Persephone was the beloved daughter of Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, and flowers would burst forth from the ground as she danced through the fields. Hades, who happened to fall in love with Persephone, captured her by splitting the ground and forming a crevice which lead to his underground palace. He gave her a throne and jewels, none of which made her happy. She dreamed only of the clear, blue skies and sunshine and the warmth of her mother.
On Earth Demeter refused to let anything grow until her daughter was returned to her, thus starving the people and animals of this realm. She called upon Zeus to help her free Persephone from Hades’ imprisonment in the underworld. No one, even Hades, can disobey the word of Zeus. Having tasted the sweet seeds of a pomegranate, she was obliged to return to Hades to spend one month a year for each seed she had eaten. Demeter kept her promise not to allow anything to grow while she was away, giving us the season we now call winter.
The Virgin
This time of year we move from Leo Season into Virgo Season, from August into September, from the heart to the head, from our intuition into our ego. That lion energy gave us the courage to want to actualize our dreams, and now the virgin is here to put it all in order. Intuition says that you know what you know, but you don’t know how. Ego is that solid sense of self that will get you to your end goals. The Virgo New Moon occurs on August 27, 2022 and is the perfect jumping off point for our next six-month cycle of deliverance.
Virgo lands in the sixth house of health, service, and day-to-day routines. The Maiden was the person who distributed the harvest, assuring everyone who worked the land received their fair share. Grain has been lauded as a symbol of fertility for centuries among various different cultures. It wasn’t until years later, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (AKA the Virgin Queen) that mankind began to acquaint the term ‘virgin’ with being chaste. In its original meaning the term ‘virgin’ simply meant unmarried and self-sufficient. Over the years the fertility goddess became essentially neutered by the medicalization of childbirth and the subsequent shift of educating women out of understanding their own bodies.
I am not surprised in the least that our forefathers have chosen to manipulate this goddess out of the person she once was, thus plummeting her into the depths of sin and immorality. Ignorance is bliss, they say. Ignorant people are also easier to control, and that’s what man’s ultimate plan has always been, hasn’t it? It’s the same reason why they fought against having the Bible translated for so long. The average person couldn’t read or write, so they were forced to rely on the word of the educated. Now I can just Google it.
Better Is Best
The timing feels right for Virgo Season. Ruled by the Hermit in the tarot, we are invited to pause and go within, to do some inner work. This is a stark contrast from the sun-filled days of summer to the (fingers-crossed) cooler temperatures that are approaching, gifting us with the ability to allow the internal to blossom into an external change. Information is soothing. It’s our senses and we are entitled to their answers. “Each of our senses come with a form of intuition” (Steph Jagger). Virgo Season is the activator leading us into a higher alignment, something that holds a far greater service to our lives. This is the time when we can find new ways to work with what we’ve got. It’s this “back to school” mentality that can assist us in creating a different kind of new beginning.
As a part of the human race in this modern day culture, we are sent out on these quests to be the best. I find myself often wondering, the best at what? This coming from someone who worked at a restaurant where the theme was literally “big is better.” People would routinely order a one-pound burger and upon finishing said burger, we would announce their gluttony to the entire restaurant. We would then take their photo and tape it to the wall with the hundreds of other polaroids. It makes me want to vomit just thinking about it really. I just want to be the best version of me that I can be, and if that means coming to terms with my own thinking, than so be it.
The zodiac of the summer (Cancer, Leo, Virgo) can all follow the leadership of the Chariot in tarot. The focus is on shedding, on getting rid of all that garbage that’s lodged itself inside your head. There is a term for this, and it’s called hypolêpsis. Do not ask me to pronounce it though. It translates to the “taking up” of perceptions, thoughts, and judgements by our minds. No where in that definition does is state that those things are correct, and it just goes to show that we cannot believe everything that we think. When you stop beating yourself up, you can use your mistakes as a springboard for your future big break. Maybe we could try something new – like loving yourself.
Feel the Feels
One cannot simply repeat the old and not suffer. The equation PAIN X RESISTANCE = SUFFERING illustrates this beautifully, for we cannot lessen our hurt if we are actively trying to avoid it. We must dive into our pain points, so we can then stop remaining stuck in our narratives. Most of it is just a story we are telling ourselves anyway. Tell yourself a better one perhaps. The key to this is to stay tethered to your center, to get out of your head and into your body. Or better yet, get the mind and the body in the same place at the same time. The truth is that we, most of us, spend much of our lives in a kind of trance. We distract or numb ourselves, we rush around to avoid thinking, we judge ourselves and others, we obsessively think about things. All of which begs the question, what am I unwilling to feel?
Something I have come to learn is that most people don’t know how to feel things in their bodies. This has been trained right out of us, me included. There were numerous sessions when my therapist would ask me where I felt something in my body and I just stared at her like an idiot. I was obviously missing something. Eventually I made the connection, but it took a ton of work on my part. I used to dance, but somewhere along the line I stopped. I used to journal, but I quit doing that too. I ran, until I didn’t. I neglected the exact things that were saving me, because I don’t know why actually. My therapist did tell me to start by doing the things I loved to do as a child, before people started giving me their opinions about it.
This is not the time necessarily to plant new seeds. It’s more of the time to figure out what to do with the harvest. The wheat has come in, but how are you going to use it? I have personally been reworking my relationship to my morning pages. According to the author of the book, “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron, morning pages are a three-page or 30-minute long brain dump to be done first thing in the morning. I have done it this way for years, but I have recently found it to be uninspired. I am transitioning into a more focused session, one that still works through difficult emotions and situations, but also one that consciously prepares me for the day. How do I want to feel? What absolutely has to get done? What do I want to accomplish that day? And then I don’t beat myself up if it all doesn’t go according to plan. Let’s face it. Nothing ever does really.
Mad love, Jenna
To See More…
Persephone | The Wedding Night | A Pause
