The Goddess Eos (1895), by Evelyn de Morgan.
The Goddess Eos (1895), by Evelyn de Morgan (Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

Happy Spring Equinox, to those in the Northern hemisphere (and Autumn Equinox, to those in the Southern ‘sphere).

Here’s a little Spring-time reflection food for you, to help tap into or attune with the essence of Spring, wherever you may be.

There are some beautiful and telling paintings and sculpture that give us food for thought and insight, along with visual beauty (all very Venusian!), about the richness, fertile new greening, and bounty of Spring.

This painting by Evelyn de Morgan, of the Goddess Eos, which means Light, as in the new light that rises with the dawn. Eos was, to the Greeks, the essence of Life known to them as the Goddess of Dawn. The Lightbringer.

Notice that de Morgan’s painting of Eos very closely resembles The Star, tarot archetype associated with Aquarius, both pouring forth the Waters of Spirit that moisten the desert-wastelands (ala Isaiah), and nourish Nature and the humans connected to and dependent upon Nature for our wellbeing.

Statue of Eirene with the infant Ploutos: Roman marble copy of bronze votive statue by Cephisodotus the Elder, now in the Glyptothek, Munich (Image from Wikimedia Commons)
Statue of Eirene with the infant Ploutos: Roman marble copy of bronze votive statue by Cephisodotus the Elder, now in the Glyptothek, Munich (Image from Wikimedia Commons)

Eos also finds its way into the word Easter, with the longer days associated with Spring, and the nourishment received by the increasing light to the new growth of nature as well as in our own minds, bodies, and spirits.

The ancient Greeks also recognized the Life Essence that erupted with such abundant generosity in the Spring-time as the goddess Eirene, whose name means Peace.

It’s interesting to me that Eirene, like Eos, is from a more ancient time still — these roots go deep, and are deeply embedded into our ancestral cellular memory. Despite being tempted into superficial bling-bling ensorcelment in the Age of Rootless Distraction, we do have the wisdom planted deeply within us.

While Eos was often depicted with a ‘horn of plenty’, or a cornucopia overflowing with bounty, Eirene is depicted carrying little Baby Ploutos — known in astro-mythology as Pluto, child of Demeter (The Mother), and one of the significant transformative archetypal forces happening right now (the Uranus-Pluto Square). Maybe you feel the uneasy stir, the pinch, the churn?

Eirene, by Ludwig Knauss, circa 1850-1888 (Image courtesy of WikiCommons)
Eirene, by Ludwig Knauss, circa 1850-1888 (Image courtesy of WikiCommons)

In ancient times, Pluto or Ploutus was known as the god of plenty, of a greater sort of wealth (which in its original understanding meant all that was needed for wellbeing of the individual and community).

As ‘god of the Underworld’, Pluto was specifically connected with the sort of wealth that we find ‘under ground’, both literal and wisdom-wealth. A far richer sort of wealth than has been so narrowly redefined as ‘Wall Street’ and Big Banks and so forth in our times, and we’re all the poorer for it.

The reason I mention it is because it often differs starkly from what we see now, and it can be worthwhile and wise (and healthy, frankly) to dip back into the earlier wisdom and thus tap into a vital essence that’s been buried and that’s needed to refresh us, renew us, with new life, a restored wholeness.

‘Tis the Season.

Spring emerges from the underworld of the Winter Mysteries, where much of Life happens under the surface. With Spring, as with Dawn, we feel awakened and uplifted and nourished by a returning Light, and Lifeforce after the rejuvenation of Night and Winter.

Spring – Eos, Light.

Spring – Eirene, Peace.

Spring – Carrying with it the infant (known to some as the Divine Child) Ploutus or Pluto: Plenty, bounty, and the wealth that sustains the wellbeing of individual and community.

Happy Spring, wherever in the world you may be.

Big Love,

Jamie