Trust the Mystery: Psyche & Tantra

Persephone’s Box of Beauty

What is in Persephone’s box of beauty?

Why did Persephone so willingly hand over her box of beauty when Aphrodite sent Psyche, a mortal, down to the Underworld on her final, desperate trial — Psyche’s last attempt to win back her beloved Eros?

Eros, The God of Love, whom Psyche loved beyond reason, yet from whom she had been torn apart by distrust, betrayal and confusion.

This is the myth that calls us now, at the cusp of the equinox. When all things turn toward descent: into decay, decomposition, devotion to the dark.

The Wound of Love

In this timeless story Aphrodite, Goddess of Beauty, Pleasure and Love, is scorned when humans turn away from her cult of beauty and toward the fragile, mortal beauty of Psyche.

Enraged by this desertion, Aphrodite sends her son Eros to punish Psyche — to prick her with an arrow that will make her fall in love with a pig, so that Psyche becomes a laughingstock to the entire kingdom.

But when Eros flies to Psyche’s window, ready to strike, a flicker of moonlight passes across Psyche’s face.

And Eros hesitates.

That single heartbeat is enough.

He drops his arrows and one pierces his own skin.

Thus, the God who has wounded so many with the agony and the ecstasy of love is pierced himself by that same brutal power. For the first time, Eros feels what he has so often dealt: the rapture, the ache, the undoing.

He falls madly in love with Psyche.

The Palace of the Imaginal

But Psyche remains oblivious to Eros’ love. As do her parents, who are in fact despairing at the lack of suitors for Psyche. She’s the most beautiful human in the world and yet she remains unmarried. They begin to wonder, have they done something to offend the Gods?

And so, Psyche’s parents visit The Oracle at Delphi, The God Apollo, to ask what to do. Apollo prophesies that Psyche must be abandoned atop a mountain. There, alone, she will finally be claimed by a beastly husband.

This is not a time when mortals ignore the will of the Gods. 

So full of grief, Psyche’s parents heed Apollo’s words and dress Psyche in funeral attire. She is taken, and left, at the peak of a mountain. And she waits for this beastly husband to come and snatch her away.

But it is Eros who comes to claim Psyche. He sweeps her away to his Palace of the Imaginal, where he comes to her only at night — invisible, intoxicating, enveloping Psyche in endless pleasure.

Psyche both loves and hates this.

In Eros’ arms she feels trust, safety, bliss. But each morning, when he vanishes back to Mount Olympus, dread seeps in — confusion, unknowing, doubt. That confusion, like a poison, is later fanned by Psyche’s sisters until it overcomes her.

With an oil lamp and a mirror, she breaks Eros’ command, sneaking into his bedchamber to see who he truly is.

And there, by the light of her own trembling hand, she discovers that her hidden husband is none other than the God of Love himself.

But when Eros awakens, he is heartbroken — betrayed by Psyche’s lack of trust and wounded by a drop of oil from the lamp.

He flees, furious. The Palace of the Imaginal crumbles. Psyche is left alone, wandering the earth, longing for her beloved.

The Impossible Tasks

Psyche stumbles through empty temples until she reaches Aphrodite’s own. She falls to her knees, begging forgiveness, pleading with Aphrodite to send a message to Eros — to tell him just how sorry she is, just how much she loves him.

But Aphrodite’s heart is not soft.

Not only has Psyche betrayed her son; she is the mortal who has drawn away Aphrodite’s own devotees, letting the worship of beauty, love and pleasure vanish from the world.

And so Aphrodite sets Psyche three impossible tasks.

First: Psyche must sort 108 sacks of wheat, millet, grain, lentils and poppy seeds into separate piles before sunset. Psyche despairs, knowing this will take fifty years. But a colony of ants takes pity on her and together they complete the task.

Next: Psyche must retrieve golden wool from the field of flesh-eating rams, so Aphrodite may weave herself a shroud. Psyche sees the ravenous rams and trembles with despair at the river’s edge, ready to throw herself into its current, but a reed rises from the water and whispers:

“Psyche, do not poison our waters with your death. Wait. When Helios the Sun God rolls from the sky and Selene, the Moon Goddess, rises — the rams will sleep, their rage will sink into the hush of night. Then, and only then, gather their golden wool from the brambles.”

And Psyche does. She collects the wool and carries a bundle of it, glowing, back to Aphrodite.

Aphrodite begrudgingly accepts this, and gives her a third task: fetch sacred water from the source of the River Styx — a river no mortal may touch without dying.

Psyche climbs the perilous ascent, knowing death awaits her, when Zeus’s eagle Aëtos appears. The great bird snatches Aphrodite’s crystal cup, dips it into the deadly stream and returns to Psyche with the impossible gift. He flies her back to Aphrodite and Psyche, hands raised in prayer, offers the Goddess of Beauty the cup.

But the Gods are not always merciful. And Aphrodite refuses to soften.

The Final Descent

Aphrodite demands that Psyche perform one last task — the most perilous of all.

Psyche must descend into the Underworld, find its Queen, Persephone, and ask for a box of her beauty.

Psyche knows that no mortal can descend to the Halls of Hades and return.

She climbs a tall, dark tower, ready to fling herself into death, so that she can be catapulted straight into the Underworld. Where she can forever stay with her grief and guilt — when the tower speaks.

It teaches her the sacred, downward path: what offerings to carry, how to pass Charon the ferryman, the Fates and Cerberus, the three-headed hound who guards the gates.

And against all odds, Psyche descends.

She stands before Persephone, begging:

“Please, oh Queen of Darkness, she who causes the narcissus to blossom with sweetness and wilt with sorrow at the cusps of every year — I ask you, gift me a box of your beauty to bring back to Aphrodite.”

The Queen’s Gift

But why should Persephone take pity on Psyche?

What is it within Psyche that moves the Queen of the Dead, Persephone? She who was once a maiden herself, torn from innocence, taken into death, remade in shadow, crowned in darkness?

Does Persephone recognise her own journey, her own descent, in Psyche’s hallowed eyes — the grief, the surrender, the transformation from Maiden to Queen?

Whatever it is, Persephone does not refuse her.

She gives Psyche the box.

A box of beauty.

The greatest beauty of the Underworld.

The Black Mist

Psyche carries the precious gift back up through the Halls of Hades, past Cerberus, past the Fates, past Charon, all the way up to the world above.

But in the quiet of the cave that breathes in the opening between the Upper and Underworlds, Psyche cannot resist.

She opens the box.

And from within it rises not gold nor jewels but a black mist. It swirls up, enfolds her and sends her into a deep descent; a heavy, full and rich sleep.
A sleep full of dreams more delicious than waking.
A sleep so deep that nothing but the kiss of true love and devotion can awaken Psyche from it.

The Beauty of the Dark

This is the beauty Persephone gives — the beauty Aphrodite longs for:
The beauty of the dark.
The beauty of deep rest.
The beauty of surrender — of letting go so completely that the soul may dream its own way into rebirth.

And so I ask again:

What is in Persephone’s box of beauty — for you?

An Invitation to Descent

We are holding a free Workshop on Descent just as we move past the cusp of the equinox.

We will honour the descent we each must make at this time of year. The turning into decay, decomposition, devotion to the dark.

This honouring of descent is also a holding field for those ready to step into PSYCHE — our month-long immersion in Psyche and Soul — where we will honour the fertile dark through deep embodied practice, Tantric ritual and deep holding.

PSYCHE is the first 100 hours of the Samāveśa 300-Hour Advanced Embodied Yoga Training. You can join us for this first immersion online, culminating in a retreat in Granada next autumn, or sign up for the full Advanced Facilitation Training. We begin on Samhain. 

If you are longing to know what the Queen of the Underworld might place in your hands, then come.

Come with us to the entrance of the descent.

We meet in the cave between the Upper and Underworlds.