It isn’t nice to fool with Mother Nature.
While no one is watching…the sky is playing tricks. Is that an orange sun? Has a veil-like curtain fallen across the landscape? Is this some act of magic? If so, who is the magician?
Once upon a time, a long time ago, a young maiden, Persephone, went for a walk in a field of flowers and upon seeing a lovely crop, stopped to pick a bouquet. A strange thing occurred. The ground began to rumble, the earth opened, and a chariot came crashing through to the upper world carrying the likes of Hades himself!
He approached Persephone in his long dark robes woven out of roots and stones, with his three-headed dog by his side. She stepped back, of course. But, at the same time, she was attracted to this King of the Underworld.
“Come with me and be my wife!” He boomed out his request like an order, as kings notoriously do.
Before she could answer, she was swept into the chariot and taken to the Underworld where she took the throne and became Queen.
Who knows what went on? Do we ever?
Somehow, the unlikely pair, the Lord of the Underworld, and the Innocent Maiden, became a true match.
Don’t they always?
Meanwhile, Mother Nature, known as Demeter, was more than a little upset by this turn of events. First of all, she missed her daughter terribly. She was completely angry with Hades, and one could say she was slowly dying of a broken heart. After a frantic search for Persephone, she wound up in a temple where she apparently worked in cahoots with other gods to give the “seed” of agriculture to humanity.
The ritual of the seed entering the ground, growing and flourishing, then dying, then new seeds growing, was a great cycle that perpetuated life and death and life again.
Then Demeter decided to impose an awful drought upon the earth, like a winter, when no seeds could be planted and nothing could grow. She used this measure to pressure other gods to release her daughter from the underworld.
Just get a little bit of power and see what happens? These “gods” try to run the whole world!
Well, it worked. Perephone was allowed to come back to the earth. And, when she stepped foot on it, Spring blossomed.
The pomegranate figures significantly into the tale at this juncture however, in that if a captor feeds the seed of the pomegranate to his captive, she is compelled to stay with him.
However, Persephone ate only 6 out of the 12 seeds, and therefore, she was untethered from the Underworld for 6 months out of the year and could freely frolic and enjoy the many benefits of earthly existence for Spring and Summer. Yet still, be Queen of the Underworld.
Sort of like having your cake and eating it too.
…As the story goes, not the original myth, but this one, written today in 2023—Persephone had 2 daughters—Justina and Mercy.
These two were born under the Strawberry Moon in June of two different years—Gemini twins. And though they were very different in temperament and personality, they shared one thing in common as they grew up together with their Grandmother Nature and their Mother Persephone—they loved the earth and all her inhabitants. They loved it more than life itself, because of course, she IS life itself. (The sisters use “she” and earth interchangeably because of the regenerative nature of the divine feminine expressed in earth’s existence).
And, this ONE thing, this great, impossibly perfect Love seemed to be enough to overcome all their differences.
Would that this be true in the houses of government.
One day in June, the two were planting the bedding plants for their vegetable garden when Justina said, “It’s looking strange in the sky, Mercy, do you see it?”
Looking up from her toil she said, “Yes, it’s all hazy, I thought I was seeing things.”
“And the sun, it’s orange. Not bright and shining. Strangely beautiful, but not right.”
Justina suggests that they go speak with their Grandmother about it.
“Did you see the sky Grandmother?” asks Mercy
“Yes, the magician is at work.”
“What are they doing?” asks Justina. (She said “they,” because, the magician could be either male or female, but not both at the same time, and also they could be a magician for good or a magician for evil, but not both at the same time).
“The Magician is trying to change nature.”
“Why,” they both ask in unison.
“In order to control the behavior of the people. I have seen this sculduggery before from the Magician in small ways. In fact, I just let them go. A little ozone leak here, an occasional “experiment” with cloaking the sun there. I thought they were being sort of adorable in their earnestness.
But they are going above and beyond their usual tampering. I don’t like it. It isn’t nice to fool with Mother Nature, as you are both keenly aware.”
“Why do they want to control humans?” asks Justina.
“Because they believe that they can. They have no regard for the special attributes humans possess that provide for the possibility of novelty and creativity on earth. They believe they can do better. More of their magic, and less humans about sums it up.
What can I say? They have no, uh, aptitude for beauty,” said Grandmother Nature, throwing up her hands.
The two girls look at each other, puzzled. Grandmother tries again. “Simply put— they cannot carry a tune to save their lives! And you should see them try to dance!”
“So, are they jealous, is that what’s behind this?” asks Justina.
“Hmmm, maybe. I hadn’t thought of that, could be so. It’s a powerful force, the human potential. And it is growing with each millennia. The time is coming for the fulfillment.
The orange sun trick indicates that the Magician is pulling out all they’ve got—trying to stop this momentum. Trying to stop source. But source is unstoppable.
The Magician does not love humans, nor the earth. Without the sun everything dies. Without Love everything dies,” Grandmother Nature says with utter certainty. (She uses the word Love and God interchangeably.)
“But Grandmother, everything DOES die, it is part of the cycle of life,” says Mercy.
“Yes, this is always true, that everything dies. When your mother is in Hades, everything is dead, but, when she steps on the earth there is new life. From one world to the next.
You were born through Love. That’s how everything of beauty is born. The rhythm, the song, the dance of the cosmos. I worked so carefully to co-create such a wonder as this.
Alright my children, this should explain it— If the Magician is successful, which they cannot be…
NOTHING returns to life. The cycle is finished.”
The sisters gasp. “How can we help the humans?” The two girls are truly in agony considering the terrible circumstances presented for the earth and considering their great Love of her.
Grandmother Nature draws the granddaughters close to herself gently, and says, “Continue asking questions. This is very, very important. And help the humans to see their potential. That’s really the only thing that will stop the Magician.”
“How do we do that Grandmother?” asks Justina very sincerely. “We aren’t magicians after all,” says Mercy quietly.
“Not to worry. You aren’t my darlings—but humans are.”
💐 Thank you Ms. Elle
Yes! Would that everyone keeps asking questions!!!!