Atropos: No Looking with the Hands!

Identity:  The Inevitable. The third Moerae or Fate
Description: White-robed, grey-haired goddess who holds the shears that sever the thread of life.
Symbols: Shears, scissors, or cutting implement.

The Greek Myth

Homer saw the three Fates as representing mankind's individual and inescapable destiny. It was only Hesiod who treated them as minor divinities. And yet the principles they represent are as valid in today's world as they were in ancient Greece.

Daughters of Night, the Moerae or Fates were three in number and were named Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. Clotho, the spinner, personified the Thread of Life; Lachesis, the Apportioner, often called 'Chance', that kindly element of good luck that we all hope will make its presence felt at some propitious time in our life, while Atropos stood for those fatalistic conditions that are generally described by schools of Eastern belief as 'karmic'.

The Moerae shadow the whole of a person's life. They arrive with Ilythia at the moment of birth and are present at the point of death, when it is their duty to sever the cord of life. In ancient Greece they were also iinvoked at the time of marriage to ensure a happy and lasting union. They dwelt on Olympus and submitted to the authority of Zeus, who commanded them to see that the natural order of things was respected. Their gift of prophecy manifested mainly at the time of birth, at which point they were able to view the entire life of the newborn child.

Comment by Murry Hope

Life has a habit of occasionally placing us in situations from which there are no easy ways out. As the old Chinese proverb says, 'Destined enemies always meet in narrow passages.'  Although we may frequently dodge adversity by skilfully negotiating our way around it, or being sufficiently materially endowed to pay someone else to extricate us from it, a predicament will inevitably arise that we and we alone must handle.

"When the world runs out of fabric, Job Warehouse will still have fabric".

Image One: Exterior, Job Warehouse, 56-58 Bourke St, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Image Two: Breastplate of Aaron.