The White Moon Goddess Gallery Presents

Persephone

Level Two Project by Tracie
Initiate in the Sisters of the Rising Moon School

© 2012.  All original material in this site is under copyright protection and is the intellectual property of the author.

Persephone picture
Image courtesy of alicechan.deviantart.com

Background

 “Once upon a time when she was playing in a flowery meadow with her Nymph companions, Kore (Persephone) was seized by Hades and carried off to the underworld as his bride. Her mother Demeter despaired at her disappearance and searched for her the throughout the world accompanied by the goddess Hecate bearing torches. When she learned that Zeus had conspired in her daughter's abduction she was furious, and refused to let the earth fruit until Persephone was returned. Zeus consented, but because the girl had tasted of the food of Hades--a handful of pomegranate seeds--she was forced to forever spend a part of the year with her husband in the underworld. Her annual return to the earth in spring was marked by the flowering of the meadows and the sudden growth of the new grain. Her return to the underworld in winter, conversely, saw the dying down of plants and the halting of growth.” 1

Sacred to Her

Items sacred to the Goddess include pomegranates, mint, grain, as well as bats.

Ritual

Cleanse and create circle with salt and ash.

Set quarters with alternating black and red colored candles, each dressed with a corresponding herb/oil associated with the element. Red to represent the passion of life and black to represent the solace of death.

Call quarters according to tradition.

Move to center circle and light large white pillar candle tied with black ribbon.

Invoke Persephone; open your heart to her mysteries and embrace the theme of balance.

Great Goddess Persephone, I come before you today to ask your aid.
I ask for balance in my life.
I ask for understanding the difference between wants and needs.
I ask for your guidance as I traverse between my inner and outer self.

Goddess, you who walk between the living and the dead, hear the plea of one who walks barefoot and blind along this path.
I honor you today in hope you will aid me in my journey.

Offering is made to Persephone. Split a pomegranate and offer the larger half on the altar. Pour out sweet red wine for libation.

Create physical reminder of the balance you want to incorporate. Take red marker and make a circle on a piece of paper. Take a blue marker and draw another circle so that there is a space where the two overlap. Write a list in each circle of opposing things in your life you want to balance (school and work, tenderness and passion, energy and peace of mind...) Then hold the paper in your hands and close your eyes.

Mentally merge the two lists in the circles into the overlap. With your minds eye move everything into the purple space and hold them there. Imagine the two circles moving together so they are no longer a red and a blue, but one large purple circle. Meditate on this for as long as you need.

Raise energy in whatever way moves you. Drumming or chanting along with a beat, or even a meditation journey with music in the background (Florence + The Machine's “What the Water Gave Me”)

Eat the smaller half of the pomegranate and ground any excess energy.

Thank the Goddess for her energy in the ritual.

Release the quarters.

Sweep up the circle counterclockwise.

Persephone art

Original art by Tracie

Sources:

1 Theoi Greek Mythology at http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Persephone.html

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