Fall Equinox is the balance of dark and light, day and night, and the drama of the descent of the Goddess throughout multiple cultures and traditions reflects the equinox: Demeter and Persephone, Inanna and Ereshkigal, Isis and Nephthys. The sweet sorrow of the Autumn season acknowledges that decay and death are always inevitable and that Spring will always come again.
As we move into the Autumn season, I invite you to join me for an exploration of the Goddess Demeter for our September Goddess Meditation Circle. We will be gathering on Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 4pm eastern. Please click on the link below to register for free and get the call information.
I am absolutely delighted to be joined by Guest Priestess and Wild Witch Renee Starr who will speak further about the Poison Path and the Goddess Demeter! Renee also has a divine free gift that will be shared with everyone who is registered!
How do we mourn? When is it time to honor sorrow and loss? And how can we walk with the Goddess Demeter in this journey? What are the blessings of the Poison Path of Earth Magick?
Blessings of this Autumn Season!
xo Kimberly
Wake in the wet dawn from dreams
of treachery. Ignore the moon
phase: This is the only day
the lily bears its blossoms.
Wear silk gloves to dig the root.
Leave one to seed the rocky soil.Store the bulb with henbane,
belladonna, all the ancient
poisons hidden once beneath
amethyst and silver. Let it
gleam like threats. Let it
cool to dust like afternoons.That night walk the spiral garden.
Breathe aconite and artemisia, and
picture faces rapturous in the grip
of their beauty. Pain is the entrance
to forgetfulness. Would you remember
everything, all excellence, all sorrow?~ Patricia Monaghan, “Death Cammas”
Demeter’s origins are Cretan but Her largest worship center was Eleusis where the Rites of Eleusis were practiced for more than 1200 years. The ancient Eleusinian Mysteries – “the cult of the two Goddesses” – are based around the myth of Demeter and Persephone, Mother and Daughter. Certainly this is how most people know Demeter … as the Mother of Persephone. But Demeter is far more ancient than that. Removed from the Eleusinian Mysteries, she is an ancient Earth Goddess, even a Goddess of the Dead. As a “law-giver”, she provides order to the progression of seasons and life. There is also a more ancient Oracular tradition associated to the pre-Olympian Demeter so we may seek her counsel in matters of life and the heart.
Looking at all the aspects of the Goddess Demeter, we are struck by her duality: abundance and lack, life and death, love and rage, understanding and bitterness. She is a Goddess of Transitions and Cycles. There are important lessons in the myth of Demeter, lessons about embracing our grief and our rage, about being in our shadows, about how we must descend to rise, and also that no matter how dark we go, the light is waiting.
For modern women, Demeter represents some very important life transitions. As Mother, she reflects the grief that many women have as their children grow and leave the home. Tied into that and applicable for women who do not have children, there is also a mourning for our younger selves. The saying that aging is not for sissies is reflected in the grief and rage that Demeter displays. Her reaction is an extreme but most women can relate.
Demeter also represents the cycles of women that we go through at all stages of life. Productive, fallow, creative, barren. Our bodies – our life events – our personal journeys may all be viewed through a Demeter lens. She is a Goddess who shares our most primal and most human emotions and expresses them, almost to the detriment of destroying the world.
FROM RENEE STARR:
All of my life, and for as long as I can remember I have been intrigued by, and attracted to the darkness of night, the night sky filled with stars, the roots of plants, flowers that bloom silently under the moon, the dark of the moon, the forbidden realm of the underworld, the karmic journey of the soul, and the mysterious workings of this world that go on beneath the surface of our perceived reality. I have also been deeply interested in my own inner darkness, which is the part within all of us that is hidden, private, mysterious, and deeply magical. All of my life, and for as long as I can remember I have felt called by all things mysterious, unknown, and that which is hidden from view, and most of all, I am called by the plants of the underworld, the shadow and dreaming.
The teachings of The Poison Path that I share have been gathered from my many years of working magically, and shamanically with plants, and from the ancient, esoteric, and lost practices of the wise woman, who has been called witch, healer, and wild woman over the centuries. Once feared, and cast out, we call her back to us now, for her wisdom, and magic are our birthright, and we reclaim this as our own to answer the call of our hearts, and walk the path of our soul.
ABOUT RENEE STARR
Renée Starr is an multi-award winning author, lunar priestess, wild witch, and seeker of ancient wisdom for the modern woman. She offers her book, ‘You Are Woman, You Are Divine‘, as a guide for the modern woman’s journey back to The Goddess, along with her many classes, workshops, and a variety of retreats.
For more offerings, please visit: GoddessPriestessWtch.com
DEMETER RESOURCES/BOOKS
Long Journey Home: Revisioning the Myth of Demeter and Persephone for Our Time edited by Christine Downing (highly recommended)
Persephone Unveiled: Seeing the Goddess and Freeing Your Soul by Charles Stein
Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: A Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths by Charlene Spretnak
Mysteries of Demeter : Rebirth of the Pagan Way by Jennifer Reif
Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter by Carl Kerényi
