PERSEPHONE & DEMETER:
THE INITIATORY JOURNEY
(FALL 1999)
I have been fascinated with the myth of Demeter and Persephone ever since I first heard it spoken, when I was in my early twenties. I was working in a greenhouse at the time, and it was the first day of spring. Together, my bosses, coworkers, and myself gathered in one of the greenhouses to celebrate the season. When my friend, Frank, told the story of Persephone's reunion with her mother, Demeter, as the harbinger of spring, my imagination came alive, and I could begin to find deeper meaning in the turning seasons. I began to understand the cycle of life/death/rebirth as a metaphor in my own life, which opened my relationship to the greater archetypal and universal life forces.
Persephone and Demeter were my first introduction to the link between story, myth, self, and soul. Thus began the journey, which I later took up quite seriously, to discover the link between the great unconscious, the archetypal realms, and the personal, transformational journey that this myth reveals. Demetra George describes this process in her book Mysteries of the Dark Moon: The Healing Power of the Dark Goddess when she says: "In the modern world Persephone's descent into the underworld is a metaphor for our descent into the unconscious, whereby we can also participate in the great mystery of transformation and renewal....let us remember that the ancient rites of passage have now turned inward where they can be lived as the stages of ... transformation."
The powerful reunion of Persephone and Demeter at the end of the myth reveals this transformation and the rebirth that comes at the end of Persephone's passage and Demeter's parallel journey above.
As I interpret and discern the layers, levels, and possible meanings of the Persephone and Demeter myth I am aware that it is nearly impossible to tap the entire resource of the myth/dream. To attempt to do so would limit and diminish its power, therefore this interpretation is not intended as a comprehensive statement on the myth. Instead I intend to focus my attention on a few basic themes, knowing that as the myth comes alive, it deepens and changes me. And my intention is to allow for that integration and expansion in myself and in you, the reader.
Additionally, in my research on this myth I found a large variety of interpretations were contradictory with each other, as well as with my own. I find it to be incredibly important to make room for all interpretations. This requires a willingness to stay open to paradox, which becomes an essential part of the transformational journey, as the myth reveals. Laura Simms says in her essay, Long Journey Home: A Re-Telling of the Myth of Demeter and Persephone, published in Christine Downing's book, The Long Journey Home: "No matter how carefully it is studied, analyzed, and understood, the very nature of myth undoes any fixed meaning or analysis. The myth is alive - more close to truth than fact - and must be approached like wilderness, on its own terms, to be experienced fully."
Allowing the myth and the interpretations to remain mysterious and spacious is essential in keeping them alive. Contradictory truths may, in fact, both be true. At different times of my life I have lived out different aspects of this myth, held vastly different attitudes about what I believed to be true, and therefore, can see the value of interpreting the myth in different ways for different life sequences. For example, depending on the filters through which this myth is viewed, it could be seen as a story of patriarchal abuse, matriarchal power, mother-daughter individuation, or transformational initiation. Each filter will interpret the story with a slanted view, which is, somehow, unavoidable. In this way, I acknowledge my own preferences as I interpret the story through my own filters and current life process. Let me begin, therefore, with the notion that no interpretation here, or elsewhere, is set in stone, but rather it is, I hope, a doorway for your own understanding and discovery.
The myth of Persephone and Demeter originates in "The Homeric Hymn to Demeter", composed between 650-550 B.C.E. by unknown bards. Simplified, it is a story of a young maiden, Persephone (also called Kore, which means maiden), who is abducted by Hades, the god of the underworld. Her mother, Demeter, grieves the loss of her daughter to such an extent that she withdraws her powers of growth and fertility from the world until her daughter is returned to her. The story chronicles Demeter's journey and Persephone's ultimate release from the underworld. The poem ends with Demeter's reunion with Persephone and the foundation of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which later became "the most famous of the mystery cults of antiquity" .
Symbolically, the myth is teaching about individuation (which is defined as coming into wholeness within the Self) and the life, death, and rebirth cycle that is inherent in all transformational and maturational processes. Persephone and Demeter are enacting the very important passage that daughters and mothers everywhere must go through at some point in their relationship in order for individuation, full maturity, and womanhood to occur. Many women know about the powerful and symbiotic bond they experience and often rebel against with their mothers, and this myth puts that experience into a form that helps us to understand how to navigate the necessary release from that bond, when it becomes too constricting, whether internal or external.
Once a woman makes this transition she is able to reconnect and deepen her relationship with her mother, as the myth will reveal. Whether it is conscious or not, the breaking away of daughter from mother can be a traumatic ripping away for both women involved. Kathie Carlson speaks to this separation and its' deeper roots in her book, In Her Image: The Unhealed Daughter's Search For Her Mother: "I think we know something about this separation. I think we especially know what it's like to be the Kore - torn from our roots, our home, our feminine heritage. We've lived....filled with an unbearable homesickness...this longing for the lost Mother, comprises the archetypal core of the yearning of the unhealed child. From an archetypal perspective, it is our Selves we are longing for..." As both daughter and mother go through this difficult passage they are called to heal this internal split and longing, thereby coming to the discovery of their deep and true Self.
The myth, however, is about more than the mother/daughter initiation and individuation process; it is about the internal passage through a symbolic death that occurs for any individual - man or woman - who goes through inner or outer life passages and changes. The myth of Persephone's journey through the underworld and Demeter's journey through loss shows that it is possible to make such a difficult and arduous transition. The Eleusinian Mysteries, developed, guided, and taught by Demeter and Persephone, are the expression of the rebirth that comes at the end of that journey.
It is interesting to note that the consequent development of the Eleusinian Mysteries and the popularity of the cult for 1500 years shows that the revelation inherent in the teachings of the life/death/rebirth initiations are powerful and useful. The Eleusinian Mysteries were kept secret, and initiates were required to maintain the mystery of transformation, therefore, the practices of the cult were not found in written form.
The understanding of the mysteries came through the exploration, enactment and understanding of Persephone and Demeter's journeys. The ritual of taking oneself through a symbolic death would teach the lessons of surrender and patience necessary on the journey. Initiates developed an ability to sustain the tension present with the entry into the void that is represented by the underworld passage. In addition to understanding the concepts and the mysteries of transformation, the enactment of ritual would help initiates, at the deeper reaches of their psyches, to integrate such an experience. By enacting the rituals again and again, initiates could learn to negotiate the 'death' process (one state of being must 'pass away' in order for new life to be born) that is required to grow and mature.
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