Once upon a time, the King of the Underworld, Pluto, kidnaps the maiden Persephone, tricking her into eating pomegranate seeds (Underworld food) so that she becomes the Queen of the Underworld. It’s an awful story of kidnapping, rape, control and abuse. Digging down into the ancient layers of myth before this saga, there existed “She Who Destroys the Light.” – the Goddess of Death. So long before there was Pluto, there was Persephone, ALONE. A maiden goddess – undivided, whole-unto-herself, called Kore – “core, heart”, the essence of everything.
The way I see it: one day the great Kore got bored with being the solitary, powerful ruler of the Underworld and decided she wanted some drama, splitting herself in two: a benevolent, conscious self and a vicious, unconscious divine (Pluto).
What should we make of that? Pluto is the unconscious (dark, transformational, alchemical) aspect of Kore’s divinity.
When she eats the seeds, she accepts the Underworld back into herself and remembers what she has done in order to experience herself as separate and innocent. Now Pluto is seen in a new light.
From this angle,the story is a tale of the singular divine choosing to create duality, having a painful experience of itself and then ultimately returning to sovereignty, this time with self-awareness.
The Underworld Mystery is this: Pluto, the Unconscious, is our own creation and all the vast darkness becomes available to us when we love, forgive and take responsibility for our own experience of his power (which was really ours all along).
We all embody duality— both light (conscious) and dark (unconscious) dimensions. The shadow side is dark because we think it is composed of what we would consider our primitive, primal, or negative impulses—all of which we choose to keep hidden from our consciousness, and denied. Like Persephone, our goal is to BECOME WHOLE, meaning we recognise our dark side, and not only accept it, forgive it, and take responsibility for it, but we love it, enjoy it and finally integrate it into our whole being.
And that is the source of true power. That is transformative magic.
// from ‘Existential Kink’ – Carolyn Elliott //
Hold my hand tightly, as I would like to take you to my underworld – a place where my Unconscious Devine is rooted. // from my journal Jan-Aug 2021 //
Catalina Cazacu 