Song of the Siren: An Astrological & Symbolic Perspective

Having just watched The Odyssey directed by Christopher Nolan, I’ve been thinking about the symbolic meaning of the Sirens and how we can work with the archetype. While the Sirens function as psychological and literary archetypes, we can also use the symbolism to reflect on themes of allure, magnetism, dangerous depths, hubris, seduction, and destruction in our own lives.

As always, the astrological chart provides a good imaginal landscape to explore these themes through a symbolic lens. 

Asteroid Sirene (1009) was discovered on October 31^st, 1928- on the threshold day of Samhain.

It was named after the notorious femme fatales of Homer’s Odyssey. The placement of Sirene in our chart may point to our hypnotic charm and seductive qualities. It could also highlight where we are most seduced into the depths ourselves.

Sirene can also show the rock upon which we are in danger of being battered against if we do not bring an element of rational consciousness and humility to our lives and relationships.

Alternatively, it could show the place where despite the obvious dangers or warnings received, we just cannot help ourselves and travel the highway to the danger zone.

Sirene may also describe our voice, alluring by tone or resonance, or else the depths of our words that magnetise others.

Temptation, destruction, powerful and irresistible forces of the unconscious beckoning us with the promise of pleasure, or enlightenment, or absolution, the intoxicating scent of wildflowers and the promise of paradise. These are the traps, delicious though they may be, of the Sirens.

On closer inspection these things are a mere smokescreen behind which lurks darker truths: No one succumbs to the Song of the Siren  and survives. On their island, all around are the hollowed bones of previous wayfarers strewn around the meadow, much like the frozen corpses of men around the entrance to Medusa’s cave.

The placement of Sirene in the natal chart may be a gift and a curse: the place of our destruction should we succumb without reason of the conscious mind and rationalism of the structured social world. And yet, if we can withstand the ethereal power of the song and somehow resist the almost impossible urge, we may be blessed with the gifts of the gods.

This perilous journey to divine, sacred worlds out-of-bounds from our own is told in many mythic tales: Orpheus and Eurydice; the Descent of Inanna; The Flight of Icarus; The Voyage of Bran; and the myth of Psyche; as well as in fairy tales such as Thomas the Rhymer; Bluebeard; and the Tales of Baba Yaga. These journeys transcend usual mortal boundaries; strict rules and codes of conduct must be obeyed otherwise annihilation is certain. It is the price we pay for daring to set out on our hero’s journey. We go because something in our humanness is not enough, or else is too painful to endure, or the temptation of secret knowledge is too strong. It’s where we yearn for transcendence in some form or other … to escape the bounds of Saturn and dip our toe in the transpersonal waters. It may also be where we yearn for dissolution.

What we may realise however is that our desire is none of these things, that it’s a longing to become fully human in our essence, belonging and in service to the world we were born to. To take our rightful place among men and women. To be at home on the earth.

In Jungian psychology, Sirens are interpreted as a reflection of the anima in her enchantress aspect, she who calls men to meet her in her seductive depths thus ensuring his destruction.

Beyond the anima the Sirens represent the irresistible and overwhelming power of the unconscious that can lure a person- man or woman- away from conscious reality. Like a spectral figure who beckons us onward, disappearing just as we think we can reach out and touch her, as the path becomes more remote and untrodden. We must break the spell and turn back at some point. What we can’t let go of haunts us; the promise of revelation, enlightenment, truth or liberation consumes us until finally we are divorced from our waking reality.

We either close our ears to the haunting melody, or we succumb. Odysseus shows us a third way, a way to allow the transformation that arises from an encounter with the unconscious and stay sane. There are many stories, not only in myth and fairytale but from real life of those who went too far, too deep and either never came back or barely came back. While Jung, it is said, survived the descent, Nietzsche apparently did not. Those who return bring treasures; an encounter with the Sirens was a fundamentally important experience for Odysseus in his eventual spiritual rebirth.

 Many myths centre around spiritual renewal, but why is the journey so fraught with danger? If it were easy there would be nothing to rub against… no pearl; no “other” to realise our projections; no revelation that we were home all along; and no place to return to after our adventure of becoming.

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding,

There are many traps and pitfalls along the way.  In The Odyssey, Circe warns Odysseus:

Next you will come to the Sirens who beguile all men that approach them. Whoever encounters them unawares and listens to their voices will never joy at reaching home…

Oh! but their voices are so beautiful…to hear them but for only a second…just once!

Circe understands this longing:

if you must hear, then let them first tie you hand and foot and stand you upright in the mast housing, and fasten the rope ends round the mast itself, so you can delight in hearing the Sirens’ voices.

In our own lives how does that inner longing call to us, that “just once”, or “just once more”, the “if only”, or that secret desire that none need know.

Though the Sirens may represent the deep irrational content of the unconscious that beckons us into the void, with intention we can use the energy creatively, channelling the longing into our lives work. Perhaps that’s the best use of the Siren’s energy, bringing all the unattainable beauty, all that scent of ethereal wildflowers to our creative endeavours. To become hollow bones for Spirit to move through while avoiding the danger of ending up hollowed bones on Anthemoessa, the Siren’s island.

The lure of our inner Siren is both our cross to bear and our salvation. By resisting the temptation of destruction and ultimately Thanatos we instead forge a relationship with Eros, a relationship with our shadow and secret longings, our secret self or demons that hold our power.

What almost killed us. How did we save ourselves from annihilation? What pulled us into our depths and what pulled us out again?

Did you ever meet a Siren: man, woman, substance, belief, quest, longing, or obsession? Did you ever play that role for another either intentionally or otherwise?

It’s possible that for those in recovery from addiction they hear the Song of the Siren every day, likewise for those who are addicted to unobtainable and ultimately destructive relationships, or dangerous pleasures. We may hear the Song of the Siren when we are too set in our ways, believing our truth is the only truth, if we have become too inflexible, or corrupt to some natural law.

Trials and tests like Odysseus’ often take place on remote islands in myths and legends. They are places that have broken away from the mainland, drifted into the undifferentiated unconscious, split off from wholeness, exiled and lost consciousness. Psychologically the quest is to reunite ego and the Self, to heal the splits and bring ourselves to coherence. It is a soul retrieval, but as with all descents the dangers are many and there are no maps. Only in the return can we say where we’ve been. By then it may not feel so much that terrible things happened to us but that something happened to us that took us into the very depths of ourselves, to retrieve ourselves. Through the journey we are finally returned to ourselves.

Becoming trapped in the liminal is also a danger. To dwell in the liminal indefinitely, on the cusp of this world and the other world can be a trap in which we neither fully live nor fully die. Flexing the muscle of and/both of non- duality, erasing horizons between conscious and unconscious, or in mythic terms between gods and humans is the stuff or the hero or heroine’s quest. It is also the stuff of ayahuasca trips and other ego dismantling experiences where we may taste the nectar of the gods or suffer the harrows of hell. Here too the dangers of no return are real; any regression into the unconscious can cause the ego to be destroyed.

Like Odysseus tying himself to the mast of his ship, or Innana’s descent to the underworld (where she cautions her attendant Ninshubar to call on the gods if she is not back in three days), taking precautions is advisable. When walking in the mountains it is wise to leave your name and time of departure in the box provided. Dangerous journeys require navigation, and navigation requires consciousness, as well as a willingness to surrender. It’s a fine line.

Only by venturing to the unknown can the unknown be known; this can only happen through direct experience, everything else is hearsay and fable. Direct experience changes us from the inside out whereas inherited beliefs can waiver and are subject to manipulation.

When Odysseus returns to Ithaca it is not with some grand gesture of return, it is not on someone else’s terms, it is slowly, with humility, with metis (cunning) and with wisdom. Ultimately, he recognises that he has committed acts against the gods, acts against his fellow human family, and against what is sacred. After his return Odysseus realises and accepts his humanness with all its imitations, faults, and flaws. He arrives back a true King of his people and land, and a true King of himself.

The Sirens may lead us to our most hidden desires, repressed memories, or a confrontation with parts of ourselves we’d rather not see, but still, the temptation to Know Thyself for who we truly are endures.

Where does the archetype of the Siren sit in your chart. Can you see how this shows up in your life? I am available for a deeper dive on this should you feel the call.