hades-and-persephone

Encountering Persephone

Now that Hekate’s Sickle Festival is over, it’s time to start preparing form Spring Mysteries Festival. This year, I’m holding the role of Kore/Persephone.

hades-and-persephoneI’m still very much in the “getting to know you” stage of my relationship with her. For me, that looks like research – reading about her myths, and other’s experiences with her. I also work on connecting with her as part of my morning meditation, though it’s mostly the reading.

As I think about her main myth, I realize that I have lived her myth, at least a little.

When I met my husband, I was in University. I was stretching my wings, in a safe way – I lived on campus the first two years, and then in my family home the last year (my mom got transferred, so my parents moved, and renovated the house I grew up in before selling it, and let me live there my final year in college). I had gone to England for an exchange program, and seen at least a little more of the world than a four hour driving radius around my hometown.

I knew I needed to meet him when I first saw him. It was the stereotypical love at first sight. Though we didn’t get together right away. It wasn’t until after I came back from England that we connected.

After a relatively short long distance relationship, we got married. I graduated from University, he completed his term in the military, and we moved to Vancouver.

I chose to go. I chose to marry him, and move halfway across the continent, immigrating to a new country, where I knew no one. I couldn’t work. My world was my husband, and our little “pink cavern”, a basement suite that was painted pink, and had ducts that we regularly crashed our heads into.

I missed my family terribly. But I didn’t want to go back. Well, I did, but only to visit, not to stay.

I’m sure my family felt like he had stolen me away. I know my parents wanted us to live closer. And I was meant to live near the mountains and the ocean. I wasn’t meant to stay in the prairies.

In this new world, I felt like I could find my own identity. I came into my own power. I had to make new friends, and find work (eventually) on my own. I began exploring my spirituality, and became a priestess because of the freedom of being in a new world, and the support and encouragement of my husband.

I still love my family with all my heart. I miss them a lot. And I don’t want to go back. I love the life that I have built. I can go visit, but I don’t belong there anymore. My place is here. Here I am a queen.

Hello, Persephone. Thank you for the transformation you have wrought in my life. I look forward to learning more from you.

Blessings,

Mary

3 thoughts on “Encountering Persephone”

  1. Wow ? This is beautiful and insightful. I’ve been examining identity and family bonds, and this eloquently describes how we set out like explorers to blaze our own trails. I’ve lived her myth, too, without realizing it. Here, I am a Queen. Thank you, Mary ???

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