In the castle, she knew love, belonging, and happiness. She was safe. This cruel world only knew a sense of love, belonging, and happiness, never safe.

More years had passed. Now, a mother to many children. Each one dimwitted and sicklier than the last. All birthed from men who did not love her, weak and ignorant men who only knew how to possess.

To add insult to injury, when there was nothing left to take, they vanished. Nothing was as she’d hoped or planned. Without realizing it, she’d created a life out of giving her power away.

Beyond the castle walls, it was a hungry world. She’d let that world nip and nibble at her light until all that was left of her shining was the tiniest spark.

It took losing everything for the Princess to finally awake from the hellscape of her own making.

Gradually, she began to remember who she was. She was the f***ing Princess! She was the fire of the air, the water, and the earth. No longer an innocent babe exploring the world. She’d seen, felt, and lived the horrors. Now knowledge through understanding, she was well on her way to being a wise Priestess. In some ways, more powerful than her mother and father.

The Princess begged her father to let her come home, but she could not. The King and Queen wanted nothing more than to have their daughter safe within the castle walls. The reality; it simply was not possible. The power to bring the Princess home was a power only she held, not the King or Queen. While still a Princess in spirit, she no longer embodied her spirit, her light, the essence of royalty. In her current condition, the magic walls surrounding the castle would not allow her to cross back into the kingdom. The King, however, wasted no time. He responded to her pleas in the only way he could. He sent the Prince to her side, to her rescue.

All that was required of the Princess, so that the Prince could find her, was to prepare for his arrival.

The Princess began a new life then and there, that very moment. She bathed and cleansed in the waters and anointed her body with oils. She began to release the dark ties that bind, and her past, a past she wanted to be free from. She began to release, one by one, the irrational fears, the impulse to control, and the shame from all the harming choices she’d made. She began to release the unagreed-upon expectations of a world she didn’t belong to. The vitriol and impulse for revenge had no place in her presence any longer.

She watched it wash away. The world outside the castle walls, all its darkness washed away. What once clung to her, now slithered downstream and evaporated into the nothingness it was.

Her focus shifted to creating and saving space. In the process, her transformation began. A new reality unfolded, marked by her loss of innocence. Akin to being reborn – a virgin once more – to this new reality. She turned her vessel into a home. Crafting and safeguarding, she nurtured a haven for her Prince.

Anxiously, but patiently, the Princess waited, and in kind, the Prince would visit in her dreams. Eventually, her Prince arrived. No longer a distant vision, with one glance, time stood still. In one embrace, together again, they found their home. The Princess and Prince, reunited, side by side. And so it goes, the Princess and Prince, Psyche & Consciousness, lived happily ever after inside castle walls of their own making.

This is a retelling of one of the oldest esoteric myths. It’s told to help us better understand our journey of healing and repair after the most dramatized rupture to ever occur – the Big Bang. We quite literally lost consciousness, and are now on a journey to regaining our bearings.

This is the metaphorical story of Psyche and Consciousness, of the Goddess and the Christ, of Jesus, Mary, and Mary. This is the metaphorical story of the ‘mortal psyche’ birthed into this world. The ‘self-actualized psyche’ reborn into the spirit world. This is the metaphorical story of The Tarot, The Kabbalistic Tree of Life, and Adam and Eve.

This is the spiritual awakening. This is the collective unconscious resurfacing in the foundational fairytale. It’s the heroine’s journey. It’s the story of us remembering who we are from the beginning of the beginning. It’s the soul, the fall, the grace, and the inevitable resurrection.

Psyche (self-actualizing feminine energy) eternally creates and saves space for Consciousness (self-actualizing masculine energy). Within Psyche already exists the essence of wisdom (the king), understanding (the queen), and consciousness (the prince). Always and forever sovereign, Psyche (the princess) only had to self-actualize into her essence of being (the crown) to remember who she was, royalty (the light).

In a hungry world, it’s easy to forget that our power should never be up for negotiation.

In a hungry world, it’s easy to find ourselves in chains. An obedient servant bound to a million different egocentric high-titled imbeciles; within and without.

We barter our power for a sense of love, a sense of belonging, a sense of happiness, and brief moments of safety. We give our true power away for an idea of power, and this world eats it up for the same.

Freedom is learning how to cut the dark ties that bind, it’s learning to embody our peace while surrounded by chaos. It’s realizing we’re not our phantom community, saboteur, harlot, or the worst of our evil inclinations. It’s learning that the amplified emotional reactions of others, their snide remarks, belittlings, and temper tantrums are a reflection of where they are. How we internalize and respond is a reflection of where we are.

Freedom is realizing we’re responsible for how we show up. We’re responsible for our self-actualization. It’s remembering our power. It’s remembering how to be the cause in matter and no longer settling for being the effect of matter.

Freedom is in the remembering. It’s remembering that we are a radiant soul journeying through the human experience. All so we can self-actualize back into the wisdom of our light being.

This is the awakening.

This is the revelation.

This is the revolution.

Exotericism would have us believe that the Prince saved the Princess from a fated doom. Exotericism would have us believe that the Princess is weak. That it was only possible for her to find happiness through her Prince.

Esotericism would have us understand that the Princess and the Prince are the same. Esotericism would have us understand that the Princess is the most powerful of all the characters in this story. She holds within her Kingdom, the power of all four worlds; will, thought, emotion, and action through the seed of all seeds – love.

Learning to embody our grace, our peace, and the free expression of being that we are – this is our power.

Self-actualizing through our sovereignty to do so is the adventure.