witch-of-oberin

[witch-of-oberin]

The Horai

The Horai are the Greek goddesses of the seasons*. While the ancient Greeks only acknowledged three—Spring, Summer, and Autumn—this year I am including worship of these goddesses into my Wheel of the Year celebrations for the Equinoxes and Solstices also known as the cross -quarter days). I’ve always been really drawn to seasonal witchcraft, and as a Hellenic polytheist, this seems like a pretty natural fit to me!** Although there isn’t a ton of readily available information about these goddesses and I personally haven’t encountered many people who work with them, they are surprisingly multi-faceted. In addition to governing the natural order of the seasons, in some myths they are named the guardians of the cloud gates of Mt. Olympos, and they appear as midwives, nurses, and attendants to many of the Theoi. I am very excited to add them into in my practice, so I thought I would share what I have found so far regarding these Goddesses.

THE HORAI ON CROSS-QUARTER DAYS

🌱 Spring Equinox, 03/19 – Thallo

Goddess of Spring, buds and blooms, protector of youth

🌷Summer Solstice, 06/20 – Auxo/Auxelia

Goddess of Summer, protector of growth, fertility, vegetation and plants

🍁Autumn Equinox 09/22 – Carpo

Goddess of Autumn, harvesting and ripening.

🌬Winter Solstice 12/21 – Khione

While not officially an Horai, she was the daughter of Boreas, the north wind, and the goddess of snow and cold mountain winds. She was depicted as accompanying them, and many regard her as the goddess of Winter.

OFFERINGS TO THE HORAI

🍎Fruit: The Horai are very frequently depicted with baskets of fruit, and were worshiped mainly by those in agriculture, so it makes an excellent offering. Although I found mention of figs, pears, and apples being associated with them in myths, I think it would be a nice touch to use fruits that are in season for each goddess. If you have a seasonal altar, consider a rotating fruit basket as a decoration. Fruit juice would make a cheap and easy libation, also

💐Flowers: Similar to fruit, the Horai were often described as being wreathed in flowers, and in some myths were said to have clothed Aphrodite in clothes dyed with Spring flowers. Flowers are always awesome as offerings because there are so many ways to give them: fresh, dried and burnt as incense, libations of floral water or tea….

🍯Honey: Hand in hand with flowers, fruits, and the cycle of the seasons, bees and honey are also tied to many agricultural deities, and would make an appropriate offering.

🍃Incense/Perfume: As Ouranic(heavenly) deities, incense is always a proper offering. Considering their connection with fruit and flowers, and their frequent description as “fragrant,” I see perfume as an extension of this.

🎀Fabric/Cloth: There are a number of mentions of the Horai clothing and swaddling various deities, to the point that fabric seems like it would be a great offering, especially naturally dyed or fruit/floral/celestial prints. This could be an altar cloth, or scraps given as a gift.

💃Dance: The changing of seasons was called by some the “Dance of the Horai”, so dance can be an excellent way to honor them if you like to incorporate movement in your practice!

THE HORAI YEAR ROUND

Although I find it especially appropriate to honor on the Solstices and Equinoxes, those who want to follow a seasonal path might wish to honor these goddesses year-round. You can easily do this as a Hellenic Polytheist, since they are part of the retinue of quite a few of the Theoi:

💖Aphrodite – Clothed by the Horai upon her birth, they also her companions.

🥀Persephone – A heavily seasonal goddess herself, Auxo may in fact have begun as an epithet of Persephone. Either way, they were her attendants and companions.

💍Hera- Her attendants, and in some myths she was even raised by the Horai.

🌩 Zeus- Thallo, Auxo, and Carpo are daughters of Zeus and Themis in some myths, and additionally are sometimes names as the guardians of his cloud gates.

☀🌒Selene/Helios – According to other sources, the Horai were children of Helios and Selene.

🍇Dionysus – Midwives at his birth, and his nurses as a child.

🍓Hermes – Nurses as a child, they told him about Apollo’s cattle!

If you worship/work with any of these deities, consider adding a small offering and thanks to the Horai as part of your regular rituals. This excerpt from Ovid’s Metamorphoses is brief and might work nicely:

“Here Spring appears with flowery chaplets bound. here Summer in her wheaten garland crown’d; Here Autumn the rice trodden grapes besmear. And hoary Winter shivers in the rear.”

—

Hopefully this was interesting/useful to some of you! Good luck and many blessings

(*The Horae can also refer to two other groups, one a triad of the goddesses of right order, and the other the twelve “hours,” for different times of the day.) (**I am a witch, and a revivalist Hellenic Polytheist, so this post is written through that lens. If you are reconstructionist based, some of this might not be for you. Which is cool! This is just how I will be building a practice with these goddesses)

[witch-of-oberin]

Crossed Bones Against the Evil Eye

Take two animal bones of equal length, a long length of black thread, some holy water, some salt, a white candle, and some frankincense. 

Light the candle and the incense and focus your mind. Cross the bones together in an X shape and begin to tie them together securely with the black thread. Say as you do this:

ossa, ossa, protegite me de fossae, puragete me de malo, sorbete odium, luite lui.

(bones, bones, protect me from the grave, cleanse me from evil, absorb hatred, cleanse pestilence.)

Sprinkle holy water over the crossed bones, then sprinkle salt, then pass it over the candle flame, then pass it through the smoke of the frankincense. Wear it on your person to shield against the evil eye.

When it begins to feel heavy, its work is done. Break it into many pieces and cast the pieces into a fire.

[witch-of-oberin]

“Witchcraft is not neoPagan goddess worship, it is not secular weather worship, it is not tree-hugging, and it is not New Age fuckery. Witchcraft is not safe. Witchcraft is not good and kind. Witchcraft is the domain of the trickster, the outcast, the wanderer, and the crooked. It belongs to those who know every light casts a shadow; who have looked into the depths of darkness in their soul and accepted what they’ve seen along with all that is good���

— Sarah Anne Lawless (via nephillim-poop)

[witch-of-oberin]

this person is protected

protected

draw / trace this on yourself, on your friends, on your family 💕

[witch-of-oberin]

Simple Sigil Creation: A How-To Guide

One of the most common messages I get on Tumblr goes something like this: “What is your process for creating sigils? It can’t be as simple as scrambling up letters, so what’s the real secret?”

The truth is, there isn’t a secret. Making sigils is actually quite simple. Anyone can do it. Even for a complete newcomer, the process should take less time than a coffee break. While there are many, many ways to create sigils — magic squares, automatic drawing, grid overlays — the methods don’t really matter all that much.

In this post, I’m going to show the step-by-step method I used for creating the most recent sigil I’ve published. It came at the request of a young woman who wanted to catch the romantic attentions of another female. It said simply: “She will see me in a romantic way.”

As you can see, I’ve gone with the most basic sigil-creation method here. I’ve written out the text, and I’ve isolated the consonants from the sentence. While there is an “occult” tradition behind this method, I wouldn’t get hung up on thinking that it’s the “right” way to make a sigil. It’s no better than any other method, it’s just easier to explain.

This first step is meant to abstract the coherent words into a less-coherent jumble of letters. The words stop being as meaningful, but the symbols behind the sigil’s intent remain. To keep things simple — and to speed up my next step — I arrange these letters into a grid.

The next step is to abstract the remaining letters even further. Here, I’ve simply started combining elements of the letters together. I generally start by picking two letters from the grid of consonants, and start combining lines, curves, curls, dots, and other pieces of those letters together.

I try to keep these new symbols as simple as possible — four or five pencil strokes at most — because I’ll be further combining them in the next step.

From here, I generally play around with a few ideas, combining elements of symbols as I go. Sometimes these ideas come easily, as seen in the picture, but sometimes it can take pages and pages of sketches to find one I like. In particularly thorny situations, I’ll even start the entire process over from scratch, just to give myself a clean slate.

Once I’ve found a design I like, it’s time to start on the final design. Much like every other stage in the process, there is no one “right” way to do this. This is also the step where most people could happily stop. When the sigil looks and feels “right” to you, it’s done. The sigil is complete, if you want it to be.

In my case, however, I’m also making art for my website and social media. That means creating a version of the sigil that will (hopefully) catch other people’s eyes. There are countless ways to do this — charcoals, crayons, digital painting, markers — and I’ve experimented quite a bit over the years.

I also like to have an excuse to play with ink and brushes, so that’s how this one came together. I like that it’s a little unpredictable — with streaks and globs and splatter — and I’m always thrilled when a happy accident improves the design.

As you can see, I create tons of variations, tinkering with brush sizes, stroke direction, the amount of ink in the brush, and other stuff. While I liked some of these versions, none of them looked quite right. So, I kept going until I found one that did.

A few ink-soaked pages later, and this version was the clear winner. From here, it was just a matter of scanning the image in and doing a few technical things in Photoshop to make it look better in black and white. I add the text, the watermark, and … that’s it.

Here’s the finished version.

As you can see, there’s no great secret to making a sigil. Nor should there be. Sigils are about focusing intent, and even a few pencil scratches on notebook paper can become a perfectly wonderful sigil with the right intent behind it. Yes, some people (like me) like to do a little showing off with things they picked up from art class, but that should never be a barrier to creating your own personal sigils.

Questions? Thoughts? Leave a comment or drop me a message.

[witch-of-oberin]

“I Feel Safe In My Home”

Keep this sigil around entrances into your home and try charging them at least once a month or as often as you feel you need to.

[witch-of-oberin]

“I am safe from evil, abusive and toxic spirits”

[witch-of-oberin]

Witchblr, we’ve developed enough of a terf problem that y’all really have to get better at recognizing radfem dogwhistles. 

Like, I get that you want to reblog a cool post about how awesome the goddess is, but maybe rethink sharing it if it’s got some sort of crap about how “males just don’t understand our connection to the goddess! Don’t let men scare you out of celebrating your feminine power!”

Because that? That’s a terf thing. They’re not talking about men forcing themselves into women’s spaces, they’re talking about trans women.

[witch-of-oberin]

I've seen some witch kits and they're ...junk. In all honesty, I've gone to thrift stores and found something really cool. I've cleansed it and it's still kicking about being used. As for crystals, I second what @strangesigils say about the Opalite and such. For any sort of beginning, read everything. If you have shops that carry stones/crystals in them, go in and just look for a few minutes. Quartz is a good starter for a crystal.

Do you know how reliable those “beginning witch kits” are? The ones that come with like a bunch of herbs and crystals and all that,,, I’ve been looking into getting one in order to really get started with my practice but I don’t want to get something cheap or that isn’t reliable, ya know? Do you have any advice?

Depends on the kit and the source I suppose. The kits themselves are probably really good to get but maybe do your own research on correspondences for herbs and crystals inside

Heat treated amethyst as citrine is still perfectly good citrine if that’s what you get

If you get ‘moonstone’ that has no flaws at all and has a rainbow sheen on the outside, it’s not moonstone its Opalite which is man made but still has it’s own possible uses in witchcraft.

[witch-of-oberin]

Some practices for a closeted witch

These are some practices that may be helpful for a closeted practitioners practice, if they want to go through the process of manifesting their desire without anyone noticing.

Practices:

You could practice sigil magick:

Sigils are very discreet and through the process of sigilization you can create sigils that take the form of doodles, or even of visual pieces of art. You could go to the process of learning to create hyper sigils, and learn to manifest your desire through poetry, fictional stories, and other forms of literature, and art. You could create music or sounds that are sigils that could be listened to, and played on instruments. All of this could be pretty much invisible to anyone else experiencing it, and would just look like forms of artistic expression.

You could practice kitchen magick:

Kitchen magick is very discreet, and by simply understanding ingredients, and the metaphysical properties of those ingredients. You could cook up some truly magickal meals. That would be charged with specific energies, but would still be normal to other people. This would look like you were getting into cooking, and would not be suspicious in the slightest, while also allowing you to manifest your desires through your cooking prowess

You could practice energy work:

You would be able to raise, and send out energy in order to manifest your desires. This would not take any tools, and would be practically unnoticeable to other people. It would also allow you to learn more about energy, and get a good understanding of how it interacts with the world.

You could practice tea magick:

Tea is something that is pretty mundane that could also be used in your magickal practice to work with herbs, and the metaphysical properties that they possess. To everyone else it would look like you are just getting into tea, and would not tell them that you have started pursuing a magickal path. You can learn about the different teas, and what properties are associated with them in order to manifest, and treat your body. You could also pick up the divination of tasseography which would be convenient for you, if you possess tea.

You could practice pop culture magick:

This would be magick that is based around TV shows, video games, movies, books, and more forms of media, and would be perfect to practice if you were a closeted practitioner, because it would simply be disguised by the media that it uses for its manifestation. which would make people think that you are just a big fan of a particular media. All of your magickal tools, and practices could be based around a specific media, and would allow you to connect with your spiritual practice through that medium, even when other people are around.

You could practice crystal magick:

By collecting, and buying crystals, and gemstones you would be able to use their energies in order to manifest specific things into your life. This could be unnoticeable because you could tell people that you were very into some form of crystal, or stone collecting. This would make other people pretty much see it as one of your hobbies, and it probably would not draw attention to itself as a spiritual practice. Especially because most people don’t think of crystals as spiritual objects, and because of that they are pretty unnoticeable when keeping your practice hidden.You would also be able to practice the divination of lithomancy, if you manage to gather up enough crystals.

You could practice thought form creation:

You could go to the process of learning how to create, and work with a thought-form. there would not be very many tools involved besides maybe a Sigil, and housing, and you would be able to communicate with this entity to allow you to manifest your desires. This entity exists on a different plane of existence, so it will be completely unnoticeable to anyone who does who does not know how to perceive that existence.

You could practice knot magick:

Through the process of learning how to tie knots with intention you would be able to manifest your desires through the not set you weave, and your practice would be able to remain completely invisible.

You could practice pendulum dowsing:

This would be a good type of divination to use, because it does not require any tool besides a string with a weighted object at the end of it, and it can be done secretly, and quietly. You could even use a necklace as a form of pendulum, so that you could use it for divination, while it would still be disguised as a necklace.

You could practice meditation:

Meditation could be adapted into your practice, and would be something that you could do unnoticeably. You could meditate before bed by laying down like you were going to sleep, which would give you time to focus your mind without anyone being suspicious that you were doing it. you could even just find a chair to sit in, and close your eyes in order to meditate. You could learn how to Journey meditate, and practice your craft in an astral temple, or sacred space. This would give you a space to practice your craft that would exist within your mindscape, and dreamscape on the etheric, and astral plane.

You could practice dream work:

Dream work is done while you are sleeping, which allows it to be completely unnoticeable, and would allow you to interact, and explore your dreamscape. You would be able to learn how to lucid dream, and would be able to do your magical working in your dreams, allowing you to manifest desires in a space that would not be able to be noticed by others.

You could practice astral projection, and/or astral travel:

When you astral project, or astral travel your body is in a sleep-like or trance state, and because of this it is pretty unnoticeable to others. By doing these practices you will be able to go, and explore the astral plane, and manifest your desires upon those planes, so that it will be able to trickle down in vibration, and affect the physical world.

You can practice candle magick, or substitution candle magick:

Sometimes normal candles can be very unnoticeable depending upon the household that they’re being used in, and how they are being used. something that is even more unnoticeable would be the electric candles, especially if you’re not allowed to have real candles, or burn things in the house, and you can tell people that you like them for mood lighting. Other things that you can substitute in place of candles are things such as sigils, crystals, electronic devices, and thoughtforms.

If you have any more practices that would be good for a closeted witch I would love to hear about them?

[witch-of-oberin]

“Dionysus”

A sigil to represent the patron deity Dionysus as the patron of the gender progressive. Keep this sigil on your altar and leave offerings of wine near it. Have this sigil with you when you go out partying Or keep this sigil somewhere personal to you

[witch-of-oberin]

Scott Cunningham is good, but do keep in mind that his information is outdated so you might come across some terms that aren't up to date. I second staying away from Silver Ravenwolf, or however, do read it just to know what NOT to do and what to keep an eye out for to stay away from. ( bigotry, condescending... ) Personally, I would read everything but take most with a grain of salt.

i’m interested in wiccan stuff and wicca in general... how would i even start to research or study it?

Alright, so first things first, Wicca and Witchcraft are not the same thing, they are not synonymous.Wicca is a religion/spirituality that happens to involve witchcraftWitchcraft is a craft anybody can practice 

I just wanted to clarify because a know a lot of people who’ve just been introduced to the topic don’t necessarily know that, I didn’t know that when I was first starting out either.I personally am not Wiccan anymore, but I still practice secular witchcraft (non-religious)

A good author to look for in my personal opinion to look for would be Scott Cunningham, he’s a Wiccan author but his work is appreciated by even non-wiccan practitioners.Steer clear of anything by Silver Ravenwolf and don’t use spells of magic dot com, these sources contain a lot of misinformation.

[witch-of-oberin]

“I Am Jinx Proof” “I Am Curse Proof” “I Am Hex Proof”

Requested by @lovepayal  Since the sigil requested was to block the 3 different malicious spell types/levels I pulled out the big guns for this one. I made 3 separate sigils, one for each malicious spell type, and combined them into one like so.

Keep reading

[witch-of-oberin]

I wanna make a masterlist of lgbt+ witches on tumblr

so reblog this if you are a witch and are lgbt+ pls!

alsoi wanna follow all of you

[witch-of-oberin]

Hestia devotionals/offerings

Always, before an offering, thanks her and praise her as She is the goddess of the altar

Make a space in your home dedicated to Her. It doesn´t need to be an altar, just a safe space where you feel in peace.

Meditate 

If you can, give money or find shelter for those who are homeless

Find any kind of candles that reminds you of Her and keep the flame for some time (take care)

Offer Her tea and cookies 

Pray for those children/teenagers looking for a foster home (and to get adopted)

[witch-of-oberin]

Rainwater 

Rain from a lightening storm

this has the greatest energy

used in a bath to re-energize your being and aid in a ritual of clearing and cleansing your energies of negativity by soaking in it

used to clear and cleanse an object or area 

store in a white glass bottle

Rain from thunderstorms, tornadoes or hurricanes

Used to empower spells for moving things forward such as letting go of the past and moving forward in life

used to help move a project forward and get beyond current blocks in life

used to change a pattern or habit you don’t like

store in a blue glass bottle

Sun and Rain

Used to balance energies when feeling weighed down

helps gather your thoughts when they are flighty and scattered

store in a dark green bottle

Hail storm

collect in a metal bowl but dont let it sit in the bowl for more than 6 hours

allow the hail to melt before bottling it

store in a black or dark brown bottle

used to dispel psychic attacks or negative energies

best used for black magic to get rid of your enemies or negative forces that stand in your way

Spring Rain

used to empower new ventures such as new relationships, new business ventures, a new job

rain collected on the spring equinox or the first rain after the spring equinox is good for empowering spells for relationships

stored in a light green bottle

Summer Rain

used to encourage growth whether it be personal, spiritual growth or growth of a business venture or relationship

used to break bad habits

great to water indoor plants

rain collected on mid-summers eve and day is especially mystical

store in a sky blue bottle

Fall Rain

used for giving thanks and showing gratitude for the abundance the year has given you

store in an orange or fall colored bottle

Winter Rain

can be used for blessing a person, relationship, family or object

can be used to bless an event such as a birth, wedding or new business venture

to be able to survive the hardships of winter one is able to survive the hardships of life

Full Moon Rain

Used to honor the Goddess

a small glass can be added to a cleansing bath

add a couple of drops to your bath before an important event or ritual

used for a blessing during a full moon ritual

used for blessing a child or pet 

rain collected during the full moon according to that season will have the energies of that moon according to month and season

clean altar spaces and other things by putting an ounce of rain water into your cleaning products

also very good for divination

Waning Moon Rain

good for getting rid of things, banishings, and purging negative energies

used like a banishing oil

also can be added to your bath for relaxation, clarity or promoting self love

use to prepare for lunar rituals

anoint your money with it to increase your wealth 

anoint yourself to increase your psychic awareness

New Moon Rain

good for workings in which something needs to be brought in 

used when starting a new project

Waxing Moon Rain

used to bring in good energies and blessing

used at the start of a new project or a new beginning

Rain collected from trees or roses will have different energies depending on the type of tree or color of the rose you collect it from

Use 1 cup of rain water to 1 tub size of water

For rituals use 1oz of rain water in a glass bowl or cauldron, to add effects to the water pour over crystals energized with your intent

For a spell place all your spell items in your bowl or cauldron and add 1tablespoon of rainwater

For cleansing or anointing ritual take 1/2oz of rainwater into a glass bowl and as you recite your incantation dip your fingers or wand/athame into the water then mark your physical body, the mark can be any spiritual symbol that has meaning to you

To anoint a tool, pout 1oz of rainwater onto the tool as you state your incantation to empower the tool for its intended purpose.

@autumnwitchesx i hope this helps you some!!!

also the bottles you store in dont have to be a specific color unless you want them to be, im all for using what you have first and foremost 

[witch-of-oberin]

Yes, I'm officially creeping on you. I just remembered this thing I reblogged a few months ago, and I wanted to see what you thought:. Go to my blog, and after the dot-com part, put in /post/61080490743/i-dont-ship-hades-persephone

I wouldn’t consider this creeping!

Unless you’re outside my home/work right now with binoculars >.>

Sorry it took a bit to respond— I wanted to make sure I had the right translation in front of me. All love to the publicly available version by Hugh Evelyn-White, but the most straight-forward language translated directly from ancient Greek to modern English is found in The Homeric Hymns, Second Edition by Apostolos Athanassakis (2004), and that requires being at home where the edition sits on my mythology and classics shelf. You can get the book online, much less expensive if it’s used, and I highly recommend it.

Before I go on, I’m going to start out by saying that I don’t have a degree in the classics, but in literature and literary criticism. That being said, my interpretation is going to be different that other people’s and everything written here is only opinion based on several years of study.

Fallacies of Modern Interpretation

I remember reading “I Don’t Ship Hades and Persephone” a few months back when I was reading asphodelon’s blog. Here are my thoughts on the original post and followup comments…

The fact that the original author got her impression of Persephone from the pop psychology book Goddess in Every Woman by Jean Shinoda Bolen is… telling. She uses a lot of very broad archetypes for the goddesses she mentioned in the book, and I feel that her interpretation is jaundiced by a thin understanding of the myths, and a 3,000 year pile-up of later-antiquity, Renaissance, and modern depictions of the gods.

TW: Rape and its Historical Entemology

It’s about to get triggery up in here, because I’m going to talk a bit about abduction and rape. So, fair warning…

The language and the original text should always be the first stop in interpreting myth, and the historical context should follow close behind.

Let’s take the word ‘rape’. I’ll use my preferred translation by Athanassakis. The actual lines from where Hades pulls Kore into his chariot are as follows:

“…Earth with its wide roads gapedand then over the Nysian field the lord and All-receiver,the many-named son of Kronos, sprang upon her with his immortal horsesAgainst her will he seized her and on his golden chariot carried her away as she wailed; and she raised a shrill cry…”

Our definition of rape today is “any act of sexual intercourse that is forced upon a person”. And the language used in the poem, though she was abducted against her will, and though he carried her away does not mean ‘rape’ in the modern sense. Rape was added later during the Italian Renaissance when “rape” depictions were given as wedding gifts to wealthy Venetian newlyweds. This is where we get Bernini’s masterful sculpture, The Rape of Proserpine. The entomology of the word ‘rape’ has changed since the Renaissance. It came from the word ‘rapt’ which means ‘to carry off’, not ‘to force intercourse’.

To a modern audience, though this is rape. The subtlety in the text is furthered when we see the Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Underworld’s name in the poem change from “slender-ankled kore“ (maiden) in line 15 to “noble Persephone” near the end of the Hymn in line 336 (Athanassakis, 2004).

But the stretch of time between Kore’s transformation into Persephone is anywhere from a couple months to a year in the hymn— nine days between Demeter’s search and finding out from Hecate and Helios that Aidoneus had carried away her daughter, and the few months to a year she spends in Eleusis at her newly-built temple the Telesterion refusing to speak with the Olympians.

Within this stretch of time, intercourse between Hades and Persephone took place. Whether or not it was forcible rape is impossible to determine. We have no record of the story except through the perspective of Demeter as she searches for her lost daughter.

Context: Marriage in Ancient Greece

Something we’re not taking into account is that we are viewing the story of Hades and Persephone from a great cultural and temporal distance. 2,700 years stand between us and when the Homeric Hymn to Demeter was written down. Many things have changed in that amount of time, most specifically marriage traditions.

The reality was that up until very recently, women were property. In many areas of the world, women still are property, transferred from father to husband. This is why even today Western marriages feature the father walking the bride down the aisle and physically placing her hand on the arm of her husband.

Ancient Athenian wedding preparations began under cover of night with the bride being taken to the groom’s house in a chariot. The groom would give the bride gifts, and the families would feast together, the men easting the first and women joining later. During the ceremony, the bride would eat an apple or pomegranate, or other fruit to signify that her needs were coming from her husband now, not her father. The groom would then forcibly grab the bride by her wrist and take her into his house to consummate the marriage.

Sparta���s rituals were much simpler. The groom would challenge the father or brothers of his intended bride to a fight and simply carry her off over his shoulder once it was over. Usually, these were arranged and the fighting symbolic to show that the new groom would be capable enough to defend his woman.

The civilization that predated classical Greece was the matriarchal Minoan civilization. Persephone and Demeter are archaeological descendants of goddesses that were worshipped in that culture before the Doric ascendancy. But by the time of the Homeric Hymns, that civilization was long gone.

I have no illusions about what sex was in marriage in ancient times. It was done without the clear consent of the bride and that by modern definition is rape. Women were chattel. It is a sad fact in all myths about the gods. Zeus deceived and raped Hera to make her his wife. Cupid had sex with Psyche without her even knowing who was on top of her. Most women in mythology were maidens pursued unwillingly. It was written into every facet of the culture. Hades gets the bad rap in modern society even though he was the only Greek god who remained faithful to his wife because he became a Satan analogue after the rise of Christian monotheism and trinitarianism.

So bear in mind: almost ALL sex within marriage in the heavily patriarchal ancient world, across nearly every culture, was done with at least dubious consent. This was the case until ONLY a couple hundred years ago. The modern practice of having a “best man” goes straight back to ancient Athens when the groomsman would stand guard outside the door of the bridal chamber, not to keep people out, but to make sure the bride didn’t escape her new husband’s sexual appetites.

With all this context in mind, the “abduction” of Persephone to the Underworld by Aidoneus would seem almost common place to the ancient audience.

Hades and Persephone as a Parable for the Ancient Audience…

Zeus had earlier promised Hades his choice of wife since he was given the Underworld as his lot. Hades desires Persephone as his bride and arranges the marriage with Persephone’s father. He presents a gift to her (the narcissus flower in the field of Nysa) and after Persephone accepts it by pulling it from the earth, he takes her into his chariot to bring her with him to her new home. He gives her further honors once she gets to the Underworld to show his commitment and love for her Persephone eats the fruit of the Underworld, signifying that she is bound to Hades as his wife.

But if this is so commonplace, why did Demeter grow so angered and starve all of Hellas to get her daughter back?

The original myth was a warning parable and morality tale of sorts, meant for its ancient audience… a morality parable that doesn’t resonate today because women are no longer the property of their father or husband. The moral of the story is this: you should respect and consult with your wife and speak with your daughter before marrying her off, otherwise life at home will be a living hell, not just for the father, but also the new husband.

Demeter makes Zeus’ life very difficult because he did not consult her in his choice of husband for Persephone. She sends a blight on all of Zeus’ worshippers until he fixes what he did without her consent

Likewise, Persephone unwittingly accepted the marriage proposal of Hades without knowing that she had been given to him, and resisted being taken away to be his wife. She changes his outlook on life so much in the Underworld that he gives her the gift of equality in rule and a portion of his timai (honor) by the time the hymn ends. To go from patriarchal arrangement and carrying her away to saying:

“Persephone go to your dark-robed mother,with a gentle spirit in your breast,and in no way be more dispirited than the other gods.I shall not be an unfitting husband among the immortals,as I am father Zeus’s own brother. When you are hereyou shall be mistress of everything which lives and moves;your honors among the immortals shall be greatest,and those who wrong you shall always be punishedif they do not appease your spirit with sacrifices,performing sacred rites and making due offerings.”

…where he confers upon her the honor of being “mistress of everything that lives and moves” says A LOT.

Persephone then accepts the pomegranate seeds in secret, thereby accepting his offer as a husband. The acceptance of the seeds in myth is tantamount to sexual intercourse, since this was the last gift offering by the groom before consummating his marriage with the bride. For Persephone, being given a pretty flower wasn’t good enough. She wanted to be respected as Hades’ wife. Her interaction with Hades in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter ends with him giving her his fucking chariot to go home in (steered by Hermes because they didn’t trust women to drive back then) and awaiting her inevitable return.

Back in the sunlit world, she lies to her mother about the seeds, saying that Hades forced them on her, when in fact, only several lines up we read that he slipped her the pomegranate and she accepted the seeds in secret before she was about to be taken away. She then changes the subject and calms Demeter down with a lyrical recounting of the Oceanid nymphs she was playing with in the field with before being taken away. She starts her tale by saying to her mother that she is going to tell her the truth, and ends with saying “I am telling you the whole truth” even though we as the reader know that what she is telling her mother is NOT the truth.

Persephone conscientiously accepted the pomegranate seeds and knew exactly what they meant. She didn’t eat them in an air-headed moment and knew that they were not only an acceptance of marriage, but that they would bind her to the Underworld forever. She was given a choice to leave and never see Hades again, but instead chose to come back to him. Eating the seeds was not the action of a victim, but of a wife victorious in getting exactly what she wanted out of her marriage.

And honestly, if you went through a great struggle for equality with your husband, and you enjoyed sex with him enough to make the conscious decision to go back again and again, to leave the sunlit world of your childhood behind and dwell amongst the dead to do so, you probably aren’t going to tell your worried mom all about it.

In conclusion, the abduction of Persephone is a tale about why we have winter. With a quick reading through modern eyes and without context, consent is non-existent. Persephone is carried away and raped in the Underworld until Demeter gets into a strop and gets her released.

-OR-

The tale is all about consent and hints at a new and revolutionary kind of relationship: that of equality between husband and wife. Persephone doesn’t fully agree to be Hades’ bride until he gives her all due respect and honor. And Zeus learns a valuable lesson about respecting the wishes of and consulting with the mother before giving away the daughter.

With interpretation and context, the myth tells us this: DO NOT FUCK AROUND WITH OR MISTREAT YOUR WIVES. IF YOU DO, YOU WILL SUFFER GREATLY.

That we have any emotional reaction whatsoever to the myth of Hades and Persephone is testament to the fact that it is still relevant enough and has enough of a human element to where it is relatable and real. It is why Hades and Persephone remain so popular. It is why so many modern tellings exist, and why those tales have millions of fans. Beauty and the Beast, the Phantom of the Opera, and the Labyrinth are direct descendants of the story of Hades and Persephone.

The historical facts are that Demeter and Persephone were the chief deities in what were arguably the most popular religious rites in the ancient world: the Eleusinian Mysteries. They were in existence from at least the start of the Greek dark ages through the end of the classical era. In case you’re keeping score, that’s 1,000 years longer than the current lifespan of Christianity.

Persephone features prominently after the myth, even more so than her husband. When Odysseus speak with the rulers of the Underworld, he speaks to Persephone. As does Orpheus, and Herakles, and Psyche, and others. In fact, Pirithous, the one “hero” who doesn’t give Persephone respect and instead tries to carry her away from her realm like a powerless little girl, never makes it out of the Underworld alive.

Given their reverence and worship, their significance and popularity, what better players to showcase the power of women than Demeter and Persephone: the goddesses who control the fertility and harvest of mankind?

The strength of the mother-daughter relationship between Demeter and Persephone, and subsequently the bond that Persephone forms with Hades and how she transforms him and his realm and becomes the powerful Queen of the Underworld is why I ship Hades and Persephone.

tl;dr: A response to “I Don’t Ship Hades and Persephone”. The myth of Hades and Persephone is all about consent, but it depends on understanding historical context and what the myth meant to the ancient Greeks.