'Persephone'. An illustration from the book 'The Miracle of Flowers'

'Persephone' by Amanda Clark. 2010.


Snowdrops are here!  Spring is on it's way and I want to write a little about the Greek creation myth and the Goddess, Persephone.

Beautiful Persephone is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter ( Mother Earth ). Persephone is the Goddess of Spring and helps Demeter tend to the plant kingdom.
Hades, lord of the underworld, snatches Persephone away and makes her Queen of the underworld without Zeus's consent.
Her mother Demeter is broken hearted and thought her daughter had left. Demeter stopped tending to the plant kingdom and went in search for Persephone. Animals and humans began to starve. 
Demeter insisted to Zeus that Persephone was found and returned to her. So Zeus went to talk to Hades and begged that Persephone leave the underworld before everyone on earth starved to death.  Hades protested. Zeus with all his power declared that Persephone's marriage will be void as long as she ate nothing from the garden of the underworld.  Hades managed to woo Persephone with a pomegranate and she ate this fruit from the garden of the underworld which consummated her marriage to Hades.  So as the story goes, Persephone must return to Hades and the underworld at the beginning of every winter but her return to Zeus and Demeter marks the beginning of spring.

I love to see the earth come to life again in February. The catkins on hazel, daffodil bulbs pushing through the earth. Birds are getting busy and their songs are floating in the crystal air. I can feel the winter lifting and my time of introspecting during the long nights are ending to bring new energy and creativity  into the light once again.  Time for sewing seeds.