Ahriman the Enslaved Lion

It's a freezing Tues morn, the sun is almost up, I can see the green blades of hardy flowers-to-come poking through the brown leaves in my front yard.  The neighbor cat was here earlier, when the green blades were still dark shadows without color, checking the water dishes, and seemed to get something out of the one I filled yesterday.  Maybe that bowl did not completely freeze over last night.  

The term 'flowers-to-come' reminds me of the name 'Lucifer' applied in olden times to the morning light of Venus.  Right now Venus is an evening star, shining brightly from very high in the western sky for more than an hour after sunset.  It's funny to think of Venus as the dawn star coming to be associated with evil, but then again maybe it shouldn't seem so unlikely after all.  

Those green blades as promises of flowers to come are kind of like Lucifer reflecting, to us earth bound creatures, the Sun's light from under the horizon.  Smarty pants wandering star that he/she is.  Shining like a wanna be Sun and changing roles from one part of their cycle to the next.  Who was it that decided he/she needed to be punished, thrown down and imprisoned in a lower place?

Venus near Saturn under  Raleigh's eastern horizon

Well, regardless of what the stories relate, or how people interpret them, Venus is alive and well and very near her meeting with Saturn.  They are circled in blue in the chart above.  Notice that they are within Pisces ♓, indicated by the blue symbol in the nearby section of the outer wheel.

I wanted to go back to bed after watching the Sun rise, but I'm working on this essay instead.  I left the house of a customer yesterday who complained of how much extra effort it takes to complete tasks while pushing a walker around where ever she goes.  I told her about another customer in a wheel chair and yet another who is blind.  Usually a more supportive remark of sympathy comes to me; that response during our end of the day conversation felt a bit off.  I kept thinking about how she might feel like a whiner compared to others with similar or worse 'crosses' to bear.  

Crosses of existence like the kind people talked about in the old days before the Roman Empire.  Literal physical limitations beyond the normal limitations of lifespan or the oppression of gravity.  Limitations beyond the inability to see the Sun while it is shining on the other side of our planet, beyond being bound to physically exist in only the present.

The above and beyond kind of limitations like not being able to walk, or see, after years of being a productive citizen.  Finding it impossible to breathe without a chemical cloud to soothe your lungs from seizing up and filling the space left by your contracted diaphragm.  Imagine never smoking anything in your life and being diagnosed with copd!

A few months ago I watched my blind customer fall and take a nasty gash on her forhead from the corner of a table.  I was too slow to intervene and her son had to leave work to take her to the e room for stitches.  I'm learning from her to be alert instead of tied up in knots determined to prevent any disasters.

I learn something different from every customer.  The common thread among all of the lessons is compassion.  That's associated with Picses, the last step in the solar cycle of bio generation.  Venus doesn't rule in Pisces but does receive praise in that segment of life's unfolding.  Venus is exalted in Pisces.  

Saturn of course is not (praised in Pisces).  But the planet of limits is praised in the sign of the harvest (Libra),when there is plenty to go around and forethought ensures saving for the future along with fair distribution.  

Venus is lining up with very sobering, slow proceeding Saturn in the sign of compassion and hope for a brighter future.  I'm thinking of all the people in my life struggling with very discouraging physical problems.  I'm very grateful for modern medicine, with all its imperfections, just like me with all of mine; the medical institution is striving to aid us in the fight to survive.  

Lion headed figure from the Sidon Mithraeum.  500CE.  An ivory colored statue of a naked human male with lion head and folded wings.  A snake is wrapped around the legs and torso. The serpent's head is at the neck just below the opened mouth of the lion's head.

I learned about the lion headed figure this week.  Some sources associate these images with Ahriman, a Persian name derived from Avestan Angra Mainyu.  Like our Latin Lucifer I suspect this icon refers to not so much to an evil being as a powerful creature trapped in the serpentine cycles of the solar system.  There are many variations of this icon found in the Mithraeums popular among the Roman soldiers.  From the account of Tiridates being lavishly celebrated by Nero I get the impression the Romans were smitten with serious admiration for some of the eastern cultures they encountered in their conquests.

Example of Lion Headed statues found in Mithraeums 

This one includes zodiac symbols on its body.  I like the way this image illustrates the way we can feel as powerful as lions and yet at the same time hopelessly entwined in the creeping process of evolution.  I guess the whole point was to remember the ultimate process above and beyond our limited lifespan.