The Mythology of Proserpina
If you are interested in spending any amount of time here with me, it is best that you become acquainted with the story of Proserpina. Mother Proserpine was borne out of my own Proserpinian experience and I built my business because I wanted to help others to achieve the same goals that I had by doing exactly what Proserpina had to do. When we traverse the Underworld and conquer it, we come back stronger than before.
I feel that Proserpina’s journey is the greatest hero’s journey that we can use to understand how life really works. When I look out into the world, I see millions of people, clamouring to claim a definition of existence that doesn’t seem to truly fit with reality. I see this on all sides and in many different ways. The reality is that we all have some baseline for what is normal in our lives (although that differs widely from person to person), we all have moments of great distress and suffering, and we all have moments in which we feel on top of the world. I think that life goes in that order actually. I don’t believe it is random and, in fact, I believe if we proactively engage in our life in this way, we can wield it in a much more efficient fashion.
At the beginning of her story, Proserpina is relaxing in the garden with her mother Ceres. She is safe and cared for and happy. She is in the environment that feels normal and usual to her, doing what she is used to doing, which is picking flowers under the watchful eye of her doting mother. In astrological terms, she is living out all of the things that are suggested as a baseline in the natal chart, like the Sun and the Moon as the basic lights and awarenesses of our lives, the soul in the body, the intention and the manifestation, the direction and the destination. The Nine of Pentacles of the tarot is a fantastic visual for this part of the story ~ a beautiful woman, dressed in finery, stood before her great harvest. And yet she is not the 10. She may be comfortable but to achieve the greatest success, she must face facts that something is missing.
In Proserpina’s case, the choice to pursue this concept freely is swiftly stolen from her when Pluto, the Lord of the Underworld, rises up and snatches her from the ostensible safety of the garden of the maternal home. As she is pulled down into the depths, her mother weeps and the land dries up. All of the things that once felt normal and comforting do not feel this way anymore, for they have lost their light and their security. Now, they are empty and meaningless. Down in the Underworld, Proserpina has no hope of rescue, despite her mother’s continued search. All she can do is open her eyes and face what Pluto has to show her. The Underworld is a frightening place and within its confines hide the darkest, most dangerous aspects of the Universe. Around every corner a ghoul, and under every surface, deeper and more profound understanding of the realities that always lay beneath that blossom-covered haven that part of her had always longed to escape. Over time, through exposure, Proserpina’s fear slowly diminishes and her power grows. In the astrological natal chart, depending on sect, Mars or Saturn will show up as the most difficult area of your life. Facing this part of yourself is the only way to learn how to survive and thrive when your malefic comes to call. Like The Tower of the tarot, the lightning strike of malefic power destroys the standard structures of your life and forces you to the ground with a great crash. You cannot stop the strike but you can brace for impact, come to terms with the events you have experienced, and learn how to search in the remaining rubble and ruins for the glint of gold amidst the ashes.
Fortunately, it is not all doom and gloom (rather fitting epithets for Mars and Saturn respectively). Every chart also has a benefic of sect, either Venus or Jupiter, that brings nothing but great blessings and the chart can show us how and where that will occur in your life. There are lovely cards that show up through the tarot - the happiness of the 10 of Cups, the celebration of the 6 of Wands, and the radiant joy of The Sun, just to name a few - and even when those happier cards don’t show up, we can ask specifically for what good we can be grateful for at even the darkest points in our lives. There will always be something. That’s life! And just as Proserpina rises up as Queen and Sovereign with the freedom to move between the surface world and the Underworld in equal measure, and just as the Sun shines bright and high at the Summer Solstice and low and dim in the Winter, we, too, must come to recognise the highs and lows of our existence and the absolute necessity of accepting and being thankful for both. One cannot exist without the other and nothing can exist without both.
If you are interested in understanding more about how these ideas may play out in your life, follow the link below and allow me to guide you as your psychopomp.
