What’s in a name? The story behind Mother Proserpine

There is a story behind the name I chose for my business, or to be slightly more accurate, a myth.

It is a tale of a mother and a daughter, the two deities that inspired Mother Proserpine and infuse the work I do in my business as well as my role as a mother to my own two daughters.

I am deeply interested in Roman history and how the Romans achieved great power, wealth, and victory by staying true in constant service to a pantheon of Pagan gods and goddesses. When the Romans turned to Christianity, their mighty empire began to fall, and I don’t personally think that was a coincidence. They took a lot of their pantheon from Greek culture and these two deities also came from the Greek. Originally, in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter as well as many other ancient Greek works, these two goddesses were known as Demeter and Persephone, but to the Romans, they were Ceres and Proserpina. The English romantic writers of my native England used Ceres and Proserpine, rather than Proserpina, and so I will follow their lead. Also, I like Proserpine as the pronunciation involves sounding out the -pine at the end like a pine tree, reminiscent of the great forests in the Scottish Highlands where I used to play as a child, full to the brim with Scots pine trees. Closer to home, Sherwood Forest has some glorious pine trees too and I appreciate their evergreen beauty and invigorating scent through the seasons.

Talking of seasons, who were Ceres and Proserpine? Ceres was the Mother, an Earth mother and goddess of the grain, presiding over agriculture and the fertility of the land. She was also a goddess of motherhood and assisted women, like me, to fulfil their maternal duties. Her daughter, Proserpine, at the beginning of our story is but a young innocent maiden, but by the end of it, she has become Queen of the Underworld and governess of the changing seasons.

Initially, Ceres and Proserpine live in our world, amidst leafy trees and pretty foliage, and Proserpine is a youthful innocent maiden, joyfully picking flowers. However, Pluto (or Hades to the Greeks) notices Proserpine and her beauty and abducts her, stealing her down into the depths of his underworld. He leaves behind a grieving mother in Ceres, who begins to trawl the earth in search for her beloved daughter. The soil grows cold and with every step, the plants creep closer and closer to death and the life energy of the earth vanishes.

Despite being pulled down into Pluto’s depths through force, some versions of the myth describe Proserpine as actually enjoying it in the Underworld. She wilfully eats the seeds of the pomegranate given to her by Pluto and this ensures that she must stay with him. But she is said to have only eaten 6 seeds and so it is agreed that she will stay with Pluto as his Queen for 6 months of the year and return to her devoted mother Ceres for the remaining 6.

When Proserpine returns to the surface world, she is not the same girl she was before. She is now a Queen, with knowledge and experience. She doesn’t really return to the same place. She is unable to for she is no longer the same. And every time she makes her descent, she changes and transforms a little bit more.

This myth explains the magic of the seasons — spring and summer return with Proserpine; autumn and winter come when she descends again. But it teaches us so much more than that. It teaches us that we cannot remain in the sun picking flowers forever - eventually, we must go down into the depths and face the things we may fear. We might even find we like it down there and are willing to engage with it by choice the next time. We learn how the truth underneath transforms us. We are reminded of the cycles of womanhood; from maiden girl to experienced and knowledgeable Queen and loving, hard-working Mother. Ceres’ maternal grief and the loss of her daughter freezes up the earth itself - a mother’s love is, in my mind and according to our story, one of the most powerful things in the world, second only to death and the power of the underworld to drag us down into the depths when our time comes. But the motherly love lives on and continues to create real effect here on earth, even when her child has gone.

I work with Ceres and Proserpine because they embody the exact qualities needed for the soul work I offer:
Maternal fire. Hard-won wisdom. Cyclical renewal. Real-world experience. And the power to guide others through their underworlds — and back.

This is not just mythology to me. It’s the spiritual architecture behind everything I do.