Who is Demeter?
How can myth speak to our soul?

by Cassandra Cassiopeia

The great arms of the mother enfold us, reminding us that all we need is found in nature. Through trial and through loss, the truth is that all we need is to feel the solid earth below us: the mother who has held us when no one else could, who we will all return to. She gave us life and will take back our life when we are complete in this cycle. In the absence of mother, whether physical, literal, emotional or otherwise, we have our earthly mother who lovingly holds all of humanity: feeding us, teaching us, gently nudging us along our paths. 

Ceres/Demeter is not the Earth mother Gaia herself, she is the mother Goddess who activates the cycle of seasons for Gaia to pass through.  Demeter's many faces can be glimpsed in each season. Her winter knows grief, what it is to lose what one loves most. This grief is very much earthly, physical, based in duality where loss is real, final, and devastating. In her winter face, Demeter takes us with her down into the underworld, initiating us within the depths of the barren earth. Base minerals surround us, stripped back to the stone, in the absence of sunlight. Demeter teaches us in the dark, the lessons that can only be learned in the dark. Few would go to this place willingly, most are ripped away from their lives and quickly delivered into the land of Hades. But we are not alone, we have our blessed archetypal guides for this hellish place: Demeter and her sweetest only daughter, Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.

Persephone reminds us that when trapped in the underworld, we have the chance to rule it alongside Hades as an equal. Persephone, trapped in the underworld, lets her hunger be satiated by the consumption of the pomegranate seeds. This consumption connects her to the underworld eternally, allowing her to find her royal and honoured place within it. The underworld is full of bitter medicine. Through consuming it, the trap of this sad place becomes a holy throne. We are no longer held there, trapped, and ripped away.  We are there by choice. These lands strangely become our home, and we are granted a dignity that we had never previously known. The maiden becomes a woman... our soft power is found. The victimization of our loss or pain becomes a holy wound transformed into clarity and sovereignty. Only what is real can remain in this place of raw material and truth. What is real is what is powerful. What is real and powerful, emerges in the spring as the materials of creation. The spring heralds the completion of the underworld journey, Demeter's emotional face changes Gaia's season once again.

Demeter is rich with insight and wisdom, and so she was worshiped for centuries. Her story is our story. One grain of her illumination is the illusion of separation. What was seemingly lost forever is returned, made holy and made whole. True love can never be taken. Through life and through death, love is immortal. It is our heartfelt connection to each other and to the divine that transcends physical reality. We are here to remember what is real and what is temporal. The dark cycles of life deliver us to that which is life sustaining. The darkness of the moon opens the portal of surrender and release, making space for vibrant life to fill our bones once more. Death feeds and sustains life. Let us celebrate that which was excruciating to let go of. Let us celebrate that which we have loved more than anyone could possibly understand. Let us celebrate the rich and fertile soil that has allowed us to fully live here now, in full decadence and delight of the earthly experience. In the midst of Spring, where Persephone's flowers and fruits return, let us feast in joyful reunion with our beloved.

"But when the earth shall bloom with the fragrant flowers of spring, then from the realm of darkness and gloom you shall come up once more."
- Hymn to Demeter