The Myth

Persephone’s story is your story. It’s the experience of every human who's been pulled into the depths of grief, transformation, awakening – and emerged changed.

The daughter of Demeter and Zeus, Persephone is a figure of life and growth, a bright spring maiden. But her journey is most well known for a moment of sudden, irreversible change. One day, as she gathers flowers in a meadow, the ground beneath her splits open. From the chasm emerges Hades, the god of death and the underworld, who carries her away to his dark realm.

Demeter, frantic with grief, searches for her daughter, but the earth remains silent. In her sorrow, the goddess of the harvest and fertility neglects the land and the world falls into a harsh, endless winter. Eventually, a deal is struck. Persephone will return to her mother for part of the year, bringing spring and summer in her wake. But she chooses to spend the rest of the year with Hades, binding her to the cycles of death and rebirth.

Persephone begins as the maiden, untouched by complexity, until she’s taken into the underworld. There, she confronts darkness, loss, and parts of herself she never knew existed. But she doesn’t remain trapped. She rises, no longer just a daughter, but a queen who walks both realms, embodying light and shadow.

Why does this matter? Because we're all inevitably pulled under. We face struggle, identity crises, and moments where the life we know shatters. If we resist, we repeat our patterns, we find it difficult to evolve. And we never fully embody our talents or experience our ultimate capacity for love and joy. But if we understand Persephone’s story as an initiation, we realise darkness is not an enemy. It’s a teacher.

For women, or those who strongly identify with the feminine principle, Persephone’s journey speaks to reclaiming your power, moving beyond shadow behaviours to step into your full sovereignty. For men, or those who identify with the masculine principle, it’s an invitation to honour the depths within you and within the feminine. For all, it’s a lesson in polarity – we cannot truly live if we only embrace limited parts of ourselves.

Persephone shows us the descent is necessary, but so is the return. And when we rise, we do not come back as we were. We come back whole.