As the Spring Equinox approaches here in the Northern Hemisphere, nature is beginning to show signs of resurrection - new life being reborn in spring from the darkness of winter.
Christianity tells this eternal story of death and rebirth through the story of Jesus of Nazareth, who died to his human form and returned to his followers as the risen Christ.
Another story of resurrection in the springtime is that of the Greek Goddess Persephone - the young maiden who becomes Queen of the Underworld.
Traditionally, the story is told that Persephone, daughter of the Demeter the Earth Mother, was kidnapped by Hades, the god of the underworld, who forced her to marry him.
Because she ate six pomegranate seeds while in the underworld, Persephone then had to remain there for six months out of every year - thus creating the seasons of winter, when she is away and her mother mourns, and summer, when she returns and the earth rejoices.
Yikes... that's a violent story!
Over the past couple of years, I have become intrigued by feminist revisions of Persephone's story.
Was she really kidnapped? Did she in fact choose to marry Hades?
What about those pomegranate seeds? Would she really eat them unthinkingly?
Or do these elements of the story symbolize something deeper, something common to all human experience?
My favorite interpretation is that Persephone, like Jesus, makes a journey through suffering and loss to a new and larger kind of life.
Regardless of what brought her to the underworld, Persephone learns to navigate it - and even becomes its Queen!
She returns from her journey wiser and more powerful.
She now knows how to walk through the "land of the dead," AND to enjoy the delights of earthly life.
Persephone's story speaks to all of us who are navigating grief, loss, and sorrow... especially due to circumstances beyond our control.
She reminds us that sadness, anger, and grief are as much a part of human life as joy and reunion...
...and that to be fully human, the sovereigns of our own lives, we can and must eat of the "fruits" of both.
This Equinox, may we honor the rebirth that comes from our deepest "underworld" journeys.
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