Circe had given Odysseus (Ulysses) the choice of two routes after his encounter with the Sirens.
On one side were the two overhanging rocks against which the great swells of Amphitrite were breaking. The gods called them Planktai “unstable rocks” or “wandering rocks”.
No bird could touch the first, not even the shy doves that brought ambrosia to Zeus. At each flight, the smooth rock took one of them and the king of the gods had to replace it.
Never had any ship of men been able to cross the second. Waves and devastating fires carried away the debris of the ship and the bodies of the sailors. Only one of the great ships of the sea could escape, the Argo that the stream had thrown against these gigantic stones, because Hera saved it for Jason’s sake.
When Odysseus (Ulysses)’ ship approached, they saw the vapour of a great swell and heard its crash. Terrorized, the men stopped rowing. The hero ordered the pilot to steer away from the rocks.
But he had not yet said anything to his men about the monsters Charybdis and Scylla that Circe had described to him and that they would find on the second route that passed between two reefs.
The summit of the first reached the sky, covered in a dark cloud in summer as in winter. The rock was smooth and halfway up there was a dark cave which on the western side opened to the Erebus. This cave was the hideout of Scylla, an inevitable plague. This frightful monster had the voice of a small bitch, twelve stubs as feet and six long necks, each with a horrible head with three rows of teeth. Half stuck in the rock, she darted her long necks to fish for dolphins, sea dogs, sometimes one of the thousands great monsters fed by the screaming Amphitrite, or to seize the sailors on the boats.
The other reef was within reach of the first and carried a large fig tree. Just below, the divine Charybdis engulfed the black waters three times every day with a terrible noise, then vomited it, causing the foam to spurt out and cover the top of the reefs. When the water disappeared, you could see a bottom of blackish sand (or dark blue).
Circe had warned Odysseus (Ulysses) to avoid Charybdis in particular and to sail towards Scylla, for he had to prefer the death of some sailors to total drowning.
She had also told him that Scylla was immortal, “an eternal evil,” that Odysseus (Ulysses)’ taste for fighting would be of no use, and that his only resource would be to seek help from Crataïs, Scylla’s mother, who would put an end to the monster’s attacks.
As the boat entered the pass, he forgot Circe’s advice and put on his weapons.
Seized by the terror of the chasm of Charybdis, he saw only too late the mouths of Scylla who seized six sailors and devoured them.
The seeker having to render his nature “transparent” in order to let the divine forces penetrate, he must purify the deep areas of the subconscious and unconscious, until the roots not only of mind out of life, but also of life out of matter. It is these two aspects that are illustrated here, on the one hand with Charybdis and Scylla, on the other hand with the Planktai.
The Planktai
Circe begins by presenting to the hero the risks of the purification at the root of life, because the danger of dying is immense. (It is a yoga that cannot be done without the action of the supramental forces.) Amphitrite is a daughter of the “old man of the sea”, Nereus, the first son of Pontus “life”. In this very archaic plane, the great waves of life hammer the matter (against the overhanging rocks, broke the great swells of Amphitrite). They are governed by the subconscious, because Amphitrite is united to Poseidon. Their son is Triton, a god half-man – half-fish, expression of the emergence of humanity out of the pure vital.
The “overhanging rocks” designate, in the Tree of Sephiroth, the parts of the veil that extend on both sides under the Sephira Yesod, boundary of dense matter and life.
They are “unstable” or “wandering” rocks which make you “stray from the right path”. The overhang suggests that it cuts off contact with the spiritual powers.
This is a test that the seeker has already encountered at the beginning of the road, but from which he escaped thanks to the intervention of the overmind powers (see the quest of the Argonauts). Here, the seeker will go afar, probably because it was not the time to dissolve such a knot.
The first “rock” symbolizes a knot in the body unconscious which does not offer any grip (a smooth rock). No pure thought can approach it because it would be swallowed up instantly, even the purest barely emerged from bodily life (the shy doves). Moreover, the power that reigns over the overmind is compelled to restore at each attempt of mental purification the fragile connection with the roots of life, a link essential to its survival (Zeus must restore the number of shy doves which bring him the ambrosia because at each trip one dies at the contact with the rock).
The second “rock” marks the ultimate barrier to the investigation at the roots of life that no one has ever been able to consciously cross; because one must step with eyes wide open into death (no ship of men could cross it). The seeker must be able to endure the fire hurricanes of body cleansing by the forces of the spirit (the devastating fires). For the one who is unprepared it is an experience that can be very dangerous, even deadly, because it completely disrupts energy structures and destroys them (especially the etheric body that leaves the being without any protection) (the waves and devastating fires carried away the debris of the ship and the bodies of the sailors).
It is an experience of which the seeker had a vague glimpse at the very beginning of his yoga, during the first major experience of opening to the higher planes (the temporary experience of illumination), as if to warn him of the risks on the path. But at that time, without even being aware of it, he was totally protected by the forces watching over