Carcosa Bound

As a myth worthy of exploring, and perhaps even inhabiting, the Story of Actaeon contains a heady witches’ brew: a hunt, the glimpse of beauty of the immanent body of a Goddess-in-flesh; a metamorphosis.

Then, a reversal: Another hunt, and a glorious death – and another metamorphosis.

There are versions, improvements and shifting details, as there usually are in any story worth retelling. Easier to abandon truth and purity for a compelling performance.

As a youth, Actaeon receives training from Chiron, that strange recurring alt-centaur creature who teaches young boys to become heroes.

Astrologically, and astronomically, depending on your inclination, this comet that now bears his name serves as the mediator between the personal and transpersonal planets.

His notable students are universally doomed – but maybe this is just because they’re the only ones people remember.

So Actaeon the hunter, whether by design, desire, or just damn good luck, finds the Goddess Artemis, Diana, the Moon in the flesh, and steals a forbidden glimpse of the splendour of her true nakedness.

She transforms him into a stag, the animal he hunts, and he is pursued and torn apart by his own hunt-maddened hounds.

There is a tragedy there – but then, let us examine this tragedy more closely: τραγῳδία, tragos – goat. Ode – song.

This haunting Goat Song: sacrificing everything one has and is, in becoming; to have it all taken from you, to become immortal in myth.

A glorious sexual metaphor.

A worthy narrative.

Totally worth it.