Are you Persephone?
In astrological
sense, Persephone is: Moon in Scorpio, i.e. the Moon in relation with series 8
(in 8th house, as in my chart, in aspect with Pluto as a natural ruler of 8),
Venus and Pluto.
Published: 9th January 2019. I Author:Smiljana
Gavrančić
This article was first published in the Jan/Feb 2019 issue of #IAM23 #MYTHOS #Secret Unicorn, and you can order your digital/hard copy here
It is possible to recognize the
main internal need in every horoscope. There is always some personal myth, the
only question is how capable is one to live it, how fearless one is, and how
much one hides in the collective myth. Collective mythology is represented by
10th house and it describes the impact of general events on the person’s life. Personal mythology is 12th house,
describing the impact of personal fate from the previous life (what we were
close to, often the fears that appear when one was contradictory to what one is
now). The twelfth house describes the
internal need, the primary myth we should live.
My
own horoscope was the inspiration for this article. The cusp of my 12th house
(personal myth, my internal need, the previous life) is almost at the degree of
Pluto’s exaltation (3° Scorpio). My Moon is in 8th house, which is Scorpio
house, squaring the Pluto, the ruler of my Ascendant (Asc at 21° Scorpio) and
my 12th house (personal myth). Venus (the girl, Persephone) is in Pisces, the
sign of its exaltation, and it has a strong, applying trine with the Moon
(mother) in 8th, in Cancer, and in Venus the Pluto from Libra lives… All this
reminded me of the story from Greek mythology, the story of Persephone… Here,
the mother (Demeter) and daughter (Persephone) love each other, they get along
– Moon and Venus in trine, and the mother and Hades are in a dispute – Moon and
Pluto are in a square, but that is to be resolved through time – Moon and Venus
(being Pluto’s dispositor) are in trine, a strong one, applying, indicating the
future resolution.
In astrological
sense, Persephone is: Moon in Scorpio, i.e. the Moon in relation with series 8
(in 8th house, as in my chart, in aspect with Pluto as a natural ruler of 8),
Venus and Pluto.
Persephone is the daughter
of Zeus and Demeter, the wife of the god of underworld, Hades. In that kingdom
of underworld she had the same position as Hera at Olympus. She ruled over
souls of deceased and gods of underworld together with Hades. She was as
unappealing and ruthless as the Hades himself. She liked neither gods not
people. Persephone became Hades’ wife against her will. Before leaving to the
underworld, she lived with nymphs, spent time dancing and singing, picking
flowers and having fun on similar girl’s parties. When she once picked
narcissus, the flower of death, the earth opened under her feet and out came
the Hades. He quickly overwhelmed her and literarily dropped through the ground
with her. Persephone managed one cry, but her mother Demeter, who immediately
came to her rescue, found no trace of her daughter. She looked for her for a
long time, until god Helios told her what happened. Then, Demeter went to
Olympus and asked Zeus for his help. Zeus sent Hermes into the underworld to
get his daughter back, but it was already too late: Hades had married
Persephone already, and gave her the pomegranate seeds to eat, the pomegranate
being the symbol of marriage (when one ate something in the underworld, one
could not return to the upper world). Regarding Persephone, there is the
primary idea of the strong relation that may be emphasized, also of extremely
strong passion that is pulling her, and things are quite different from what
her mother might want them to be.
Persephone was a good, exemplary child, and
suddenly she is taken away to be somewhere with somebody her mother does not
want her to be. She leaves to a quite different world, pulled by her passions,
and she got changed in all that. Hades is the god of the underworld, and he is
also associated with the south, so Persephone leaves to south, or gets married
to someone from the south. The mother worries all the time, believing she went
to the other side too much. Since according to myth Persephone lives with Hades
for 1/3 of the year and with her mother 2/3 of the year, it speaks of a part of
life where the person lives completely different life than life with parents.
The Moon, symbolizing the soul of the person, in case of archetype Persephone
is related to unconscious part and speaks of the need to merge with that part,
i.e. the person is pulled to merge with his/her part symbolizing the Hades,
whose nature is very similar to the part of Persephone’s nature. Until the person with this
archetype merges with that part of himself/herself, all remains at the level of
cause and consequence.
Moon
in this case describes Persephone as the queen, woman in Hades kingdom, but
also her mother who is sad and worried. But, combination with Venus and Pluto
is necessary for it gives beauty, passion and great bonding. In the degree in
which this is strong, Persephone is also strong. Numerous women have this model
within, but it is important to assess if it is the primary model or it is only
some part of it (for most often it is only 1/3, as Persephone stays in the
underworld).
Persephone needs
Hades, for he brings her a great internal transformation, awakening. The very entering of the
underworld is very prominent in my horoscope, it is my great internal need –
Moon in 8 in square with Pluto. This deep surrender to Hades leads me to
pleasure – Moon is in trine with exalted Venus in Pisces. The relationship with
Hades is deep descending into oneself, into internal universe, one’s soul,
where there is the chance of deep transformation, release from all fears, which
considering the Moon (life) in 8th I have.
Persephone is
eternal girl,
and in real life she usually lives with
parents, more specifically with mother
(as I do), in a big house full of
flowers (Venus (flowers) in 4th (home)). She usually starts studying at one faculty, abandons it somewhere along
the way or just before the end for she realizes that is not it. Then she
enrolls with another faculty, with great probability of not finishing it. She
has the problem with being independent, leaving home; she is the safest with
her mom, who contributes with her care and attention to Persephone being the girl in the body of a
woman, frightened to leave to some other world. In real life it is
illustrated by the following example: the
daughter wants to do some housework, but mom says: “Leave it, I will do it.” Persephone
often has no stable job, and everything around her is unstable. The moment
she completes things, everything becomes more stable around her. Then she
attracts stable partner as well. But before that, a personal awakening is
needed, getting out from oneself, liberating oneself from fears. That is why
Hades is the man who shall liberate her from everything she feared. That is why
the life with Hades is different from life with the mother. Persephone now
takes a very important role, she becomes the mistress of the underworld, more
precisely she becomes the mistress of her Internal Universe and she governs
herself, her internal needs. The Mother is not someone who does not love
Persephone; she just has negative effect on her becoming independent. By care
and attention she makes her somehow “unable” for certain things. That is why on
mother’s “leave it, I will do it” the
daughter should say “No, I know how to do
it, I shall do it”. Since Hades is
someone from the south, sometimes leaving
home and going to south, where maybe the partner is, may represent a
significant step for Persephone in getting her independence. Then the
daughter may say to her mother: “Mom, I
am travelling, I am going to him…”, and mother Demeter shall say: “Oh my God, how will you travel alone, what
is something happens…” This is the trap for Persephone, to get her scared
and quit. It does not mean that the Mother does not want her with Hades, she
simply cares for her girl, and the girl has shown readiness to go to that man,
for her passions are pulling her, something is pulling her to the South. Maybe
that man representing Hades is not literally from South, maybe in that moment
when Persephone wants to come to him he lives somewhere in the South.
Persephone’s most personal
awakening and getting out from her own self happens in the process of getting
her independence. It is a great internal transformation, which I, having the
Moon in 8 squaring Pluto, experienced. That process of transformation is not
completed, it never is, for some new Persephones are being born, in accordance
with times we live in, who will be even more awakened and independent. After
Demeter, Hades continues to care for Persephone, and she becomes stronger with
him. It is good that here, in my example, Demeter and Hades are harmonized in
time, so my mother does not see my partner as something bad for me…
At
the end, I must not forget the most important thing: on your road of awakening
and personal transformation, my dear Persephones, be ready to be somehow fed by the man representing Hades in
your life. Shall it be some chocolate or some fruit it does not matter, but it
is important to eat something from him, in order to be eternally bonded to him…
Smiljana
Gavrančić was born in Serbia and she is the editor, founder and owner of the
bimonthly IAM – INΦINITY Astrological
Magazine. She is an ISAR CAP, studied hermetic astrology and practises
astrology of karma and archetypes (fixed stars, mythology). She is also a
leading exponent of significant degrees in mundane and natal charts – and was
one of a few astrologers to predict that Donald Trump would become 45th US
president a year before his election.
Contact: smiljana.gavrancic@gmail.com
