Annie Dieu-Le-Veut

In ancient myths, the dragon-slaying, zodiac hero meets the challenge of the redemption of the father when he is bitten by the scorpion at Scorpio, and falls down into the Underworld of Sagittarius. There, he has to face his Shadow, which is comprised of the ‘sins’ of his ancestors, and heal and purify them in order to pass his trials and be reborn again at Capricorn, on the Winter Solstice.

The story of Jonah and the Whale, in which Jonah is kept in the belly of the whale for three days and three nights, was not a historical event but a mythic story about the redemption of the ancestors. It is the same classic death-and-resurrection myth that has been a catalytic threshold feature in the travels and travails of the mythological hero going back as far as the Sumerian Gilgamesh.

In its duration, Jonah’s time in the belly of the whale mirrors the death-and-resurrection of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. You probably know that the crucifixion is a crucifiction; is the same story, and not history, and the cross, under the Mystery Schools, is the cross of equinoxes and solstices.

In the constellations of the night sky, Cetus the Whale swims in the Underworld river of Eridanus, close to the footstool of Orion. In Sumerian myths, Orion was Ea, the Lord of the watery Underworld. In Celtic myths, Cetus the whale is the Afanc, which you can read more about here: The Sea Monster in the Garden.

I believe that if we are born under the stars of Cetus the Whale, we would have asked for this path to redemption for our ancestral lines before coming into human incarnation.

In Jonah’s case, his sacrifice in the belly of the whale leads to the redemption of the whole city of Nineveh.

Perhaps the easiest way into understanding this better is to watch Disney’s Pinocchio, in which our little wooden hero voluntarily swims into the belly of the whale, Monstro, to rescue his father, Gepetto. In my book, Stories in the Stars, I devote a whole chapter to showing how the original Tuscan tale was a zodiac hero myth, and show how Pinocchio faces his challenge in the belly of Monstro the Whale at Sagittarius to rescue his father, Gepetto.

The death-and-resurrection of the hero can only take place if the father – aka the ancestors – are redeemed, and over the past few years, trainees have been doing shamanic work with me to achieve this outcome. It is a series of trials, and so you are continually faced with challenges, some quite painful. It often involves a period of turmoil, as illustrated here in this sketched self-portait by the architect of Glastonbury Abbey, Dunstan, who went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury, and which shows that he knew this Mystery teaching.

Dunstan is prostrate and praying at the point of circle where Sagittarius falls on the Glastonbury Zodiac, with the words: “Remember, I beg you, merciful Christ, do protect me, Dunstan, and do not allow the Taenarian storms to swallow me up.” (In those days, Taenaria was a cave at the entrance of the Underworld, which was guarded by the multi-headed dog, Cerberus.)

We think that this sketch is as close as Dunstan could safely get to portraying a zodiac in those days because the diagonal symbol that the Christ figure is carrying is cognate with where the Milky Way falls on the Glastonbury Zodiac, at Baltonsborough in Sagittarius, where Dunstan’s church is sited today. It is no coincidence …neither it is just chance that the stained glass window over the altar of that church depicts the alchemical recipe for the Philosopher’s Stone. [There’s much more about all this in my book Stories in the Summerlands.]

Dunstan’s biographer wrote that the Glastonbury Zodiac was created for the redemption of the people. I’ve been working with this huge landscape temple shamanically, with my trainees, in recent years, who are keen to achieve that outcome for their forebears, going seven generations into the past, and their descendants, going seven years into the future.

The redemption of the father can only be achieved through deep spiritual work in tandem with one’s own spirit guides, because only they know how to get us past the multi-headed Cerberus, out of the belly of the whale, and through the Taenarian storms.

It is deep, very private and personal work but to me, it is the ultimate aim of the shamanic initiate and it leads to “the peace that passeth all understanding”.