A “well-spring” of intention: a visit to Rome and Perugia

[Cara]

I’ve recently returned from a couple of weeks visit to Italy with family. We journeyed to Rome and Perugia and spent time in some wonderful places - truly it was a visit among legends and a gentle pause in some mythical scenes....

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Perhaps I should say more about how the intention for the journey was set....

Before I left, I posted in the Soul Gardening thread (http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?108320-Soul-Gardening) about the spring of Egeria.

Egeria was a nymph who had given advice and counsel to the second Roman king (after Romulus) - Numa Pompilius. She was also said to be his consort. When he died (as mortals do), she was grief stricken and Diana, taking pity on her, turned her into a spring.

Here Egeria is with Numa Pompilius:

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/58ca6ce9a5790a218472236e/58d3d0bc363d3c6f8f09b8fd/58d3d135363d3c6f8f09cc08/1490276661615/a8b44-numaandegeriabasrelief.png?format=original

And here is a short story about them:


... Numa was Rome’s most pious king, instituting the cult of the Vestal Virgins, reforming religious laws and reorganizing the Roman calendar. He was wise and pacific, creating several codes and laws by which the Romans lived for many centuries to come. But where did he get all this wisdom?

A nymph, obviously. I’m not sure exactly how this unlikely pair met, but legend goes that the widowed king was in the habit of taking long walks in the woods (in a part of Rome now known as the Villa Caffarella) with the beautiful nymph, during which she instructed him on how to run the country and its religious institutions. They would hole up in her nymphaeum for hours on end, as the works of so many celebrated artists have illustrated. All this religious and political talk was just too romantic for the young nymph and she fell head-over-heels for the aging monarch and, supposedly, the two married.
From here: https://www.tiffany-parks.com/blog/2012/11/26/numa-pompilius-and-the-nymph-egeria

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And so, when we arrived in Rome, we were all set for some mythical encounters....

[Cara]

The first legend we meandered into was in the old grounds of the Borghese family on a Roman hillside.

We had been wandering the streets of the city and decided the park we could see on the hillside looked inviting. When we arrived at the foot of the hill we saw signs for a monument and spring of some sort to Asclepius.

Knowing that he was an Ancient Greek figure revered for healing, we decided to go and find him.

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Who was Aesclepius? A man, a healer, a god?

https://arthuride.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/asclepius-and-snake-rod.jpg?w=500&h=666


In Homer's Iliad, Asclepius was a man, a physician to soldiers wounded on the battlefield at Troy. But by Hippocrates' day, he had become elevated to the status of a god.

Actually, Asclepius was a demigod, born of a divine father,Apollo, and a mortal mother, Coronis. While pregnant with Asclepius, Coronis fell in love with a mortal man and married him. This so angered Apollo that he struck both Coronis and her husband dead. As Coronis' body lay burning on the funeral pyre, Apollo performed the first Caesarian section, freeing the baby Asclepius from his mother's womb and certain death. And so, Asclepius' very birth was due to a heroic act of medical intervention.

Apollo then took the infant to be raised by the wise old centaur Chiron, who taught him the art of healing. Asclepius became a great physician and surgeon, and raised the art of medicine to unprecedented heights.

The goddess Athena gave Asclepius the gift of Medusa's blood. The blood from the veins on the left side of Medusa's head was for the bane of mankind, but Asclepius used the blood from the veins on the right side for saving mankind and for raising the dead.

Asclepius' raising of the dead aroused the wrath of Zeus. Not only was Zeus angered to see many of his old enemies, whom he had struck dead with his thunderbolts, returning to life, but his brother Hades, king of the underworld, was complaining about the dearth of new arrivals. And so, Zeus struck Asclepius dead with one of his thunderbolts, fearing the spread of his miraculous art of healing, especially into the wrong hands.

Despite the rumors of his death, Asclepius became a living god. Healing sanctuaries, or Asclepions, were dedicated to him at sacred sites throughout ancient Greece.

Asclepius often used the art of divination to obtain responses from his father Apollo through oracles. From these auguries he learned much about the natures of many drugs and herbs, and how to use them in treating disease. This knowledge he passed on to his sons, and to his students.
From here: http://www.greekmedicine.net/mythology/asclepius.html

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And so, in the scorching heat of Rome, to the sound of cicadas, we followed the somewhat dilapidated path through the stone pines and across the dry crackling grass to the park which holds a sacred spring to Aesclepius.

First, we encountered a beautiful tree:

41545

And then, the monument to Aesclepius, sheltering under it:

41547

Then we circled round to the front of the lake, to see the full view, sitting across the water:

41548

[Cara]

More to share in the coming days...

[Rosemarie]

What a beautiful trip Cara. A trip with a purpose. Besides passing and just taking a photo of the monuments learning the history behind them.
I find that a lot of people just want to travel to as many places as they can just to say they have been there than just stay in one country during a trip and really getting to know it. “..... the slow nuance experience of a single country is always better than the hurried superficial experience of forty countries “ Rolf Potts.

Will look forward to you sharing more of this trip.

[Bill Ryan]

I always feel that springs are deep archetypes, embedded in the human psyche. For our remote ancestors, often struggling to survive well every day, springs were a valued ever-flowing source of guaranteed clean, fresh water. Life-blood, literally.

Even when we developed sophisticated water distribution systems (which of course the Romans had), springs remained symbolically important. They represented new, fresh everything. The Romans all understood that. And our present-day language reflects this also, in idioms like Hope springs eternal.

:flower:

[Sadieblue]

Thank you Cara, for sharing your trip with us, a beautiful place
with lots of history. I have so enjoyed reading your post and look forward
to more.

[Cara]

Thank you Rosemarie, Bill and Sadieblue for your thoughtful comments.

It was indeed a lovely trip and I am so pleased that my posts are sharing some of it with you all. :flower: