Healing and Transformation

Kore, Demeter & Persephone

"Demeter is the maternal archetype. she represents maternal instinct fulfilled through pregnancy or through providing physical, psychological, or spiritual nourishment to others.

The goddess Persephone, whom the Romans called Proserpina or Cora, is best known through the Homeric "Hymn to Demeter", which describes her abduction by Hades. She was worshipped in two ways, as Maiden or Kore (which means young girl), and as Queen of the Underworld. The Kore was a slender beautiful young goddess, associated with symbols of fertility-pomegranate, grain, and corn, as well as the narcissus, the flower that lured her. As Queen of the Underworld, Persephone is a mature goddess who reigns over the dead souls, guides the living who visit the underworld, and claims for herself what she wants.

The Kore was the "name-less" maiden; she represents the young girl who does not know "who she is" and is as yet unaware of her desires or strengths. Persephone the Queen and Guide of the Underworld represents the ability to move back and forth between the ego-based reality of the "real" world and the unconscious or archetypal reality of the psyche. When the Persephone archetype is active, it is possible ... to mediate between the two levels and to integrate both into her (his) personality.

Symbolically, the Underworld can represent deeper layers of the psyche, a place where memories and feelings have been "buried" (the personal unconscious) and where images, patterns, instincts, and feelings that are archetypal and shared by humanity are found (the collective unconscious)."

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