If we are going to talk about the stars we are going to have to talk about everything under them. Because we are here and they are there the only thing that will close the gap between us are the stories we tell about them to each other, the starries we tell, the stories we tall, and the stories we tell about us to the stars.
The ladder we shall use is our imagination, propped against our words.
For image is the material we build best with, and language is the magical power that even the angels envy and only the living have.
So let us begin……
You know that game, snakes and ladders, well…
Recently I spent a week in Devon and of particular interest was a moment I had in St Marys Church in Totnes, which has a chapel to St George and upon his altar are two icons. One of which is Perpetua & Felicity. Two women bearing jugs.
As I attempted to take a photograph, I opened my phone to find it was already accidently in a star gazing app called Skymaps. I love this app because it gives you in real time and from your location, all the stars, planets and constellations around you, including those under the earth. I found myself pointing my phone at the religious icon and viewing the constellation that would be behind it. Placed in the East before me at eye level, at that moment, the icon stands on Ophiuchus and occupies the constellation of Serpens. The snake pointing upwards like a ladder, tail under the earth and ascending above it into the sky. This is the rising constellation and astrologically what is rising is underscored, like the Jupiterian index finger pointing to the heart of the matter. The Ascendent is where Mercury rejoices as he deftly moves between the gods and mortals, and it is called the Helm, because it steers and directs the course of our life’s journey. In this encounter (perhaps as in hers?) the serpent is our guide.
Below you can see the images, a little roughly alighned, with the fancy slide bar thingy…
Perpetua was famous for her vision
These two women, Perpetua and Felicity, were martyred on 3 March 203 CE. Before her death Perpetual sought out visions concerning her fate. Her I give her vision in full, from The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity.
I beheld a ladder of bronze, marvelously great, reaching up to heaven; and it was narrow, so that not more than one might go up at one time. And in the sides of the ladder were planted all manner of things of iron. There were swords there, spears, hooks, and knives; so that if any that went up took not good heed or looked not upward, he would be torn and his flesh cling to the iron. And there was right at the ladder’s foot a serpent lying, marvelously great, which lay in wait for those that would go up and frightened them that they might not go up. Now Saturus went up first (who afterwards had of his own free will give up himself for our -sakes, because it was he who had edified us; and when we were taken he had not been there). And he came to the ladder’s head; and he turned and said: Perpetua, I await you; but see that serpent bite you not. And I said: it shall not hurt me, in the name of Jesus Christ. And from beneath the ladder, as though it feared me, it softly put forth its head; and as though I trod on the first step I trod on its head. And I went up, and I saw a very great space of garden, and in the midst a man sitting, white-headed, in shepherd’s clothing, tall milking his sheep; and standing around in white were many thousands. And he raised his head and beheld me and said to me: Welcome, child. And he cried to me, and from the curd he had from the milk he gave me as it were a morsel; and I took it with joined hands and ate it up; and all that stood around said, Amen. And at the sound of that word I awoke, yet eating I know not what of sweet.
Fordham University, Medieval Sourcebook:
St. Perpetua: The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity 203
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/perpetua.asp
It seems fitting that a snake ascends from under her feet in the sky at the same moment of my looking, from where I was looking. I did not know her story yet, or her name. When I read a brief biography about her later that day, a shiver went down my spine like a snake on a ladder.
The etymology of her name; Vibia Perpetua is interesting: Vibia means bridge, or plank (for crossing) and perpetual is self-explanatory as never ending. The perpetual bridge, with a vision for a ladder….it does make me wonder about the veracity of her story, although it appears her existence is historical, and her account taken to be historical also.
There is an intersection between her mystical vision and my vision by happenstance of her stood on a serpent constellation. I shared for a moment her passion in my own sight and this with modern technology. Her vision encompasses some important points on my own mythological journey. Visions, the snake, the ladder, the weapons, the garden. More on these as I go.
This blog is going to be very much about such magical moments. Moments of synchronicity and serendipity. The entanglement of the seen and unseen. The Imaginal. The numinous. Enchantment and mythopoesis. I shall climb the Perpetua ladder, a bridge to the stars on the back of a starry serpent. Step up and travel with me.
Astrology Imaginarium 