The Legend Of Pandora's Box
The background to the story of Pandora’s Box is the Titan Prometheus’ resistance to the law and the commands of the King of the Gods, Zeus. In Greek mythology Prometheus, whose name means forethought, was one of the Titans. He was a culture hero and a trickster figure who is credited with the creation of man from clay. He defied the Gods and brought them the gift of fire to the Earth, so that progress and civilisation became possible. Prometheus was known for his intelligence and as a champion of humankind. After either having got away with or having paid the price for one of his misdeeds, Prometheus kept going back for more. Zeus, however, was very crafty in the way of handing out punishments to those who refused to obey him.
As Prometheus’ penalty Zeus gave him Pandora, the first woman. She was a very different creature from man. Having been created in the forge of Hephaestus, she was as beautiful as a Goddess and very beguiling, thanks to traits bestowed upon her by Athene and Zeus himself. Athene was the Greek Goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilisation, law and justice, as well as warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts and skills. Zeus presented Pandora as a bride to Prometheus’ brother Epimetheus, who was only capable of afterthought. Prometheus had the gift of thinking ahead and expected retribution from Zeus because of his audacity with the fire, so he warned his brother against accepting any presents from their king.
When Zeus handed Pandora over to Epimetheus, she brought with her a box that carried a label with a warning that the box should never be opened by anyone. Epimetheus was so dazzled by his bride that he forgot his brother’s advice. He thought they were supposed to hold the gift his bride brought with her in safe-keeping for Zeus. Blissfully unaware of what kind of a present it held in reality, Epimetheus insisted that his wife followed the instructions on the box.
But then one day he had to leave Pandora on her own for a few hours. She had been gifted with curiosity as much as with all the other attributes her Divine parents themselves had. For Pandora the box was a present and therefore not merely something to be kept in trust, without ever looking at it. What business did Zeus have to tell her not to open it? Possibly she had listened to her brother-in-law’s tales of tricking the king of the Gods or maybe she saw nothing to fear in the box. What if she just had a quick peak?
No sooner said than done! Making sure that no-one was watching, Pandora opened the box just one tiny crack. As she did so, unpleasant ghostly forms started to gush forth from the opening. Without being aware of what she was doing, Pandora thus unleashed all the ills that subsequently had to be experienced and endured by our race, so that we should learn from them and grow in wisdom and understanding of the true purpose that lies behind our existence on the Earth plane.
In the end, Pandora’s gift with a difference would teach each one of us to discriminate and differentiate between good and evil, darkness and light. The sacred fire of the Gods hidden in her gift would eventually show us that what Prometheus brought us was merely showing how to make fire and how to use it wisely on the Earth plane. Precious though this was, Pandora was given something much more valuable. How else could it have been when it had its origin in the superior intelligence of her father, the King of the Gods, and the wisdom and love of his feminine counterpart, the Goddess Athene?
And so it came about that from Pandora’s appearance onwards, human beings were no longer allowed to lounge around all day. They now had to work very hard for their living and from time to time some of them succumbed to many different kinds of ailments, too. When Pandora thought that just about every one of the unpleasant things must surely have left the box, at its very bottom she discovered one more item. On closer inspection, lo and behold!, she found that it was not something evil, but that she had also unleashed onto our world the most precious gift of all and that was hope.
Built into all individual and the collective soul of our world with this gift was the instinctive/intuitive knowledge that things would always improve and better times would be just round the next corner, that progress was constantly being made by us and we were forever moving onwards and upwards on the evolutionary spiral of life.
Inspired by and dedicated to my friend Pandora,
who passed into the world of light in October 2014.
We’ll meet again,
Don’t know where,
Don’t know when,
But I’m sure we’ll meet one sunny day –
In the world of light.
Until then,
God bless you and keep you safe, always.
With love and light,
Aquarius
What Is Hope
When things go wrong, as they sometime will,
The optimist thinks: ‘They’ll come right again!’
When times are hard, positive thinkers say:
‘They will get better and become easier again.’
But the pessimist grumbles: ‘It’ll only get worse!’
And although this may take a while,
Because our thoughts and beliefs create our earthly reality,
Such forecasts invariably come true.
And then, each one in keeping with their perception of life,
Nods sagely and says: ‘I told you so!’
But what is hope?
It is not the closing of one’s eyes to
Difficulties and obstacles, risks and possible failures.
It is an inner trusting that knows:
If I fail now, I shall not do so forever.
If I get hurt, I shall be healed.
If I make mistakes, I shall learn from them,
And when I’ve learnt enough,
I will be allowed to move on
To lessons of a different nature.
What could be better?
Hope is the awareness of our innermost self that
Life is good and that the power of love
Is the most powerful force in the whole of Creation
That can straighten crooked corners and move mountains.
If we but ask, this force at all times is willing
To guide us through our most traumatic encounters,
And to help us heal every aspect of our whole being
As well as all relationships,
Especially the most difficult ones.
Hope is an inner knowing,
A steadily increasing certainty
That in God’s time, not ours,
All things in earthly life will eventually
Be made good and come right.
Our present existence is like a great stage
And one fine day we are going to
Step in front of its curtain,
Behind which we for so long have been acting,
Into the world of light, our true home.
We shall be received by the friendly audience
Of the Angels and Masters,
And all other spirit friends and helpers,
To take our bow.
Earth life is a tragicomedy of errors in which
Every participant eventually feels the need
To nail the desires of their lower self to the
Cross of consciousness of the Earth.
Those who have matured into spiritual adulthood and
Willingly submit themselves to Saturn’s demands
Of practising the restraint of self-discipline
And self-mastery in all their relationships,
At the end of their present lifetime
Will only leave good and healed connections behind.
They are presented by God and the Angels
With a leaving certificate that shows that
Earth life can teach them no more.
The teachers, in this case the Angels and Masters
Of the higher and highest planes of existence,
Move these students of life on to lessons
Of an increasingly elevated nature.
And that’s how every one of us in the fullness of time
Is going to take their final bow
On this side of the veil of consciousness.
United in friendship and love at last
With those who walked this way before us,
We enjoy the applause that greets us
On the other side of the veil,
Eager to find out where
The Angels may wish to take us next.
And in the shelter of God’s mighty wings
We shall forever serenely venture forth,
Safe in the knowledge that we shall
Never be frightened or feeling lonely again.
‘I will abide in Thy tabernacle forever;
I will make my refuge the shadow of Thy wings.’
Psalm 61:4
The above is a chapter from ‘Myths & Legends For The Aquarian Age’.
If it has whetted your appetite to read more, please follow the link below:
‘Myths & Legends For The Aquarian Age’