I am abducted [to Hades].
I am separated [from the mother].
I am grieving [for the daughter].
I am in the dark.
I am barren.
I embrace death.
I am fertile.
I am reunited [with different parts of myself].
There is light.

I know that this myth was a powerful beacon for me when I was grieving for my 14-year-old daughter who was going through her own Underworld journey of depression, rage and threats of suicide. I understood that despite my belief that I should protect her from the darkness, I could not go into the Underworld with her but had to stay above, with torches lit, demanding her return. Demeter in one version of the myth says that she will not conduct business as usual until her daughter is returned to her and this was also my vow. (In fact, I was fired from my job during this time, a pretty concrete realization of the events of the myth.) In the end, my daughter did emerge from the darkness and our relationship shifted in a positive way.

Meditate on the stories of Demeter and Persephone. You can find several versions. Kathie Carlson's new book, Life's Daughter, Death's Bride, which emphasizes the patriarchal rape of the daughter. Follow her book with Reviving Ophelia, Mary Pipher's wonderful book on the way our culture damages the self-esteem of adolescent girls. Robert Graves in The Greek Myths tells the stories of Demeter preserved in Greek literature and elaborates on them with his own unique Goddess-oriented interpretation. Lois Holub wrote a version called "The Mother as Hero" for The Beltane Papers in Samhain 1992. Develop your own mythic drama, based on the version of the myth which has the most power for you in your life. Act it out alone or with friends. You can make this as elaborate or as simple as you like.

Consider the nine stations of the myth listed by Deena Metzger. Have you lived this myth in your life? Write about it, perhaps focusing on a different station every day. You might want to make your own Stations, as Catholics do for the Stations of the Cross, by designating a place in your home or outside which represents each station of the Mystery and spending time there.

Sources
Graves, Robert, The Greek Myths, Penguin 1955
Metzger, Deena, Writing for Your Life, Harper San Francisco 1992
Pipher, Mary, Reviving Ophelia, Ballantine 1994
The Beltane Papers: A Journal of Women's Mysteries. <www.thebeltanepapers.net>