Pluto, Proserpina, and Ceres: Weaving a personal mythology
I’m thinking about Proserpina today. Her asteroid is conjunct Mercury and both have just moved into Leo. Her myth is louder and we are more willing than usual to talk about her.
This is good for me as I’ve just launched my business, Mother Proserpine, named after her. It’s also handy for the promotion of my Underworld offering, a reading focusing on the interplay of Pluto, Proserpina, and Ceres in the chart. This is something that is unique to me and my business, so I thought now is a great time to explain a little bit more about how I use these asteroids in connection with each other to understand an individual’s personal shadow.
Let’s start with Pluto. Everybody knows and possibly hates Pluto. This is because astrologically he is used extensively by most modern astrologers. He is the generational planet to many and so he tells us a lot about the collective concerns, fears, and hidden motivations of each generation. I was born at the start of the Pluto in Sagittarius generation and so myself and my fellow kids (how do you do?) have been born into a world dominated by extremist ideology, terrorism, but also a resurgence of spiritual belief, including things like astrology (lucky me!) Whilst Pluto will be in one sign usually for a few decades, we can learn a lot about how he interacts with an individual on a personal life based on how he aspects other planets in their chart that move a lot faster than he does, and also where he falls in the chart by house. I have Pluto in the 3rd house so a lot of those deeper, darker themes come up for me through my local environment and my daily routines and communications. By house, we can see where Pluto opens up the door to our own personal underworlds. My darkest times in life came when I started feeling overwhelmingly frightened of normal everyday things, things like walking down the road, opening the front door, getting out of bed, eating, breathing, sleeping, all of it. It was the normal stuff that suddenly felt terrifying and that was down to Pluto being activated in my 3rd house. It doesn’t mean I have continued to feel like this and I’m doomed to be terrified but it does mean that big upheavals in that area of my life will show me where I can become a master, rather than a servant. And that leads me to Proserpina.
I don’t know many astrologers that work extensively with Proserpina as an asteroid but she’s a pretty major one. I use Proserpina in connection with Pluto because Proserpina is her Roman form, as Pluto is the Roman form of Hades. I think they belong together. In the myth, Pluto kidnapped Proserpina and forcibly stole her down into his hellscape. Despite this terrifying ordeal, Proserpina actually became accustomed to his palace and ultimately became Queen of the Underworld. Studying her story can help us understand a lot more about how we can find empowerment and strength through the harsher times in our life. There is always something to learn from every situation we find ourselves in, no matter how awful. It might not feel nice, but we can always, always grow. So a study of Proserpina in the chart can help us work out how to do so. I have Proserpina in Pisces in my 6th house. So you could say that learning spiritual lessons through tapping into the intangible forces (Pisces) behind the unpleasant task of dealing with physical ailments and practical problems (6th house) can bring me to an empowered place of sovereignty, rather than a fearful place. Even better if I can choose to engage with this area of my life, rather than being forced to do so. My Lot of Victory is conjunct Proserpina so I am able to achieve great success and abundance through this process. It is useful to examine how Proserpina and Pluto aspect each other in the chart, if at all! Mine are in a tight square with each other: positive because they can see each other, but negative due to the fact that they are in a tense relationship, filled with conflict and argument. Pluto has the upper hand and so it is easy for me to become overwhelmed by the threats that bubble under the surface of my conscious existence, a tendency that I have grown to manage very effectively through an understanding of how to keep them both happy. My 6th house Proserpina is strengthened through tending to my diet and through strict adherence to fitness. Exercise almost singlehandedly brought me back out of my mental illness and I use this knowledge to my advantage.
There is also something else that we can use to keep us steady through our underworld journey. Ceres is a major asteroid, named after Proserpina’s mother, the grain goddess and archetypal Earth Mother. At the beginning of the story, prior to Proserpina’s kidnapping, Ceres is full of joy, close to her daughter Proserpina who happily and innocently picks flowers in their luscious garden. When she loses Proserpina, she is overwhelmed with grief and sorrow. As she wanders the land searching for her, the Earth begins to lose its beauty and the flowers wilt and die. A mother’s grief creates the seasons and the daughter’s choice to return to her creates the cycle of light and dark, summer and winter. Ceres is the earthly link that Proserpina returns to when she has had enough of the shadow world. She is what nurtures her and keeps her feeling grounded, protected, and loved. So a study of Ceres in our own charts can assist us in knowing where to turn to when things feel too much and we are in need of a maternal touch. My Ceres is in Aquarius in my 5th house. In my darkest moments, I had my eldest daughter (my youngest was yet to exist) and the strange Aquarian things I loved and enjoyed: my dark little sitcoms, my morbid music, video games that I could exist within when I couldn’t face the real world. These things kept me alive and reminded me that a vibrant, loving, and fertile world existed, even if it was obscured from view at that time. Ceres cannot see Proserpina or Pluto in my chart so she finds it hard to come and find me when things get tough, but I am lucky that she forms a trine to my Ascendant so I am able to tap into her energies on a daily basis and channel her maternal instincts in each moment and project them out into the world.
This is the work involved in my Underworld reading and, as it is such a unique offering, I look forward to sharing it with you.
