A New Myth, Part 2

When I started my quest toward all things divinely fem several years ago, one of the first books I read was Jean Shinoda Bolen's "Goddesses In Every Woman." In those pages I fell in love with Hestia, Athena, Artemis, and Aphrodite - but I had a conscious roadblock against Persephone and Demeter. I couldn't tell you why, except that maybe I knew my path, at the time, meant to take me me away from the Good Daughter/Doting Mother archetypes. I was in search of my Self, not the me who only knew herself in relation to others.

The book that truly broke open the universe was Sue Monk Kidd's "Dance of the Dissident Daughter."  A few days ago I pulled off my bookshelf another book, "Traveling With Pomegranates," a memoir written by Sue and her daughter Anne Kidd Taylor from journal entries made between the release of Dance and the bestselling novel The Secret Life of Bees.

So, as I mentioned in the previous post, I had already begun a new relationship with Hades when I picked up "Traveling With Pomegranates" and was immersed headfirst into the Demeter/Persephone story. What I found was that Persephone is not just the archetype of the good daughter, and Demeter is not just the archetype of the doting mother. They are both 1/3 of the classic story of a woman's life. I also didn't realize that the 3rd member of that trinity, Hecate, the ancient wise crone, also has a reoccurring role. Of course, front center and all the way through is the dark and deathly Hades.

What is so interesting reading the myth this time around is my knew understanding of Him. In the first place, the storytellers and historians translated the title of this story a little inaccurately for our modern vernacular. "The Rape of Persephone" has appeared throughout art history as a violently sexual act, while the original greek word raptis, would be more appropriately translated as "abducted."

Persephone was the daughter of Demeter (& Zeus). Demeter was the earth harvest goddess, represented by wheat stalks and orchard produce. She made the ground fertile and blessed humans with fruit-full-ness. Her teenage daughter Persephone (who up until this time had no story-line; nothing about her stood out as spectacular; she wasn't the goddess of anything)  was walking through a field one day when she was distracted by a beautiful red flower. As she stooped down to pick it up, the ground unexpectedly opened up beneath her and she plunged into a deep crevice. We lose sight of Persephone at this point in the story and it becomes Demeter's tale. Demeter searched and searched for her daughter for 9 days. On the 10th day the ancient wise crone Hecate came to her and told her that her daughter had been abducted by Hades and was now residing in the underworld.  Demeter's rage and grief rocked the whole world. She wept for months on end, pleaded with the other gods to help release her daughter and finally resorted to blackmail. She refused to let the earth produce crops. It became barren winter for ever - she was never going to stop weeping. There was famine and drought and plagues on the earth.

Finally, in order save humankind, Zeus interfered and told Hades he must return Persephone to her mother. But, on the eve of her return, Hades offered Persephone the nourishment of several pomegranate seeds in order to sustain her on her journey. (Pomegranates have long been the symbol of female fertility.) Somehow, (the stories are a little murky on the how) the seeds ensured that Persephone would return to him for a third of every year.

So, Persephone and Demeter were reunited. Winter ended and new life returned to the earth. Persephone became the goddess of something. She came to represent spring, rebirth, fertility, pink blossoms and newly sown fields, baby cows and spring rains. Here's an interesting piece of the story - wise old Hecate was the only one who showed up the witness the reunion. And she followed Persephone, as a faithful companion, continuously, forever.

In all the discussions of this book that I have read, Hades is always the bad guy who steals away Persephone's wholeness, Persephone is always the archetype of the faithful daughter who lives her life according to the belief system she was raised with, and Demeter is the dedicated mother archetype who gives herself unselfishly to her children. I think there is a lot to be learned from these archetypes, negatives and positives that can help us see certain storylines playing out in our lives. We can question whether we want to continue being the faithful daughter, or we can call on the energy of Demeter to help us love our children unconditionally.

But, Sue Monk Kidd brought to my attention, in one of those "well, duh" moments the view that Persephone, Demeter and Hecate represent the three faces of the ancient mother goddess - the maiden, the mother, and the crone - which of course, ultimately represent the stages that every woman goes through in her own life.

I also began to see this myth as representing not just that life journey, but the myriad of dark times, rebirth, new dreams and wisdom gained that we experience over and over during the course of our lives. I am Persephone, I am Demeter, and I am Hecate - all at once, all the time. As I age, I stay me. But that me grows and learns and creates and becomes wise because of the experience gained during the millions of death and rebirth cycles I go through during the course of one physical lifetime. These dark times can be huge like losing a loved one, getting laid off from a job, having a terrible sickness, going through a divorce - or it can be small things like going on a wonderful vacation and then having it be over, losing an argument, burning a meal, stubbing your toe, yelling at your kids, or resenting your mother-in-law.

By Frederick Leighton

All of these dark times, big or small, always result in newness, biggerness, wholer wholeness, if we recognize them for what they are and choose to learn from them. Now, I know transitions suck.  Change hurts. Bad shit happens and we don't know why. But, it is during those times that Hades carries us. And he is not some bearded father figure or a horned devil or the one who makes the bad shit happen. He loved her. He made the warm sacred space in the womb of the earth for her to hide in while the world as she knew it changed. The bad was gonna happen anyway, it was a necessary tool to her becoming the goddess of something. He simply held her, made love to her, and made sure she made it through to Spring. And when all was ready, he returned her to her newer, brighter, bolder, wiser, creative self and gave her the gift of potent fertility. "You'll be back," he said, "You'll create something new and beautiful and then something will have to die for the next something new to come forth. You'll always come back. Death and change and darkness will always be waiting for you. But, its an act of love, of nourishment, regeneration."

If the darkness had not swallowed her, she would have stayed forever the same. Never growing, never creating, never knowing her own power. And in the story of our lives, there would never be a harvest, because there would never have been a spring. And there would never have been a spring, if there had not been a winter.

I love my new image of Persephone - I must admit I'm not seeing her so much as an archetype to call upon or a face of goddess to pray to. I see her as me. Becoming the goddess of something. The bringer of spring. The one who returned willingly to her lover Hades every autumn. The female ruler of the underworld who also helped those in darkness see the beauty and light in it. The one who ate the pomegranate seeds as a symbol of new life and the inevitable return to death.

By Jenna Dulceta

I love Demeter too, but in a whole different way. I think this post is long enough for now and I'll talk about her in a part 3. For now, here's some pictures I found in a google search. BTW, I realize by the quantity of cool art out there in google-land that my epiphany about Persephone and Hades is not exactly new. So, while I'm still calling these entries A New Myth, please understand that what I really mean is New - To Me.

By J. Morreau

I love too that the gist of the whole myth and this whole woo-woo reaction I'm having to it could be summed up by saying "It's all good, It's all Red, It's all spiritual." Same lesson, new myth.

Have the Reddest Day ever,

In Grace,

Kell

By Callisto Boucher