Psyche and Eros. The Story about Your Creativity

For all of us who are interested in (our own) creativity: the psychologist James Hillman suggests that the work of engaging with creativity?is?the work of falling in love with (and healing) the soul. When a story is alive with archetypal energy, it becomes a narrative cauldron that nurtures an alchemical process. This process is by nature erotic. It is driven by impulse to create life. The myth of Psyche and Eros explores the relationship between Love and Soul.

The myth of Psyche and Eros can be found in The Golden Ass, a 2nd?century novel by a writer named Apuleius—the only novel written in Latin to have survived in its entirety. It’s the story of a character named Lucius who, in desiring to become a shape shifter, turns himself into a donkey before going on a journey to connect with Isis, a goddess ruling over love, beauty, sexuality, and magic. This story comes about one-third of the way through the novel, a tale within a tale, reminding us how important storytelling is to psychological transformation and wholeness. It tells of a young human woman, Psyche, who is cursed by Aphrodite to be sacrificed because humans have begun to worship her beauty. Aphrodite sends her son Eros to sacrifice Psyche to a monster. But Eros falls in love with her at first sight. Instead, he takes her home and marries her in secret—the only proviso being that she cannot see him. Psyche is convinced by her sisters that she?must?see him—that she must know what she is wed to.

Armed with a knife and lamp (alchemical symbols of knowledge,) she goes to find Eros. When she comes across him, she sees the most beautiful man she has ever seen. As she admires him, she leans forward to gaze on him and a drop of oil falls out of the lamp. The burn wakes him and he flies away. Injured and betrayed, Eros flies home to his mother, who sends a now pregnant Psyche out on a quest to fulfill four labors, which, once completed allow her to reunite with Eros. She completes these labors and returns to Eros. Happy times. The end.