Myth and Your Sacred Voice
The Myth of Echo and Narcissus revolves in large part around the power of voice. Or its lack. The tragedy starts with a transgression of authority and a curse, the ultimate misuse of voice. This all leads to a loss not of life but of agency, which also depletes life force energy.
The Goddess Hera put a hex on poor Echo, the nymph whose only crime was to attract the wandering eye of Hera’s husband Zeus. Now Echo can only repeat the last word of what has already been said by another. She can no longer initiate any speech of her own. In the story, this leads Echo into grave misunderstandings, putting a huge damper on her love life and her own sense of self-worth. Ultimately it sends her wandering alone and forlorn in the crevasses of rocks.
Rather than taking responsibility for the fact she has chosen to stay with a philandering god, Hera unsheathes her voice like a cruel sword and slices at the very heart of what can help Echo authentically connect to another: communication. Hera is herself trapped in a language problem, caught in a habitual reactive response to Zeus’ doings by cursing the innocent. This goddess is irresponsible with her kotodama, the Japanese idea that there is mystical vibrational power in language, and its implications are tragic for another. In Reiki, kotodama is at play when we chant the Gokai. For today only, I am free from anger… If only the goddess were able to practice even what we learn in Shoden level 1 Reiki, stop herself before the hex, breath into her lower dantian (Hera’s Hara!) and recognize that the only person she has any control over is herself, she might have been able to change the narrative of her marriage, and allow a lovely young nymph to live out her best life without interference.
We have to watch our curses, we make them all the time. Sometimes they are barely perceptible micro-judgments directed internally only to ourselves. “I’m so stupid!” We might mutter after dropping our keys on the floor. Really? Is that true? No. Little things happen and its no big deal. “He’s such an idiot!” we might say, gossiping about our friend’s misadventures. Is he really? Haven’t we also been? Let she who is without sin cast the first stone! Noticing how we are in relationship to speech and the ways we indulge in even lighthearted curses is the first step in harmonizing our fifth chakra. Redirecting voice to better habits like speaking well of people, chanting affirmations or mantra or singing songs and then seeing how life changes in a really fun experiment. Try it for a week! Reprogram your throat chakra — cast spells for harmony instead of havoc — and watch your overall well-being bloom.
Imagine if Narcissus actually had been able to take a moment and listen to Echo - not what she was literally saying, which was repeating what he had just said - but imagine if he observed her in her attempts at communication as she really was, beneath the odd behavior: a sweet and worthy nymph trapped in the bind of Hera’s jealousy-driven hex. A person tragically separated from her own voice, longing for connection, needing to express love, wanting to love Narcissus before she really got to know him and could realize he was a young man deeply in love with his own image with no room for anyone else.
Imagine if he disrupted his habitual response pattern, and instead of banishing Echo from his presence, he remained to face her, patiently holding space and allowing her to repeat his last words without reacting.
Just pretend along with me now… I know its crazy but maybe he could soften, get curious...
What do you want?, Narcissus might ask
Want, want, want….
Echo responds, with pleading eyes
Who are you?
you you you….
If you can only voice another’s words, you slowly lose yourself…
What if he noticed she was trapped in a bind so instead of continuing to speak he instead went silent?
Imagine now them quietly gazing into each other's eyes, sensing energy dance between them on the breath.
Yes, yes I know this scenario is impossible within the Greek mythic world but we are in my Imaginal Realms Reiki After Party land now so imagine Narcissus getting the brilliant idea to ohm and then Echo joining his ohhmmm …
Now the frequency of one mantra moves through and around them …
The Ohmming continues on and on for some time, weaving and winding between them and through their bodies like a lemniscate…
Something sparks in Echo
She feels the vibration of ohm touch a chord in her own heart chamber
Her own warmth and internal sounding now calls her inward
Echo stands in rapture, attuned to her own body and presence…
She perceives Narcissus with a new understanding
This man has been a projection of her lack, a lack she no longer feels or believes
She is full of her own sound now, attuned to her own frequency and power. One by one her chakras light up, her own voice striking each like a match.
Hera’s curse is broken
Ablaze in her own power, Echo initiates:
"I am,”
She says
“I am!”
