Spring Equinox (or Eostar as it may be named) may be storied as the Seasonal Moment of Heraic Return, and so it is on the PaGaian Wheel of the Year: PaGaian Cosmology Ch.5 .  I have summarized the Moment as ‘stepping into the power of Joy and Being’ … the light has grown strong now, and warmth and growth can be sensed in the land – the Return of the Beloved One is certain – She appears, emerges. The story I base both Equinox ceremonies on is that of Demeter and Persephone (the older version as told by Charlene Spretnak wherein Persephone descends of Her own volition [1]) – and at the Spring Equinox, Persephone returns from the depths with new wisdom.

Persephone, or the Returned Beloved One, is a Courageous One who has journeyed through trials, through the Underworld, and emerged victorious. I name it as “Heraic Return”, because “hera” pre-dated “hero” … the “hero” (Heracles) was carrying out the biddings of his Goddess Hera, who was Native Queen in the pre-Olympian times: thus as Charlene Spretnak suggests [2], “heroine” is an unnecessary derivation, “hera” may be used as a term for any courageous individual. And the Returned Beloved Ones are winners – like “Olympic athletes” except that the earliest games at Olympia were Hera’s games at Her Heraion (temple). [3] In the ceremony we wait for each Journeyer as they enact and remember their Underworld Journey, and we greet them with cheers and praise as they emerge “into the light & strength of Spring & Being”. [4]

In the Underworld this year, there will be a mirror on a table, into which the Journeyer may look. [5] The tool of the mirror is based on this passage from PaGaian Cosmology p.141:

Persephone’s return is the certain return of manifest Creativity. She brings with Her, knowledge of the Depths, from whence springs all Creativity (autopoiesis). Persephone’s journey is about becoming familiar with the inner realms in herself, falling in Love with these depths. In the Creation story of the Faery tradition, all manifestation springs forth from Goddess falling in Love with Her reflection in the curved mirror of black space. [6] The ancients understood that the essence of Creative Power springs from Self-Love, known and seen only completely in the Dark.

It is this self-knowledge that each returns with, bringing back this beauty and integrity, from the deep source of Creativity, the autopoiesis of the Cosmos within the self: to enhance the world – with new strength of Being.

Here is a photo of Organic Power – that each being must have: it is a Power to Be, a Gaian Power. (it has resonances with the image above don’t you think?)

fn 1. See Charlene Spretnak, Lost Goddesses of Early Greece,  pp. 105-118.

fn 2. Charlene Spretnak, The Politics of Women’s Spirituality, p. 87.

fn 3. See Charlene Spretnak, Lost Goddesses of Early Greece,  p. 87.

fn 4. The full Spring Equinox ceremony as it will be done more or less may be found here (scroll down a ways past Samhain, Winter Solstice and Imbolc to “Eostar”): PaGaian Cosmology Ch. 7

fn. 5. Margaret Lee in Memphis TN did this in the PaGaian Spring Equinox ceremony she facilitated there in March 2013.

fn 6. Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, p.31.