Task: Share a story from myth or folklore
This is a great challenge, and the story I'm going to share is one of my favorites, and I am going to share it from memory without looking it up.
It is the story of Demeter and Persephone.
The overbearing mother and the rebellious daughter, and the bad boy that set her free.
What? That isn't how you remember the story?
Well my blog, we get to look at it how I see it.
Demeter was a loving mom, but she had a flaw, she was so into the role of Mother, she lost herself. She became the helicopter mom, and all her own hopes and dreams were wrapped up in her daughter.
Her daughter felt the pressure, she knew how much her mother depended on her, but she really wanted independence, she wanted freedom, she wanted to discover who she was beyond Demeter's Daughter.
Well one day the opportunity presennted itself, the bad boy Hades wanted Persephone and when he offered himself to her she jumped at the chance to join him in the Underworld.
Well, Demeter, the great mother couldn't find her daughter and she searched and searched forgetting about her role as Earth Mother. Nothing grew in her great sadness, once she learned of Persephones whereabouts she was inconsolable. The people of Earth were on the brink of starvation. Zeus had to intervene and arranged for Persephone to come home.
Persephone ate some pomegranate seeds, just three little juice filled goodness seeds. By partaking of the food of the Underwood it assured that Persephone could never leave the Underworld, not permanently and there was nothing to be done about it. Zeus himself could do nothing about it, except compromise. Persephone would be allowed to go to the surface but had to return to the Underworld for part of the year, every year.
Depending on the version the split was 50/50, some say 6 months top side, 3 months under side to account for Winter. After all of these years Demeter is inconsolable when her beloved daughter is in the arms of Hades, and there are no harvests and growth during this time.
There are lessons to be learned from this Story. One, it is important to protect but not suffocate your children. You have to let your children find their own way. You also can't lose yourself in being a mother, you must keep that part of you that answers to your first name, develop your own interests, and you will be better equipped to live a life after your children have grown and gone.
Also, don't make Demeter inconsolable if you ever want to eat again.
Many Blessings,
Wynter
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