Читать книгу Close to the Bone - Jean Shinoda Bolen - Страница 35

Psyche's final task required that she descend into the underworld herself and return. Thinking that the only way to the underworld was through her death, she climbed to the top of a tall tower with the intention of throwing herself off of it, when the tower spoke to her and gave her advice on how she could go to the underworld and return. She was to carry a cake in each hand for Cerberus, the three-headed, terrible hound: one to give him to let her pass through the gates into the realm of Hades, the other to give him when she left. She was to bring two coins for Charon the ferryman: one coin was the fare to take her across the river Styx, and the other would be needed for the return trip. This was what could be called standard mythological travel-agent advice. What was specific and told only to Psyche was that she would be asked for help that she must not give. Instead, she must harden her heart to pity, say no, and go on.

Three times, she heard pleas to help: a lame old man with a lame donkey asked her to pick up a few twigs that had dropped from the donkey's load; then a dead man who lacked a coin for the ferryman and was floating in the river Styx raised his hands for her to grasp, beseeching her to help him cross; and finally, three dim-sighted old women asked her to stop and help them with their weaving. Three times, she was tested by the needs of others that seemed to ask so little of her. It is easy to imagine that she felt pulled toward helping, but each time she heeded the advice she was given, hardened her heart to pity, said no, and walked on.

Had she stopped to lend a hand, she would have had to let go of whatever she carried in that hand. Though a cake or a coin may seem a small thing to lose, missing either one of them meant that she would never again see the light of day. For without that second cake, she could not placate the terrible three-headed dog and could not leave the underworld. Missing one coin would strand her there. If she had been unable to say no, she would have lost what she needed to make the journey and return.

When we are seriously ill or recovering from surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, or any life-threatening or health-threatening condition, we are on Psyche's journey. If we are accompanying someone we love through the underworld, we will need all the resources we have for both of us. The need to conserve our strength, to not extend ourselves at such times, is advice we need to heed. The Psyche myth may make the point in a deeper way than a rational explanation, especially when—as is often the case—people who drain and deplete us have held us in the relationship through guilt and the assumption that we are responsible for them.

When we are going through an underworld phase, there is the possibility that we will not return if we do not hold on to what we need. When this part of the Psyche myth strikes a chord, we know that the difference between making our way back to physical, psychological, or spiritual health may hinge upon very little. Like Psyche, we may be asked to do something that seems on the surface a small expenditure of time and energy, and we may be drawn to help out of compassion and because we feel mean-spirited and selfish (guilty) if we say no. It is not a small thing; it is a moment of truth. To hold on to the message of the myth when we know it is true (and yet have trouble justifying it to others) may be possible if we imagine we are Psyche making a descent into the underworld and our return depends on whether we can harden our heart to pity and guilt and say no to whatever and whoever we know will drag our spirit down and take energy and optimism from us that we cannot afford to lose.