More Thoughts on Demeter & Persephone...

Some other interesting things that have come to mind while sharing my thoughts on this particular path in the Goddess Workshop.

Perhaps part of an initiation would be changing one's diet, particularly to a green diet or a raw food diet to aid in the cleansing process.

Starting a compost pile in your yard (if you have one), preparing for the spring by making plans for a garden (all natural - no pesticides).

Making other efforts to go green - by recycling, reusing, upcycling, donating old but usable items for those in need, picking up litter in your neighborhood.

Volunteering at some place that supports green practices or recycling.

Making an effort to buy green only - really take into account what you're bringing into your home and exposing yourself and your family to.

Suggestions for Invoking Demeter & Persephone

I am honestly and deeply moved by reading this section and I feel the want and desire to do something of the nature of the mysteries to experience this. The suggestion of initiation of some sort I think is a good idea, and while the exact type of ritual one may go through isn't necessarily altogether important, the fact that you take the steps and make the commitment is.

So I challenge all of you to consider doing something of the sort - and while it's not wholly necessary for you to do so, it, as the book states, will likely be a rewarding experience.

So consider the steps: preparation, assembly, movement toward the goal, darkening/testing, revelation, thanksgiving, and petition.

I myself want to start this on the Minor Eleusinian Mysteries which will begin the 26th of this month and move through the process. So you may notice that even after we have left this particular Goddess pair that more posts will be put up here.

Feasts of Demeter & Persephone

I really and truly didn't realize how many actual festivals there were for Demeter. I would also like to point out the the Minor Eleusinian Mysteries start in 2 days for any of you interested in working with Demeter & Persephone. I personally marked them all on my calendar and have the intention of doing something for each of the days, if nothing but a small invocation and trying to think of the energies associated with that day.

Symbols of Demeter & Persephone

Having just read about this section in the reading I didn't really ever take the time to think about what would be sacred to either of them. The pomegranate, due to it's role in the story, makes of course the most sense. The pig however was wholly unexpected for me to find, and while reading about it's symbolism it made more sense it still was a bit of a surprise. As for the grain and unprocessed and natural products...that makes perfect sense and really it says to me that in our time now of trying to be green, to remember our place on the earth and feed and nourish her back to health that these things should be of more import to us. I have never really worked with Demeter, and know only of one other myth associated with her (that of her and Poseidon and horses). But she seems all too important a deity to work with during these times, perhaps doing so will even shed some light on how we may properly care and work with the earth...

Myth and Meaning of Demeter & Persephone

This is one of the myths that I am most familiar with among those that I know. However, I know there are several tellings of the myth, depending on who is telling the story. The version given here describes how Persephone was tricked into eating the food of the Underworld. My thoughts however is that a part of her wished to do so, much as we as young girls desire our freedom when we hit adolescence, I feel that Persephone may have felt the same way. And that while initially she may have been taken, that she likely enjoyed the newfound attention and doting of Hades, much as a girl enjoys her first crush. There is almost a sense of rebellion as well to this story again with the eating of the food of the dead. Perhaps she didn't really want to go back to her mother, having sampled the "delights of adulthood" and really it's a story of initiation and transformation. For once you have crossed that boundary into womanhood you cannot go back to your innocence, you have seen the other side and there you must stay. To me, even though Persephone returns to her mother for part of the year I feel she is likely saddened by the loss of her husband.

Prayers and Invocations to Demeter & Persephone

I just wanted to comment on the invocation that was at the beginning of the reading. I read through it and immediately my third eye started buzzing. I felt a real connection to the the words were trying to portray. Indeed I have felt my own sadness during my traverse into "motherhood" and it is a journey indeed. On my own end I am a step-mother and therefore generally not relegated to being a "real" mother. But that hurts me in ways that I cannot describe to my other half. Also as a Cancer I find myself mothering those around me, and though I don't do it but for any other purpose but to guide and protect it often comes off much as we think harshly of our own mothers...smothering and controlling, obstinate and without understanding, even though that is not my wish to be seen that way...

Messages from Demeter & Persephone

In the workshop I'm conducting I'd decided that I would go ahead with having Demeter & Persephone first. In my intention it had figured slightly into the fact of the time of year it was (Winter around the solstice) but also the fact that They deal with initiation according the book we're working with. I also knew for a fact that "mother" issues (either ones concerning your own, or being one) are some of the themes in the lives of the women involved in this workshop.

Even before working with Them I have received messages from them. I attended a sweat lodge earlier in the month and had a dream a couple of days after wherein a pomegranate figured strongly (Persephone). I have had several references of messages from dreams and an intuitive friend of mine about my mother (Demeter). I was in the shower performing a cleansing to help with the "funk" I've been stuck in and out of lately and received a message from them both. They basically showed me how I was "stuck" between the roles of Maiden and Mother and that figured in to some of the confusion and lack of drive/turmoil I've been experiencing. And in my tarot class last night that was coming to an end, I receive a message from Persephone again.

What does this all mean? That I'm ready to work with them for one - so I will be pushing the workshop forward for one, but also it places me directly on the path that I should be. Now is the time for me to work with and honor these energies so that I can learn and grow from them. Funny how these things all work out isn't it.