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• When I think of tough transitions, my mind always drifts toward the story of Persephone.
• When I think of tough transitions, my mind always drifts toward the story of Persephone.
While I lean toward the less misogynistic view of her story, seeing her act of picking the narcissus flower as a symbolic choice to choose herself, step into her power, and her duality, I still, however, believe that leaving either of her homes, whether the mid-world or the underworld, is never an easy journey for her.
I imagine that as she is led through the tunnels by Hekate, she wrestles with the heady emotions of loss when saying goodbye to the mid-world…her mother, the warmth of the sun, and the vibrancy of life. Then, as she returns to the surface after her time in the underworld, I bet she feels sadness once again, but this time because she has to leave her partner, the spirits she helps, and the peace of the darkness while in the underworld. In those liminal moments, as she makes her way from point A to point B, I imagine her pain and hurt claw at her as she transforms into one of her dualities. All the while, Hekate is there, holding her hand, lifting a torch with the other, and consoling her friend through these difficult transitions, year after year.
Indulge me now in my own mythology: What if, one year, as Persephone is making her way back to the mid-world, she finds that her passage to spring is blocked? No matter how much she claws at the earth, she cannot break through. She is stuck, powerless. As her mother rages across the earth over her absence, Persephone herself cycles through feelings of determination, pain, sorrow, resignation, hope, hopelessness, and desperation. When she eventually makes her way back down to her partner, she brings all of these emotions with her. Hades, so deeply worried about this development, does everything he can to console his Queen, but he cannot fix what is happening. Persephone tries again and again to make her way to the mid-world, but the earth holds fast, refusing to yield to her pleas and anger as she pounds against the dirt wall.
A new and different cycle begins, one of grief and sorrow that follows her. Even Hekate is at a loss for what to do. The tunnel, after all, opens for her, but not for her friend.
While I will never consider myself as amazing as Persephone, I can relate to this mythology I’ve created for her. After all, isn’t the point of these stories to mirror our lives in some way?
Change and transition are highly romanticized, especially in the spiritual community. You’ll hear, almost everywhere, that no matter how hard things get, eventually you’ll find your way to the other side and that change and transitions follow a cyclical pattern like nature. But we don’t often stop to consider that, even in nature, change and transitions aren’t always beautiful. Just look at climate change.
This isn’t to say that cycles can’t be beautiful. They most certainly can be. Plants dying in winter only to resurrect in bright purples, greens, and yellows, is beautiful. Going through a breakup and rediscovering your self-worth at the end of your journey of healing your heart, is beautiful. But pain can be a cycle too.
In March of last year, I dealt with the worst head pain of my life, along with swollen lymph nodes on the back of my head and severe ear pressure. I could barely keep my head upright most of the time. I was shuffled from doctor to doctor (waiting months between appointments or tests), one of which laughed at me and charged me $80 for the privilege. Eventually, I learned I have very bad muscular TMD. Was my TMD caused by the head pain, or did it cause the head pain? I might never know. By July, my TMD had led to gastrointestinal issues due to a medication I was given without being informed of its side effects.
To this day, I’m still dealing with gastrointestinal issues, TMD, and headaches—and now I have a big dent in my bank account from all the hospital visits, which brought little to no answers, just continued pain. I am yet another victim of a broken healthcare system that barely functions.
On top of that, over the past year (and increasingly in the current one) the people I love have become political targets. Our government would rather crucify small groups of people than fix anything meaningful. I’ve had to witness these amazing, beautiful souls I hold close to my heart endure their own cycles of pain and hurt due to the actions of close-minded fools. This feels like a never-ending cycle, as we don’t know how it will turn out.
Why am I saying all of this? I want to shine a light on the fact that sometimes things simply will not be okay for many people. Much like my tale and my imagined mythology of Persephone, we can get stuck in horrid cycles we don't choose to be in. There is no pulling ourselves up by the bootstraps to “do the work” when we weren’t given bootstraps to begin with (my bootstraps being decent medical care, and for those I love, a government willing to stand up for its constituents).
This doesn’t mean things will never change or get better (they certainly can) but we can’t know for sure, not everyone is promised a good outcome when it comes to cycles. As witches, we can influence and heal as much as possible, but we are still made of flesh, blood, and bone (with some stardust thrown in). This late-stage-capitalism world is not built to support us; it is an opposing force, designed to hold many of us down. Sometimes, all we can do is keep our heads above water. Even magick can sometimes only serve as a tool to help us survive the chaos around us. There have been witches in every era of destruction. Witches who may never have seen the good that came after, no matter how great they were.
As we head into 2025, especially with the massive transitions we are witnessing politically, we as a collective need to rethink how we approach change and transitions. There will be an influx of people stuck in negative cycles they cannot escape. We need as many people as possible to recognize where they have privilege in these situations and where others do not. When we start to see that, and when we compel those who consider themselves above us to see it too, that is when real change will happen.
The truth is, we can’t love-and-light our way through this. Optimism and dissociation, at this point, are privileges that many can no longer afford. It is community, on both small and large scales, that will save many from harmful cycles...or, at the very least, ease someone’s burdens while they endure them. It is not about blocking out the world in our own little spaces.
So... what if all the gods rallied behind Persephone in my story to find the cause of the earth holding her back from the surface and fought it together? They need spring, and they certainly can’t afford to face an angry Demeter again.
Or maybe there’s a different ending. Maybe since, (let’s be honest) the Greeks knew their gods were flawed beings, the entire underworld rallies behind Persephone to force whatever god caused her pain to face justice.
She just might stand a chance…or she will have solace that she is supported.
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