The tale that inspired the limited edition oolong and herbal tea blend.
Cupid’s Haven Cherish & Warm A restorative and warming blend that stirs memory and speaks of affectionate moments to cherish and remember.
Ingredients: Cacao nibs*, Ginger*, shui xian oolong*, cinnamon sticks*, spearmint*, rose petals.
*organic ingredients.
The Tale of this Tea:
Cupid & Psyche
Once a king and queen gave birth to three beautiful daughters, the youngest of which was so beautiful that people began to hold her in reverence, a reverence that was usually only reserved for the goddess Venus herself. People would follow this young princess and give her offerings of flowers and hold feasts in her honour. Because of this the worship of Venus dwindled and this made Venus very upset. The name of this young princess was Psyche. But this worship brought no joy to the princess at all, in fact it kept anyone from wanting to get close to her, the esteem she was held in separated her from others.
Eventually Venus became fed up with being ignored and could not stand any longer that a young mortal was taking the attention of her followers. Venus called upon her son Cupid, who delighted in playing tricks on humans and gods alike, and ordered that he pierce Psyche with one of his magic arrows and make her fall in love with some revolting man so that it would bring her to ruin. Cupid, always up for some mischief, agreed. Meanwhile Psyche’s father had become deeply worried that the honour paid to his daughter might anger the gods, so he sought the advice of the oracle. The oracle told him that his daughter would not marry a mortal man but a wedding should be planned where she is to be abandoned on the summit of a craggy mountain to be wedded to a troublesome deity. This news saddened the king and queen, but Psyche welcomed the prophecy because it would free her from the torment of being wrongly adored. The wedding procession was carried out and Psyche was left on the mountaintop alone. Out of nowhere a gust of wind scooped her up and carried her down to a lush green valley where she found a magnificent palace. There she was waited upon hand and foot by invisible servants and had everything she could ever want and more. At night, as she settled into her sumptuous bedroom, she was visited by an invisible man who claimed to be her husband, they made love and in the morning he was gone. This happened night after night and though it was strange Psyche felt very much loved and fell in love with her mysterious husband, though she did not know his name and had not seen his face. For, you see, her husband was Cupid himself. When he had come to play his mischievous tricks, he had instantly fallen in love with Psyche, as if he had been pierced with one of his own arrows. Instead of harming her he created the haven for her in the valley with the hopes that he could protect Psyche from his mother’s wrath, and live there in peace and love with her. I will leave the story there, in a moment of tranquillity, though there is much more to tell. As you can well imagine, this being a Greek story, things don’t remain peaceful for long and become much more complicated and tangled, with tribulations to follow. But, I’ll tell you this much, Cupid & Psyche do end up all right in the end. If you wish to read more of this fascinating story then you can find it in the book mentioned below, or plenty of full versions available for free online. There are many versions of this Greek story and most can be traced back to the book ‘The Golden Ass’ by Apuleius from circa 200bc. It is available in various translations.