It’s Persephone Season!!! 🍁🍂🎃

… which means I’m taking every excuse I can get to dance around in my flower crown and talk about the Two Goddesses to anyone who will listen. 

After three years of celebrating the change of seasons in my home practice, I’m thrilled to be sharing an event-packed September with my amazing CUUPS group. I’m so grateful for the community that saw me grow from an anxious twelve year old fangirling over Real Life Pagans to an overenthusiastic teenager who’s still amazed by all the magic around me. 

On Friday, I kicked off the busy month by decorating my Two Goddesses shrine for autumn and re-listening to Wendy Rule’s Persephone album. The Eleusinian gates have been opened and I’m positively vibrating with all that magical energy. I see Persephone and Demeter everywhere and the boundary between worlds feels thin, sort of like Samhain. 

                                    (My shrine to the Two Goddesses)

Last night, our kickass shadow witch Layla taught a Persephone workshop at the congregation that absolutely blew my brain. It was a fantastic way to delve deeper into the myths, re-examining our perception of Persephone, ancient civilizations, and how much power She held in early Greece. WOW. 

I also invoked Hecate at 12 AM with my Wiccan friend while watching the horror-filled production of Santa Claus and the Ice Cream Bunny (1979). Don’t ask. 

(Cat’s stunning altar with my Persephone pillow and pomegranate candle) 

On Saturday, I’ll be celebrating the Eleusinian Mysteries with my amazing mentor, Suz: priestess of Demeter and author of Dark Horses. Squee!!! For those who don’t know, the Eleusinian Mysteries were an initiatory festival that observed Persephone's abduction and return to Demeter. Their secret rites have been lost to time but many Pagans today keep the torch burning with modern recreations. As for our personal celebration, all I shall say is that the ritual involves a procession through a beautiful historic farm and the sacrifice of tiny piglets. 

As in, pig-shaped cookies.

The week after that, my CUUPS is celebrating Pagan Pride Day. Our wonderful Hellenic Polytheist community is staging a ritual to Athena in defense of of human rights… and I’ll be setting up a protection altar invoking Demeter, Artemis, and Ares. The ritual blends traditions ancient and modern. Guess who's serving as a lustration priestess?

IT'S MY FIRST BIG PUBLIC RITUAL! 

Yup, September is packed. And it’s gotten me contemplating priestesshood and what it means to serve the Gods in community, which deserves its own blogpost. For now, I like to consider myself an acolyte or priestess-in-training; someone learning the ropes of my true calling. That’s why I’m so grateful for all the folks who make it  possible to explore the path I’ve been dreaming of since I was a child. 

Those who sense spirits around Samhain know how important it is to take breaks and ground yourself during times of intense spiritual power. Persephone’s myth is heavy and holds echoes of violence and trauma, so if you choose to go deep with the Two Goddesses this season, remember to practice self-care and remain centered. That’s what I’m trying to do (and occasionally failing). 

So if you see me staring dreamily into space or writing indecipherable notes in my journal, know that this September I have one foot here and one foot in Eleusis.

Let the temple gates swing open. 

- Rose 🌹