“Pale, beyond porch and portal,
Crowned with calm leaves, she stands
Who gathers all things mortal
With cold immortal hands;
Her languid lips are sweeter
Than love’s who fears to greet her
To men that mix and meet her
From many times and lands.
She waits for each and other,
She waits for all men born;
Forgets the earth her mother,
The life of fruits and corn;
And spring and seed and swallow
Take wing for her and follow
Where summer song rings hollow
And flowers are put to scorn.”
-Algernon Charles Swinburne, The Garden of Proserpine
Persephone and Demeter
The journey of Persephone is the ancient Greco-Roman story of the origins of the seasonal changes, and contains wisdom about the journey of the soul in the underworld. Persephone was the care-free daughter of Zeus, and Demeter the goddess of the grain, in ancient times when it was a perpetual Spring. One day while gathering flowers away from the watchful eye of her mother, she got entranced by a narcissus flower.
The Rape of Persephone
Then Earth began to tremble and a great split opened up. Pluto-Hades, brother of Zeus and god of the underworld appeared in his dark chariot, captured her and brought her to his domain to be his wife.
When Demeter realized that her daughter had been kidnapped, she grieved deeply, and did not perform her duties as the goddess of the grain and harvest, therefore the grain did not grow and ripen, all the plants withered, and for the first time there was a season of wintry darkness.
Queen of the Underworld
Persephone meanwhile was made queen of the underworld, and except for a few pomegranate seeds she refused to eat or drink because she did not feel herself to be a true part of that realm and missed the world above. Demeter begged Zeus to free their daughter and Zeus complied. However because Persephone had eaten 6 pomegranate seeds in the underworld she was compelled to return there for 6 months every year.
The Return
The god Mercury was sent to bring Persephone back home, and the joyful reunion of Demeter and Persephone is depicted in the beautiful painting above. When Persephone returns her mother rejoices and we have Spring and Summer, abundance and growth. When Persephone must return to the underworld we have Fall and Winter, coldness and darkness.
This story mirrors the natural understanding of the change of seasons, as the light diminishes and the life-force of plants and animals withdrawals into the roots for hibernation.
Desire Traps the Light
The esoteric understanding is of the innocent and beautiful soul represented by Persephone, is trapped in darkness because of desire, represented by the narcissus flower that first caught her attention. Desire is the flow of divine energy outward into material life, away from the divine source. Persephone is then trapped in the darkness of the egoical structures, ruled and governed by many laws, and beings that are motivated to keep her there.
Liberation of the Light
Persephone, and her mother, Divine Mother Nature, beg Zeus, the First Logos, to liberate her, which he does, she is still bound by the conditions she created for herself. Therefore we have the situation of Pistis Sophia, the fallen divine essence that is trapped within the darkness and the light. The god Mercury facilitates the movement of the light from the underworld to mount Olympus, home of the gods and goddesses. This is the process of the soul gathering her light from within the desires, within the prison of the ego, with sexual transmutation, to be able to enter again into the higher realms.
The three factors for the revolution of the consciousness, as taught by Samael Aun Weor, are the keys to liberate the soul from the suffering within the ego. We must courageously enter into our internal darkness to renounce and die to the ego, salvage and regenerate our previous sexual energy, and sacrifice for others to become humble servants for humanity.