Plato describes Eros as the heavenly kind of spiritual love, but in The Golden Ass, he is young, immature, rash, evil mannered, with fire and arrows. If Psyche represents the spiritual essence of our soul or the animating spirit of our soul having an earthly experience, then Eros is the active energy of our mind, which reacts to will and desire. Eros, in his immature state, is concerned with the physical kind of love, thereby falling in love with Psyche in secret from his mother (Venus). Hence, Eros represents the unconscious desires we pursue without the guide of spiritual essence.