Argo Navis
_AM: You probably haven't heard about this constellation, since it was split into many others a long time ago. In the time of Claudius Ptolemy, this constellation in the Southern Hemisphere was designed as one of the largest in the sky. So much so that centuries later it had to be subdivided, and that is why today, instead of knowing it by its original name, it is known by the names of the parts that compose it: Carina, Puppis, Pyxis and Vela. The constellation of Argo Navis owes its name to the story of the Argonauts, “the swift navigators” (from the Greek “argos” = fast, and “nautés” = navigator).
_I: I have heard this name many times, “the Argonauts”, but why is it so famous?
_AM: His story is probably one of the first and oldest in Hellenistic oral literature, following all the typical steps of the Greek myth: an individual who sets out on an adventure facing monsters and enemies to accomplish a mission, returning home converted. in a hero. For this reason, his story became popular as an example of all adventures.
_I: The typical Greek Hero archetype. What is his story?
_AM: Well... If you are looking to be inspired by it, perhaps you will not be able to, because this is one of those stories that prefer not to have a happy ending, since despite the magic narrated, the Greeks liked tragedy, and to recognize that their own gods and heroes suffered from human-like lives, which did not usually have happy endings.
_I: Unlike our stories of recent generations, in which we usually put “And they lived happily ever after”, when the true stories tell something else. I was always struck by how Disney took the tragic stories of the Brothers Grimm and turned them into children's stories with happy morals and happy endings.
_AM: Europeans were always more realistic than North Americans when it came to telling stories, since Europe was formed by the harsh reality of the Mediterranean peoples, while the countries of North America were formed by dreams that sought to avoid European reality.
_I: It makes sense…
_AM: And North America globalized its “American Dream,” making everyone look for their happy ending, something that even transferred to spirituality.
_I: Yes, it is something that is noticeable, the feeling of believing that you have to become spiritual to live in a pink or rainbow world, to live in a magical dream of love and peace, which has nothing to do with the truth. of the cosmos...
_AM: This distances people from the doctrine of the hero who must prepare to fulfill his purpose in real life, leading them to seek the image of a happy and magical ending of equality and eternal love. And that is what we will remember today on our path... This is the story of the Argonauts: it all began with Jason, son of the King of Iolcus, who was dethroned by his brother. Sent away, Jason was trained by the only centaur benevolent to humans: Chiron, who introduced him to all types of arts, both those that nourished his body and his soul. This filled him with courage to claim his throne, but his uncle made him a proposal: if he managed to bring her the Golden Fleece, he would without hesitation give her the throne that belonged to him.
_I: What is the Golden Fleece?
_AM: A fleece is a fabric made of lamb's wool. In mythology it was said that it had arisen from a magical Ram, son of Poseidon, who under the command of the goddess of the clouds, Nephele, rescued two of her children from the hands of her stepmother. By this act, the Ram was placed in the heavens, being the constellation of Aries, and his fleece remained in the lands of his mother, Theophane, in a tree guarded by a Dragon and two Bulls that spit fire for their wings. nose.
_I: Wow… What an imagination…
_AM: Everything has its reason. In short, managing to obtain the fleece was practically impossible, with which the king would ensure Jason's death. However, he accepted the challenge and embarked on the adventure. The first thing he did was look for the fastest ship that existed, the best of all, and he found it in charge of "The Swift One", Argos, a sailor who built his ship with the help of Athena and the oracles, who made his bow will speak. When Captain Argos accepted the adventure, Jason sent for several men who wanted to be part of the crew, among whom today the names of Heracles, Castor and Orpheus will be familiar to you.
_I: Orpheus, the one with the Lyre.
_AM: Yes. Together with about 50 others, they embarked on adventures, through various islands and unknown lands, until they reached their destination, in the land of Colchis (present-day Georgia in the Caucasus). There, their king told them that they could take the Fleece if they managed to tame the Bulls that breathed fire so that they would plow the lands and sow dandelions, and then defeat the Dragon...
_I: …The Dragon again…
_AM: Yes… We approach him.
_I: And he did it?
_AM: Beat them? Of course not. Obviously a Greek lover of heroes would tell a different story, but the truth is that he would not have achieved anything without cheating, and all the work was done by a woman, the princess, whom he managed to fall in love with and convince to help him. Medea. She, with her potions, put the bulls and the dragon to sleep, which allowed him to take the Golden Fleece. He returned, married to Medea, to his kingdom in Iolco, as a conquering hero, but his uncle refused to give him the power. . And Medea, as always, helped him by bewitching the king's daughters who killed him.
_I: And then they managed to be kings and “lived happily ever after.”
_AM: If the story had been written by Walt Disney, yes. But it was not like that. Jason's cousin took the throne and had the couple exiled to Corinth. Bored with his normal life, Jason began to cheat on Medea with other women, and she cursed him, making him die alone, poor and abandoned by everyone...
_I: Oh my God… What a horrible story with no moral.
_AM: Well… We can try to find one for you. We could say that in the sky, today, the great and fast ship Argos is broken into pieces. The Constellation of Carina (keel of the ship), Puppis (stern of the ship), Vela (the fabric of a ship, sailboat) and Pyxis (the compass), constitute the most important parts of this ship. But the ship is not only a symbol of Jason's story, but something that runs through all the stories of the ancient world: navigation. Do you remember how it is said in Greek?
_I: Rule…
_AM: To navigate is to govern oneself, since the intercommunication of the representatives of the different kingdoms, they navigated to talk to each other. Good. The sea was an inaccessible horizon for the first humans, something practically divine. That is why the boats were typical of the Gods. In ancient Middle Eastern traditions, ships symbolized the vessels in which the Sun headed into battle with the shadows each day. The Sun sailed in the blue ocean of the sky. The ships represented that journey to the beyond, to the unknown, the uncontrollable, until they managed to be the captains of their own destiny. Atlantis became the main ruler of the world, since its civilization was born in the sea, and its power to control the waves made it gods compared to the rest of humans. Whoever sailed the seas, sailed the skies, for he swam with the stars. The Keel is the backbone of a ship, the axis of this divinity (Carina) that carries the rulers across the ocean of existence. At the stern the course is determined by the rudder, while the bow makes its way breaking the waves. And the divine breath, the wind of the gods, pushes the ship thanks to the extensive Sail. The Sun is the King of the Sky, and therefore he is a navigator who sails the seas to rule over his creation. To navigate, it is necessary to know the ocean, the waves, the currents, know how to observe the skies, interpret the clouds and stars, since it is the fixed stars and the planets that indicate directions to sailors.
_I: To govern oneself, like the Sun, is to govern oneself, it is to become Captain of one's own ship... Knowing how to control the words in the wind and waves of emotion. It is the mind of the air and the feelings of the sea, in its axis of the Keel, that allows a sailor to find his destiny and traverse the divine.
_AM: And to reach that divinity you need to live the adventure of the unknown. Confront the family, the couples, the internal and external monsters... The dragon that guards the Ego, Aries. Aries is the most basic Self, the one that refers to the most basic needs of the personality. A golden Ram is the brilliance of one's own Self, which recognizes its light and radiates it, not from unconsciousness but from consciousness. It is the gift that you obtain after the transit that involves facing the bulls of fire, that is, the need to eat and sleep, the two fundamental bases of life, the fears that prevent you from seeing beyond your body.
_I: Taurus…
_AM: To confront the Dragon, the third base of the need for a being, Reproduction, the fire of creation, the order of emotions. A hero's journey involves knowing how to control his ship and guide the crew on it... Knowing how to govern his past, present and future. This is how he will reign.
_I: But Jason couldn't do it... Why?
_AM: Because it was based on cheating, using others, led by his base passions, by his intention to be the king, and not the captain, abandoning friends along the way, having sex with various women and abandoning them, using the daughter of the king to obtain his prize based on the most animalistic needs, and return to take his power through betrayal and murder. Therefore, the success of the hero is not always making the journey and managing to defeat the monsters, but how you do it.
_I: The end does not justify the means… It would be something like this.
_AM: In Evolution based on distortion, the End does justify the means. In Integration based on Harmony, it does not justify them. Well, in the first case, you are based on expansion survival, and this has no rules. But in the second case, the path implies unity and coherence, in which you recognize that you do not have to conquer anything to be who you already are, you just have to remember it and take your place.
_I: That is why the Greeks ended their stories as tragedies, from which we know the popular expression “Greek Tragedy.” Because the great moral is that it is not a matter of achieving success, but of the ways in which we do it.
_AM: We are the sailors of our destiny, bearers of our own golden fleece that we call personality. We are the captains of the ship, sailing at the speed of our emotions and carried away by the force of our words. And the same ones are the ones that will take us to the ports that will confront us with our own monsters.
_I: The Path of Existence itself... That is true Karma, not what is imposed by others, but the way in which we decide to take what we impose on ourselves.
_AM: The very monsters you have decided to face. Your mission, purpose, whatever you decide to do, is nothing but yours, and yours alone. It is your own responsibility to navigate those waters. It doesn't matter if you get the Golden Fleece, if you manage to fulfill the assigned mission, the story will not have a happy ending if you choose to climb and force life to achieve your goals in an egoic way.
_I: But what if it's in service to others? That is, is it egoic to want to do a planetary task? Or help the poor, or immigrants, or any culture, or project, I don't know...? Whatever…
_AM: Anything that involves doing something for others is egoic.
_I: How?
_AM: The only thing that moves you to do something for others is your being's need to feel complete, fulfilled. And it's not bad. But you need to recognize it. Everything we do we do for the I Am, and if you do not refer to Him, then you will never achieve anything, and you will only be using others, cheating to achieve your goals of self-realization. You'll be being Jason.
_I: Sail the last leg… Alone. It's like, Birth!
_AM: The Birth of the Soul implies the effort of the Body. Release, let go, transform from one thing to the other. Let go of life and accept death, let go of death and accept life. Therefore today you must decide what you accept.
_I: Today?
_AM: This day reminds you of the Beginning of your Path and the End of another.
_I: The anniversary of my grandmother's death, and the beginning of the Harwitum path...
_AM: And today represents the trauma of repeating the same story of love, or moving forward to welcome life.
_I: Letting go of who I am in love with, and receiving the birth of my niece...
_AM: The journey awaits you… The journey is today. And by releasing the control of your Ego, you can live the adventure by becoming captain of your ship. Becoming realistic, recognizing what is the real illusion and what is the imaginary one. Everything is an illusion, but your discernment is what must show you the truth among truths.
_I: I do not understand…
_AM: Today you must choose what pulses in your heart. You must polish your keel, point the stern toward your destination, release the sail, and look at the compass of your heart. Destiny is never in front, but within, within is the only truth, the real illusion, in the heartbeat, the pulse, while in front is the false illusion. One is the celebration of life, and the other is the liberation from death.
_I: Raise anchors! Well, I decide to start the adventure towards Life.
_AM: Cover yourself with the bright Fleece of your personality to shelter yourself from the fresh winds of the Guiding Word. Sail on the calm waves of your emotion, sailing over the depths of your Soul. Destiny is a new beginning. On the horizon there is only freedom, and the compass that guides you in the stars always beats in your heart.
_I: Raise Candles! The Dragon awaits us to celebrate under the Tree of Life.
_AM: Sail free, Argonaut of Creation.