Medea: A Reclamation

To me you’ve broken all
oaths, old and new – and you know it!
EURIPIDES: Medea
lines 446‒626

In tomorrow’s new moon chart, asteroid Medea is in a close conjunction with Pluto: Medea is at 3° Aquarius 09, and Pluto is at 3° Aquarius 15′. Together they form the apex of a tight Yod, with Mars at 4° Virgo, and the Sun & Moon at 4° Cancer.

Medea is a priestess of Hekate, goddess of magic and the moon; the granddaughter of Helios, the sun god; and the niece of Circe, the enchantress. In Medea we see a powerful blending of the solar lunar qualities, crystallised for the purpose of magic. Medea is an accomplished “pharmakeía” (medicinal magic) and is semi-divine.

Hera, a sky goddess, and patron of marriage, assists Jason (Jason & the Argonauts), in his quest for the Golden Fleece, as a strategic move to undermine Pelias, king of Iolcus. The Golden Fleece represents authority, rulership, and kingship.

Hera entreats Aphrodite (or sometimes Eros) to place a spell on Medea, so that she falls in love with Jason. Once in love, Medea is only too happy to assist her hero quester to fulfil his mission. One of the ways Medea helps Jason to obtain the Golden Fleece is by putting to sleep the dragon who does not sleep- a protector of the fleece. This time the hero does not even need to slay the dragon, the deed is done for him through the magical herbs of Medea. This alone, tells us that Jason is not fit for kingship as he has reaped what he did not sow, and has made a transgression against the Earth Mother. There are no short cuts to sovereignty. The dragon as a chthonic symbol, often appears in myths and fairytale as a protector of treasure, and a protector of the earth, it is to be integrated, not slain or duped.

After obtaining his prize, Jason and Medea marry and have two sons, however the marriage is short lived and Jason abandons Medea and marries Glauce, the daughter of King Creon of Corinth. This speaks to Jason’s self-serving ambition- it benefits his quest for power to be betrothed to a royal.

In a fit of desperation and as an act or revenge, Medea kills her two sons to punish Jason. The magical lineage of Medea is cut at the root.

An intuitive working of the symbolism:

Here is the hero quester in pursuit of his Kingship, usurping the old king (Pelias). He receives divine intervention from the goddess Hera, and magical help from Medea (the feminine). Jason proves to be just as treacherous as the old king (who is eventually boiled in a cauldron by his daughters).

Jason’s betrayal of Medea speaks to the ways in which the feminine, and feminine wisdom, is stolen and used inappropriately. Medea’s knowledge of magic, and her knowledge of magical herbs, was not intended to aid the hero quester to power, it was meant for another purpose, in service to the goddess, and in this case in service to the dark goddess (Medea’s connections with Circe and Hekate).

It is an old story, the feminine betraying herself, and giving away her life force, in the name of the affections and security of a powerful man only to be discarded once his mission is achieved. At a cultural level too, it could be said that the European witch hunts of the early modern period was a usurping of the wise woman ways, taken and appropriated by patriarchal dominance and used transgressively against the feminine and Nature.

Medea conjunct Pluto in Aquarius may be a nod to a collective awakening in which feminine consciousness is undergoing a rebirth and a re-membering: the goddess, fragmented and split off, reclaiming her rites. It could also go the other way as more secrets of nature violated in the race for human mastery. It very much depends on how Pluto in Aquarius is unfolding. Either way a transformation is in process, and the proper or improper use of power hangs in the balance.

With Medea and Pluto in a yod aspect with Mars in Virgo though, the goddess is taking action, and with the Sun/Moon blending in the mix, in Moon ruled, Cancer, I’d say the power is in the hands of Medea.

Collectively and individually, there is a movement toward the reclamation of the feminine and a reweaving of the feminine soul. In acknowledgment of what has been stolen, what has been appropriated, and what has been transgressed in the name of false kingship, archetypes like Medea and Lilith are coming online strongly.

Interesting note: Evelyn De Morgan painted the above image only nine years after the discovery of asteroid Medea. I have found repeatedly that at the time of asteroid discoveries, the energy of the archetype after which the asteroid is named is rising in the collective consciousness. The 1880s was also a time when gynaecology and the medical intervention of so-called female hysteria was taking root in the work of gynaecologists such as Marion Sims.