In the Gardens of the Underworld

In the usual telling of the myth, Pluto/Hades rapes and abducts Persephone while she is picking flowers; thereafter, she must live for half of each year as Queen of the Underworld - Queen of the Dead, Queen of the Dark, Queen of the interminable Night.

The traditional story possibly reflects the patriarchal rape of Nature (where Persephone, like her mother Ceres/Demeter, represented Nature).

Rape/abduction of Persephone

But, what if there’s another version of the story, where Persephone is the curious explorer of the unknown, rather than a victim? Here, Pluto/Hades is unlike any male she’s encountered before; he’s from the Underworld - an unfamiliar realm (culture) that, due to its “otherness”, may be seen as exotic or as sinister, and makes most feel uncomfortable. Perhaps Persephone, still blessed with youthful curiosity, is attracted to this mysterious realm and its emissary (Pluto) because they are unlike her home realm.....because a strange new world potentially offers astounding insights. Rather than being abducted by Pluto, she elopes with him - journeys willingly to the Underworld, albeit without her family’s blessing. That story is mirrored in many modern stories - the everyday drama of a daughter or son who runs off with a (to the parents) “wrong” partner who shares none of the family’s values or aspirations.

So what might Persephone, a nature/fertility goddess, learn from journeying to the Underworld, and residing there long enough to absorb the wisdom of the local “culture”?

She’s initiated into the mysteries of death. Above ground, she sees life only from the instant a sprout first peeks above ground to the moment that a plant loses its leaves or shrivels to a gray husk. From the realm of Hades, she can see how death and decay (the end of one cycle) feed the birth of a new life cycle; she can watch how decomposition provides nutrients for future generations.

In her journey, she may also find that the Underworld is full of riches and teeming with life. Pluto symbolizes death, but also is linked to wealth - as seen in such words as “plutocracy”. The dragon’s gold always is hidden in an underground lair, in an alcove of the Underworld; the dangerous dragon, its gold and its subterranean cave all are Plutonian, aspects of the underground. Real gold, silver and diamonds must be mined - secret riches extracted, at great peril, from the Underworld’s treasure trove. To see all of Gaia’s treasures, one can’t remain exclusively above ground; one must dig down and into the subterranean layers.

And, as Queen of the Dark, perhaps she walked thru the secret, lush, fecund gardens of the Underworld - the Life Below that grows into or feeds the Life Above. 

Perhaps she heard whispered invitations to enter the cave and descend:

To know your Origins,

Go to the Underworld

Where an embedded seed first unfurls

Into the possibility of stem and leaf,

Where the tree’s green vibrancy

Roots deep in the dark of soil;

Where mycelia intertwine and merge,

Offering nectar thru their outstretched hands,

Carrying messages to the world forest.

Here pulses the underground web

That holds and feeds life.

Underground mycelial network

Underground, we find a living internet, the brain of the plant community where roots and mycelia connect and, like dendrite contacting dendrite or hand touching hand, pass messages and nutrients to each other and to the entire forest. Persephone marvels at this intricate, interconnected Garden of the Underworld.

And perhaps she willingly elects to live part-time in each realm - not as a compromise following brutalization, but because she is amazed by and in love with both.

And for those who doubt the beauty of the Underworld, here’s a photo from the Plutonian realms of Carlsbad Caverns (giant, open-to-the-public cave in southern New Mexico)