The true paternity of Aphrodite?
Lately I've been reading Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan's Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997; ISBN 0-520-21064-6). On pp. 171-172, they say: "The Canadian biologists K. Pirozynski and D. Malloch belive plants emerged from symbioses between algae and fungi. According to these scientists, they were like lichens in reverse: in the symbioses leading to plants it was the algal, rather than the fungal partner that was dominant. It is probably no coincidence that 95 percent of today's land plants have symbiotic fungi in their roots, called mycorrhiza. Many plants will shirvel and die if deprived of their fungal partners in the soil. (Most of the 5 percent of plants that lack persistent fungal symbionts have taken again to the water; they are aquatic plants.) Indeed, the difficult conquering of dry land is easier to understand if it was done by symbionts, cooperative partners that collaborated to do what neither could do alone. And the discontinuous evolution, from soft, wet algae to lignified land plants, also suggests symbiosis."
Esoterically speaking, Hades, or Pluto, Who is also Lord of the mineral wealth of the soil and that of the first, or Hadean Eon of our living world's existence, rules fungi; His wife, Persephone (Proserpina), Who is also the Lord of DNA and the first appearance of life on Earth at the onset of Earth's Archaean Eon of life, rules algae; and Aphrodite (Venus), Who is also the Lord of the interrelationships of the countless plants and animals living within the soil that are so necessary for soil's fertility, rules true plants of all kinds. Lichens represent the marriage of Hades and Persephone. Looks as if Aphrodite is Their daughter! This may throw traditional assignments of these Gods into a cocked hat -- traditionally, Poseidon/Neptune or Zeus/Jupiter is considered to be Her father -- but it works biologically. That implies it should work Magickally, astrologically, and mythologically. The Greek and Roman religious story-cycles are based on the ancient history of those cultures. Perhaps, long, long ago, the namesakes and first human avatars of Hades and Persephone had a daughter who, for some reason, was then adopted by the first human avatar of Poseidon or Zeus, her true origins then covered up for whatever reason. Historians, take note: checking up on this hypothesis might make a fascinating top for a PhD thesis!
Esoterically speaking, Hades, or Pluto, Who is also Lord of the mineral wealth of the soil and that of the first, or Hadean Eon of our living world's existence, rules fungi; His wife, Persephone (Proserpina), Who is also the Lord of DNA and the first appearance of life on Earth at the onset of Earth's Archaean Eon of life, rules algae; and Aphrodite (Venus), Who is also the Lord of the interrelationships of the countless plants and animals living within the soil that are so necessary for soil's fertility, rules true plants of all kinds. Lichens represent the marriage of Hades and Persephone. Looks as if Aphrodite is Their daughter! This may throw traditional assignments of these Gods into a cocked hat -- traditionally, Poseidon/Neptune or Zeus/Jupiter is considered to be Her father -- but it works biologically. That implies it should work Magickally, astrologically, and mythologically. The Greek and Roman religious story-cycles are based on the ancient history of those cultures. Perhaps, long, long ago, the namesakes and first human avatars of Hades and Persephone had a daughter who, for some reason, was then adopted by the first human avatar of Poseidon or Zeus, her true origins then covered up for whatever reason. Historians, take note: checking up on this hypothesis might make a fascinating top for a PhD thesis!