Archetypal relationships: Demeter & Dionysus

Dionysus

Mythology

Dionysus was the god of wine. He was also the god of ecstasy and enraptured love, pain and suffering, and death and rebirth. He traveled widely, teaching grape cultivation and winemaking. Madness and violence followed him. Women worshipped him. The women drank wine, danced wildly, then tore an animal to pieces and ate the raw flesh. The Romans knew him as Bacchus.

Emotional Control System

The quest for meaning may be hardwired into our brains.

Life Purpose

A Dionysus man's life purpose is a quest for meaning. He lives by ideals and principles that he has yet to discover.

Shadow

Dionysus men lack "real world" goals. They're questing for principles, and haven't yet discovered these principles. They enjoy resting or doing nothing-especially if alcoholic beverages are available. When faced with a decision they let their partner decide, saying, "I'll be happy with whatever makes you happy."

A Dionysus man has a close relationship with his mother-a "mama's boy." He's her "divine child," with a sense of specialness or destiny. In adult life, a Dionysus man may resent people not recognizing his specialness, e.g., when they expect him to do mundane work. He may have mood swings between low self-esteem and ego inflation. He may have substance abuse issues. "Wounding" is central to Dionysus. "Wounding" can be a life-threatening illness, e.g., cancer, which makes a man feel as if he has been dismembered and then reassembled as a new person. Or "wounding" can be a painful experience that forces an individual to break from "the flat ennui of numbing conformity to cultural and familial expectations.

Dionysus men can become cult leaders. They attract followers, especially women. But the followers go mad. The followers may commit crimes opposite to the ideals espoused by their leader

Under Stress

Under stress, Dionysus individuals become Poseidon. They become wildly, out-of-control emotional.

When Safe

Under safety, Dionysus becomes Zeus

Sex

Women surround Dionysus men. A Dionysus man has many female friends, and many of these are lovers. His emotional wounds attract their nurturing instinct. His sensuality and appreciation of their beauty, and his ecstatic lovemaking becomes addictive to women. Dionysus is the more feminized male ideal, who started rearing his long-haired head in the late 1960s and early '70s. Though they carried themselves with all-male swagger, frontmen Roger Daltrey of The Who and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin were clearly in touch with their feminine sides. Women couldn't get enough of these emotional yet masculine men.

Demeter

Mythology

Demeter was the goddess of the harvest and of motherhood.

Emotional Control System

Demeter energy is nurturing.

Life Purpose

A Demeter woman lives for her children, or to help other people. Demeter women love their children regardless of whether a child is rebellious, disabled, gay, or the governor of Texas.

Shadow

Demeter women give to get love. They'll sacrifice their own needs, then expect something back. They give unsolicited help, then feel used or cheated when the recipient doesn't express gratitude or return a favor. The problem isn't ungrateful recipients. The problem is that the Demeter woman doesn't recognize that people don't need her help. Too much Demeter energy makes an individual obsessed with diet, stress-reduction classes, or fitness. Too little Demeter energy leads to working long hours without eating, relaxing, or taking a vacation. A woman who works too much may overcompensate by obsession with diet and fitness.

Under Stress

Under stress, Demeter women become Artemis, Ares, and Hephaestus. After Hades abducted Demeter's daughter, Demeter wandered over the earth, day and night, without eating or drinking. This is the seeking behavior emotional control system, symbolized by Artemis. Everywhere Demeter wandered, she broke plows, destroyed farms and cattle, made fields barren, and blighted seeds so they couldn't grow. She used her anger emotional control system, symbolized by Ares. Finally, Demeter disguised herself as an old woman. She met the daughters of the king of Eleusis (near Athens). She offered to do any domestic work in their household.[8] Willingness to work is symbolized by Hephaestus.

When Safe

When safe, Demeter women become Apollo. They enjoy a symphony or art museum.

Sex

Demeter women are warm and affectionate, but are more into hugs than sex. Use condoms because she may not be using birth control. If she gets pregnant, she'll keep the child.

The Dionysus/Demeter marriage

Dionysus's marriage to Ariadne was the only healthy marriage on Mt. Olympus. (Anyone who wants "a marriage made in heaven" hasn't read Greek mythology.) But the wife of a Dionysus man can also find her life alternating between ecstasy and suffering, between "pandemonium and deathly silence." Demeter women marry for children. The husband-or sperm donor -is only a means to her end. Zeus men are happy to provide sperm, but their relationship goes downhill-fast-after the transfer. A Dionysus-Demeter marriage echoes Mary and Jesus. His central issue was "wounding" and suffering. Her central ability was nurturing. A Dionysus-Demeter marriage may look like a mother/son relationship, but they'll give what the other needs.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Relationships/Dionysus-Demeter

Demeter in myth

From Wikipedia

As the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, and the seasons (personified by the Hours). Her common surnames are Sito (wheat) as the giver of food or corn/grain and Thesmophoros ( thesmos: divine order, unwritten law) as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society. Though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sanctity of marriage, the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon. In the Linear B Mycenean Greek tablets of circa 1400-1200 BCE found at Pylos, the "two mistresses and the king" are identified with Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon.

In some of the earliest accounts Demeter was triune goddess representing the Virgin (Kore), the Mother (Pluto "Abundance"), and the Crone ('Persephone the Destroyer'), representing the cycle of birth, life, and death. In later legends, the name Pluto was transferred to the god of the underworld, and elements of Kore and the name Persephone became associated as her daughter.

Another aspect of Demeter, was known as the Aganippe "the Mare who destroys mercifully," a black winged horse worshiped by certain cults. In this aspect her idols (such as one found in Mavrospelya, the Black Cave, in Phigalia) she was portrayed as mare-headed with a mane entwined with Gorgon Snakes. This aspect was also associated with Arion whom Heracles rode, who later inspired tales of Pegasus. Aganippe became associated with a spring, where Pegasus was born according to one legend, and the nymph of the same name.

Demeter as an agricultural goddess appears rarely in the epic poetry. In Homer's Odyssey she is the blond-haired goddess who is separating the chaff from the grain. The harvesters must pray to Zeus-Chthonios (chthonic Zeus) and Demeter so that the crop will be full and strong. In the Theogony of Hesiod she is the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. At the marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia, Demeter lured Iasion away from the other revelers. They proceeded to have intercourse in a ploughed furrow in Crete; she later gave him a son, Ploutos.

Persephone, Queen of the underworld, is daughter of Zeus and Demeter. The myth of the rape of Persephone seems to be pre-Greek. In the Greek version Ploutos (wealth) represents the wealth of the corn that was stored in underground silos or ceramic jars (pithoi). Similar subterranean pithoi were used in ancient times for funerary practices and Pluto is fused with Hades, the King of the underworld. During summer months the Greek Corn-Maiden (Kore) is lying in the corn of the underground silos, abducted by Hades (Pluto) as it is described in Theogony. Kore is fused with Persephone, the Queen of the underworld. At the beginning of the autumn, when the corn of the old crop is laid on the fields she ascends and is reunited with her mother Demeter, for at this time the old crop and the new meet each other.

In the primitive myths of isolated Arcadia in southern Greece Despoina (Persephone), is daughter of Demeter and Poseidon Hippios, Horse-Poseidon. These myths seem to be connected with the first Greek-speaking people who came from the north during the Bronze age. Poseidon represents the river spirit of the underworld and he appears as a horse as it often happens in northern-European folklore. He pursues the mare-Demeter and she bears one daughter who obviously originally had the form or the shape of a mare too. Demeter and Despoina were closely connected with the springs and the animals. They were related with the God of the waters Poseidon and especially with the mistress of the animals Artemis who was the first nymph.

Corn mother at Eleusis

According to the Athenian rhetorician Isocrates, the greatest gifts which Demeter gave were cereal (also known as corn in modern Britain), the cultivation of which made man different from wild animals and the Mysteries which give the initiate higher hopes in this life and the afterlife.

In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, dated to about the seventh century BCE, she is invoked as the "bringer of seasons", a subtle sign that she was worshipped long before she was made one of the Olympians. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that also predated the Olympian pantheon.

Demeter's emblem is the poppy, a bright red flower that grows among the barley.

Titles and functions

Demeter's epithets show her many religious functions. She was the "Corn-Mother" who blesses the harvesters. Some cults interpreted her as "Mother-Earth". Demeter may be linked to goddess-cults of Minoan Crete, and embody aspects of a pre-Hellenic Great Goddess. Her other epithets include:

    * Aganippe ("the Mare who destroys mercifully," "Night-Mare")

    * The Crone, Persephone the Destroyer. Representing her role as bringer of death. The name was later transferred to her daughter.

    * The Virgin, Kore. Representing her role as bringer of life. The name was later associated with her daughter Persephone.

    * Potnia ("mistress") in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Hera especially, but also Artemis and Athena, are addressed as "potnia" as well.

    * The Mother, Pluto ("Abundance") representing her role as long life and harvest. The name was later transferred onto a separate god of the underworld, who married her daughter Persephone.

    * Despoina ("mistress of the house"), a Greek word similar to the Mycenean potnia. This title was also applied to Persephone, Aphrodite and Hecate.

    * Thesmophoros ("giver of customs" or even "legislator"), a role that links her to the even more ancient goddess Themis, derived from thesmos, the unwritten law. This title was connected with the Thesmophoria, a festival of secret women-only rituals in Athens connected with marriage customs.

    * Erinys ("implacable"), with a function similar with the function of the avenging Dike (Justice), goddess of moral justice based on custom rules who represents the divine retribution, and the Erinyes, female ancient chthonic deities of vengeance and implacable agents of retribution.

    * Chloe ("the green shoot"), that invokes her powers of ever-returning fertility, as does Chthonia.

    * Chthonia ("in the ground"), chthonic Demeter in Sparta.

    * Anesidora ("sending up gifts from the earth") applied to Demeter in Pausanias, also appears inscribed on an Attic ceramic a name for Pandora on her jar.

    * Europa ("broad face or eyes") at Lebadaea of Boeotia. She was the nurse of Trophonios to whom a chthonic cult and oracle was dedicated. Europa was a Phoenecian princess who Zeus abducted, transformed in a white bull, and carried her to Creta.

    * Kidaria in the mysteries of Pheneos in Arcadia  where the priest put on the mask of Demeter kept in a secret place. It seems that the cult was connected with the underworld and with an agrarian magic.

Demeter might also be invoked in the guises of:

    * Malophoros ("apple-bearer" or "sheep-bearer")
    * Lusia ("bathing")
    * Thermasia ("warmth")
    * Achaea, the name by which she was worshipped at Athens by the Gephyraeans who had emigrated from Boeotia.

Poppy goddess: Theocritus, wrote of an earlier role of Demeter as a poppy goddess:

    For the Greeks Demeter was still a poppy goddess
    Bearing sheaves and poppies in both hands.

Demeter taught humankind the arts of agriculture: sowing seeds, ploughing, harvesting, etc. She was especially popular with rural folk, partly because they most benefited directly from her assistance, and partly because rural folk are more conservative about keeping to the old ways. Demeter herself was central to the older religion of Greece. Relics unique to her cult, such as votive clay pigs, were being fashioned in the Neolithic. In Roman times, a sow was still sacrificed to Ceres following a death in the family, to purify the household.

Demeter and Poseidon

Demeter and Poseidon's names are linked in the earliest scratched notes in Linear B found at Mycenaean Pylos, where they appear as DA-MA-TE and PO-SE-DA-O-NE in the context of sacralized lot-casting.

In one myth, Poseidon once pursued Demeter, the Earth Mother, in her archaic form as a mare-goddess. She resisted Poseidon, but she could not disguise her divinity among the horses of King Onkios. Poseidon became a stallion and covered her. She bore a daughter Despoina (the "Mistress"), whose name should not be uttered outside the Arcadian Mysteries, and a horse named Arion, with a black mane and tail. The title Despoine was also given to Persephone.

Demeter Erinys: Vengeful Demeter

Outraged by Poseidon, Demeter was literally furious (Demeter Erinys) at the assault, but washed away her anger in the River Ladon, becoming Demeter Lousia, the "bathed Demeter". "In her alliance with Poseidon," Karl Kerenyi noted, "she was Earth, who bears plants and beasts, and could therefore assume the shape of an ear of corn or a mare." In her period of eclipse, the Grain Goddess brought desiccation and death to the croplands of which she was the patroness. Pausanias explicitly connects the neglect of her festival with the barrenness of Phigalia. The rites at Phigaleia noted by Pausanias remained local; by contrast, the specifically Eleusinian mythic theme of Demeter and Persephone, accounting in another way for the annual eclipse of Demeter, was given the widest conceivable currency through the Eleusinian Mysteries that celebrated and recreated it, and passed into the mainstream tradition, as it was carried by literary sources.

Demeter and Persephone

In Mycenaean Pylos, Demeter and Persephone were potniai (the mistresses). In classical Greece, they were invoked as to theo (the two Goddesses) or despoine (the Mistresses". Myths and cults to Demeter as Mother and Persephone as Maiden (Kore) lay at the heart of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Demeter controlled seasonal growth and regeneration. When her virgin daughter Persephone was abducted to underworld by Hades, Demeter searched for her ceaselessly, preoccupied with her loss and her grief. The seasons halted; living things ceased their growth, then began to die. Faced with the extinction of all life on earth, Zeus sent his messenger Hermes to the underworld to bring Persphone back. Hades agreed to release her if she had eaten nothing while in his realm; but Persephone had eaten a number of pomegranate seeds (one, three, four, or seven seeds are eaten.. This bound her to Hades and the underworld for certain months of every year. According to some modern writers such as Walter Burkert, this corresponds with the dry Mediterranean summer, during which plant life is threatened by drought. Winter, autumn, and spring by comparison have heavy rainfall and mild temperatures in which plant life flourishes. However the ancient commentary by Porphyry did not understand the myth in this way and saw Persephone's descent as connected with the autumn and winter months. It was during her trip to retrieve Persephone from the underworld that she revealed the Eleusinian Mysteries. In some versions of the myth, Persephone is tricked into eating the pomegranate seeds but chooses to eat them, moments before her return to the upper world with Hermes. seen Hades' gardeners, claimed to have witnessed her do so, at the moment that she was preparing to return with Hermes. Her return to the upper world signals the advent of spring. In another version, Hecate rescues Persephone.

According to the personal mythology of Robert Graves, Persephone is not only the younger self of Demeter, she is in turn also one of three guises of the Triple Goddess — Kore (the youngest, the maiden, signifying green young grain), Persephone (in the middle, the nymph, signifying the ripe grain waiting to be harvested), and Hecate (the eldest of the three, the crone, the harvested grain), which to a certain extent reduces the name and role of Demeter to that of groupname. Before Persephone was abducted by Hades, an event witnessed by the shepherd Eumolpus and the swineherd Eubuleus (they saw a girl being carried of into the earth which had violently opened up, in a black chariot, driven by an invisible driver), she was called Kore. It is when she is taken that she becomes Persephone ('she who brings destruction'). Hecate was also reported to have told Demeter that she had heard Kore scream that she was being raped.

Demeter's stay at Eleusis

Demeter was searching for her daughter Persephone (also known as Kore). Having taken the form of an old woman called Doso, she received a hospitable welcome from Celeus, the King of Eleusis in Attica. He asked her to nurse Demophon and Triptolemus, his sons by Metanira.

As a gift to Celeus, because of his hospitality, Demeter planned to make Demophon as a god, by coating and anointing him with ambrosia, breathing gently upon him while holding him in her arms and bosom, and making him immortal by burning his mortal spirit away in the family hearth every night. She put him in the fire at night like a firebrand or ember without the knowledge of his parents.

Demeter was unable to complete the ritual because his mother Metanira walked in and saw her son in the fire and screamed in fright, which angered Demeter, who lamented that foolish mortals do not understand the concept and ritual.

Instead of making Demophon immortal, Demeter chose to teach Triptolemus the art of agriculture and, from him, the rest of Greece learned to plant and reap crops. He flew across the land on a winged chariot while Demeter and Persephone cared for him, and helped him complete his mission of educating the whole of Greece in the art of agriculture.

Later, Triptolemus taught Lyncus, King of the Scythians the arts of agriculture but he refused to teach it to his people and then tried to murder Triptolemus. Demeter turned him into a lynx.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter

The Demeter archetype: a deeper look

From Goddess Power

Possessing an introverted temperament (opposite to Aphrodite), a kind, gentle-soul, she re-paid people well for even the smallest favors. She is concerned with bearing, raising and nurturing children and family. Hers is a contained ‘mother love’. Her awareness is diffuse. Demeter belongs to the category of ‘vulnerable’ goddess--she was raped and impregnated by Poseidon as well as by Zeus. Her daughter, Persephone, was taken from her and, and although she was returned for awhile, she was forced to leave her mother, Demeter, for a portion of every year.

Demeter was the goddess of earth, agriculture and fertility. Known as the corn goddess, she symbolizes regenerative earth power over all living things. A sheaf of ripe wheat was her primary symbol. She presided over the harvest and all the agricultural labors. She was often sculpted as a matronly figure, seated. Demeter is the mother archetype representing maternal instinct finding fulfillment through pregnancy and motherhood - or a parallel avenue providing nourishment (psychologically, spiritually), or caretaking. A predominantly Demeter type woman whose mothering urges are thwarted may be disposed to depression.

Demeter was possibly the oldest of the gods/goddesses, and, like Hera who was born later, was swallowed by her father and, like Hera, was both a mate to Zeus as well as his sibling. Demeter is connected with the Eleusinian Mysteries--a ritual celebrating the annual birth and death of corn. She is connected with the perpetuation of the food supply for large populations. Demeter goddess pre-dates the Greeks--she was the ancient Earth Mother. Both Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, are said to be two different aspects of the same goddess--Persephone (Kore), the maiden and Demeter, the Mother.

A primarily Demeter type woman seeks a man for security rather than for intellectual or sexual companionship. In this way, the security he offers provides her a means to direct her attention to that which matters most to her-- home, giving birth to children and nurturing them.

The ancient Olympian Goddesses - a deeper look

Demeter represents the archetype of Mother. Her own grandmother was Gaia, the personification of Earth, itself. Her mother was Rhea and her father, Cronos. Archaeological evidence points to a significant Goddess cult in both the Minoan civilization of Crete (c.3000-1000 B.C.E); and the Mycenaean society of Greece (c. 1600-1400 B.C.E) suggesting her ancient matriarchal origins long before the ancient Greeks.

The expression of Demeter archetype in a woman is more than merely physical mothering; it is expressed in her instinctively obliging caring for any and all who are in need, particularly the young, needy and helpless.

Psychologically, Demeter belongs to the category of ‘vulnerable’ goddess. She was raped by Zeus. Her young daughter, Kore, was abducted--taken from her to be Hades’ consort. Demeter was powerless, initially, to affect Kore’s return. Demeter’s consciousness is diffuse.

Mythological history

          o To the Romans Demeter was known as Ceres
          o Demeter was the second child born to Rhea and Cronos (also swallowed by him)
          o She is known as the sorrowful mother whose daughter, Persephone (Kore), was stolen from her--abducted by Hades and kidnapped to the underworld to be his queen.
          o In her rage and grief at the abduction, Demeter forbade the earth to bring forth plants--nothing could grown, nothing could be born--until her daughter, Kore, was returned
          o Demeter restored fertility and growing on the earth; she offered the Eleusinian Mysteries through which the people gained insight into a reason to live in joy and to be able to face death without fear
          o She is celebrated with the Eleusinian Mysteries in early autumn and toward the end of winter coinciding with the loss and the return of her daughter, Kore. This celebration/ festival/ritual is more ancient than the Greek myths--possibly from 4000 - 1000 B.C.E.
          o She is the goddess of fecundity, fertility and regeneration.
          o Demeter symbolizes the dynamic cycles of nature that occur within the body of the Earth--death and rebirth--and within the body of every woman
          o She has a shared mystical identity with her underworld daughter, Kore, Queen of the Dead - and, in fact, is said to be one and the same goddess.
          o Known also as Terrible Mother and goddess of Death, she carries the opposite and complementary sides of Demeter--all Loving Mother
          o Demeter represents the archetype of childbearing, mothering/nurturing, growing/ the mystery of planting the seed

Challenges facing Demeter

          o Although Demeter played a key role in the survival of all things that live and grow; she was powerless to prevent her daughter’s abduction nor was she able to affect her immediate return. Demeter had been ‘victimized’ and her pleas went ignored. She belongs to the category of the ‘vulnerable’ goddess.
          o Demeter type women face similar themes in their lives: they feel victimized by people or circumstances of their lives, they experience a lack of power to impact change in their distress, they either vent or repress their anger, their feelings of powerlessness leads them to depression
          o Demeter type woman, feeling compelled to help or having difficulty declining any request made of her, may over-commit and then feel overwhelmed in her life--another aspect of feelings of powerlessness. She may dismiss her own feelings, judging them as ungiving. She may be subject to self-pity until she examines her own instinctive responses to ‘giving’.
          o Demeter type woman, feeling over-committed, overwhelmed, ‘stuffing’ her anger and/or resentment may experience somatic symptoms such as back pain, high blood pressure, head aches, chronic fatigue and chronic depression due to her difficulty expressing her own needs and feelings - or in setting boundaries
          o Demeter woman struggling with these issues may become increasingly apathetic, leading her to deeper depression and meaninglessness. Anger may underlie the depression--anger at the ‘meaning’ she feels had been taken from her.
          o The Demeter archetype may have several possible expressions in a Demeter type woman:
                + As in Demeter’s myth, she gave to humanity spiritual knowledge which helped them live their lives more fully and joyously - this Demeter type will have learned from her own life experiences--discovered her own meaning through her life disappointments and losses; and, as a result, she is able to share her down-to-earth generosity and wisdom with others
                + Another aspect of Demeter, angry and mourning her daughter’s abduction, this Demeter type, most often feels disappointed that her life did not meet with her expectations of what she thought her life would be - she identifies with the loss and mourning aspect of Demeter, feeling a sense of betrayal and growing bitterness--allowing nothing on earth to grow

Demeter’s dark side

          o When Demeter grieved her daughter’s abduction, she stopped functioning and demanded the earth stop producing--famine threatened humankind. This destructive aspect of Demeter in Demeter type women can be seen as withdrawal--withdrawing her interests from life, from her family and friends.
          o Some Demeter mothers may withdraw their approval from their child when the child begins exhibiting more autonomy than Demeter woman feels comfortable with--she needs to feel needed. She may inadvertently have a need to foster dependency.

Demeter’s wound

          o Demeter’s grief and anger at the loss of her child, Kore (Persephone) and her feelings of powerlessness to stop the abduction or to influence her immediate return.
          o The Secret of Eleusis, for which Demeter is celebrated, has to do with the rebirth from death. Her daughter was lost to her (in the underworld) but returns to her every Spring.
          o Another aspect of Demeter’s wound is the loss, for every woman, of a particular phase of her life cycle: Maiden (innocent, untouched daughter); Mother--loss of her emerging adult children into their own marriages; Crone--biological loss at menopause. Each of these phases holds opportunity for emergence into a new phase of consciousness.
          o For Demeter type women, healing the wound may involve acknowledging ‘unpleasant’ feelings, feeling the ‘loss’ (whatever it is--interpersonal or conceptual), going through the grieving process, feeling the anger and, ultimately reuniting with self on a deeper level.

        o Another aspect of Demeter’s wound is cultural in its effect: Modern European/ American cultures have devalued the role that Mother/family plays in society as evidenced by ever-increasing single-parent families, 60-plus hour work weeks, infants in daycare, ‘latch-key’ children, and most of all, the shift in values toward increased consumerism. As recently as the 19th century a Demeter type would enjoy a broadly fulfilling life with dignity and authority: she was an integral part of gathering, harvesting, canning and storing food for her family as well as for market. She baked bread; cooked nutritious, natural foods. She lived as part of a community rather than isolated in her house squeezed into a tiny lot next to identical houses in crowded sub-developments. Most mothers are also women working outside the home, as well. They are typically exhausted from ferrying their children to school, to sports, to music/dance lessons (and the list goes on)-- too exhausted and too burdened to even consider much less exhibit any Demeter interest in cultivating the art of planting & gathering of natural and healthy food preparation for their family. Dinner is grabbed at “MacHamburger”. Families are fragmented--members are on the go--no one is at home to sit down at the dinner table, together, as a family to share a meal and to discuss their day, together.

Demeter’s gifts

          o The primeval love and unity creating a magical bond between mother and daughter.
          o Demeter nourishes spiritually as well as physically.
          o Matriarchal consciousness - nurturing the earth, celebrating the cycles of life, planting, tending, giving birth and assisting in the transition called death

Demeter’s personality

          o As a child & adolescent:
                + As a young girl, very identified with her mother, young Demeter’s mother’s interests and preferences also become her own
                + She loves playing with and nurturing her dolls - she loves being her mother’s ‘little helper’.
                + Her nature is sweet and unassuming
                + As an adolescent she is eager to baby-sit for the neighbors
                + Young Demeter types who lack adequate mothering may yearn, in adolescence, for a child of their own upon which to lavish the mother-love they missed
                + Young Demeter types are typically not motivated to experience sex for sex sake. She may want to marry early so as to begin creating her own family. If she chooses college she will most likely prepare herself for a helping profession.

          o As an adult woman:
                + Bringing children into the world is Demeter’s greatest joy.
                + Maternal and obliging nature--difficulty saying ‘no’ -- she never seems to think of her own needs
                + Demeter types excel at perseverance and patience. She is usually generous, loyal to individuals and principles, so much so that others may see her as stubborn. She is practical, warm and outer-directed
                + Demeter and Aphrodite are ‘opposites’ - both ruled by Love - the difference being that Demeter’s Love is for the child.
                + So caught up in mothering, Demeter woman hates the thought of leaving her home--she has little interest in dressing up or going out, she has little interest in reading, unless it’s a cookbook or a how-to-do book enhancing her skills around the house
                + Demeter type loves time spent knitting, sewing, gardening
                + Demeter types love finding new recipes to cook for others - she does not enjoy cooking for herself, alone.
                + In relation to her children she is endlessly resourceful, tolerant, selfless.
                + Demeter type would love to have more children than less and, if she could, would continue making babies as late as she could-therefore, avoiding a change in focus required in the next stage of her maturing life.
                + Demeter type finds her fulfillment in the wonder of her children--watching them grow and emerge into happy individuals.
                + Demeter type woman’s friendships tend to span a wide social class range - she tends to view social status as irrelevant - she cares about people from all walks of life.
                + A predominantly Demeter consciousness typically does not express a strong sex drive - she tends to be more desirous of cuddling, expressing emotional warmth.
                + Demeter type woman reaching her midlife phase often feels a keen sense of loss as her children leave home and create lives of their own. Some Demeter types find themselves pregnant at forty - an opportunity to avoid facing the next segment of their life and the opportunity of experiencing a different goddess archetype - therefore, she delays/avoids exploring what else she might discover in life that she could find fulfilling.
                + The archetype of earth mother/nurturer can be expressed in other ways not limited to child-bearer/motherhood. Demeter types can be drawn to any number of careers in the helping profession: nursing, teaching (especially younger children), counseling, (particularly children), cook, baker, caterer, special education, dressmaker, gardener.

http://goddess-power.com/demeter.htm%20

Musings on Demeter

Learning about the archetypes has taught me a lot about why I'm so attracted to Demeter types, and they really like me, even though I'm pretty freaky and they're pretty conservative - we're drawn to each other, having warm relationships, and are always looking for each other.

At the same time, it explains my problems with them - even through I'm drawn to them, I'm also very solitary and don't need them... or anyone else. And the one thing Demeter's can't handle is not being needed! My grandmother, with whom I lived in high school, was a Demeter and the biggest, most upsetting incidents - I can't call them fights because it would just be me cluelessly doing  something and her getting incredibly upset - was because I'd inadvertently sent the message "I don't need you." Like when I started doing my own laundry in preparation for living on my own in college. This was HUGE TRAUMA for my poor Demeter grandmother, and my poor, self sufficient Artemis, and approval seeking Persephone got upset when Demeter got upset... It was an all around bad situation, let me tell you! And, until I read about Demeter and the Queen of Pentacles and The Empress, I really didn't get why she was so upset, but I get it now. It makes me want to go visit her and give her a hug.


Demeter & Relationships

Jean Shinoda Bolen divides goddeses into virginal (independent) and vulnerable (dependent on relationships) and alchemical (both relational and independent.) The three virginal goddesses are Athena, Artemis and Hestia. The three vulnerable goddesses are Demeter, Hera and Persephone. Aphrodite is the lone alchemical goddess. I think it would be more useful to divide them up into relational or independent. Relational goddesses turn to outwards to others, and mainly see themselves through their relationships: Demeter the Mother, Hera the Wife, Persephone the Daughter and Aphrodite the Lover. The independent goddesses are fundamentally independent of others and mainly see themselves in relation to their work: Artemis with Nature, Hestia her Home, Hecate her Studies and Athena her Success. However, Aphrodite and Athena are the two goddesses that can flip being relational/independent; although Aphrodite lives to love, she's independent at heart and never stays with one lover. And although Athena lives out in the world, mixing it up in the battle of success, inside she's always Daddy's Little Girl, seeking his approval.

Demeter and Persephone

No wonder I'm so attracted to motherly Demeter's! It's always puzzled me; I meet these women who are so different from me, usually extremely conventional and traditional, and yet I love them! And they love me back! It's because Persephone is always looking for Demeter and Demeter, in turn, is looking for her lost daughter - when we meet, we tend to feel an almost instant bond of affection. This explains a LOT.

In fact, Persephone's life task is to leave her mother, which she doesn't want to do, and is thus dragged kicking and screaming from Demeter's paradise. Persephone doesn't want to separate, she doesn't want to grow up. But in order to grow, she has to let go of being a girl and become a complete woman, with all the darkness and shadow that includes.

By the same token, Demeter has to learn to let go... that in letting go when the time is right is the most nurturing thing she can do for her "children," whoever they might be.



Again, much of the above descriptions comes from The American Tarot Association, Goddess Power, The Library of Halexandria and from Wikipedia pages on the various tarot cards. All credit goes to them for their brilliant explorations of the archetypes and tarot cards. Make sure you check them out yourself and get their wisdom first hand (links are over there to the right.) 

Exploring the archetypes: Demeter

This series of posts is going to be both collections of all information about a particular archetype in one place as well as an ongoing exploration of the archetype, it's mythological history, relations with other archetypes, whatever comes up.


Demeter in myth: A synopsis

DEMETER was the great Olympian goddess of agriculture, grain, and bread, the prime sustenance of mankind. She also presided over the foremost of the Mystery Cults which promised its intiates the path to a blessed afterlife. Demeter was depicted as a mature woman, often crowned and holding sheafs of wheat and and a torch.

Some of the more famous myths featuring the goddess include:

•The abduction of her daughter Persephone by Hades, and the great dearth she brought down upon the earth;

•The nursing of Demophoon, the young son of King Keleus of Eleusis;

•The journeys of Triptolemos, a hero sent by the goddess to instruct mankind in agriculture;

•Her assault by Poseidon who forcefully coupled with her in the form of a horse;

•The punishment of Erysikhthon who was cursed with an unquenchable hunger by the goddess for cutting down her holy grove.

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Demeter.html


From the Library of Halexandria

Another vulnerable goddess.  Demeter is also relationship-oriented (and like Hera, dependent upon a significant other).  She had a need for affiliation, tended to experience powerlessness and responded with depression, accepting, diffuse awareness.  She was the epitome of the maternal, an instinct fulfilled through pregnancy or through providing physical, psychological, or spiritual nourishment to others, the provider (food and spiritual sustenance), nurturing, Mother Nature, generous, Lady Bountiful, dependent upon her maternal role (after which her life lost its meaning), solid, dependable, fertile, long-suffering, unconcerned with status, envious or jealous only with respect to children, mixed feelings about feminism and the women's movement, relied on women friends for emotional support (vice her husband), did not choose her mate, just as soon cuddled as made love, huggy, preferred breastfeeding to intercourse, and tried to be indispensable.  

http://www.halexandria.org/dward373.htm



Tarot Correspondences

Each archetype has two corresponding Tarot cards: one from the Minor Arcana, which shows the archetype at it's healthiest - it's the way we can manifest their power and energy. The corresponding card from the Major Arcana, on the other hand, is the divine gift of the spiritual realm that they're seeking to manifest through us.
 
Queen of Pentacles

The Queen of Pentacles is a Queen of fertility and harvest, and her talents extend to mothering and nurturing as well and has the ability to sustain and care for all kinds of life. She is materially wealthy, but even that is superseded by the wealth she has build through kindness and generosity. The Queen of Pentacles is often a mother, but sometimes she will express motherly dedication and love despite having no children of her own. Her watery quality gives her the intuitive and emotional skills needed of a good mother, while the Pentacles suit gives her a solid schooling in material matters and affairs. Her ambitions center on the family and her goals are a happy material and emotional life. These simple goals are often difficult to obtain, but she devotes herself to them. Though not necessarily rich in terms of money, she is always rich of heart, and she shares her wealth with all those in need. Her only real weakness is an obsession with the security and protection that the Pentacles suit embodies, and this should come as little surprise because the Empress has trouble in this area as well. Although she sees no problem with expressing love with the creation of a happy home, some people seem to have a problem with that, and think she should "get a real job". A true Queen of Pentacles will tolerate such people, who obviously have no idea how "real" her job can become.

When the Queen of Pentacles inside of you starts manifesting, the signs are unmistakable. Generosity will become a priority, as will trustworthiness and reliability. You will gain insight into both matters of money and matters of the heart, and through these you can find a path to spiritual enlightenment. The Queen of Pentacles is, in many ways, a bridge between the worlds of the mundane and the spectacular. Step across that bridge once you are ready, and delight in the opulence and pure beauty.

The Empress (III)

The Empress represents the physical body and the material world. From her comes all the pleasure of the senses and the abundance of life in all its forms. She is also the mother archetype, and through her we get a first glimpse of the power of love in the Tarot. The world of the Empress is an ideal and perfectly beautiful place, totally natural, untouched by artificial colors, lights or sounds. This is a place of bounty and fertility, a living representation of the process of creation and birth that the Empress herself symbolizes. She doesn't just live in this place, she is this place. The Empress is no less beautiful than the flowers that throw their scent across her fields, no less fertile than the soil that lies underneath her throne. Her primary power, like the two Arcana before her, is the power of creation. But her creation is not based on creating the world she wishes to live in, or the person she wants to be, because she has that world and is that person. She creates life in all its myriad forms. The Empress is the archetype of the mother, the ultimate creator and giver of life; thus her associations can be extended beyond creativity into fertility, pregnancy and the daunting task of motherhood, which she always faces with a smile and a happy heart. She takes pleasure in all things, particularly her own creations - and everything in nature is her own creation. The empress also represents unconditional love - she makes no demands, sets no conditions, just loves everything equally and with all the power she can. From this, it can be said, derives her only real weakness, and it is something that all mothers deal with at some point. She is often over-protective of her creations, and wishes no harm to come to them at all. That would disrupt the eternal bliss and happiness of her realm.

Know also that the perfectly abundant world of the Empress is always free for you to enjoy. Even if you know that you have to go back to the "real world" eventually, a vacation from the hectic and artificial life that most people live these days will certainly be welcome. Spend some time outdoors, in the fresh air, enjoying every aspect of creation. And then, when you go back to where you were, the Empress' creative power and beauty will remain to inspire you and give you power. Strengthen your innate connection with the Earth's creativity and you will, by association, strengthen your own creative power. Cultivate your creativity and plants the seeds of a bountiful harvest.

http://www.ata-tarot.com/resource/cards/index.html


Demeter Posts

The Demeter archetype: an deeper look
Demeter in myth
Archetypal relationships: Demeter and Dionysus
Musings on Demeter


Again, much of the above descriptions comes from The American Tarot Association, Goddess Power, The Library of Halexandria and from Wikipedia pages on the various tarot cards. All credit goes to them for their brilliant explorations of the archetypes and tarot cards. Make sure you check them out yourself and get their wisdom first hand (links are over there to the right.)