By Stacey Shelby, Ph.D.

I want to turn to the fourth task in the myth of Eros and Psyche.  Psyche’s fourth and final task given to her by Aphrodite is to descend to the underworld and meet the great goddess, Persephone.  Psyche is to ask Persephone for a cask of her beauty ointment and bring it to the upperworld for Aphrodite.  Psyche thus far has been successful with the support of guides and super-natural aid that show her the way.  She succeeds in getting across and back on the ferry with toll for the ferryman; she bribes the three-headed hound, Cererbus in both directions; she sits humbly with Persephone, receives the cask, and, as she is about to return – once she is through the absolute worst of the peril – she becomes curious about what is in the cask and opens it, knowing Aphrodite has instructed her not to.  Erich Neumann (1956) had an interesting view of this action.  He wrote in Amor and Psyche:

By preferring beauty to knowledge, she reunites herself, rather, with the feminine in her nature.  And because she does this lovingly and for Eros, her “old” femininity enters into a new phase.  It no longer consists in the self-contained beauty of a young girl who sees nothing beside herself, nor is it the seductive beauty of Aphrodite, who has only the “natural purpose” in mind.  It is the beauty of a woman in love, who wishes to be beautiful for the beloved, for Eros, and for no one else. (p. 123)

Neumann, as a critique, flips between the intrapsychic process and the literal “woman,” which I think, at worst, can create confusion about a woman objectifying herself for her beloved (and I suspect may be part of my shopping complex).  However, that is not what this is about.  I think we need to qualify this love as quite different than the typical neurotic, possessive love that we see in the traditional relationship paradigm; indeed, I think it need not be considered as a lived experience at all – though the adage as within so without applies as well.

The soul in love is a way of being and living.  This union of mature love replaces the naïve love – and Psyche gives birth to a daughter named Joy (or Pleasure or Harmony) – pleasure in life itself is the reward for her hard journey.  Love becomes the spiritual experience that awakens the ego to the soul and to the transpersonal realm.  But Psyche would be the first to tell us, love is not all bliss and joy; it is hard-won and requires a journey deep into the underworld.