Hygeia – Goddess of Health

One of the first things I do in the morning is set myself up on my red sofa with a cup of strong black milky tea in hand, and watch the news headlines. But today I woke up early with a flurry of anxiety already stirring in my belly. And I just couldn’t bring myself to turn on the news channel. So I’ve brought my tea to my desk instead, to write to you, to calm my nerves…

I want to introduce you to a goddess. Because goddess knows, we could use a little divine intervention around here, right? And this goddess is beyond perfect for us right now, as she, my lovelies, is the goddess of health.

Hygeia is the Ancient Greek goddess from whom we get the word ‘hygiene’, and it’s she who we turn to as the archetype of disease prevention and practices that support wellness. It occurred to me as I washed my hands for the 2nd time today already – rubbing the suds across my palms, over my knuckles, between my fingers, around my thumbs, up my wrists, sluicing hot water and rinsing them clean – that it is this goddess who is most present with me now.

I always think of Hygeia as the goddess of healthy boundaries* because she asks us to take care of our natural self-defence systems. So this might include boosting our immune system, eating fresh fruit and veg, getting enough sleep etc. And it will most certainly include good hand washing practice too, but I will add to that caring for the skin on your hands, which might be dry from all that extra hand washing we’ve been doing. Ensuring that our skin is healthy and whole and responsive and resilient is incredibly important as it is a major organ and it is one of our first lines of defence.

However, I am also thinking of how Hygeia helps us to manage the necessary boundaries that we are being called to practice right now through social distancing and self-isolation. How do we cope with the necessary creation of space between ourselves and others? And how do we promote our own wellness and the health of all through our own actions?

Honestly, there’s lots of guidance on this from those with a lot more experience and expertise than I, so I’m not about to rehash all of that here for you. But I do think that a key message of Hygeia is around the concept of public health and how to respond to an epidemic. Because it’s not just about the governmental advice around reducing contact with others, coughing into a tissue, or reducing travel to essential trips only. It’s not just about what we’re keeping out – it’s about tending to what’s inside – our vital spark, our joie de vivre, our life force. And not just inside the individual body – but also the collective body.

Hygeia is one of those goddesses who has her own asteroid, and so we can plot her into an astrological chart. In my own natal chart, she sits in the first house – the house of awakenings, beginnings, of appearance, persona, personality, the house of the vital spark. And she lives in Capricorn which asks that we take things seriously, we approach with deliberate intent, and we remain rooted in the practical stuff of life. Here she is conjunct (sits within 1º) Vesta, the asteroid named for the Roman goddess of the hearth and home, also known as Hestia to the Greeks.

I could write a lot more about Hygeia’s position and significance in my own chart – an astrological chart is like the most magical kaleidoscope – the more you look the more you see. However, I think it’s actually more helpful to direct our attention to where Hygeia is transiting right now – or, where she is for us all in this particular moment.

Hygeia (10) is currently at 4.45º Gemini – the constellation of the twins Castor and Pollux, that speaks to us of self and other, of communication, of mental agility, curiosity, knowledge, and the crossing of boundaries. Gemini is ruled by Mercury, who was Hermes in Ancient Greece. The name Hermes comes from the word ‘herm’ meaning doorpost, and Hermes was considered to be the god of the doorpost – he was quite literally that boundary between the public and the private. The inward turning one and the one who makes ‘a face to meet the faces that you meet’, to quote TS Eliot.

Hermes’ staff – the caduceus – probably looks very familiar because we often use it as a medical symbol – a central wand with two spiralling serpents winding their way up its length to the top where we usually have the wings that are so associated with Hermes and his fleet-footed nature. Why is it used to represent medicine? Well, Hermes had a nephew called Asclepius, who is the god of medicine, who he rescued from the burning pyre his mother was set upon for cheating on his father, the god Apollo. His mother’s name? Coronis. You couldn’t make this up, could you?

Apollo discovered that Coronis was cheating on him with Ischys via a raven, who he had instructed to act as a spy. Having his fears confirmed, he requested that the goddess Artemis, his sister, slay Coronis, which she did by firing a volley of plague arrows. Seriously, you could not make this up. She was laid upon her funeral pyre, which is where Hermes, rescuer of lost and trapped children, collected up the baby Asclepius from the flames, and gave him to the centaur Chiron – the Wounded Healer and wise teacher – who tutored him in the healing arts. And ultimately Asclepius, whose temple was one of the world’s first hospitals, had a daughter called Hygeia….

The more we look the more we see, right enough!

Ok, coming back to Gemini….

In astrological medicine, Gemini rules the hands and the lungs – so the emphasis on washing our hands and promoting good pulmonary health right now is absolutely supported with this archetypal reading. But in more ‘performative’ terms, we speak with our hands, our breath is how we create sound in the world, it’s an essential component in how we generate sound. And it is this crossing of the boundaries, how we are connecting and communicating, that interests me most right now.

Yes, as I said before, we must follow the teachings of Hygeia and practice those healthy boundaries right now. But, we must also care for our spirit, our soul, our essential self, our sense of wellbeing, the me-in-here of ourselves, however you conceive of it and think of it. When you are feeling healthy and well, it’s not just because you are free of disease and are pain free – health is something more than that. Vitality doesn’t just occur when our systems are functioning at an optimal level. Wellness isn’t quantifiable.

So how do we nurture and support and nourish this part of ourselves, while still doing what we have to, in order to look after both our own bodies and the collective body of our communities, our nations, our world?

Well, one of the ways, I think, is being exquisitely demonstrated by the Italians raising their voices, using their breath for the purposes of song, and joining one another in melody and harmony. Each upon their balconies, sequestered from one another, their boundaries made manifest by the literal confines of their homes. But finding one another, connecting with each other, caring for the community soul together.

So, as Hygeia makes her way through Gemini in the coming months, we will continue to tend to our boundaries with care – for our own sake and for others. And we will do so with an eye to communication, connection, community. Because health is not something that we’re necessarily going to experience by stripping everything back to the individual’s physical experience – although I am absolutely not denying that we must must must look after our bodies right now. But we are being called into communion with each other, to do what we can to support that vital spark, that inner flame. We’re being asked to take care of our community, to make sure our most vulnerable are being supported, and to stay connected so we can continue to tend to the inner flame within each of us.

As I said in a post yesterday, our world is not going to look the same after this pandemic. But I absolutely believe that there is a way through this which has the potential to usher in a new way of being, a new way of connecting and caring, a new way of living and loving. And it asks that we look after both ourselves and each other – body and soul.

*Hat-tip to Randi Buckley whose legendary online course Healthy Boundaries for Kind People is a wonder!

** And also to my Dad – Bob Leckridge – the most wonderful Gemini I know whose understanding and thinking on health and wellness have absolutely informed this piece.