Persephone the Guide is part of that person’s psyche, the archetype
responsible for the sense of familiarity the person feels when she
encounters symbolic language, ritual, madness, visions, or ecstatic
mystical experience.
SYMBOL OF SPRING
Persephone the Kore or “nameless maiden” is familiar to many a
woman as the stage of life when she was young, uncertain, and full
of possibilities. It was the time when she waited for someone or
something to come along to shape her life, before another (any other)
archetype became activated and ushered in a different phase. In the
seasons of a woman’s life, Persephone represents spring.
Just as spring cyclically follows the fallow period after harvest
and the barren months of winter, bringing warmth, more light, and
new green growth, so can Persephone become reactivated in women
after times of loss and depression. Each time Persephone resurfaces
in a woman’s psyche, it is once again possible for her to be receptive
to new influences and change.
Persephone is youthfulness, vitality, and the potential for new
growth. Women who have Persephone as a part of them may stay
receptive to change and young in spirit all their lives.
CULTIVATING PERSEPHONE
The receptivity of the Persephone archetype is the quality many
women need to cultivate. This is especially so of focused Athena
and Artemis women, who are in the habit of knowing what they
want and acting decisively. They do not do well when they encounter
a lack of clarity about how and when to act, or an uncertainty about
what has the highest priority. For this, they need to cultivate
Persephone’s ability to wait for the situation to change, or for their
feelings to become clear.
The ability to be open and flexible (or malleable) that typifies
Persephone (at times to a fault) are attributes that Demeter and Hera
women often also need to develop, if they are locked into their ex-
pectations (Hera) or their conviction that they know best (Demeter).
Goddesses in Everywoman