The Capture of the Cretan Bull

The Presiding One spoke to the Watcher, “Where is the man that stood with power before the gods and received their gifts, then entered into the first gate?”

“He rests Great One. He mourns for his friend and ponders his failure, seeking inside himself for answers.” The Watcher says.

“That is good”, says the Presiding One, “The gifts of failure ensure success when understood. Let him proceed through, to the second gate.”

The second gate opened wide and a great Voice was heard to say, “Pass through the gate, proceed upon the Way. Perform the labor and report back to me.”

Alone and despondent, worn out from distress, Hercules slowly passed through the pillars of the second gate. He goes to find the sacred bull. The Light of the gate reveals an island on the horizon, Crete, home of King Minos, the keeper of the bull. The white bull had been a gift to Minos, to be sacrificed to the gods but Minos chose to keep the sacred bull and sacrificed another in its stead. Cursed for his betrayal, the sacred bull goes mad and begins terrorizing the King’s island.

Crossing the ocean to the island of Crete, Hercules begins his task of seeking and finding the bull and returning it to the Holy Place where lived the one eyed men. He chases the bull from place to place, led by the light on the bull’s forehead, a bright lamp that shone in dark places. Alone, he sought the bull. Alone he chased it. Alone he captured it.

Around him stood the Seven Sisters urging him on his way and, mounting the bull, in the shining light from the bull’s forehead, he rode the bull across the waters to the land of the three Cyclops to the Temple of the Lord. At the water’s edge three men stood and, grasping the bull, they took it away from Hercules.

“What have you here?” asks Brontes, stopping Hercules upon the Way.

“The Sacred Bull, O Holy One” answers Hercules.

“Who are you? Tell us your name.” says Steropes.

“I am the son of Hera, a son of man and yet a son of god. I have performed my task. Now take the bull into the Holy Place and save it from death, as it was meant to be sacrificed.”

“Who told you to seek and save the bull?” asked Arges moving towards the Temple.

“Within myself I felt an urge and sought the Watcher. Instructed by the Presiding One, he sent me on the Way. With much searching and many pains I found the bull. Helped by its Holy light, I rode it through the separating sea to this Holy Place.

“Depart in Peace my son, your task is done.”

The Watcher saw him returning and went out to meet him along the Way. Across the waters came the voices of the seven sisters singing around the bull and closer still, came the chanting of the three one-eyed men within the Temple of the Lord, high in the Holy Place.

“You came back with empty hands,” says the Watcher.

“My hands are empty because I have fulfilled the task. The sacred bull is rescued and safely secure with the Three.”

And the Watcher replies, “Within the light you shall see light. Walk in that light and there, see the light. The bull in is its Holy Place. So your light will shine brighter.”

Hercules drops to the ground in exhaustion to rest.

Later the Watcher returns and says to Hercules, “You got through your second task and it was easy. Learn from this task the riddle of proportion: Strength to do a task that tasks you not and willingness.

Rest. Then seek the country entered through the third gate. Find the Golden Apples and bring them here.”

…

The riddle of porportion: desire and willingness go hand in hand, making any task, less tasking. Ideas are always followed by desire. There is an initial mental pulse, succeeded by an experience in sensitivity. The second riddle has to do with this sensitivity of Desire and the potency of it and in it. It is a riddle told to us in full detail, highlighting its interest.

The labor in Taurus is the riddle of understanding the Law of Attraction. “The Word made flesh.” This is the Law that governs Power. On its highest level, it is the Principle of Cohesion that builds the forms of Creation, through which God is expressed. It’s Sex.

Soul (Son) is birthed through the interaction of Spirit with Matter, (Father & Mother). This interaction of polarities can be seen corresponding on all other levels: masculine/feminine, male/female, yang/yin, positive/negative, Self/not Self. It’s the energy maintaining the foundation of all polarities and dualities. And the Assurance that ‘the two are One’ or the eventual and predetermined success of the Divine Plan, of reconciliation. It is the Integrity of the Whole that produces the stability and persistence of matter and, forms of all natures, planes and dimensions throughout all cycles.

It has been misunderstood by assuming the polarities work in opposition to each other and in conflict. Like one pole or the other is wrestling over who gets the electron. When it is the constant motion of the electron that radiates light, that Creates a Flow of energy going both ways. They work in cooperation, their interplay and attraction for each other, providing the foundation for the activity and motion of all ‘matter’.

The Power of the sign Taurus is that of Attraction, of Unity, of bringing together. It has been called by some as the sign of heavenly and earthly generation and is the Principle underlying Creation.

Hints to the riddle are in that the bull was given as a gift from the God of the Waters. This was a feeling gift, one of sensitivity, to be ‘sacrificed’ or uplifted to the honor of God. But King Minos chose to keep it for himself instead. Let loose, the bull of desire messed around with the King’s wife, producing the Minotaur. Royally angered, his pride wounded, the King imprisoned the Minotaur, another creature that devoured human flesh, in a maze.

The maze represents maya or the world of illusion, with all its confusion and bewilderment. Symbolizing what happens when we become fixated on our physical senses, exclusively, without our Soul’s guidance. The island of Crete itself is another representation of this separation. Just as the island of Crete is separated from the mainland, so are our desires separated from the guidance our Soul would give. We literally get lost in them.

The task of Hercules is to capture the sacred bull, representing his lower (desire) nature and return it to the mainland, to the Temple of God. Where it is ‘sacrificed’ to God’s honor. It is uplifted. Becoming in Truth and in fact, ‘Hera’s Glory’ or, his ‘Soul’s Glory’.

Notice the task is to capture the sacred bull and return it, not kill it. Many philosophies and belief systems throughout our world make this critical error when it comes to dealing with our Desire nature. The beliefs strive to negate our nature instead of working in cooperation with it, the coming together in Unison, of vision illuminated by sight.

The bull symbolizes the experience of Sensitivity that always follows every idea. The Divine Feminine Principal. First, there is Idea, like a beam of light that shines from the sun. What follows is Sensitivity, an awareness of how that idea Feels, like light reflecting off the surface of the moon, the moon itself having no light generating capacity on its own.

We call this sensitivity, “Desire”. It is the Attractive nature of form and all its physical sensations, the exquisite intimacy of experience. Creator experiencing Creation. All taboos, fetishes, magics and superstitions related to sex and sexual desire, fall under the category of misinterpretation of the nature of our Desire(s) themselves.

Desires not illuminated by the guidance of our Soul, usually result in sacred cows running mad all over the place, destroying country sides, despoiling women(sensitivity) and, creating mazes of confusion and bewilderment that swallow many human lives.

How does Hercules find a bull running around on an island in the dark? How do we find our way out of the maze?

The light shining in the middle of the bull’s forehead kept attracting/drawing Hercules right to him, no matter where or how far it ran. All Hercules need do is ‘follow the light’.

By so doing, he (sur)mounted and rode his desire nature as its Master under all sorts of conditions, traveling over ‘both land and sea’, ‘returning it to the mainland’, to the three one-eyed men, entrusting it into the keeping of the Temple of the Lord.

Spiritual Illumination is emphasized. It’s the Light that shines forth from the forehead of the bull and reveals the Way ‘home’. The bull’s horns curve inward, to frame the ‘anja center’ or the single eye of Illumination, the Spiritual sight center. It’s also symbolized in the single eye of the Cyclops. A son of man sees with two eyes. A son of god sees with one. Where a son of man sees duality, a son of god will see unity.

In ancient days, the shining star Aldebaran, ‘the eye of the bull’ in the sign of Taurus was called the ‘leading star of the heavens’ and associated with Light returning. The constellation of Orion is also found in Taurus. The name ‘Orion’ literally means ‘the breaking forth of the light’. Streaming forth from under Orion’s feet is a river of stars, symbolic of the Stream of Life. It represents how ‘sons of god’ come to experience being both ‘sons of god and sons of man’. As Spirit clothed in forms of Creation.

Taurus symbolizes light, illumination and sound, as expressions of Creative energy. What Egypt called “the Divine Interpreter” is what Christian terminology would call “the Word made flesh” and what Theosophy would call ‘Fohat’.

When our desire nature (the sacred bull) becomes illuminated by the light of our Soul, remembering the purpose of ‘form’ in its entire splendor, (handed over to the one-eyed vision of the Cyclops), then our three divine aspects begin to manifest. Brontes, who spoke, representing the 1^st aspect of God, the ‘Father’ or the Word. Steropes meaning lightning or light, representing the 2^nd aspect of God, the ‘Soul’ or Son, the Love of Creator. And Arges meaning Intelligent Activity, representing the 3^rd aspect of God, Creative Self Expression, Creation or Mother, including the physical plane of matter and its quantum-ly active state.

Desire is a Power, a magnetic pull of cohesiveness. It’s also the basis for the statement ‘we reap as we sow’ meant to convey understanding of the Law of Attraction. Desires we pursue without the illumination of our Soul can run us ragged as we chase after one then another, never ending up with what we imagined we had in mind.

We are blinded by our desires and become lost in them, simply because we have never looked at our desire nature illuminated by the light of our Soul.

 

“I See and when my Eye is opened, All is Light.”

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