Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers are still waiting for an answer, and so are we! Think of all the songs you know about April, love, emotional thinking and lack of judgement! Let’s look at flighty Aphrodite and the lovely lunacy she instigates.

The Empress In Spring

You can’t escape Aphrodite in April. The month bearing Her name is so Venusian, even the Moon is Pink. If you’re breathing, She’ll find you.  She’s as stealthy and invasive as ivy, breaking and snaking through a bedroom screen. She’s as subtle as a silken breeze or a sledgehammer. Resistance is futile.

The Etruscans knew Aphrodite as Apru. Latin’s Aprilis is derived from the verb Aperire or “to open,” bringing to mind budding trees and flowers. Not to mention your Pandora’s Box of relinquished dreams – that Aphrodite gleefully pries open. The desires you’ve suppressed, leap out like a Jack-in-the-Box. Surprise!

April is all that is tender, tentative and awkward – like a fawn’s first, faltering steps or the declarations of love you should’ve kept to yourself.

Aphrodite in Spring beguiles you into believing you’re young when you’re old, and that possibilities still unfurl before you. (To be fair, Sarah Bernhardt played Juliet, to great acclaim, at the age of 70.)  All conspires to bring you to the inevitable climax, when Aphrodite’s quiver-toting son has got you in his sights.

After Spring’s euphoria, the harsher seasons that follow are like Aphrodite’s trials inflicted on Psyche. Aphrodite wanted the best for her son Eros, and her tests would prove if Psyche was truly worthy.  

In the April of life, Aphrodite fashions the template for our fascinations and attractions; that first hormonal rush leaves its imprint forever. Henceforth, we’re sent on A Fool’s Errand, driven to recapture a past incorrectly remembered, in pursuit of a butterfly never meant to be captured.

Get With The Program

Is this why April is “the cruelest month” and we get a special day?

It’s thought that April Fool’s Day originated as a gibe at non-Catholics, who were slow to get with the program.

Protestant and Eastern Orthodox countries (and perhaps classicists/crypto-pagans/countryfolk) initially refused to accept the Gregorian Calendar (decreed by Pope Gregory XIII, 1582), which lists Jan. 1^st as the New Year. The Julian Calendar (created in 46 BC by Julius Caesar) declared April 1 was New Year’s Day, following in the wake of the Vernal Equinox. Those reluctant to adopt Pope Gregory’s calendar became a figure of fun.

Why So Serious?

“Everybody Plays The Fool” - and that’s not a bad thing! The Fool commands respect - as a Court presence, Jungian archetype and formidable resident of DMT Hyperspace.  

The practice of having a Fool for entertainment goes back to the Pharaohs. Today, we envisage the Fool as the playing card Joker or medieval Court Jester. Known for “flashes of merriment, that were wont to set the table on a roar,” he was the only member of the royal entourage who could poke fun at the King, and get away with it.

We can thank the Fool for political and social satire, the thrust and parry of repartee and the art of double entendre. In the Fool’s bag of tricks were prestidigitation (sleight of hand), musical performance, juggling, and acrobatic skills. Sometimes the Fool was a Court Dwarf. Underestimated by those so arrogant to mistake the Fool’s mask for his identity, the unobserved Jester was privy to court intrigues. His metaphoric jests were a trusted source of counsel.

I’m A Joker! I’m A Smoker!

As a Jungian archetype, The Fool is Ground Zero of the Major Arcana – the start of a journey, buoyant with optimism. He’s one card removed from Magician, aka The Juggler. Equipped with elemental toys and tricks laid out on a table before him, the Fool becomes The Magus, disguised as a street performer.

The Fool/Jester/Juggler is an archetype so embedded in human consciousness, that he/she is encountered by psychonauts who ingest DMT – aka “The Spirit Molecule.” Clinical research spanning over 35 years, has been conducted on N, N- Dimethyltryptamine, a chemical found in some plants and animals. The following descriptions are derived from online sources and are not intended as an endorsement of drug use.

After smoking DMT, recurring types of DMT Entities appear. Like NDEs, there are marked consistencies in DMT experiences, filtered by the subjects’ spiritual orientation, personality and expectations.  DMT Jesters are part of the welcoming committee for those who have who broken into Hyperspace: a jeweled, fractal multiverse of morphing sacred geometry defying description. DMT subjects experience the Jesters as autonomous beings who, aware of the subject’s presence, interact with them by performing cosmic sleights of hand, conjuring surprise or exquisite objects, through radiant thought forms of astonishing beauty. “Look at this! Now look at THIS!” the Jester conveys telepathically.  

Subjects may experience wonder and a sense of “being in on the Joke.” At this stage of the DMT experience, this Carnival-like atmosphere is a metaphor for creation in constant flux. However, the DMT Jester can become mocking and menacing. According to one DMT subject, “You respect their performance, or things could get scary.”

The Jesters are just one of many DMT entities, who also resemble mythic beings. (Were our spiritual ancestors tripping?) The jury’s out on whether Hyperspace is an alternate dimension or an extremely vivid hallucination. Regardless, The Fool/Jester is profoundly embedded in our collective consciousness, perhaps as a marker to remind us that the Gods have a sense of humour. (At our expense, no doubt!) The Hindu concept of “Leela” – the pleasurable pastimes of Deities - demonstrates that playfulness, even absurdity, is one of many roads to enlightenment.

Folie a Deux

What does ANY of this have to do with Aphrodite?

If you’re a card slinger, chances are when The Fool and The Empress turn up, they’re singing “Taking A Chance on Love.” The synchronistic synergy between Love and the Fool spins The Wheel of Fortune and makes The World go ‘round.   

The Fool, as sidekick to the Empress/Goddess, reminds us to laugh at paradox. The Fool’s spontaneity defies stagnation. Aphrodite is comfortable, indeed complicit, with Trickster energy. (All’s fair in love and war, and Her brother Hermes is a patron of thieves and travelling salesmen.) The Fool is also forward momentum - even if over a cliff. He isn’t deadlocked: huddled over a hoard of pentacles, hemmed in by swords or brooding over toppled cups. With rose in hand and arms extended to embrace the world, The Fool is “Aperire” personified, with heroic readiness for new experiences.

Like a fleeting tryptamine experience, our life, loves, and losses, once so viscerally felt, recede into a distant dream. It takes The Fool’s profound humility to, yet again, begin another journey. His alchemical, expansive innocence - what we need to access when starting over - can make us feel “younger than Springtime.” Aphrodite’s promise of renewal was no deception, after all.

“How sad and bad and mad it was – but then, how it was sweet.” ~Robert Browning

About the Author:

Lisa Iris is an artist and proprietress of MYTHOS Art and Counselling 289 High St., Fort Erie, ON. Her artwork is represented exclusively by crystalwind.ca and is featured in The Crystal Wind Oracle by Antonio DeLiberato.
Lisa enjoys opening her home to kindred spirits for conversation and for making magic happen.

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