Craft Your Higher Self by Using Pandora’s Myth

The other day I saw a woman’s post in a group I’m in, and it read, “Part of me is screaming to be free, to figure out who I am, but—maybe out of fear— I never let it happen.” This line stood out from an endless scroll through other posts because I felt this so deeply.

The moment I read her words, I saw myself at 27 years old again, standing in my boss’ office about to have an annual review, but instead, I quit my job on the spot. Thick tears fell that morning I drove into work because I was in agony about keeping up the charade that was my life. A few days before my breaking point with my career, an acquaintance had said, “Tell me about yourself!” and I did my usual rattling off of my title and job description. “No, no,” she said, “I know all that! Tell me about yourself outside of work!” I froze and then left the event sobbing because not only could I not list even one hobby, but I had no fucking idea who I was without my job.

After years in the corporate world, I had practiced whittling away the parts of myself that didn’t fit into that masculine and linear environment. But at some point, there wasn’t any more of myself that I could metaphorically cut off to fit in better within that world. So I left my job. I had no idea who I was, but I knew that the moment I realized that I had let my job take over my identity, I couldn’t stay there. I outgrew my old life, which, up til that moment, was 100% focused on how others would perceive me.

After a while of listless wandering and sticky depths of self-pity, I realized spirituality and being in the mind, body, and spirit world felt more my speed. But even as I leaned into the spiritual, divine feminine, there was still that familiar cutting feeling.

But this time, I cut out pieces of myself that didn’t fit into the spirituality community, and I tried filling in other parts of me with ideas I didn’t resonate with. I kept trying to fit myself neatly into the high-vibe community.

Being solely a part of the spiritual community almost worked, but I still had a part of me missing: my total obsession with the ancient world and history.

Thus, Rewriting Myth was born. My playground when it comes to examining ancient stories and using them to our advantage here in the modern day. Because I have made a conscious effort to connect with my vision and dreams for myself, I’ve been able to stop cutting out parts of me that don’t fit. My vision is uniquely me, it is like wearing a tailored outfit for the first time and never returning to mass-produced fashion made for a body that wasn’t mine.

I hope the steps I outline here will help you, too, if you feel similar to that woman’s post. If there is a part of you that is screaming to be free and to figure out who you are, but you haven’t done so because of fear or because of not knowing where to start, then using the personal mythmaking exercise outlined here will be a decisive first step.

The part of you screaming to be free is your Higher Self (A.K.A: Future Self, Divine Self, etc.) wanting you to meet them where they are, and there is no mythological figure better suited to introduce you to your Higher Self than Pandora from Greek Mythology.

💫 Type A goal-setters with planners and to-do lists, spirituality folks, and history fans with aspirations of their own can all benefit from using the myth of Pandora to create and connect deeply with the higher version of themself that is able to accomplish their goals.

But before we get to how to create your Higher Self, we must understand who Pandora is before using her story to our benefit.

How Pandora’s myth is an ancient guide for crafting your Higher Self.

Pandora is the Ancient Greek’s explanation for how and why women were created. Like Eve from the Judeo/Christian bibles, Pandora pulls us out of ignorance and wakes us to the entire human experience.

Not the description of Eve you were expecting? Check out this Instagram post to see why I view Eve this way instead of the temptress that sources say she is.

Pandora was created as a punishment after the god Prometheus gave fire to mankind, going against the orders of Zeus, the king of the gods. Zeus then enlists the help of all the other Olympian gods to craft Pandora, the first woman.

Pandora is a combination of the best attributes of the gods. The specifics of each god and their boon is not essential for our purposes here. But, if you’d like to know more about Pandora from ancient sources, a great place to start would be Natalie Haynes’ excellent book, Pandora’s Jar.

Modern mentions of Pandora lead us to believe that she succumbed to her curiosity which resulted in plaguing the world with misery and evil.

But this version of her doesn’t sit right with me, and it is not the moral I take from her story. (Haynes argues in her book that the Ancient Greeks didn’t zoom in on the part of her story about opening the jar of evils. Ancient pottery makers and artists seemed more interested in her divine creation than the jar.)

For the purpose of crafting your Higher Self, we will focus on Pandora’s divine creation like the ancients did and use that story as the guideline for visualizing your Higher Self.

I can’t evoke Pandora’s name, though, and not address the bashing of her name for the last few millenniums.

I see Pandora as a woman giving us the metaphorical shadow so that we may see the light. Light cannot be understood without having ever been in the dark; goodness cannot be adequately valued without having witnessed evil—neither can beauty be appreciated without having seen ugliness.

Hesiod—our primary Ancient Greek source when it comes to Pandora—describes her as καλὸν κακὸν (kalon kakon), usually translated as “beautiful evil.” While that meaning can change depending on what scholar you talk to, I like to look at the phrase in a way that showcases her duality.

Her light side and shadow side, her divine and earthly traits, her masculine and feminine.

📌 Please note: when I reference masculine and feminine, I am not referring to human gender, but the masculine and feminine that we all possess regardless of gender identity. If those terms do not resonate, replace “masculine and feminine” with “projective and receptive.”

If astrology or examining the dark goddesses in your practice, Pandora’s kalon kakon description may remind you of Lilith. It serves as a reminder not to keep her hidden.

Pandora is multifaceted, like we are, and comprises all the gods’ best qualities. Your Higher Self is the version of you with all your best qualities that you need to embody to make your vision and what you daydream about a reality. Pandora is the combination of all aspects of the divine, and so too is the version of yourself that you can embody any time you’d like.

Even Pandora’s name itself is a reflection of her divine duality and complexity. Haynes’s book, Pandora’s Jar, brilliantly breaks down the etymology of Pandora’s name. Haynes explains how the name could either mean “All-Gifting” or “All-Gifted.”

I like to think Pandora is both all-gifting and all-gifted. This part of her reminds me of the divine spark we all have as humans.

💫 I mean divine as in whatever that means for you! God, Goddess, Source, etc., Or perhaps an atheist could replace divine spark with uniqueness.

We are all born unique and with gifts of our own. And—I like to think that if you’re here, reading this—you value kindness as I do and love giving to others. I truly believe that we all have a purpose that our soul calls out for us to do, and that purpose helps make our world a better place.

Your Higher Self is the version of you that hears that call and takes action. That part of you is all-gifting and simultaneously all-giving. Your Higher Self faces your fears head-on and still takes action toward your calling, even if your hands tremble at the idea.

⚠️ This does not mean you should strive to be the person that gives to the point of overextension!

Your Higher Self knows when to take restorative rest and resists going into a tuning-out or a vegetation state to avoid deep fears. Your Higher Self reminds you to reject what doesn’t serve you and to do so unapologetically. They are that part of you showing that bringing your vision to life and answering your soul’s calling is nothing to apologize for. After all, you make the world better by answering your soul’s calling.

If astrology is part of your practice, then using the myth of Pandora to craft your Higher Self will come naturally. Just like Pandora herself, we can take the best qualities of the gods—in astrology, the planets—to meet our Higher Self.

To craft your Personal Pandora Myth and to meet your Higher Self, you can look to the stars to see how to answer your all-gifting Soul Call by seeing what the stars have gifted you with. These steps below give you a tool by which you can see your gifts more vividly. More so than a simple journal prompt that asks, “what are your best qualities?”

It is easy to dismiss your talents and gifts, especially if you’ve had them all your life. So a “what are your best qualities?” journal prompt followed by an empty white page may be more complicated than a guideline like the one below.

The steps below will break down different areas of your life, and by the end of this article, you’ll be able to take those separate snippets and shape them into your Personal Pandora Myth.

It will be as though you are Hephaestus, but instead of him molding Pandora out of earth and water, you will craft your Higher Self with pen and paper.

Step 1: Understanding the traits of the planets (or gods, if you prefer)

Sun (Helios or Latin-Sol): In Astrology, the sun represents your identity and how you present yourself to the world. This is usually someone’s first step into astrology, and most people will know what their sun sign is. But as we all know, there is more to you than just how you present yourself to the world. There is a deeper and more emotional side to you, and your moon sign and its placement in your birth chart will clue you in on that aspect.

Moon (Selene or Latin-Luna): The moon represents your emotional needs. Recognizing our emotions allows us to connect to our inner psyche and see what we truly need. In a noisy world, with devices binging multiple times a day to get our attention, it’s too tempting to drown out the quiet voice within ourselves begging to be heard.

Mercury (Hermes): Just like Mercury in Rome and Hermes in Greece, the planet Mercury represents communication. It’s no surprise that the planet of communication is so close to the sun (A.K.A: our identity and outward expression). In astrology, Mercury reveals how we communicate with others, and part of those interactions includes expressing our identities, too.

Venus (Aphrodite): Besides being the obvious ruler of romantic love, Venus is much more. In astrology, this planet represents how you express love and how you want to receive it, but also what gives you pleasure. Pleasure is more than sexual desire and expression; experiencing pleasure is part of what separates humans from other species. Material things can bring pleasure, along with experiences, creativity, etc. Seeing where Venus is in your chart, along with the sign and house that it occupies, can help you seek out more things that are pleasurable.

Mars (Ares): Just like using the words receptive and projective to replace “Feminine” and “Masculine,” you can do the same with Venus and Mars. In myth, Venus and Mars are usually thought of as the epitome of feminine and masculine, but I disagree. Mars, in astrology, is a planet to look at if you want to dig further into how you’re projecting yourself into the world. Mars is more than just the god of war in mythology, and the planet Mars is more than just how you argue and more than just your fiery side. What are you projecting? How are you putting yourself out there? What are you creating? What lights you on fire?

Jupiter (Zeus): Jupiter and Neptune are the two planets I find most challenging in connecting their myths to astrology. If you’re familiar with Greco-Roman mythology, then you’ll know both gods are extremely problematic by today’s standards. Putting that aside, though, we can still find ties between Jupiter’s mythological background and the planet’s astrological meaning. In astrology, Jupiter represents a sage-like part of ourselves. Among many other things, Jupiter represents wealth, expansiveness, and wisdom. (Considering how Zeus ate his wife, Metis, who represented wisdom, it’s pretty easy to see why Zeus/Jupiter in astrology would possess wisdom, too!)

Saturn (Kronos): In Astrology, the planet Saturn is associated with sacred responsibility and a personal sense of duty. In Rome, Saturn is a god of seeds and sowing seeds (among other things). Just like sprouting seeds and nurturing them into thriving plants, so too is what is truly important to you. What you are called to do, what you’re passionate about — all these things are seeds that you must nurture day after day to sprout into reality. Seeing Saturn’s placement in your chart will illuminate how to nurture these seeds of intention.

Uranus (Ouranos): The astrological Uranus is my favorite. What can I say? I’m a true Aquarian! This planet is about busting out of paradigms that are antiquated and don’t fit you. This is the part of you with that little underlying voice saying, “This isn’t right. There’s a better way than this.” This planet is often called “The Rebel,” and I just love it for that. Uranus inspires you to highlight what makes you unique. And in a world of shiny Instagram veneers and Artificial Intelligence, what is needed right now is weirdness and uniqueness. Uranus (or Ouranos, in Greek) is the god of the sky. The astrological meaning of the planet and the Greco-Roman god it’s named after don’t tie into each other, but at least it didn’t get named after an English King like Uranus’s discoverer wanted to call it!

Neptune (Poseidon): As with Jupiter, I especially have difficulty tying the god Neptune (Greek: Poseidon) in with the astrological planet Neptune. Except for the fact that Neptune was the god of the sea, and the astrological properties of this planet are very much water energies. Like free-flowing water, the planet Neptune encourages you to flow into your dreamy side. The part of you interested in spirituality, nature, the divine, etc. Rigidity has no place with Neptune, and like water, Neptune asks you to find cracks in the rigid structures around you so that you can flow through and be free.

Pluto (Hades): This is another one of my favorites. In astrology, Pluto is all about long-term transformation and your legacy. Tapping into your soul’s purpose and stepping up to embody your Higher Self to take action from that mindset will have lasting effects on those around you that will live on past your short time on this earth. Hades (the god of the dead) has more souls in his domain and spends more time with these souls than other gods. Like the souls in Hades’s domain, you will spend more time dead than alive. But even so, your impact will live on longer than you do because of how it will impact others.

A Note On Asteroids

Most astrological sites leave out information about asteroids. I decided to include these in my Personal Pandora Myth because not only do I like what these asteroids represent in astrology, but I also appreciate these gods’ mythological backgrounds, too. Feel free to add or leave out any in your Personal Pandora Myth.

Vesta (Hestia): highlights daily rituals and home life.

Ceres (Demeter): represents your nurturing side. This asteroid focuses on fertility, parenting, sustenance, and abundance.

Juno (Hera): Relationships: deep love and lasting partnership. She is involved with your long-term commitments.

Pallas (Athena): Pallas represents intelligence, logic, and problem-solving and shines a light on patterns. One site said about Pallas that she is “weaving together the cool-headed and artistic. Pallas is all about embracing your strengths and personal power.”

Chiron: This asteroid represents your deep wounds and shows you how to heal them.

Lilith: She represents the divine feminine energy, sexual freedom, and unashamed ambition—and, like Chiron, helps heal deep wounds.

Step 2: Use your birth chart to receive the planets’ special gift to you.

If you know the placement of the planets and asteroids in your chart, you can fill out what you know about them in a table similar to the example below.

If you don’t have that, I recommend a website like astro-charts.com. Or, if you have a smartphone, you can get a detailed birth chart and explanation of each planet, sign, and house placement for free in the Sanctuary App (You don’t need to do any priced readings to access your chart and the in-depth information about the houses and signs!)

Because I’m particularly drawn to astrology, I added descriptions of each planet’s Zodiac sign and house placement to determine the gift I want to use to craft my Higher Self. These descriptions will be the bulk of your Personal Pandora Myth and how you will craft your Higher Self. Like with this article, when you read those descriptions, take what feels expansive and aligned for you! However, if your eyes glazed over at words like zodiac or house placement, feel free to disregard them!

An example of determining your gifts – From my own natal chart

I started with the Sanctuary app. This is a screenshot of my chart on that app.

What I like about this app is that each symbol, sign, and house (the numbers at the center of the circle) are clickable and with lots of information. It is an organized way for someone looking at their chart for the first time to digest all that info!

Sadly, the Sanctuary app doesn’t show asteroids like the ones I have listed in Step One. If you’d like to include them, you have to find a different Natal Chart that shows them.

This example below is from Astro Seek and adds tons of extra asteroids. But I was able to determine where the asteroids I DID want are.

Once you have the placement of each planet and asteroid, you can plug the information you learn about them into the table below.

This first table is my example from my Natal Chart. Below this example, you can find the blank version of the table!

💫 For the asteroids, I added them in order of where they appear in the solar system. Most are in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, so you’ll see them listed below in astronomical order!

Your Turn!

Plug in your planets’ placements from your chart and add the gifts specific to you. If you get stuck and can’t find the information you’re looking for, try Google!

For example, I couldn’t find great info on what Lilith in Aquarius in the First House meant, so I googled precisely that: “Lilith in Aquarius in the First House.”

Gods (Or planets/asteroids)	The SIGN this Planet was in at the time of your birth	The HOUSE this planet was in at the time of your birth	The GIFTS and qualities you possess from these planets’ placements
Sun ☉ – Sol/Helios
Moon ☾︎ – Selene/Luna
Mercury ☿
Venus ♀
Mars ♂
Lilith ⚸
Juno ⚵
Ceres ⚳
Vesta ⚶
Pallas ⚴
Jupiter ♃
Saturn ♄
Chiron ⚷
Uranus ⛢ or ♅
Neptune ♆
Pluto ♇

Step 3: Color Code which statements go where in your Personal Pandora Myth

When I see a massive block of text with a lot of information I know I need to process, my fingers start to itch, and I want to grab my highlighters!

Color coding will break down the information that you just wrote in your table so that way you can give all that valuable info a narrative structure. This is where we organize your Personal Pandora Myth — The Story of Your Higher Self.

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Example: My Color-Coded Personal Myth

Sol gifts me a free-thinking mind free from the paradigm of the patriarchy, racist, classist, and ableist society. Sol gives the gifts of a brain and heart full of revolutionary thoughts and ideas.

Selene gives me the gift of finding comfort and rejuvenation in my home — my sanctuary. She gifts me with prioritizing stability, so I have the energy and clarity to put the gifts of my bright sun and other outspoken planets to good use.

Mercury gives me the gift of communicating through the abstract with story-telling to big ideas. This gift is a fundamental part of my identity and my ticket to transcendence. This gift is Hermes gifting me his winged sandals for my soul to fly.

Venus gives me the gift of not settling for less than what I want and deserve. She teaches me to reach for more while appreciating what I have that is truly meaningful to me.

Mars gifts me with being a courageous self-starter and enduring strength to commit to my long-term goals and vision.

Lilith gives me the gift of tapping into my shadow side to bring forth my power. She shows me not to be afraid of my shadow self but to hold hands with her and bask in the light with my shadow self.

Juno gives the gift of valuing my partnership with someone who encourages me to be me. Juno inspires me to continue to bring out the dreamy, soft-hearted elements of my partnership when most of my other planets ask me to focus elsewhere.

Ceres gifts me the awareness to nurture myself AND others. She gives me the gift of staying calm when I help others, and I hold space for them without judgment.

Vesta gifts me with finding intensity, fire, and excitement at home. She shows me that home habits and rituals light a fire within me. The spark ignited in my hearth at home is something I carry with me when I leave my house and go into the world throughout my life.

Athena (Pallas) gifts me with my creativity manifesting through social issues. She teaches me to problem solve via my core values and moral code. Athena shows me that my intellect is woven in with my spirituality.

Jupiter gives me the gift of using intuition to determine my fate. He gifts appreciation for practicality and dedication and teaches me that kindness is a virtue.

Saturn gives me the gift of unshakable individual authority. Saturn helps me handle the responsibilities that come with that.

Chiron gifts me the awareness of my wounds and gives me the path to healing them. He asks that I work through any fear of not being “good enough” to shine. Chiron gifts the awareness, too, to not prioritize others to dim me.

Uranus gifts me the desire and ability to smash outdated systems and revolutionize the world for the better. He encourages me not to find comfort in the stagnant paradigm but to find it in pushing myself and others into the growth zone.

Neptune gives me the gift of being able to tap into the collective unconsciousness and encourage wakefulness through down-to-earth spirituality.

Pluto gives me the gift of being ambitious about my long-term legacy through my curiosity and desire to speak the truth (and my truths).

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Color-Coding Breakdown

In the example above, I simply wrote out all the sentences from the “gifts” column of my table and looked for ways I could reorder these sentences in a beginning-middle-end type of narrative.

How you decide this can differ from how I did it, but you’re welcome to do it as I did!

I started with finding all the “high-level” types of statements—anything that sounded like my identity. What I thought could make an “elevator pitch” about myself I highlighted in blue.

Next, in orange, I highlighted any statements that sounded like an action I could take to make those high-level statements happen. For example, in blue, I highlighted, “I can tap into the collective unconsciousness” because that sounded very high-level and like it was a part of my identity. Except that was so vague and nebulous, I had NO idea how I could even do that until I saw the sentence, “I communicate through the abstract and use story-telling to break down my big ideas.”

When I read that, I knew that was a specific action I could take to make the previous state a reality.

I love having the specific action steps right behind the big, bold identity statements because it makes those identity statements less overwhelming. Breaking big dreams into small steps is an easy way to banish fear and overwhelm!

Because we have intense and bold identity statements up front, followed by action items, now is the time to remember our emotional needs and shadow selves. Because, as the saying goes, a candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.

Honoring your physical limitations and emotional needs ensure you can continue taking action that is aligned with your Higher Self. For me, any sentence that I read that sounded like it could help with restorative rest is one I highlighted in green.

Last — and definitely not least— I highlighted anything that had to do with my shadow self in grey. There are always dark parts of ourselves, no matter how high our vibe is or how aligned with our Higher Self we may be. There will always be a part of you that you’ll naturally want to shy away from, but nothing good happens from divorcing yourself from your shadow self.

I learned that the hard way. Whittling away parts of yourself that you don’t like always has a way of bursting back into your life when it is the least convenient.

We are multifaceted.

Kalon Kakon.

Beautiful evil; good bad.

We are made from many dualities, and the best we can do is embrace all sides.

Elizabeth Gilbert has a great analogy in her book, Big Magic, that she uses for fear, but I think it works nicely for the shadow self, too.

“Fear and creativity shared a womb, they were born at the same time, and they still share some vital organs.”

Gilbert goes on to use the analogy of going on a road trip. She says she’s the one driving the car, and her creativity is in the passenger seat, but she invites her fear with her because she knows it will show up for the trip regardless. She sets boundaries with her fear and only allows it to ride in the backseat. I think the same analogy can work with your shadow self.

Your shadow self doesn’t need to be in the driver’s seat or set the GPS. You’re in the driver’s seat, your Higher Self is your passenger, and your shadow self is along for the ride, too, via your invitation. There doesn’t have to be struggle or pain in the car because you invited everyone for the ride!

Pulling it all together in an “I am” narrative

Now comes the fun part! This is where you stitch together all your color codes beginning with the bold identity statements and ending with a look at your shadow self.

In my example below, I noted which paragraphs were highlighted yellow, orange, etc. But feel free to write yours out entirely without any headings breaking up the sections.

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My Personal Pandora Myth (AKA My Higher Self)

(Blue highlight paragraph) Bold Identity Statements

I have an unshakable individual authority. I can tap into the collective unconsciousness, and I have an intense desire to smash outdated systems and revolutionize the world for the better. My mind is free from the paradigm of the patriarchal, classist, racist, and ableist society the world is currently in. My brain and heart are full of revolutionary thoughts and ideas, and my creativity manifests through social issues.

(Orange Highlight Paragraph) Action Items that make up Bold Identity Statements

I communicate through the abstract and use story-telling to break down my big ideas. This is a fundamental part of my identity and is my ticket to transcendence. My gift of communication is like Hermes gifting me his winged sandals so my soul can fly. I am a courageous self-starter in making my vision a reality, and I have the enduring strength to commit to my long-term goals and vision. Through my curiosity and desire to speak the truth (and my truth), I encourage wakefulness to others around me through my approach to down-to-earth spirituality. I carry awareness to nurture myself and others, and I stay calm when I help others and hold space for them without judgment. Kindness is my most valuable virtue. I problem-solve via my core values and moral code. I use my intuition to make decisions, and my intellect is woven with my spirituality. I have an appreciation for practicality and dedication, but I don’t let that appreciation lead me to be complacent in a stagnant paradigm; instead, I find my comfort through gently pushing myself and others into the growth zone. I graciously accept the sometimes tiring and uncomfortable responsibility of turning my vision into my truth. I work every day on these truths because I am ambitious about this becoming my long-term legacy.

(Green Highlight Paragraph) Emotional Needs

I prioritize stability to have the energy and clarity to put my more outward-facing gifts into the world. I find comfort and rejuvenation in my home — my sanctuary. Home habits and rituals light a fire within me, and I find intensity, fire, and excitement at home. That fire burned at home is something I carry with me when I leave my house and go out into the world throughout my life and into my partnership, as well. I value my spouse and our partnership, as he encourages me to be me. I focus on bringing out the dreamy, soft-hearted, and playful elements of my partnership with my spouse.

(Grey Highlights) Shadow Self

I am unashamed and unafraid to reach for more in every aspect of my life while appreciating what I have currently that is truly meaningful to me. I do not settle for less than what I want or deserve. I don’t let others dim my light, and I always work through any fear of not being “good enough” to shine; in fact, I tag my shadow side in to bring forth my inner power. I hold awareness of my wounds, and my shadow side helps me heal them. I am not afraid of my shadow self, and I hold her hand as we both bask in the light.

(Bonus points if you print your Personal Pandora Myth out or create a fun doc as I did on Canva.com. Reviewing your Personal Pandora Myth daily will get you more acquainted with your Higher Self, and soon—before you know it—you will have fully embodied them!)

Who is your Higher Self? What is your Personal Pandora Myth?

Knowing your Higher Self is the best way to set goals, improve your life, and take meaningful action on what’s truly important to you.

Anytime I feel lost, alone, or overwhelmed because I don’t know what to do or where to turn, my Higher Self is like a lighthouse on a rocky shore in dense fog. Each time I reread my Personal Pandora Myth, I get to know my Higher Self more intimately, and I always get inspiration about what to do or where to go next.

My Higher Self is like my North Star—always within and there to guide me. I hope that with these steps, you can find your North Star within you, too.

Your Higher Self has always been there, waiting for you to acknowledge them. Now all you need to do is reach your hand out and let them guide you.