The Goddess by my side

I saw Athena the morning of the day I'm writing this. She was disguised as a beautiful woman but had retained her beautiful gray eyes as if to give me a secret signal. I was on the bus going to the University as I do every morning; the bus was crowded with people and many strangers stood between us. I knew that the two of us were not strangers. She had existed from time immemorable and so had I: the great goddess and the hero who receives the gifts of her grace. I'd never seen that particular woman before but I knew very well that Athena was with her. How did I know this, you ask, and I can't blame you. If you expect me to tell you that the spirit of Athena had entered her body and posessed her then you'll be disappointed; I don't believe that. She was just a woman and I was just a man but we were both actors playing our roles in a wonderful play, called Life. The play goes on repeating itself, under new guises but its essence is always the same.

Every one of us, is an actor in this wonderful play; everyone has the stage for himself (or herself) and, By Dionysos, may he give the best performance! The Myths, the Gods, the Heroes, every storyteller's tale from the first hunters who sat around a fire, to the latest extravaganza from Hollywood attempts to put on paper a small fragment of this magnificent play. This is why we may recognize in the creation of a fellow human being a thing of beauty. This is why we feel exalted and all-powerful but also, why we feel worthless and insignificant. No one said that Life's play is a comedy!

What does being an actor in a play, mean? Primarily that there are lines you have to say, rules you have to follow. Nature has built the script of her play into our genes. Our most significance essence, the core of our being is that which we are born with, the rest are simply additions created by the experience of being alive. The gods and myths are firmly rooted on this fundamental center of existence. They are powers who control the flow of energy in our psychic system. I'm not getting New-Agey here, don't misunderstand me. If you have been struck by the arrows of Eros and have felt the heat of desire for another human being you'll know what I mean. You've surrendered to the blind rage of Ares at times, but, also to the calming wisdom of Athena or the uplift into Elysian heights which Apollo gave you. Dionysos lurks in you too, ready to thrust you into his unknowing, primitive orgiastic ecstasy. At times Pan seizes you and there seems to be no place to run to. At others Hermes plays a little joke on you and your lips turn into the little grin of naughty pleasure. The gods, represent the full spectrum of what is possible for man, the totality of the human experience, but also its limitation. That is why they can never be completely reached: no one has yet conquered this totality of being just a man.

The play leaves you freedom for initiative. It is you who says those lines, who acts out those eternal actions which the gods put into your mind. It is you who has the power to either turn them into a beautiful performance or to degrade them into a parody. Eros and Anteros, Ares and Athena, Apollo and Dionysos, a multitude of forces operate in your psyche. It is you who responds to them and materializes them into action. Through you, the Muses sing the song of life. But what are you? what is the basis of your existence? That is the great riddle which no one has been able to solve. I am not able to offer any guidance; my view is this: I exist, I feel, I think, the gods are in me driving me to action, I decide, I act, I accept life, I never say that it is ugly. Life is a gift which you have the choice to either keep or give back. If you choose to keep it, accept it just as it is - you're too small to change the rules. Gnôthi Sauton said the Pythian god at his temple at Delphoi. Know yourself to be human, that is the meaning of the phrase.

One might ask: when a play ends, the actors step off the stage and go to their homes. What do we become when we leave the stage? We cease to exist is the short answer. The long one is, we re-enter the womb of the Earth and the Sea and the Air out of which all life on the planet is descended. Our spirit (whatever it is made of) goes back to where it came from. The little island of consciousness which we were returns to the sea out of which it had once emerged. All that remains is the memory of our lives (for good or ill) and the things and beings that mark our passage from this Earth. The purpose of life is life itself, the magnificent show. Watch the show take place under the bright lights, step onto the scene and say your piece. When the lights go out and the actors go home, the show is ended. Do not mourn its passing; it was a beautiful show. Remember that the play of Life is something to be enjoyed, not a chore. So, enjoy it!

Athena got off the bus one stop before me. A fleeting glance she gave towards me, assures me that it was indeed her; She had a proud, serene, confident look, the one I usually associate with her. I sat watching her, mesmerized, as the bus went by. Soon, she was gone from my sight but I knew well that she had never truly left me. She was born before I was, in the womb of my mother, in the little body of a child that prepared itself to face the light of the world. She will be with me until the last day. I will never cease to acknowledge her presence, the presence of any god, both in me and in the wonderful Cosmos of which I am a part. She'll truly be, always at my side.

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