The story of Old tells us that Persephone beloved Daughter, returns from Her journey to the Underworld. Demeter, the Mother, stretches out Her arms – to receive and rejoice. The beloved One, the Lost One, returns with new Wisdom from the depths.[1]
In the Spring Equinox ceremonial Poetry, as I have written it, I have identified Demeter with “the eternal Space and Time in which we are immersed and embraced”: Demeter may be a name for this, for the eternal Space and Time “in which we are immersed and embraced”[2] … who holds us, who waits for us, who receives us. So, every moment is such a Moment – a Spring Equinox Moment of being received by Her … the Mother is always present. We are always in the embrace of eternal Space and Time, whom we may imagine as Mother – Demeter or whoever, our Origin.
She holds us even when we ‘depart’ – in our minds or attention. She waits for us, to attend again, to be present. She receives us always – She is complete forgiveness, and to whom we belong … the sentient Cosmos, the Dark Womb of Space and Time. Spring Equinox may be this kind of Return – to Her Sentience, to embrace of Her. Jennifer Berezan spells the word as ReTurning , and we have used this music of hers in the ceremony, for the rite of the journey to the Underworld and the return/emergence. It is not always clear whether the new Strength of Being – the Return – celebrated at Spring Equinox is a flowering or a descent to her arms … they are certainly never separate.
At the Equinoxes – both Spring and Autumn – the altar we use for ceremony is a triangular shape, meant to represent Demeter – “the Great Triangle of Life” as Carolyn McVickar Edwards names Her:[3] Persephone is Her Daughter-Self, simultaneously Queen/Sovereign of the Underworld … all Three-in-One. There is debate about the etymology of the name Demeter … McVickar Edwards tells the appealing story that De is the word for delta, the triangle-shaped letter of the Greek alphabet, and Meter means ‘Mother’: so Her name is “a visual pun suggesting the sacred Vulva and the Great Three-in-One Mother”. In any case, a triangle is an appropriate representation of the Great Source of Life, and an Earth Mother, which Demeter no doubt is – much like Gaia.
PaGaian Cosmology 