Europa and the Bull: chakras of Europe (2)

Constellation of Taurus showing the star cluster of the Pleiades

Europa: The Three Lands and Chakra System

Europa: Tree of Life

Europe takes its name from the myth of Europa and the Bull, the story of which is written in the heavens in the hieroglyph of the constellation of Taurus.

From the geomythological viewpoint, Europa is a symbolic name for the three countries known historically as Scotland, Ireland and Britain (i.e. England & Wales), whilst the Bull is signified by the mainland of Europe.

Each of the three lands of Europa is an integral whole in its own right, with its own complete cosmos of archetypes underlying the landscape. However, these three lands are intimately associated with each other and together compose a trinity that is manifesting Europa—a trinity known in myth as the Triple Goddess. The goddess of Ireland is Éire, the young maiden; the goddess of Britain is Britannia, synonymous with Mary, the mother; the goddess of Scotland is Scotia, the Caillech or crone.

In the starry heavens, Europa is represented by the star cluster in the constellation of Taurus known as the Pleiades. These are nine in number and represent the Seven Sisters of Greek mythology: Maia, Sterope, Merope, Electra, Taygete, Celaeno and Alcyone, together with their parents Atlas and Pleione, the Phoenix King and Queen of Atlantis. Like their parents, the sisters are symbolised as doves or phoenixes.

The eldest of the Seven Sisters is Maia, who was considered to be the most beautiful in the heavens and who as a result was wooed by Zeus, resulting in the birth of Hermes (Mercury). She is also said to have raised the infant Arcas, son of Zeus, to protect him from Hera, who had turned his mother Callisto into a bear; but this is another version of the same allegory. Arcas became the renowned shepherd-king of Arcadia. Arcadia is associated with the ‘Bear’ constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, with the former representing Callisto and the latter her son, and with the star in Ursa Minor that is at present our North Pole Star (Polaris) being named Arcas. These two ‘Bear’ constellations were once alternatively referred to as Doves.

At another level of myth, all the stars of the Pleiades collectively represent Maia, symbolised as a dove resting on the neck and shoulders of Taurus, the Bull. As such, she relates not only to Europa but also to the goddess Venus, the ruler of Taurus in astrological tradition. Venus is the mother of Cupid, the Christ-child, just as Europa (Maia) is the mother of Hermes/Mercury in the Pleiadean myth. Mercury is another name for Christ, both names being derived from the Ancient Egyptian Maat Kheru, ‘The True Word’.

The geomantic landscape of Europa has its own set of chakras and Tree of Life pattern, and each of Europa’s three lands likewise has its own complete cosmology that includes a national landscape zodiac as well as a major chakra system. Remarkably, the sacred heart-centres of these three lands link together in an almost perfect equilateral triangle. These sacred or royal centres are Dunsinane (Scotland), Uishneach (Ireland) and High Cross (Britain).

The ancient rulers and sages of each land recognised and used their sacred centre accordingly, and laid out their land geocosmologically around it with a ‘wheel of life’ (Greek, zodiac) containing fourfold, fivefold and sixfold divisions (and the same doubled—eightfold, tenfold and twelvefold, the latter being what most people equate with the zodiac). From time to time, later rulers and sages also worked with this geomantic knowledge. Many stories are associated with such people and the geocosmology of the land.

© Peter Dawkins