Service without Self-Sacrifice.
That’s our emerging archetypal
theme for this astrological month of Virgo.
As we leave behind the Piscean Age, which embraced self-sacrifice (a
very Piscean notion) as well as service to the world (its Virgo counterpart),
we have to shine a new light on the subject of service, because we are being
called to service – to bring our talents, inspiration and imagination together
to re-create our society, heal Nature and reject war as a means to peace.
In these past few thousand years,
service always included self-denial: sexuality and pleasure, independence and
wealth were foresworn so the ego’s attention stayed focused on spirit. So many people took oaths of ‘obedience,
poverty and chastity’, seeing their service as a duty to their Deity. Mother Theresa and St. Francis of Assisi are inspirations
to us. As they well should be.
However, when we see that
sexuality, pleasure, independence and wealth are not bad ‘in and of’ themselves,
allowing ourselves those experiences no longer prohibits us from being of
service to our fellow sisters and brothers.
While taming the senses and appetites is a necessity for greater
consciousness and free will, we have to balance them with work and service. It is time to bring Heaven to Earth,
combining Spirit and Matter; that means, let’s enjoy life while serving others.
That’s the theme of Chitra
Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Mistress of
Spices. Both the 1997 book and the
2005 movie explore this idea of service and sacrifice.
Virgo: Healing, Service and Our Authentic Talents
But first let’s look at Virgo’s
lessons and initiation. There’s alchemy
involved in Virgo’s lessons, the union of opposing energies and the
transformation of those energies through self-knowledge into a new sense of wholeness
and Self-consciousness. Virgo is the
sign where we work to perfect ourselves,
not by being perfect but by coming to
understand how we see ourselves, what we value, how we process life, what our
emotional body feels like and where our creative impulse lies. We weave
ourselves together in Virgo, discerning what is us and what is not us.
When we apply ourselves to discovering
what we can do, we want to put that purpose to work. In doing so we see how our talents can be of
services to others. A time of
apprenticeship is a learning time, and that’s what Virgo wants to do. Learn as much of her craft as she can and
continue to perfect it as a master craftsperson. When we create like this, we are always of
service, even when we work for ourselves.
Virgo symbolizes the Virgin of
Life, coming at the time of year when we gather in the harvest of our
creations. The Egyptian goddess Isis was
associated with Virgo because the end of summer is the time of year when the
Nile floods and new life returns to the land.
This aspect of Isis is not the Goddess as Lover, but as the Mother who
carries her child in her lap, symbolizing the manifestation of the potentials
of life. A new creation occurs! New insights are born and new solutions generated.
That is the magical side-effect
of Virgo’s initiation into meaningful service!
Something new emerges, something deep and true. A problem is solved, a wound is healed. That is also the message of our movie this
month – a new truth emerges when we seek to heal a wound and allow a new
potential into our lives.
Virgo’s ability to discern what’s
happening in the moment and then to find a solution that works is the essence of service to others. There is a joy to this work, a flexibility that
is open to incorporating each experience into a new whole. Virgo concentrates on doing her job well and
is humble enough to offer her mastery to the world. Being of service gives us the opportunity to perfect
ourselves and our craft.
The Mistress of Spices
This sensual, colorful movie is a
delight to the eyes; not only are Aishwary Rai and Dylan McDermott outstandingly
good-looking, but the spices that inhabit the shop and our imaginations are
exquisite beyond compare.
The Mistress of Spices is a
story of two people who are chosen as children to walk the Piscean spiritual
path. The young woman follows her path
into Virgoean service; the young man rebels against his mother in anger,
forgets his calling and walks a Virgoean path of aloneness and disconnection. When they meet as adults, their opposing paths
collide and they find themselves attracted to each other. On an unconscious level, their souls know
they can heal each other. But each has
been wounded, and so they have to learn to trust their hearts again instead of
the inner beliefs they’ve learned to live by.
The story begins with Tilo, a
young Indian girl with the gift of prophecy.
While her ability to see brings
her fame and fortune, it also brings tragedy.
Pirates want to profit off her talents and they come and kidnap her,
killing her parents. We know that someone
with this kind of spiritual power needs to learn how to control it, and soon
learns that it really can’t be used for personal power and gain. That’s what happened with Tilo and her
family. Tilo has to learn the lesson of
offering selfless service to others.
She takes this path when she leaps
into the ocean, escaping the pirates.
She eventually washes ashore on a magical island, where First Mother
has gathered young girls to teach them how to care for and understand
Spices. She teaches these girls so they
can go out into the world and keep the magic of India alive for those Indians
who have immigrated to foreign lands.
First Mother warns the girls that
serving the spices demands that they give up their lives for the spices. The path
of their service demands self-sacrifice. They are charged with three rules when they go
out into the world to be of service: They must never use the spices for their
own desires, they can never leave their shop and they must never be touched. The girls must be free of personal desires;
if they fail in their duty, they are told that the spices will punish them.
Here is the old belief that serving
others entails self-sacrifice. It is
true with regard to the issues of power and control. Serving others can’t be about the ego,
because then you don’t listen to what others really need. If power and
domination are the end-game of spiritual powers, we walk a dark path indeed. Since these powers are very real, they need
to be used responsibly and in service to the world.
But the Piscean vision of service
has been one of self-sacrifice – of the body, of the emotions, of one’s very
freedom. The First Mother’s rules are very
much like a nun’s vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. These rules bind women’s lives until all that
is left for them is service. This form
of service constellates when a Virgo gets so consumed with work that there is nothing
else in her life. She must make things
perfect and perfection is a hard taskmistress.
When these young ‘mistresses of
spices’ must remain so virginal that they are literally ‘untouchable’, the Virgo
archetype is clearly out of balance. Virgo’s virginity has nothing to do with
sexuality, but rather with having your own sense of purpose. Virgo’s true virginity is fresh and full,
bringing with it a sense of ‘belonging to oneself’ in the midst of endless
possibilities. Our old beliefs about
virginity and service are being questioned here. Do these old rules and beliefs still serve a
purpose or is it really a matter of consciousness and choice?
Tilo finds her place in Oakland/San
Francisco, where she runs a Spice Emporium.
People come to her with their problems and joys, and she listens to what
the spices tell her is needed. And so
she counsels and cooks and helps them get through their lives. She believes that each person has their own special
spice. Her spice is sesame, the spice of
nourishment, which is what she gives to all who come into her spice shop. And while she might not be happy, she is
content. Until the day she looks out her
window and sees Doug, an American architect, working outside her shop.
Giorgio Di Iorio
Something in his spirit calls to
her because the spices pick up on it. The
fiery red chilies in her shop speak to her through their fierce vibrations.
This happens before Tilo even sees Doug – a sure indication that they are meant
to meet and interact and hopefully figure out the reason they have been brought
together. Red, a primary color, is the color of
blood, hot chili peppers and roses; these beautiful chilies symbolize the
energies of attraction, passion and love, anger and energy. All those desires are sizzling in the air
around Tilo and the chilies manifest that energy not by talking with her but by
dancing!
But she’s afraid, because she’s never been in love before. And needless to say, it’s forbidden to a
Mistress of Spices! Tilo’s test is upon
her. Her overwhelming feelings come up
against the ‘rules’; rules that say that if they are broken, she will pay the
supreme price – loss of her connection to the spices. New instincts arise in her and her test is to
understand them and integrate them into her life.
First she tries to ignore the
attraction, but its energy begins to flow out into her interactions with the rest
of her customers. She flows with a sense
of service, love of Doug transformed into love for all. This attraction is a crossroads
in her life’s journey. She must test her
beliefs against her own instincts and desires. So first she pours the energy
into her work, thinking it will dispel the attraction. In truth, Tilo is caught up in the experience
and the spices know it.
Once again, the chilies sound the
alarm. Are they the cause of Doug crashing
his motorcycle outside her shop? If it’s a test, she can’t help herself – she calls
him into the shop so she can bandage his hand. When she touches him, she sees him making love
with another woman. This image sparks
her desire, and soon Tilo is filled with confusion; she can’t find the right
spice to serve his needs because her own emotions are now involved. She refuses to admit that the chili is his
spice when she looks for his spice. The
spices speak to her but her own mis-reading of what she saw in him keeps her
from listening to them. She is the one
who shuts down on the spices, refusing the truth.
Frantically searching for his
spice, she finally choses Holy Basil, a spice for remembrance, hoping that he’ll
remember her and come back to see her.
But he doesn’t, at least not right away.
Tilo wanders through her days, lost in desire, until desire burns away
and she remembers her service.
As she worries about repressing
her feelings, Tilo gets more and more confused about what her people need,
until it seems that the spices no longer talk to her. Forbidden desire clouds her judgment - she
longs for love she’s been told she can’t have.
We all know how that feels, trying to deny our feelings because of the rules. Rules that should only guide our steps not
control them. Tilo is coming to a crisis
point. Will she give into her desires or
turn her back on them so she can continue to serve her people? Or will she find the third way, a new way
that contains both the opposites yet transcends them?
Determined to forget Doug, Tilo works
to regain her equilibrium so she can communicate with the spices again. And just as she once again achieves it, her
tests continue. Doug returns to her
shop and tells her that the spice she gave him made him remember something
important he’d forgotten. The lesson
Tilo is learning is not to have expectations about how the spices will
accomplish their healing. A good lesson
for us as well!
Doug remembered the first time
his mother took him to the Indian reservation to see his great-grandfather. His beautiful mother had never revealed their
Native background to him because she was fleeing from it. This grandfather was
some kind of medicine man, and he wanted to give Doug the choice of learning
about the ancient ways. But his mother
refused to let him learn. He never
forgave her and left home as soon as he could, never speaking to her again. But he forgot he had a choice – he forgot his
heritage until Tilo gave him the spice.
Tilo’s service to him was this
remembering. She put him in touch with a
rejected, but important part of himself.
She gave him back his choices.
But in giving him those choices, she also opened herself to doubting the
rules imposed by First Mother and the spices.
Did she have choices too? I think
her early prophetic experiences and their consequences made her afraid to make
those choices. This is where sacrifice
comes into the picture. She was willing
to sacrifice her desires because of her guilt over her parents’ death and
perhaps misuse of her power. And now
those old choices are catching up with her.
Is guilt a valid reason for self-sacrifice?
Tilo’s guilt builds when all her
careful spice choices for her customers seem to go astray. Lovers break up, families aren’t talking, a
young boy gets into bad friendships and her friend gets hurt. Tilo is sure that the spices are punishing
her customers because she is falling in love with Doug. But she can’t stop, because she cares for him
and wants him to heal. Virgo service is often very compassionate and caring.
When he finds out that his mother
has died, Doug needs to see Tilo, sensing she will heal his pain. And so she does – how can she not try to heal
him when he is remembering who he is! He
tells her, “I didn’t have a clue of what I wanted ‘til I met you. I want to start over. I’m not rooted like you.” Tilo responds, “When the roots are too strong
they can strangle you.” Both of them are trying to find their way to a
new vision of life, one that has meaning and one that is free. They are teaching each other what they
themselves have learned. And because of
the exchange, both meaning and choice will grow and change.
Since she has never been out of
the shop, Tilo finally accepts Doug’s invitation to go out with him, knowing
she is stepping over a line. She leaves
her shop, telling the spices, “I’m not leaving you spices. I’ll be back!” And she has fun! But before she returns, she discovers her
friend Haroun has been beaten up and her shop has been vandalized. First Mother appears to her and tells her she
has broken too many rules and must return to the Island. Is it really First Mother or her own guilt?
Tilo agrees to return, but she
has also changed enough that she decides to have her one night with Doug before
she goes. She also discovers that she
has made a difference in her clients’ lives, for they are all changing in ways
she couldn’t foresee. Despite her
confusion, she got it right!
Tilo lets the chilies stir her
desire. She leaves behind her old self
to experience her new self just this one time. She covers her body with spices, finally
liberating the beautiful woman inside the servant. And she dresses in red, no longer afraid of
the passion within her. She has tamed
her desires, so she can choose her desire.
Kintop Films
First she goes to see Haroun, who
is not only recovering but who has fallen in love. Then she goes to Doug’s home and lives her
dream. After though,
she leaves him to return to her store and to exile at the Island.
There she builds a magical fire
of chili peppers that will take her back to the Island and the Mother. But when she tries to return, she is stopped
by the spices. They will not abandon
her, even if she doesn’t follow the old rules.
They have chosen her and will allow her to choose both love and service.
Chili peppers are a great symbol
for these lovers, not only because they initiated this test of passion but
because they also symbolize fidelity, breaking old negative patterns and most
importantly, Love!
Mistress of
Spices is a marvelous story about the transformation of the archetype of
Service. Do we really need to give up
all the joys of life to serve our sisters and brothers? Do we really need to be ‘untouchable’ for our
service to be pure and humble? Do we
really need to give up love to serve the world?
Being of
service is part of the human experience just as love and sexuality are. This new path of service is big enough to
include our wholeness. Our Virgo journey
wants to unite body, mind and spirit.
When we do, our service will be inspired and true!
From the Bard’s Grove,
Cathy Pagano
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