The Challenges of Night Sect People in a Day Sect World

The ancient Greeks and Romans told a story about a woman named Psyche who was so beautiful, she was compared to Venus. The story of Cupid and Psyche is often told as an allegory—the union of the soul with God, the temptations of the flesh, the reward of committed love. 

As an astrologer, I see another story in it: the trials of being a person who is ruled by the moon in a world ruled by the sun—and a guide for how to get through those trials and find happiness.

Cupid and Psyche: The Myth

Venus was angry at the comparison and punished the land. A seer was consulted and decreed that Psyche must to marry a monster to assuage the wrath of the goddess. Her family marched Psyche to the wilderness where she was left to die, but she was carried by the wind to a beautiful house. 

Later that night, in her dark bedroom, Psyche was visited by an unknown lover who left by dawn. During all of these visits, Psyche was never allowed to see her lover or know his identity. 

For many nights these visits continued until Psyche’s sisters, wracked by worry (and, no doubt, curiosity) were allowed to visit Psyche at her new home. Jealous of her new life, her sisters chided her for her foolishness, suggested that Psyche’s lover must be a monster. Why else would he refuse to be seen in the light?

In response to her sister’s cajoling, Psyche brought a lamp and a knife (in case her lover really was a monster) to her bedroom and lit it when her lover was asleep. Instead of a monster, she found a beautiful man with wings, the god Cupid, Venus’s son. 

In her shock, she spilled some of the oil, injuring Cupid, and Cupid flew out the window leaving Psyche alone. 

Thus began her grief and trials. She wandered the earth looking for Cupid, helping the gods and receiving no help in return, until she appealed to Venus directly for help. Venus punished her for seducing her son with a series of impossible tasks, hiding from Psyche the fact that Cupid was healing in Venus’s own house. 

With help, Psyche completes all of Venus’s tasks but the last, a descent to the underworld for beauty from Proserpina. Curious, Psyche looks in the box just as she is about to finish her task and is sent into a magical sleep. 

Fortunately, Cupid has healed by then and saves her from her sleep, carrying her to realm of the gods, where he begs Jupiter to allow her to marry him. Jupiter agrees in exchange for Cupid’s help seducing women, and he gives her ambrosia to drink, transforming her into a goddess. 

The gods attend the wedding of Cupid and Psyche, and they live happily ever after. 

Psyche is a Role Model for Night Sect People

In the story, Psyche is swept along from one thing to the next in a passive way. This is how lunar people prefer to go through life. Solar people prefer to go through life with a plan, and lunar people are taught that their way of being in the world, responding to their surroundings instead of forcefully creating events, is misguided or irresponsible. 

Initially, Psyche’s approach works for her. She is carried into the arms of a man who loves her. Like lunar people, she listens to her intuition, which tells her that her circumstances are lovely, even if she isn’t able to see everything that is happening to her clearly. The moon is the luminary of the night. Moonlight does not reveal the world with the precision of sunlight, but its dimness allows us to hear more clearly the voice of intuition and the heart.

Things go badly for Psyche when her sisters insist that she bring a light into her bedchamber, revealing the identity of her lover in a blinding, solar way.

Psyche’s trials are the trials of a lunar person who is forced onto an achievement-oriented track in life. She is thrust into the role of the solar heroine and despairs every step of the way. It is her lunar drive to form relationships that saves her. At every challenge, she is met by an ally with special knowledge who gives her what she needs to succeed. 

Cupid and Psyche: A Guide to Happiness for Night Sect People

Ultimately, the myth of Cupid and Psyche can be read as an instruction manual for night sect people:

1. Trust your intuition. Even if you don’t have all the cold, hard facts, your intuitive sense of people and situations is designed to help you navigate situations where you don’t know everything.

2. Resist advice that tells you to use rationality in a situation you feel requires mystery, intuition, and emotional finesse to navigate.

3. Life doesn’t have to be a competition. It’s okay to just enjoy life and not orient your life around collecting accomplishments.

4. Look for allies. You don’t need to be the conquering hero, achieving everything by yourself. Your ability to form relationships with people who have knowledge and strengths you do not is wisdom, not weakness.

If you’d like to learn more about the astrology of Cupid and Psyche, check out my lecture.