance money. There were no **inaudible word or two** in that day. This one was sold by Robert Tripbook(?) on old Bond Street. And Thomas Rod Little Newport Street 1822.

And this translation of The Metamorphosis or The Golden Ass as it's usually known, colloquially, is a very good translation. And that's what we're dealing with tonight. That in The Metamorphosis of Apuleius for The Golden Ass there are about a dozen or so chapters. And it's a romance. Much like a romantic novel would be today. Written in Rome, 2nd century. Right in the middle in between two episodes concerning a band of bandits who have stolen Bride and her rescue. In between those events are three chapters which link together much like the great chain of being and present to us the story of Cupid and Psyche. Or if you wish Amour and Psyche.

Our image base is somewhat truncated at this time, in this century. So, when we think of Cupid we think of a pudgy little baby with wings. Who in its sort of a delightfully naughty way shoots people with arrows and makes people fall in love. There's more to Cupid than that. There's more to Eros than we all know.

So that the story of Cupid and Psyche is embedded into The Metamorphosis of Apuleius. Now Apuleius is quite a strange figure. He recovered that he is descended through his mother's side from Plutarch. And that he himself, although he was born in Africa, educated at first in Cartridge and later on went into Athens. Apuleius was considered a mysterious figure. he was accused of being a magician. and of having practiced magic to seduce a wealthy widow and to marry her. He accounted before a court of law in a document called The Apologia, the complete rundown in classical Roman times of what magic consisted of. And shows that while he probably could master the art he was not interested. And in fact, was after other things. He then wrote very quickly after that a little tiny treatise called De deo Socratis, The God of Socrates. And in it Apuleius makes an argument, probably for the first time publicly in Western Civilizations that Socrates's inner demon was a level reality that exists between Gods and men. And that there is a demonic realm. Not demonic in the sense of sharp little teeth and horns. But demons in the sense of embodied compulsions which inhabit both Gods and men. And from time to time bridge them.

And so, the story of Cupid and Psyche by this author brings into play the concept and in a strange sense **inaudible word**.

And I think just a basic background because we won't get too much into it this time. A little bit more with Merlin next time. But I thought I would give you a little **inaudible word** about magic. There are four points of magic delineated by **inaudible several words/sentence or two** ....all concerns itself with divination. Of it, of its four main functions. One of them is divination. The art of obtaining information at any present about the state of the cosmos is full. And hopefully relating that to our pattern in this process. The second function is ceremonial magic. Which generally covers rites of initiation, invocations to God's, evocations with powers and so forth. This kind of a situation. Third is vision or I think we should use the word envisioning. Vision to us is somewhat fantasy based. Envision the power to hold in the inner eye of the imagination form and energy in symbolic shape. We'll come back to that sort of thing.

The, a key phrase here that **inaudible word** uses is body of light. Remember about three weeks, four weeks ago we talked about the transformation of the physical body into energy realms that colloquially resemble light. So, there are these three functions. There is finally the training of the magician. The curricula that goes to making this passed on to a new **inaudible word**

So, Apuleius accusing antiquity of being a magician. But oddly enough having acquitted himself and then going on to discuss demonology. Quite an interesting character.

In terms of presenting Cupid and Psyche there is an edition that came 25 years ago by Eric Neumann called Amour and Psyche. And it's in the Bollingen Series. And it deals with this tale, Cupid and Psyche or Amour and Psyche from a Jungian standpoint. And we'll come back to just a little bit. I think that with, with Neumann if you're ready to go into his discussion of this there is another book. It was too large for me to bring. It's entitled The Great Mother. And in order to appreciate this one has to have sort of...this is the thesis and the argument is spelled out in large in The Great Mother. N-e-u-m-a-n-n. They're both paperback with prints at a reduced price. A great **inaudible few words** by Neumann also. I remember at seventeen reading Neumann's The Origins and History of Consciousness and not being able to think of anything else for about six months. So, when you get into this sort of thing, give yourself plenty of time. This is potent material and Neumann would finally adopt the terminology **inaudible word or two** pointed out. It's going to have in the repertoire of viewpoints. It's a sort of a Jungian interpretation. Neumann was the thinker in his mind. He is at the university of **inaudible word or two**. An excellent man.

And on that there is probably in the UCLA libraries a book called The Ancient Romances. And there's a very large chapter in here on Apuleius. All these presents viewpoints which we could consider. In fact, they'll probably allude to a little bit. but I think what we should do now briefly go through this episode. It's not very long.

And then let's talk about...well first, we should mention this first. When we had talked about Odysseus and his style of kingship. It was ability to for instance with the help of Cersei to descend into the underworld and to have experiential matrix in the underworld. Similar to the kind of experience which divination offers us. A sense of having, if you remember Odysseus is bent over a cup of blood and has his sword drawn. And the shades of Hades come to drink of the cup. And before allowing them to drink Odysseus compels them to discuss with him the conditions in the world. And he learns, for instance, from the shade of Agamemnon that he was murdered on his return home. Agamemnon's shade warns Odysseus against an intemperate homecoming. That is don't just come home it isn't your castle as it was before. It isn't your kingdom as before. Your wife is not your wife as before. Be on your guard. You have to reclaim and come back. This sort of experience underneath.

And then we talked about that being the roots of a design referred to very frequently as the world tree. And that this, the growth then, the return from the underworld leads one back out into the experience of them coming into its complement, a heavenly realm. A celestial realm into the branches of the tree of life where again there is a kind of an integration experience which is available in that King, not the Queen, must undergo. And that in between the issue there is a somewhat personal focus. I'm using the old pentacle star here. We talked about that just last week with Gawain. I try to use symbols which will unfold for you later on in your own thinking.

So that this central axis of experience having its roots in the underworld experience of transcendental insight, to a celestial flowering of the same order back and integrating and balancing to a personal center. This personal center we often today style as consciousness. And from consciousness we have sort of a double entendre in our experience. One is mind and the other is matter. Both mind and matter coming from consciousness are energy in different forms. So, they have, and interplay and they have a relational meaningfulness. That is, they exist in the same horizon of capacity as energy and derive from the same origin consciousness. Large **inaudible word or two**.

So, Cupid and Psyche. And this is a tale that **inaudible word**. and the basic tale begins once time there was a King and a Queen. And in their Kingdom, it was ordered and well kept. They had three daughters. And first two daughters were very beautiful and well kept. But the third daughter was extraordinarily beautiful. So beautiful was she that her fame began to spread throughout that Kingdom and other Kingdoms. And individuals began to regard her as a living personification of Venus. So much so that the shrines of Venus began to be abandoned and ill kept. And all the homage was presented to this mortal girl who was the child of the King and the Queen and their mortal kingdom. when word of this reached Olympus, Venus became jealous of the mortal. And then in sort of a reactive fit of super intelligence she decided that she would ruin this mortal by an ironic twist. That she would take her own son, Cupid or Amor, who is responsible for dispersing love problems with his arrows, and she went to her own son to lead this **inaudible word** woman straight to her doom. And of course, as Cupid comes down to handle this, he sees this wonderful beautiful, young mortal woman and falls in love with love with her. And decides that secretly to a castle in a beautiful Kingdom which he controls, and he hides her there. And lives with her in the night. And in the day of course, he goes in place as well as a God. he does not let Psyche ever see him. She does not know that he is a God. In other words, Psyche is sent suffering the ironic death which Venus has planned for her. She is living comfortably but blindly in a state of half bliss and half ignorance. Almost like this was **inaudible word** symbolized that condition like this this. This being a symbol of a water energy, a psychic energy. There's no give or take. It's just a situation as is. There's nothing you do about it. It just is in that form which is static tension.

So that they whole compulsion from consciousness was to redistribute this **inaudible word** tension. And Psyche of course wants to do that by exploring. She would like to know who it is that she's living with. Well word of her wonderful bliss comes to her two sisters they are jealous. And they find a way to come to her Kingdom. And it's, there's an interesting mythological image here. That in order to get into this kingdom one must be carried by the wind. There's a cliff and one must jump off and that the winds, or the zepper as they used to call it in the Renaissance, zepper would carry you to the kingdom of Amour. That is the, the realm of experience where Eros obtains its order of Kingdom, requires transportation with wind, air, suspension.

The two sisters come to visit her. And of course, they're absolutely jealous. And so, Psyche is caught a sandwich in between the jealousy of Venus, the Goddess of love and the jealousy of her own siblings. And in this situation of being sandwiched between these two jealousies she is also a personal situation where there is no movement, no tension. Now the key-note about Psyche without the mind is that it is curious. It has to know. It, the mind or psyche by its nature is a **inaudible word**, a mover in this kind of Hermetic pattern. It's always roving and always exploring and always coming back. Worrying(?) reality to death until finally it has its pattern. That's its nature and that's how it should be.

So that when the two sisters come, Psyche is told that she is sleeping with a demon. And that if she will take a knife and a lantern and peer in when her lover is asleep, she will see in fact that it is a demon. And she may kill the demon and have the entire Kingdom. And the sisters of course without mention will come and share it. So, when the time comes, the sisters of course leave the kingdom and go back to their own kingdom. When the time comes Psyche goes into the chamber. And this of course is the kind of illustration that the, the old Edwardian and Victorian editions of Cupid and Psyche just love. They always have these, these wonderful illustrations of himself reclined in nude splendor and Psyche coming up.

And there's a tension here. Because instead of the meeting of love, which is characteristic of these two components it's a meeting of impending death. Same sort of thing. So that all of the forces of meanings are balanced in a water head at the moment at which the mind discovers that it is not held captive by love. That is by Eros. By the force of eroticness in the universe. Because as soon as she pulls the light up and discovers that is not a demon but in fact a very handsome young man, she falls in love with him. And she actively, consciously for the first time realizes that she loves. She is not simply held captive. She is not simply loved. But she on her own is able to initiate that feeling tone that is activating the Anahata chakra. And it flames into pure desire as it does when it first opens up as a natural thing.

So, she falls in love with Psyche, ummm with Amour. And she bends over to kiss him. And in doing so a drop of hot oil from her lantern, not from the knife which would have killed him, but the other side which illuminated him. A drop of hot oil falls and him and **inaudible word** him and he immediately wakes up and is mortally injured. But also realizes that she has broke the promise. that **inaudible word** may naturally live with Psyche, with the mind, only so long as it's an unconscious interplaying flow. But as soon as Psyche takes an active part it can no longer be, at least in the natural form.

And of course, she immediately is left alone. Eros flees. It vanishes. He vanishes immediately. He goes back to his mother, Venus. And she finds the truth of matter. **inaudible word or two** this mortal impostor who has usurped her position as the Goddess of love in the world. And **inaudible word** led astray. In fact, her own son has taken her to marriage as it were. Visit and she's enraged. And so, she goes storming off and seeks blindly to find some way to rectify the situation. Psyche on the other hand realizes what she has done. And she goes up to see what she can do to rectify the situation.

So that what we have developed now development from this. I guess we could symbolize it like this. A somehow a psychological condition. **inaudible word** a psychological component is actually one part. It is eternal spiritual conditioning. It involves more than its psychology. It involves powers of areas that have nothing to do with whether they are ours or not.

Both Venus **inaudible word** Goddess level and Psyche. For those of you who are Jungian and can't get away from that vocabulary, this is an archetypal reality. And this is an individuation reality.

But both Venus and Psyche seek to redistribute this water head situation which has proved unsatisfactory to both. Neither are happy. Both are enraged. Both are thrown out of kilter. and all levels, the celestial, the personal, and the underground, the kingdoms are dispersed. Their orders are shattered. Because there is no possibility for the figure of the Queen to find presence and contribute the feminine aspect of the complementary relationship between male/female, men and
women. Which produces the stability in that focus that sense of presence. Which allows for world order to propagated.

Psyche in her wanderings thinks first that if she goes back to an archaic level that is the most primordial level that she can think of, she would be safe. And it's just like being reduced to your own childhood in moments of intense crisis which he had not faced before. So, in her wanderings she comes across a temple. And she sees the accoutrements of ritual of worship in there. the wheat sheaves, the crater, the barley. And she recognizes this is a temple to Demeter or the Romans called her Ceres. C-e-r-e-s. Demeter or Ceres. Remember Demeter, her daughter is Persephone. And Demeter and the rights of Demeter are those of Elucis. And it's the archetype of the mother and child. Mainly the mother and daughter child. So that Psyche, that is the mind, seeks first of all to go to that realm with wherein the archetypal reality of the mother and the daughter is not only stable but the basic ordering element. Well of course Demeter tells her she cannot stay here. She of all people cannot stay here. Why? Because she's **inaudible word**. She can't go to that **inaudible word** anymore just naturally. She could come in if she earns her way back. Earns a relational way back to participate in it. You are no longer welcomed naturally, like the child who is grown up. You have grown up. You may come back to visit as an adult here. But she may no longer be a child in this realm here. So, she's thrown out

Next she comes to another area. I think perhaps I should read this. This one here. I like this translation. It's by Robert Graves. Oddly enough after all of them, Graves its very interesting.

So, Psyche went away from Ceres. Twice as sad as she had come. She had never expected such a rebo(?). But soon as she saw **inaudible word** over in the valley another beautiful temple in the middle of the dark sacred grove. She's sure to miss any chance, even a remote one, putting things right for herself. So, she went down to employ the protection of the deity of the place, whoever it be. She saw various splendid offerings hanging from the branches the Grove from the temple door posts. And among them were rich garments embroidered with gold letters that spelled out the name of the Goddess to whom all were dedicated. and the name of the Goddess of course is Juno
Or in Greek Hera, the wife of Zeus himself. Juno the wife of Jupiter. Jupiter being Zeus. "So, she comes into the temple of that final queen. Queenly **inaudible word or two** who is at the root of the entire world order. Psyche fell at her knees, wiped away her tears." This is Apuleius' beautiful style here. Apuleius' Latin is **inaudible word or two** writing. And he's one of the best**inaudible word**at that. I mean you could make a really terrible movie out of **inaudible word or two** ideas.

Psyche fell on her knees. Wiped away her tears. and embracing the temple altar, still warm from the recent sacrifice, began to pray. Sister, wife of Jupiter, I cannot tell you where you may be at this moment but please come and help me. Juno appears and all her August laureates and says, my dear I should be only too pleased to help you, but unfortunately divine etiquette forbids. Divine etiquette forbids. I cannot possibly go against the wishes of Venus who we're married my son Vulcan.
And she goes on and on. And Psyche is left absolutely destitute. She has nowhere to go. Because if the very **inaudible word** of femininity in the universe can do nothing for her well then, it's all over basically. Who can? Who can indeed.

Only one figure is left. And we're always driven here. It's **inaudible word**. She **inaudible few words**. She has to go to the mouth of the lion. She has to walk through the dragon's lair. and there isn't any other place in whole universe. So of course, like **inaudible few words** back into the jar.

So, she goes back. And of course, when she arrives there Venus, according to Apuleius, has **inaudible word** beautifully **inaudible word** for a little while. And then finally Venus realizes that this is not going to slide. this situation. Because she also is trying to redistribute energy. And this won't do. So, she comes back to this kind of a technique. And she decides that she will set forth a challenge for Psyche. And the mind of course must accept this challenge. For curiosity's sake but also because mind is also trying to do something. Trying to achieve, I guess we'll put a phantom character, trying to achieve this. Which is a cosmic complimentary.

Both of these deal with polarities. And this one needs to be constantly reformulated to sustain itself. And never actually achieves a balance. And these are polarities. Polarities in the sense that there's a yes and a no. A true and a false. And that they're always seeking balance. Positive negative. And that they always yield the kind of mental formation that seeks to use analogies or polarities in their method of thinking. Whereas this tai chi form is a different method. Different mode.

So, Venus challenges Psyche. And in fact, there are to be four challenges. She gives difficulties for Psyche to do. It several of them are **inaudible word** ideas of Apuleius. All of them I'm have a psychic background. but let's see here. She's helped in each one of these. I guess this one be, this one would be good. There's a...

Venus returned that evening a little drunk. Smelling strongly of aphrodisiac ointments. And simply swathed in rose wreaths. I think you can imagine the world card from the tarot deck. Venus **inaudible word or two**. When she saw with what prodigiously speed Psyche had finished the task. And there's a key word there. Psyche's task. It's sort of like a rural thumb individuation personal development. Psyche always has tasks. Sir James George Frazer once wrote a beautiful book called Psyche's Tasks. After he finished The Golden Bough, he realized he needed to, to have a little clue to get through this enormous thirteen volumes. So, he wrote this little **inaudible word** called Psyche's Tasks as a key to the whole thing. Like a, you know those little fish pipes they used to play to **inaudible few words**. Psyche's Tasks is a key.

And Venus says well you didn't do this. How could have done this? Well I will just simply find something else for you to do. And as soon as the Goddess of Dawn had sent her team moving across the sky, Venus called Psyche and said do you see the grove bridging the bank of that stream over there with **inaudible few words** water. Shining golden sheep wandering about without a shepherd to look after them. I want you to fetch in that hank of their precious wool. and I don't care how you get it. Psyche rose willingly enough but with no intention of obeying Venus' orders. She had made up her mind to throw herself in the stream and sow into her sorrows. **inaudible word or two** of the source used in Pans pipes was blown upon by some divine grace and whispered to her, wait a second, wait. I know what dreadful sorrows you have suffered but you must not pollute these sacred waters by suicide. And another thing you must not go into the grove to risk your life among those dangerous sheep. Not yet. The heat of the Sun so infuriates the beasts that they shall kill any being that ventures among them. Etc etc. And each time Venus sets a threat Psyche of course finally through help from unseen corners is able to accomplish the task.

Until finally there is a task which Venus considers the **inaudible word or two** challenge. That there's no possible way that anyone can help with. And it is cleverly designed so that if by some chance Psyche is able to face the challenge of this final task, the reward or the treasure which Psyche wins from this task will reinstate Venus back into her position. So, its ingeniously designed. It's this. She wants Psyche to go to the underworld, to go the realm **inaudible word**. To go to Persephone and get a box of beauty...

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She wants Psyche to go to the underworld. To go to the realm of **inaudible word**. To go to Persephone and get a box of beauty. Enough to last at least a day. Because Venus has had such a tough time that she needs a day's help. And if Psyche can go to the underworld and get this little box of beauty from Persephone and bring it back up all the way the root of the world tree and return all the way back up to the celestial realm. If she can traverse the center line of all reality, make it back and complete that cycle the perhaps Venus will think better of her. Of course, who wouldn't

This seemed to be the end of everything. Since her orders were to go down to the underworld of Tottaris(?), Psyche saw that she was openly and undisguisedly being sent to her death. And that of course is the feeling tone of that final challenge in this sequence of Hermetic questing. It's always the feeling in fact one is simply at the end. One is being condemned to death. There is no way in which this can be resolved. There is absolutely no chance at all.

She went at once to a high tower deciding that her straightest and easiest way to the underworld was to throw herself down from it. And this is interesting. but the tower suddenly broke into human speech. That is the form of the tower itself enters into this magical realm and transforms from simply a tower into another part of relational reality capable of human speech. Says poor child, do you really need to commit suicide? There are other ways to carry out this task. You're not being loose enough. You're taking this far too serious. Now take two pieces of bread and the tower begins to direct her. And she sops two pieces of the bread in some honey. And she puts two coins in her mouth. and the tower tells her, now this is all **inaudible word** with tricks. So, you do a superior trickster yourself in order to get through this **inaudible word**. Because nothing is straight, everything is curved time and space. And as long as you are edging yourself along her time and space, you're going to be okay. But as soon as you try to go straight, it will be all over. You will be dead. So, loosen up.

Remember that story the King and the corpse. Down the line again. There's a series of riddles that reality has poised and the answer to them is not to answer them. Don't feel desperate about it. The answer has nothing to do with what you are in. You're in a different process. This other, if you believe, traps you in the illusion and that's where the death is.

So, Psyche, the first coin is to pay for the ride across the river Styx. She must, she must pay because she's not dead and she's not going to stay in the realm. And she doesn't want to owe. When she gets there, across the river there are three women weaving a shroud. It's sort of a, think of a negative. Think of a photographic negative. It's the negative of three graces. And these three weaving that shroud ask her if she would like to touch this beautiful fabric to see how its knit. And of course, if she dropped any one of these honey breads, she will die. And she politely refuses.

Then she comes upon this wonderful creature, Cerberus, the three-headed dog running the gates of Hades. And she uses a piece of honey bread, one handful of it, to distract the dogs so she may inter into hell. She goes to Persephone and it makes her dead. **inaudible word or two** her little black box and then she throws the other piece of honey bread to get out. And uses the other coin to get back across the River Styx. And as she's walking, she's almost done this process with the eight magical transformation of **inaudible word**. It's almost been here **inaudible word**. Psyche having her own self **inaudible word** nature, as they say, cannot resist. And so, she opens the box. And in the Box is nothing let's sort of a cloud of **inaudible word** sleepiness. And she falls mute.

But this is all as it should be. Because to the rescue comes Cupid. Amour. Injured Amour. Meanwhile **inaudible word** Venus also has been in the same situation. When a world order is at loggerheads, everything is at loggerheads. Nobody is safe. Everyone is in the same process of trying to redistributing the energy. Is trying to find some interchange relational form whereby order can be restored, and the horizons of reality can flow again. And that there can therefore be consciousness.

So Armour, meantime has gone through this healing process. And comes out and realizes that he by himself can never again simply be chubby little Cupid. That in fact having loved this mortal woman, the only problem for him has been her mortality. And he realizes that grandfather Zeus, or Jupiter, can give the boom of immortality and raised her up to his level so that there can be a real **inaudible word**. And having realized this and having had this psychological inspiration of his own, he comes out of his mother's house and there on the path is a very being, creature that he's been seeking. And of course, this little cloud of sleepiness from Hell is nothing to Amour. And he wipes it away. brings her awake. And finally takes her in and makes the case to his mother that in fact her powers have been working. they have even worked on him, her own son. Isn't it wonderful that Venus has their powers working again. because the two of them are in love as it should be proof positive that Venus is still active and is again active. And they go before Jupiter and he of course, makes Psyche immortal.

And as he raises her, he raises her up because we cannot on our own complete this cycle. We cannot on our own, return. We have to have that as a gift. It is a boom. It is given freely. We never earned. and this little synapse of reality as it is. the idea of immortality is always required this kind of a leap. And she is welcomed into Heaven.

And it's sort of like an ending of a Shakespearean comedy. where the image that Apuleius gives us, Jupiter is seated on his throne with his wife falling asleep with her head on his chest. Amour is next to him. Both of them getting drunk on Ambrose since they brought it out to **inaudible word** Psyche and **inaudible word**. They might as well polish it off. She has got her head on Amours chest falling asleep. and literally alls well that ends well.

Well let's end there and have some of that. And then we'll come back to it.

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