Per Aspera Ad Astra

A dark and bright journey

The Flammarion Engraving

Dear Reader,

The Latin term per aspera ad astra translates to “through hardship to the stars,” which beautifully defines my poetic journey. Throughout the ages, this phrase has inspired countless souls to persevere through their struggles and reach for the celestial heights. I’m excited to share my epic Odyssean-themed poem with you.

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Per Aspera Ad Astra

The dark and bright journey of this poet
has been an Odyssean adventure,  
wrestling with the upward call of spirit
and downward pull of her soul,
while pursuing alphabetical alchemy
in both monstrous and divine worlds.
Where, upon the high seas of the soul,
a necessary home-leaving took place, 
years before she encountered 
the sparkling, living waters below,
lifting her up from the mud of creation 
to the luminous stars above.

To walk this lone path of individuation
became the mission of her life,
as she sought courage to become herself, 
a spiritual task in which she would learn
how to kindle light in darkness,
become a holy fool on life’s open road.
A crazy yet transcendent journey,
where the smell of death and wild sea
took her miles and miles 
along shorelines of broken mirrors, 
where she met many distorted versions 
of herself along the way. 

At each mirror she faced a different self
and wrote poems to each reflection,
rewriting any part of herself
that stood in the way of happiness,
as tides rushed in she died 
and decomposed a thousand times. 
This poet’s Calypsonian lover
brought great suffering to her life,
casting shadow over her bright heart,
she forgot her quest and lost her way
as ego pride and lust for glory
delayed her journey by several years.

Yet the pain broke her heart open in ways 
she could not have otherwise known, 
for she knew the gods came disguised 
and without aegis-bearing Athena, 
divine goddess of embodied wisdom, 
this poet would have died long ago. 
Epic knowledge that shielded her
beneath the goddess’ protective light,
one that kept her safe during her journey 
in both simple and sublime words,
defying all the odds,
helping this poet to find her way home.

Thus, following endless years of difficulty	
and battles that brought many scars,
she wrote of the darkness of Hades, 
but chose not to live in shadow,
instead, she let the shining matter within 
lift her pen and rise to the stars.
In doing so she learnt how to stoop low,
kneeling in supplication
for fear of becoming trapped on earth,
she explored the inner workings 	
of her psyche at the headland
where ego and archetype come together.

Until a wheel within a wheel,
sacred geometry of unity and wholeness,
moved in two directions at once
turning her conscious world inside out,
while this poet remembered 
how to surrender to the greater light.
On her knees, humbled by such vision,
having no monsters left to fight,
she removed Athena’s breastplate
to bathe in the high seas of the soul,
where, with foam tipped fingers, 
she wrote poems between land and sea.

Come, let us dive into this poet’s soul
while her ego is submerged in sleep,
where inside a dream she pushes through
this world and out into the next,
a poetic landscape inhabited by others
who sing of bringing down the light.
Let us watch her float upwards 
with the Great Mother herself,
although she cannot see Her or herself,
she knows they are one body 
that speaks to the other without speech,
a symphony of the soul of love.	

As Heaven’s bodies whirl around her,
we witness Athena’s sacred owl 
on her blindside seeking out Truth, 
silent on the wing, afraid of nothing
as the dreaming poet awakens
in this new world she has entered.
A place where heaven and earth touch,
where the known and the unknown 
are separated yet together,
where poets are granted mystic visions,
where we all belong to something
greater than ourselves.

Mirroring the flight of the soul,
the poet moves into the unus mundus,
transcending the illusion of separateness 
with the song of eternity in her heart,
knowing what is good for spirit above
will be good for her soul below.
Nothing will hold her back now,
she has found the courage and wisdom
to rise above her Odyssean trials 
and, while the great stars glisten, 
this poet’s life, per aspera ad astra, 
makes bright her dark journey home.

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For those enchanted by the stars, “Per Aspera Ad Astra” sleeps and dreams in my second poetry collection, The Shepherd’s Daughter, starting on page 171. The (coloured) image of the ‘Flammarion Engraving,’ shared above, vividly reflects my life as a poet and dreamer, forever exploring archetypal and rich symbolic worlds.

Yours in words, Deborah

If my words strike a chord and you feel inspired to dive deeper into my poetry or explore my essays on Jungian thought, I invite you to visit: The Liberated Sheep