type of youth returns. How it happens often seems mysterious. It
follows weeping and rage. Time passes. Then a budding feeling
stirs. Perhaps the woman notices what a beautiful blue the sky is.
Or she is touched by someone’s compassion. Or she has an urge to
complete a long-abandoned task. Emotionally, these are small signs
of spring. Shortly after the first signs of returning life, the woman
is herself again, once more full of vitality and generosity, reunited
with that part of herself that has been missing.
More than simple recovery is possible. The Demeter woman can
also emerge from a period of suffering with greater wisdom and
spiritual understanding. As an inner experience, the myth of Demeter
and Persephone speaks of a capacity to grow through suffering. A
Demeter woman may then, like Demeter herself, come to accept the
existence of human seasonal changes. She may acquire an earth
wisdom that mirrors nature. Such a woman learns that she can live
through whatever happens, knowing that just as spring follows
winter, so changing human experience follows certain patterns.
Goddesses in Everywoman