The Goddess of the underworld, Persephone is perhaps one of the best known stories in mythology. The symbolism within this tale is rich and complex, like the Goddess herself. Persephone was the daughter of Demeter (Ceres). Abducted by Hades (Pluto) while out picking flowers one day, she was forcibly taken to hell and raped. It is a violent story. Persephone's mother fell into great mourning and as the Goddess of crops and nutrition, everything died in the wake of her terrible grief. The Gods became worried after a time because they feared if humanity starved, there would be no one left to honor and worship them. Zeus granted Demeter permission to reclaim her daughter for some months of the year, this was when the growing seasons came. when Persephone returned to the underworld, winter set in and all plants died and nature waited for the return of the queen of Hades.
So Persephone, a virgin and naive in her youth is forcibly taken to a dark place and made into a woman. She becomes Mrs. Pluto. This is really an illustration of what it is like to meet one's shadow self. Crisis is the catalyst for her to be faced with life in the underworld. Horrified at what she finds at first, Persephone is seized with fear at the sights and smells of hell. She is bereft at her loss of freedom and depressed in the face of her future. This is much like our own experience of seeing something ugly within ourselves that we would rather deny. Persephone goes on a journey into her own unconscious. The unconscious contains all that we cannot accept about ourselves. It is the cess pool of self denial and hatred. It is where we lock away truths we cannot bear, as they disagree with our conscious, chosen beliefs about ourselves. The 7th house, Pluto, the 8th house and the 12th house are all places where we can store these beliefs in a birth chart. Persephone learns how to handle herself over time and learns an even greater lesson; that she has mastery over the king of the underworld himself. She goes from powerless as a screaming helpless kidnapee, to a fully formed, brave queen with the realization of her own power. She in essence, accepts her shadow self. This acceptance gives her comfort even in the worst of places.
Persephone had no voice of her own. Her fate was determined by those with greater power. She was a victim of being loved too much, of Pluto's obsession. In our chart, she shows where we abdicate our own power. Persephone is indicative of how we think for ourselves, how we make our own choices, how we have been taken captive, and how we give up our happiness for another. A big one with this asteroid is how we lie to ourselves. Remember, the shadow side of all of us is seen as a bad guy/girl to our waking self. When we, like Persephone, learn to live with our own inner Hades and indeed master it, we become royalty of our own under-psyche. That is where real power lies, in wholeness.
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