Frodo the Ring-Bearer, selected to convey the Ring of Power into Mordor where he can cast it into the fire, is weary on his journey. He is not yet into the dark lands, but already the responsibilities of bearing the Ring of Power wear heavily on him. Frodo and his band, the Fellowship of the Ring, spend their last moments traveling together as guests in Lothlorien. There, they meet the Lady of the Woods, the Lady Galadriel.
Lady Galadriel welcomes the group of travelers, and gives each a special gift along with an Elven cloak. To Frodo, she gives the Phial of Galadrial, which provides light during their journey. More than that, by touching the vial, Frodo can ease the corrupting power-thoughts induced by the One Ring. Similarly, the light from this vial (Phial) frightens away the voracious spider Shelob, whose web would ensnare him after he's entered Mordor.
The Phial of Galadriel also seemed to inspire both Frodo and his companion Sam to call out in the Elvish language. Frodo, in particular, called out a reference to Earondil the first time that he used the Phial against Shelob.
Just two days ago, I chanced to watch a segment of The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy directed by Peter Jackson and released in 2001. This was the segment in which Frodo was brought before the Lady Galadriel. He was mesmerized by her ethereal beauty, and awed by her gift to him.
Rachel Pollack, in her book, The Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, describes this first stage of our adult life-journey as the Worldy Sequence. This is the time in which we come to know, access, and integrate each of our core power archetypes. Two of these are like "reserve batteries," and I don't discuss them in Unveiling. The remaining six are our "power modes": we need each of them to gain our full adult powers.
If this is the case, the Frodo might be a stand-in for each of us. This is not surprising - each of us feels a bit "smaller" than others, and we are each daunted by life's challenges from time to time. And let's recall that the purpose of these "heroic" stories is to exaggerate contrast. We are not simply trying to introduce a new process or product into our company, we are saving truth and freedom by delivering the ring to Mordor and sundering the forces of darkness!
So what does Frodo's encounter with Lady Galadriel, the Lady of the Woods, mean to us? She would have to be one of the three feminine archetypes of our six core power archetypes. This means that she could represent the High Priestess (wisdom and inner knowing), the Empress (or Isis, love and nurturance), or Hathor (the goddess of pleasure and sensuality).
Really, there is not much of the "pleasure and sensuality" aspect in The Lord of the Rings! Hathor, as a choice for the Lady, is clearly out. Also, the Lady is a somewhat remote figure. She is not about warmth and nurturance. When we connect with our "inner Lady Galadriel," we are not getting the oxytocin feel-good surge that we get when we curl up with our dog, cat, young child, or our "special someone."
No, there is only one role for the Lady: she represents the High Priestess, or inner wisdom. And her gift to Frodo is precisely related to her role in his life; she gives him light, the ability see - and also to repel dark forces using this power of light.
This is reinforced with an earlier scene, in which the Lady pours water into a silver mirror-bowl, and invites Frodo to look within and see. This, very literally, is the role of the Lady in each of our lives. Our inner High Priestess is that aspect of us that gives us wisdom; she helps us "see rightly."
When we access our own inner High Priestess - our own Lady of the Woods, we gain not only vision and clarity, but also wisdom. Read about her in Unveiling: The Inner Journey, Chapters 7 & 11.
P.S. Who, in The Fellowship of the Ring, would represent the other two female power-archetypes? There are really only two other women of note that the Fellowship encounters during their travels; Goldenberry and Arwen. As a little test for yourself, why not research each of these two - and think them through in terms of the remaining two feminine core-power archetypes: the Empress (or Isis, in Unveiling terms), and Hathor. Which is which? And why? And do we need them? What roles did each play in The Fellowship of the Ring? What would the story be like without them?
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