What Would Aragorn Do?: Part 3 – Sun + Moon = Aragorn and Arwen

If you have not read Parts 1 and 2, please do so. But for those who have, here is a quick recap.

In Part One, I shared my experiences at two workshops working with a “big dream” I had at the end of March this year (2026). In the first workshop, I randomly picked that dream, and it involved being reunited with a great love of my life—perhaps the greatest, at least in terms of its lingering impact.

During that workshop, I also encountered one of the most beautiful women I have seen in my life. When she passed by me and smiled, the deep heart feelings of nostalgia, love, desire, excitement, and energy that I had experienced in the dream came rushing back in full force.

My heart expanded.

My knees almost gave out.

Pow.

Two days later, I shared this same dream with a group of about 40 participants at another workshop and had a profound guided meditation experience in which I encountered Aragorn.

In Part Two, I related what I learned from Aragorn during that active imagination experience and left the story as I headed to a workshop called Gems and Dreams.

We will pick up Part Three there.

But first, a little about my personal myths and why this dream and these workshop experiences were so powerful—and, I think, important.

I’ll start with music.

John Lennon wrote, performed, and sang All You Need Is Love with the Beatles.

And I think he was right.

Aragorn did what he did throughout The Lord of the Rings for many reasons, but I think underneath it all was his enduring love for Arwen.

Yes, it was his duty, his fate, and his path.

But I truly believe the motivation beneath all of that was proving himself worthy of winning Arwen’s love.

It was why he lingered in the North as a Ranger.

It was why he was willing to face the Dead on the Paths of the Dead.

It was why he was willing to give his life—or surely believed he was—at the Black Gate.

A world without Arwen’s love was not the world he was meant to inhabit.

These two figures—one a real person, the other a literary character—are perhaps representative of two of the strongest and most enduring personal myths of my own life.

You see, Lennon is as much a mythic figure for me as he is a musical influence and inspiration.

He wore his heart on his sleeve and put it into his songs.

He cared deeply about the world.

He was a bit of a tortured soul.

He was deeply flawed, yet continued to grow as he aged.

I resonate with all of that.

Aragorn was the last great heir of a fading dynasty. He descended from Elros, Elrond’s brother, and carried the lineage of Númenor through the Dúnedain.

You see, I am part Cherokee and related to former chiefs of the tribe—from John Ross to a more recent distant cousin, Ross Swimmer—and I have always held that part of myself in high regard.

When I first read The Lord of the Rings as a pre-adolescent, I felt a kinship with Aragorn because of this.

But it always felt like ego inflation to say I was “like” Aragorn.

I’m nobody.

I’m a real Nowhere Man, sitting in his nowhere land, kind of person.

Sure, I’ve done some cool things, achieved some worthwhile goals, and I think I am worthy of mutual respect.

But heir to Gondor and Arnor?

I think not.

Nevertheless, during the pandemic, a friend got me interested in astrology, and through that I began to understand a few more reasons why I feel a kinship with Aragorn.

You may have a dim view of astrology or consider it a “dark” art.

But my friend is a righteous Christian and one of the most loving people I know. SHe helped me understand that the Bible is filled with stories involving astrology, dreams, intuition, and inner knowing.

Personally, I think there may even be a scientific basis for some of it that we simply have not evolved enough to understand yet.

But I digress…

What I have learned is that my Taurus Sun sits in the 12th House of my astrological chart—the house associated with the unconscious, the mystical, and the mysterious.

Not only that, but I have what is called a stellium there. Three other major planets—Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars—are located there as well.

I am no expert in astrology, so I offer this only as a curious novice.

But if there is validity to astrology, these placements seem to have profound implications for personality and character.

It is one way I feel akin to Strider.

I am in the shadows.

In the lowly places.

Having deep thoughts.

Working toward a metamorphosis while sitting in a pub in Bree, awaiting the day I step onto the stage and bring whatever gifts I have to offer.

Because, you see, I also have a Leo Moon.

The sign of royalty.

The sign of loyalty.

The sign that seeks authentic expression and isn’t afraid of the spotlight when it serves a worthy purpose.

Aragorn was in Bree to fulfill his mission.

Perhaps I am there to fulfill mine.

At the end of Part Two, I shared how I left that workshop and went to the Gems and Dreams workshop immediately afterward.

I was already drawn to it because, more than ten years ago, I had another “big dream” involving jewels.

The first image in that dream was the prism from Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon album cover.

I followed the refracted rainbow light downward until I came upon a small collection of multicolored gems.

I immediately recognized them as the jewels from a G.I. Joe adventure set I loved as a kid.

G.I. Joe was an archaeologist in that set—not a soldier—and he drove a six-wheeled amphibious vehicle while exploring Egyptian ruins. The set included a mummy in a sarcophagus and a treasure chest full of colorful gems.

The meaning I took from that dream was vocational.

It pointed me back to my earliest memory of thinking, When I grow up, I want to be an archaeologist.

The facilitator of the workshop, Jane E. Carleton, is a certified gemologist who buys and sells precious stones.

She showed us photographs of spectacular gems and jewelry and shared stories of how they had become connected with dreams.

About fifteen minutes into the presentation, she came to a slide showing a Moonstone.

It shimmered with multiple colors, much like the gems from my Pink Floyd-meets-G.I.-Joe dream.

I thought to myself,

“Oh wow…Moonstone…Aragorn…my Sun and Moon…the path toward integration…”

And at that exact moment, out of the corner of my right eye, I saw the beautiful woman from the first workshop quietly walk into the room and sit down in the back.

Arwen.

Or at least that is how I experienced the synchronicity.

I took it as a symbolic reminder that when I better integrate my Taurus Sun stellium with my Leo Moon…

BAM.

“My Arwen” appears.

Not necessarily as a person, but as a sign that I am moving toward greater wholeness.

That is the hero’s journey.

My Arwen may not ultimately be a beautiful woman at all.

As Aragorn seemed to tell me during the guided meditation, perhaps I need to let go of seeking reunion with my former love—or searching for someone new to replace her.

Instead, my work is to go to the Prancing Pony-type pubs.

Play my music.

Do my work.

Continue the journey toward integration.

And perhaps then, in whatever form it is meant to arrive, I will have “earned” my own version of Arwen.

Thus, I no longer feel as though I am “in the market” for romantic love.

Nor do I think this dream was simply about being reunited with that kind of deep, passionate relationship.

No.

I am, in a sense, more like a monk.

Doing the daily devotional work.

Preparing, perhaps, for my own standing before the Black Gate.

And maybe someday…

A life in which my version of Arwen is always present.

We will see.