Saturday, March 25th, 2006
Three pomegranate seeds.
Persephone’s story, as she tells it to me, is different than the others I have read about her. She says it was just three pomegranate seeds, that was all it took. But it wasn’t that it only took that many to keep her enslaved to the underworld, forever tied. It was that it only took three to give her the absolute wisdom of the underworld…hers to carry and keep forever.
Sometimes we may feel we will never get done wandering in the underworld, or never complete the frequent visits we find ourselves on…but just as it was for Persephone, it doesn’t take much for us to glean the gifts of the underworld, and allow the rest to simply play out before us. The underworld, rather than a terrible place of ghosts and demons, is a never-ending wellspring of golden wisdom. It is the ultimate buried treasure, and rather than hauntings, it offers us gifts. We simply must unveil our fears to find them.
The best way to carry out these unveilings is to demystify our fears by attempting to name them as clearly as possible. Literally to make a list of our fears and describe them, and plumb the depths of our consciousness to look for more that we may not have allowed ourselves to be aware of. We must invite our fears to dinner, and find out that they are not so alien…not so unrelated to our hopes and dreams and such closer companions.
We usually close our doors and batten down the hatches when our fears come close. Inviting them in is the last thought we often have, but in times like these…with Pluto, the astrological god of the underworld literally pacing around our houses, we may feel inclined to make a radical decision. Invite him in. He isn’t a bad guy after all. He is a bringer of change by way of death, which is the only passageway to rebirth. As we know, energy is not created or destroyed, only transformed.
If we find ourselves having a late night with Pluto, we too may get the golden chance to enjoy the fruits of the wisdom from the underworld…the true forbidden fruit. For once we are able to make gold from lead, finding value in darkness, we have become the master alchemist, and can see through the deepest of our fears into the light they contain.
It isn’t as unreachable as it may seem some days. Just reflect on your fears, write them down in detail. Then, next to each one write down what there may be to gain or learn from that fear. It just takes that small awareness to begin the shift…just three little pomegranate seeds. This is such a potent time for this exploration, and the rewards are infinite.
