Today I was looking out my office window at my back yard at the Black Viola, now they are just a little larger variety of violets which grow prolifically in my yard. I deliberately do not have curtains on my home office windows so I can frequently look out at nature or the nature of my back yard anyway. I have bird feeders next to my window in a tree. Well, anyway this morning I woke up with a stark fear of death stalking me again. Now I know that part of the healing I am doing is rooting out things from my dark side. I have no fear of rooting them out but for I know as I bring them into the light they will just disappear like a sugar cube in water. It is the hiding them that makes one afraid. Well, anyway I was contemplating these little black Violas.
Offically they are called Viola Cornuta and commonly Bowles Black Viola. They are quite insignificant as far a show goes but they are truly beautiful in their own right. I was so taken by them that I got up and went outside and picked a small bouquet of them and floated them in a bowl. The unusual color of black of this flower it looks like velvet is suited to it connection to death and resurrection through the my of Attis. Attis is an ancient Turkish God of vegetation, growth and fertility; they grew where his blood spilled. He was the beloved consort of the Goddess Cybele. In his worship the pine tree his symbol were dressed with black Violas.When Attis refused her love, in her rage she unmanned him.
All future priests that attended and worshipped Cybele castrated themselves. This is an odd story of contrasts as Cybele and Attis were both symbolized the death and reserection. They were fertility Gods and Goddess mourning always the death of nature in the Fall and the reserection in the Spring. Why would her priests not want to sow their seeds? Perhaps they were sacrificing their fertility in their grief for Attis so he might be born again in the Spring.
Bear with me my mind always goes on these tangents of story telling. I love symbolism and the myths for I find much hidden knowledge over wondering about the archetypes that dwell in the myth and in the human mind.
Because violets are small and insignificant they are often hidden under other plants, they make a good symbol for hidden knowledge. Violets look small and delicate but they are tough try and remove them from your lawn sometime if you don’t believe me. Violets grow in the shade so they are symbols of death, this particular one is black which even brings more symbolism in. However this viola is fragrant. It also has a yellow eye. May be this promises the light of Spring.
I think my terror that comes up around death is about losing control. I just have to be very grateful that this fear is dying and will be reborn now it is brought to the light. It is reborn with new ideas as the viola is reborn in the Spring. Acceptance and understanding of the concept of death is viewed as requisite for the holistic development of a person. The subconsious abhors a puzzle, the hows and wherefores of my fear of death will be revealed in a plain way that I can understand. My meditation on the flower, the small viola, is but a step on the path to enlightenment.
