Spring has sprung
Hello friends!
Happy spring! In the northern hemisphere, we have officially entered into the beautiful season of spring. With this time of year comes a time of energetic change, even if the weather hasn’t turned just yet. When it does, the temperature typically becomes a perfect type of pleasant-not too cold and not too hot. Spring is “just right”, to quote Goldilocks.
The winter season is a great time for connecting within. The darker months allow us to more easily enter into our quiet inner world for comfort, contemplation, and working on our shadow aspects (if we are so inclined). In contrast, spring is a great time for renewal—to see the world with fresh eyes and a new perspective. Marcel Proust said, “The real voyage of discovery is not in seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes.”
In celebration of the spring season in the northern hemisphere where I happen to live, I’d like to share my latest illustration: Persephone.
Persephone prints available here!
The story of Persephone comes from Greek mythology. She is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, who is the goddess of the earth. In some stories, Hades, the brother of Zeus and god of the underworld, falls in love with Persephone and then abducts her as she is gathering flowers by a stream. Other stories tell a different story—that Persephone and Hades meet and both fall in love, and Persephone follows Hades back to the underworld on her own, where she becomes Queen of the Underworld. (I find that version of the story far more empowering!).
Demeter discovers her daughter is missing and searches far and wide for her, but is unable to find her. Demeter’s grief causes the earth to die—crops fail, and famine spreads across all the lands. This attracts Zeus’ attention and he intervenes, demanding Hades to return Persephone. Not willing to completely let her go, Hades gives Persephone some of the food of the dead to eat, in the form of a pomegranate seed. As a result, Persephone must split her time-she can spend six months out of the year with her mother; the other six months she spends in the realm of Hades as Queen. To the Greeks, the return of life in the spring symbolized the return of Persephone from the underworld.
Available here!
That’s all for now! Enjoy your change of season where ever on the globe you are, whether your transition is symbolized by Persephone returning from the underworld or if she is preparing to take her deep dive back into it.
Love,
Mary
See all my available works here