IRIS (EYE - riss)

Iris is Gooddess of the rainbow, and harbinger of moisture and fertility. She is fleet-footed, with great multicoloured wings, and serves the other Gooddesses as a messenger.

    In the beginning neither mortal nor deity could see colour. Indeed, the concept of colour was not even invented. The world seemed black and white and everyone wondered why they felt so depressed.

The Gooddess Iris, seeking to remedy the melancholy around her, realised that light came in many wavelengths, and that if we could perceive these wavelengths in some way, the world would be a happier place.

After much research and experimentation she placed three chemical pigments in the photoreceptors of the retina of her own eyes. She found that when these pigments were acted upon by different wavelengths, they initiated nerve impulses which travelled along her optic nerve to her brain. The result was a glorious sensation that she named 'colour'.

Soon everyone, mortals and immortals alike, wanted pigments in their photoreceptors, and Iris obligingly installed them. Today colour vision is hereditary in the human race, and most people take it for granted.

    Sometimes when the weather is bleak and damp, Iris appears in the sky proudly trailing a multicoloured ribbon behind her to remind us of her great work.

Healthy:  

You are kind and compassionate. Your radiant smile flashes through the blackest clouds of upset or bad temper and those around you cannot help but be positively affected.
You are sympathetic, empathetic, and bring harmony wherever you go. You have a vivid imagination, an inventive mind, and a great productive capacity. You feel intensely and give vibrant expression to your feelings. This process may be stressful or violent, but it brings relief and calm like the aftermath of a storm. You find peace in knowing you are able to translate even negative feelings into something positive.
   

Uh oh:  

Beware of a lack of focus, a scattering of emotion, and living too much in your own mind.
    You desperately want to be liked and admired, and fear being inadequate or defective. You are un-assertive and others take advantage of your good nature. You bottle up tensions, letting them gradually build until they return to plague you in the form of anxiety and illness.
    If you do not let the Gooddesses into your life, you start to wallow in a world of fantasy. You  despair of actualising yoursylph, and reproach yoursylph cruelly. You come to hate yoursylph, and unless you get the professional help you need you may go utterly mad.