#persephone worship

[nikkas-cottage]

Special spring tapers I made in honor of Persephone’s return 🌸

[rightwheretheyleftme]

The consensual ‘abduction’ of Persephone in Lokri

Pinakes of Persephone driving the chariot or embracing Hades as he abducts her

A fun fact that I love about Persephone and Hades is that in the city of Lokri (Modern Italy), they were seen as the ideal marriage. Women who were about to get married re-interpreted the myth of the abduction of Persephone so it would reflect their current situation, e.g: Women who were happy with their future husband made a pinake (a tablet of painted wood or terracotta) where Persephone was driving the chariot and participating in her own ‘abduction’; On the contrary, women who were forced into their marriage would make a pinake where Persephone was fighting against her captor.

“The pinakes were most likely dedications made by young girls in the lead-up to their weddings. In this sense, it is understandable that the chosen god does not completely undergo the transition process. The dedications served the function of seeking Persephone's blessing and protection for their marriages, and they were dedicated before the marriage had taken place. So the image of the goddess that was being invoked and imitated in the abduction scenes was the goddess in the same state as the dedicating girls: the state immediately before marriage. […]

The most common pinax types are the 'divine' and 'imitation' scenes. In both cases, these range from unambiguous abductions where the maiden clearly struggles against her captor to images in which it appears the girl is complicit in her own kidnapping sometimes even taking charge of the chariot herself. The range can be accounted for because, as James Redfield points out, "no doubt some brides felt more abducted than others".”

- Mackin, Ellie. “Girls Playing Persephone (in Marriage and Death).” Mnemosyne 71, no. 2 (2018): 209–28.

[mars-and-the-theoi]

Low energy Devotional Acts for when you don’t have a lot of energy (or time, or money, etc.) pt. 8

💀Hades/Plouton💀

- listen to a devotional playlist for Him

- learn how to budget if able

- if you have a dog- spend some time with them

- if able volunteer at an animal shelter or volunteer to walk dogs

- if able learn about your ancestors

- learn about death magic and spirit work

- learn about death doulas

- learn about the Underworld or afterlives in general

- listen to ‘dark ambient’ soundscapes

- if able visit a cemetery

- learn about cemetery and graveyard etiquette

- learn about funerary practices throughout time and around the world

- wear black (can be as simple as a hair tie or socks to your whole outfit and even makeup!)

- listen to goth music

- carry some coins on you if able

- do Halloween or gothic themed coloring pages

- learn about the roles of hospice workers, funeral directors, morticians, etc.

- honor deceased loved ones (can be pets, friends, family members, etc. doesn’t matter)

- be kind to spirits and respect* them and the dead (*I know there are some folks who don’t deserve respect in death so obviously you don’t have to respect them this is just a more…in general kind of thing)

🌺Persephone🌺

- if able go on a walk (can be as simple as down the driveway and back up if that’s all you can manage)

- if unable to do that try to sit outside or open a window/door to let some fresh air in and open the blinds/curtains to let some sunlight in

- listen to nature soundscapes

- pick some flowers or get a bouquet for yourself or others

- learn about herbalism

- enjoy some pomegranates, pomegranate juice, or something with pomegranate in it

- listen to a devotional playlist for Her

- if able visit a cemetery

- learn, read, watch stuff about ghosts (yes even those weird ghost hunting shows that come on at like 2 am and make you feel like you’re experiencing a fever dream)

- learn about reincarnation

- be kind to Demeter

- if able donate to or volunteer at a battered women’s shelter and learn about their history and importance

- if able do some baking (especially bread)

- learn about the underworld or afterlives in general

[pomegranated]

my attempt to give persephone a digital offering

[iliosflower]

Isis and Demeter: Symbols of Divine Motherhood

Author: Vincent Arieh Tobin

Source: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 28 (1991), pp. 188-89, link

[hail-our-lady-underground]

Death is the moss on the headstone I remove with my thumb as a family member tells me how they need to clean the family graves. We bury the dead beneath the green flakes.

Death is the sweat down my back and the ache in my feet. It is the way funeral goers have come up to me to ask how I “deal with this”. I tell them it is beautiful, in it’s own tragic way.

Death is the water in the flower vases pouring down my arm and staining my uniform. It is cleaning leaves out the hearse. It is the smell of the prep room and the chill of the freezer, both not as bad as you’d think.

Death is a family member holding up a toddler to reach toward a dead relative they will not remember. It is the open casket. It is the slight awkward nature of closing it.

My Gods are death, and they’re slick and mean. They are cruel rot and crueler tears. They surround me with music and flowers. Butterflies eat from the cemetery stands. They take and they take and it’s all worth it. It’s all worth it to see them move their hands, mighty and skeletal.

I thank you, oh Gods. Thanatos, Hades, Persephone, I thank you for standing near me. There are so many flowers here.

[theholydivines]

in 2024 we're reconnecting with our faith <33333

[messywitch]

okay i actually finished some other user boxes (that i still don't know if they're a thing anymore) but! you're free to use them, just say Aterios made them.

i'm open to making these under request, just send me an ask with the deity you'd like a box for!! please be nice, too.

gods in this post: Hades, Persephone, Thanatos, Hypnos, Hekate, Helios, Selene, Asteria, Eros & Nyx.

[blessedqueenofthedamned]

Persephone teaches me that mothers are distant downpours, and mothers are shelters from storm. nothing can stop the hard freeze when she rains ice. some flowers will die and others remain steadfast, unshaken by cold shoulders and cold fronts. relationships with her will always be a cycle. even her warmth can be devastating. unseasonal temperatures teach us about loss and about rebirths, about fruitless expectations and unpredictability and forgiveness and beginning again. you will see new colors every year, golds and pinks and greens most dazzling- nurture what you can, be grateful for the fleeting time you have with what you cannot. mothers are nature, raging, cradling, impossible to live without and impossible to understand. I learn this from Her. I hold this knowledge close.

[gothicaphrodite]

I love all my gods equally, even if I consider myself a devotee to two of them and worshipper of the other three. They've all been great to me in their own different ways.

Aphrodite's warm embrace that makes me feel held at all times, especially when I need it most, the joy she's brought back to my life when no one and nothing else did before.

Ares' fierce support, how he always gives me strength to get to the finish line, the push I need to run that last lap so my efforts can finally pay off and then I can rest easy.

Persephone's never-wavering offer of resilience and protection, her mercy as well as ruthless justice, her refuge and promise for a better tomorrow.

Dionysus' passionate encouragement, his always standing hand-holding to free myself from all my chains, his unbreakable acceptance of me as I am even when society hates me.

But Hermes has been so fucking kind, giving and patient to me in ways I can't put into words.

Hermes and Aphrodite were the only ones who gave me gifts as soon as I asked, before I set up proper altars or did any offerings, I just had to promise I would pay them back and they immediately trusted my word and gave away their gifts to me. I'll always be grateful.

I'll never be able to thank Hermes enough.

His bright, rascal laugh, his incredible patience*, his delightful casual approach, how light-hearted he feels in a way that almost feels humble but it only makes him more godly, how attentive he is, the way he felt like a hilarious and very sweet, trusted old friend as soon as I first prayed to him.

I started my worship of him because my fiancé and I took a brief vacation and it was my first time travelling by plane, and soon after I thought I'd get a chance to work as a flight attendant, which strengthened my push to worship him. That didn't work out in the end. I've been looking for a job for 2 years, my fiancé and I really need more money.

And now I just realized I'm finally getting a chance at a good position that deals entirely with communication. I cannot see this as anything other than Hermes' answer to my prayers.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

*Not that my other gods haven't been patient to me too, but Hermes? Wow.

[dumbass-fae]

So I recently (like yesterday) set up an altar for Lord Hades and Lady Persephone and today I got offered a free labradoodle puppy! I'm not sure if it's a sign or a thank you or what but I'm just happy I'll be getting a new friend soon :3

Any thoughts?

[wolfhowlwitch]

today I feel Persephone tugging at me to rest, to recover, to relax. I hear Her whispering to me “even the ever-moving cycle of life and death finds it moments to pause. you are not greater than the cycle, you need your pause too.” and She’s right. there is the moment where the apple hangs from the branch, ripe to be picked but yet unplucked. there is the moment where the water is unmoving, the waves not crashing but murmuring. there is the moment, however brief, where the moon has found its space in the sky and dwells. and in all of these moments, there is beauty. in all of these moments there is growth. stillness is not a backwards motion- it is simply stillness.

She is inviting me to lie on a bed of pillows. She is inviting me to rest my weary feet. She is inviting- coaxing- me to take a moment where the only needs I meet are my own. while others may be pushing me- albeit with encouragement and support- to seize each moment, to push myself to new heights, She tells me that this minute of repose is taking hold of the moment in its own right.

and She is right, of course. though my racing mind reaches out to act, to move, to serve- my tired feet long to unwind, my soul sighs in relief as my head touches the blankets. She reminds me that in moments of stillness, there is growth. and She is right.

[pomegranated]

i wish i could find a boyfriend who’s also a hellenic polytheist and NOT a weirdo :(

[lovely-libations]

Photo source // Pinterest

I would love to build something like this one day. I'd just go and lay in it sometimes when I'm not doing rituals or offerings.

[thegrapeandthefig]

Hades & Persephone worshippers: Research boost

[I'm sharing this call for survey participant with permission.]

Transcript

Are you a Hellenic polytheist who worships Persephone and/or Hades? If so, I’d like to invite you to participate in a research project that will look at how Hellenic Polytheists engage with ancient evidence. Participation will be via an online survey that will take 15-30 minutes and include a series of questions about your interests and your religious practice and ask you to undertake three interpretation tasks. Participation in voluntary, and you can contact me for more information at ellie.mackinroberts(@)bristol.ac.uk. Link: https://arts.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/dread-persephone-and-lord-hades Why am I doing this study? I’m doing this study to try and understand how modern Hellenic Polytheists interpret and engage with ancient source material, and how their understanding of the ancient contexts adds to this interpretation. My hope is to draw some conclusions about how professional ancient historians may be able to assist in the informed research of Hellenic polytheists.

Further context

Dr Ellie Mackin Roberts has been active in academia for a while and some of you may know some of her work, the most notable and recent of which being Underworld Gods in Ancient Greek Religion: Death and Reciprocity, which was her PhD thesis. Others may also know her since she is active on TikTok.

If you are looking for information as to the context of this particular survey and how the information will be used, you can find some info on the survey itself: https://arts.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/dread-persephone-and-lord-hades as well as on her blogpost https://elliemackinroberts.net/2023/08/30/my-first-survey/ but the TL;DR is that she is currently writing a chapter for an upcoming book titled Persephone in Love: Persephone and Hades in Popular Culture in which she intends to study how modern worshippers of Persephone and Hades approach ancient sources.

-

@micromeria you might already know about this, but thought I'd tag you in case this wasn't the case.

[iliosflower]

Persephone's Abduction

"Persephone went willingly! Just check the oldest myth." - one too many a person on tiktok this morning.

Alright, I will. I'll use the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (7th century BCE) for you.

"[..] but broad-pathed Earth gaped wide

On the Nysion plain where the lord, the Receiver of many, rushed forth

With his deathless horses, Kronos' son who has many a name.

He seized her against her will, and aboard his golden car

Carried her off, lamenting; she uttered a piercing scream"

(line 16-20)

"When the maiden shrieked in appeal to her father"

(line 27)

"While the goddess [Persephone] viewed earth and starry sky, and the strong-flowing sea

Teeming with fish, and the rays of the Sun, she still hoped to behold

Her dear mother again, and the tribes of gods eternal in race;

So long did hope soothe her mighty mind despite her grief."

(line 33-36)

"Sun, [Helios], as a god for a goddess [Demeter] show your regard for me,

If ever by word or deed your heart and spirit I pleased.

The daughter whom I bore, my sweet offshoot of glorious form,

I heard through the murmuring air giving vent to an anguished cry

As though overpowered by force, yet caught no glimpse with my eyes.

[...]

Who took her without my consent against her will by force

And vanished -"

(line 64-72)

"And the lord in his [Hades'] halls he [Hermes] discovered seated upon a couch,

And he had his revered spouse by him, though much against her will,

Since she longed for Demeter, her mother -"

(line 43-45)

"She [Persephone] quickly leaped up in delight, but secretly, glancing round,

He [Hades] gave her to eat a pomegranate's honey-sweet seed, so that there

By revered Demeter the dark-robed she would not for ever stay."

(line 73-75)

"I [Persephone] at once leaped up in delight, but Hades secretly put

A food as sweet as honey, a pomegranate's seed, in my hand

And using violence forced me to taste it against my will"

(line 412-412)

Photo credit here.