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Persephone (Greek Pantheon)
Also known as: Kore; Persephoneia, Persephassa, Persephatta, Pherepapha, Periphona, Phersephassa
Origin: Greece
Affiliation: Demeter, Hades, Zeus, The Furies, The Thesmophoria, The Eleusinian Mysteries
Father: Zeus
Mother: Demeter
Gender: Female
Roman Name: Proserpina
Norse Name: Gerd
Home: Hades
Rules: The Underworld
Symbols: Scepter, Torch, Seeds, Sheaf of wheat
Plants: Pomegranate, Asphodel, Narcissus, Parlsey
Consorts/Husband: Hades
Children: Melinoe, Zagreus, Makaria, Melinoe
Siblings: Arion, Philomelus, Eubuleus, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Helen, Hephaestus, Heracles, Hermes, Perseus, The Graces, The Horae, The Muses, The Fates
Favored people: Widows, those seeking transformation, empathetic and compassionate souls, those seeking balance, individuals embracing duality
Manifestation: Persephone manifests as a young beautiful woman. Often said to have chestnut or golden brown hair, emerald green eyes, a soft feminine face and a slender hourglass figure.
Iconography: Persephone’s image reputedly wards off ghosts.
Attributes: Pomegranate, poppy flowers, bats, deer, asphodel, seeds of grain, horse harness (because according to the Eleusinian Mysteries, Persephone returned to Earth in a horse-drawn wagon or because of her mother’s history as a horse goddess)
Spirit allies: Demeter, Dionysus, Orpheus. The Sirens are her servants, friends, and companions; Hekate is her handmaiden and messenger; Artemis and Athena are her friends; Aphrodite is her rival.
Month: Persephone returns to her mother in May, the month in which grain is expected to emerge from Earth.
Colors: green, white, black, purple, yellow, brown
Element: Earth
Constellation: Virgo, interpreted as a solitary woman holding a stalk of wheat or the divine child
Trees: Black poplar, willow, pomegranate
Altar: Decorate her altar with images of Medusa, her protective guardian device. Spring flowers, fresh fruit, roses, black crystals
Offerings to Persephone:· Pomegranate, and pomegranate flavored/derived things (ex. Pomegranate Wine)· Asphodel· Lilies/Poppies/Roses· Spring Flowers/Wildflowers· Wreath of Flowers· Mints (Lemon Balm, Spearmint, Peppermint)· Bat shaped items/imagery· Ram shaped items/imagery· Wheat/Barley/Grains· Parsley· Black/White Poplar· Weeping Willow· Cypress· Incense (particularly sweet or floral scents)· Honey/Honey Wine· Infused Waters (herb or fruit infused)
Herbs: daisy, ivy, lavender, lily of the valley, maidenhair fern, mint, narcissus, Oriental lily, reeds, willow tree
Incense: almond, bergamot, hyacinth, narcissus, vanilla
Animals: bat, monkeys, parrot, ram
Areas of Influence: Persephone is the Goddess of the underworld, spring and rebirth. She is one of the fertility goddesses. After Hades abducts her she became Queen of the underworld, helping to escort the souls of the dead. She only performed this role for four months of the year (due to the four pomegranate seeds she ate) the rest of the time she lived with her mother Demeter. Her exit from the underworld heralds the beginning of Spring as she helps her mother to bring life and bounty back to the land. This dual role makes her a Goddess of death and rebirth. She also symbolizes the Maiden aspect of the Triple Goddess.
Strengths: Able to compromise, adaptable.
Weaknesses: Not able to escape the influence of an over protective mother. Torn by her loyalties she tries to please everybody.
Paying Homage to Persephone: Enjoying local flowers and plants· Listening to birdsong· Growing flowers· Displaying cut flowers in their full cycle, even after they’ve wilted/died· Enjoying a well made meal or snack· Eating pomegranates· Taking a long and pampered bath· Practicing a daily beauty or self-care routine· Using pomegranate-based products (oil, body wash, deodorant, etc.)· Visiting graveyards with offerings for the dead (flowers, honey, seeds, nuts, small cakes, paper cards, music played, books read, etc.)· Setting up a bird feeder· Combining floral and death aesthetics in craft, artwork, and photo creations
Epithets: Since she was the Queen of the Underworld and people were afraid of her, Persephone was given many euphemistic and friendly names. As we wrote above, some called her “The Maiden” and others “The Mistress.” She was also known as “The Pure One,” “The Venerable One,” and “The Great Goddess.” Persephone was so closely associated with her mother that the pair was often referred to as “The Two Demeters” or, simply, “The Two Goddesses.”
Persephone’s modern claim to fame is as Hades’ abducted bride. The myth makes Persephone seem like a pawn fought over by the more experienced Demeter and Hades. However, scholars suspect that Persephone—whose name may be interpreted as “destroying face”—is an ancient goddess of death. Persephone may be the original ruler of Hades. In order to obtain his throne and establish rulership, Hades may have had to kidnap her in the same manner that Poseidon raped Amphitrite and Zeus tricked Hera into marriage.
Persephone may actually be more ancient than Demeter or Hades with some scholars placing her origin as early as the Neolithic era. When Persephone returns to Earth from Hades, she is accompanied by a procession of dancing Charites, Horae, and Moirae, three groups of three spirits: nine beautiful dancers.
Persephone is invoked to find true, new or lasting love. She owns a box of beauty, which she may lend out to other goddesses and devotees: she is requested to enhance beauty and charisma. Persephone banishes ghosts and facilitates communication with dead souls. She is invoked for painless, peaceful death.
The Abduction of Persephone
The most famous myth about Persephone is the story of her abduction.Hades, the ruler of the Underworld, decided that he wanted to marry Persephone, his sister Demeter’s only daughter. One day, as she was gathering flowers in the Nysian meadow with her maidens, she wandered apart from the group ensnared by the sudden blooming of a glorious fragrant flower (some say it was a narcissus). As she reached to pluck it, the ground below her feet opened up and Hades, in his four-horse golden chariot, appeared before her in all his power and majesty. He snatched her and took her with him to the Underworld, to be his wife and queen. Needless to say, Demeter wasn’t very pleased when she found out from Hecate and Helios what had happened. Hurt and distraught, she started wandering aimlessly around and was aggrieved to such an extent that she neglected all her duties. And since she was the goddess of agriculture and fertility, the earth was now barren, and people were dying of famine.Seeing no way out of it, Zeus (who some say must have approved Hades’ abduction in the first place) sent Hermes to the Underworld to fetch Persephone back to her mother. The divine messenger did do precisely that, and Demeter and Persephone were once again reunited on Olympus. However, either on her own accord or, more probably, after being tricked by Hades, Persephone had tasted six pomegranate seeds before leaving the Underworld. This, according to the ancient laws, obliged her to remain in the Underworld. Zeus proposed a compromise: Persephone would spend two-thirds of the year with her mother, and one-third with her new husband. Everybody agreed – and that’s how the seasons were born and how the growth of crops was explained. Just like a seed, Persephone spends few months of the year below the earth. This is the period of Demeter’s grief which coincides with the dark, winter months. However, when the time comes for Persephone to go back to her mother, Demeter brings back the light and the warmth and the earth rejoices in abundance.
Persephone in Other Myths
Even though she spent most of her time in the living world, almost all of the myths related to Persephone occur in the Underworld.
Adonis
The tale of Adonis closely mirrors Persephone’s own destiny. Namely, once both Aphrodite and Persephone fell in love with the same mortal, a handsome young man called Adonis. Since they couldn’t agree between them who deserves him more, Zeus divided his time between the upper world and the Underworld. However, Adonis loved Aphrodite more and, when the time came, he refused to go back to Persephone’s kingdom. Angered and hurt, the goddess of the Underworld sent a wild boar to kill Adonis, who died in Aphrodite’s arms and was transformed into the anemone flower.
Minthe
Most probably, Persephone didn’t have any children with Hades, but unlike her celestial counterpart Hera, she didn’t have any problems with her husband’s fidelity either. One of the few half-exceptions is the story of the nymph Minthe, who may have been Hades’ mistress before he abducted Persephone. When Minthe boasted that she was more beautiful than Hades’ new lover and that she would one day win Hades back, Persephone took care that such thing should never happen and transformed her into the mint-plant.
The Influential Queen and the Visiting Heroes
Interestingly enough, Persephone differed from Hera in an even more critical manner. Unlike her, she wasn’t merely Hades’ consort, but also exerted considerable authority over the Underworld.So much so that she is reported in numerous myths as the sole maker of vital decisions related to mortals, whether it is allowing Orpheus to leave Hades with Eurydice, or Heracles with Cerberus. She is also the one who lets Sysiphus go back to his wife, who agrees to the Admetus/Alcestis soul swap, and the one who grants Teiresias with the privilege of retaining his intelligence in Hades.Once, Pirithous, the king of the Lapiths, tried to abduct Persephone with the help of his friend Theseus. The plan went awry, and he ended up tightly fixed to a seat in Hades forevermore.
Cult of Persephone
Persephone was worshipped along with her mother Demeter and in the same mysteries. Her cults included agrarian magic, dancing, and rituals. The priests used special vessels and holy symbols, and the people participated with rhymes. In Eleusis there is evidence of sacred laws and other inscriptions.The Cult of Demeter and the Maiden is found at Attica, in the main festivals Thesmophoria and Eleusinian mysteries and in a lot of local cults. These festivals were almost always celebrated at the autumn sowing, and at full-moon according to the Greek tradition. In some local cults the feasts were dedicated to Demeter.
Thesmophoria
Thesmophoria were celebrated in Athens, and the festival was widely spread in Greece. This was a festival of secret women-only rituals connected with marriage customs and commemorated the third of the year, in the month Pyanepsion, when Persephone was abducted and Demeter abstained from her role as goddess of harvest and growth. The ceremony involved sinking sacrifices into the earth by night and retrieving the decaying remains of pigs that had been placed in themegara of Demeter (trenches and pits or natural clefts in rock), the previous year. These were placed on altars, mixed with seeds, then planted.The festival was celebrated over three days. The first was the "way up" to the sacred space, the second, the day of feasting when they ate pomegranate seeds and the third was a meat feast in celebration of Kalligeneia a goddess of beautiful birth.
The Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian mysteries was a festival celebrated at the autumn sowing in the city of Eleusis. Inscriptions refer to "the Goddesses" accompanied by the agricultural god Triptolemos and "the God and the Goddess" (Persephone and Plouton) accompanied by Eubuleus who probably led the way back from the underworld. The myth was represented in a cycle with three phases: the "descent", the "search", and the "ascent", with contrasted emotions from sorrow to joy which roused the mystae to exultation. The main theme was the ascent of Persephone and the reunion with her mother Demeter. The festival activities included dancing, probably across the Rharian field, where according to the myth the first grain grew. At the beginning of the feast, the priests filled two special vessels and poured them out, the one towards the west, and the other towards the east. The people looking both to the sky and the earth shouted in a magical rhyme "rain and conceive". In a ritual, a child was initiated from the hearth (the divine fire). It was the ritual of the "divine child" who originally was Ploutos. In the Homeric hymn the ritual is connected with the myth of the agricultural god Triptolemos. The high point of the celebration was "an ear of grain cut in silence", which represented the force of the new life. The idea of immortality didn't exist in the mysteries at the beginning, but the initiated believed that they would have a better fate in the underworld. Death remained a reality, but at the same time a new beginning like the plant which grows from the buried seed. In the earliest depictions Persephone is an armless and legless deity, who grows out of the ground.
Persephone's Archetype
The MaidenThe Maiden Archetype represents purity and the innocence of childhood. where the soul’s dreams, magic and make believe still prevail.It is also an aspect of the Triple Goddess, together with the mother and the crone they represents the cycles of the moon and the different stages of a woman’s life.Shadow Maiden is very self-centered all, her dreams and energy are expended on achieving her own personal needs and goals.Persephone's life embodies this Archetype, she remains eternally on the cusp between childhood and motherhood. Trapped by a mother's love and her inability to fully assert her independence.
How To work with This Archetype
The MaidenThe Maiden is one of your Archetypes if you are life still in touch with your childhood intuition and fantasies and have used these to fulfil your dreams. Hence you can still have this archetype at any time of life.The Maiden reminds you to take care of the magical child that lies within us all.Shadow Maiden asks you to look at whether your dreams and aspirations are selfish and take no account of the needs of others.You may also take this archetype to the extreme, fearing growing old or taking on any form of responsibility.
SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
Invocation of Persephone
"Come, Persephone,
With your paint-pots and brushes
Stipple the fields with flowers,
Dot the branches with bright blossoms,
Streak the spring sky with pale pastels.
You are the one who paints the eyes on the pansies,
And the lines on the lilies so the bees can find their food,
And the blushes on the rosebuds.
Without you, the bearded iris would have no smile
And the black-eyed susan would be blind.
Come, Sweet Persephone:
The world has rested too long under winter’s snowy cloak.
Come bring your brushes and bright colors
And dress us in the shades of spring again.
We invoke you, gracious maiden of freedom and beauty, Join us now."
Spell jar to keep yourself grounded
Ingredients:
Sea salt and oats to represent the earth and to remind oneself that they are stable on this earth.
Rosemary for mental clarity.Lavender for peace.
Mix ingredients in a jar. Meditate with the jar enclosed in both hands. After meditating, keep the jar near you, your sleep space, or anywhere else you need to feel grounded. Can also be taken on the go when needed for emotional support, stability, and grounding. Shake if feeling extremely unsettled.
Setting Up An Altar For Persephone
Creating an altar dedicated to Persephone, the Greek goddess of spring, rebirth, and the underworld, can be a meaningful way to honor her and connect with her energies. Persephone embodies duality, transformation, and the cycle of life and death. Here’s a step-by-step guide to setting up an altar for Persephone.
1. Choose Your Space
Select a location that feels serene and sacred to you. This could be a small table, a shelf, or a dedicated corner in your home. Ensure the space is clean and free from distractions, allowing you to focus on your spiritual work.
2. Gather Altar Items
Consider including items that symbolize Persephone and resonate with her attributes:
Altar Cloth: Choose a cloth in colors associated with Persephone, such as green and pink for spring, or black and pomegranate red for her underworld aspect.
Candles: Use candles in colors like white, red, or green to represent purity, renewal, and growth.
Offerings: Offer pomegranates, seeds, or seasonal flowers like daffodils or poppies, which are sacred to Persephone.
Crystals: Consider using crystals such as garnet, amethyst, or obsidian, symbolizing transformation and protection.
Statues or Images: Include representations of Persephone, such as statues or images, to focus your devotion.
Symbols of Duality: Incorporate items like mirrors or a yin-yang symbol to represent Persephone's dual nature.
3. Arrange the Altar
Arrange your items in a way that feels meaningful and balanced. Consider aligning elements with the cardinal directions if that resonates with you, or simply create a symmetrical layout. The key is to design a space that feels harmonious and inviting.
4. Add Personal Touches
Personalize the altar with elements that reflect your unique connection to Persephone:
Seasonal Decorations: Use natural elements like leaves, branches, or seasonal fruit to connect with the time of year.
Personal Mementos: Include items that hold personal significance, such as a piece of jewelry or a keepsake.
Written Intentions or Prayers: Place a small notebook or pieces of paper with your dedications, prayers, or questions for Persephone.
5. Cleanse and Consecrate
Once your altar is set up, cleanse the space and objects with sage, incense, or salt water. Consecrate each item by holding it in your hands and imbuing it with your energy and intent, dedicating it to Persephone.
6. Regular Maintenance
Keep your altar clean and update it regularly. Refresh offerings and decorations as needed to reflect the changing seasons and your evolving spiritual practice. Spend time at your altar regularly, whether for meditation, prayer, or reflection, to deepen your connection with Persephone and honor her presence in your life.
Persephone Candle Spell for Renewal and Transformation
Persephone, the Greek goddess of spring and the underworld, embodies themes of renewal, transformation, and balance between light and dark. Invoking her through a candle spell can help you harness these energies for personal growth and change. Here's a simple spell to connect with Persephone's transformative power.
Ingredients Needed
White Candle: Represents purity and new beginnings.
Black Candle: Symbolizes the underworld and hidden knowledge.
Green or Yellow Candle: Represents growth, renewal, and the energy of spring.
Incense: Sandalwood or myrrh, for purification and spiritual connection.
Pomegranate Seeds or Juice: A symbol of Persephone, representing life cycles and transformation.
Small Offering Bowl: To hold the pomegranate seeds or juice.
Optional Crystals: Amethyst or rose quartz, for spiritual insight and love.
Spell Instructions
Prepare Your Space
Find a quiet and undisturbed area to perform the spell. Arrange your altar or workspace with the candles, incense, and offering bowl. Place the crystals if you're using them.
Light the Incense
Begin by lighting the incense to purify the space and create a sacred atmosphere. Allow the incense to fill the room with its scent, helping you to focus and center your mind.
Set Your Intention
Take a moment to clearly define your intention for this spell. Whether you're seeking personal growth, transformation, or balance, hold this intention in your mind.
Light the Candles
Start by lighting the white candle, saying: "Persephone, goddess of purity and new beginnings, guide me on my path."
Next, light the black candle, saying: "Persephone, queen of the underworld, reveal the hidden truths within me."
Finally, light the green or yellow candle, saying: "Persephone, bringer of spring and renewal, awaken growth and transformation in my life."
Offer the Pomegranate
Place the pomegranate seeds or a small amount of juice in the offering bowl, saying: "I offer this to you, Persephone, as a symbol of life's cycles and the transformation I seek."
Meditate and Visualize
Sit quietly, focusing on the candles' flames. Visualize Persephone's energy surrounding and filling you with light and transformation. Imagine the growth and changes you desire taking root and blossoming in your life.
Express Gratitude
When you feel ready, thank Persephone for her guidance and assistance, saying: "Thank you, Persephone, for your presence and your blessings. May your wisdom guide me always."
Conclude the Spell
Allow the candles to burn down safely or extinguish them if necessary. Keep the offering on your altar for a day or two as a token of gratitude.
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