The Choice is Yours

Quick story for you lovely people listening.

You have in the Greek Pantheon Eris the Goddess of Discord who turned out to be the only Goddess not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis.

Here's the thing though, her dominion is over Discord and Strife and so she sows it even from outside the party.

She sends the gift of a Golden Apple to the party with an inscription attached saying "To the Fairest of All ..."

Now, all in all, many of the Goddesses are eliminated from that game right out of the gate ... in fact the majority of them are.

However, Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite each are laying claim to the apple as they all see them selves as the fairest of all.

Zeus takes control and has a shepherd, an outsider if you will, on the mountain choose from the three Goddesses who's getting the apple with it's title as the Fairest of All.

In the end, Paris decides on Aphrodite getting the apple because she promised Paris that he would have Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world at the time, in return.

Because of the decision Paris makes that day, Athena and Hera are enemies of Troy throughout the entirety of it's war.

That's the story.

Now, I want to feed the story a little bit and point to a few interesting ideas in the process.

In today's world, such a monotheistic one, most referring to masculine and feminine see it as just one.

People call it "the" masculine and "the" feminine or they say someone's not in touch with their masculine ... as if they can examine the entirety of the map of masculine and feminine from any one perspective.

As if. As if. As if.

I'm here to argue that through a polytheistic lens there are modes of operating that are limiting in some ways while freeing in others.

Even in the Greek pantheon, Paris is choosing from 3 Goddesses each with a separate dominion and a separate, as I understand it, energy that one can invite into their life.

Beyond that, by choosing one, and he can't have known the repercussions of his decision at the time, he eliminates the others' support in the Trojan War.

So there is something about the decisions that we make and what we can't know on the other side of them in addition to the choices that gives access to a particular kind of energy.

Yes, he gets the girl, but the discord sewn in the process produces trouble for the community.

Lastly, there is something to this idea of knowing that your choice does have consequences beyond the immediate moment ... not making a choice is still a choice.

In the process of not letting your hesitation stop you from making a call, right or wrong, you move the game forward by virtue of the commitment you allow with every move you make being a decision in and of itself.

The choice has been made ... once that happens, try and stick to it.

Questions To Consider:

What does this say about which Goddess in YOUR understanding deserves the Golden Apple and the title of "Fairest of All" and how might that have changed the course of the entire Trojan War?

Examining each of the 3 Goddesses dominions, what would any of the Goddesses have to have offered you for you to choose any one of them?

What else could Eris have sent that might have sown a layer of Discord of a separate accord?