Workshops
TASTING THE POMEGRANTATE: Revisioning the Underworld
Persephone, daughter of the Greed corn goddess Demeter, was young and innocent before she entered the Underworld. Afterwards she was forever changed: She became Queen of the Underworld and was the one to bring Spring each year to the earth. And of her time in the dark realms, one thing is always told: that she ate there the red seeds of the Pomegranate.
What does it mean, to eat the seeds of the pomegranate? How does a woman change from maiden to Queen, from innocent to powerful? Like Persephone, we have all visited the Underworld. We have lived through hose times of despair, of bitter darkness, of pain and loneliness and been changed us, changed forever. That is when we learned the hard lessons, confronted our innermost shadows and tasted the pomegranate. And then we dared to see clearly, to make changes, to commit to our own process without any guarantee of safety.
In this workshop we explore and consolidate the learnings each of us have gained through our experiences in the Underworld and – through ritual, personal and group processes and art – map the paths of descent and re-emergence in the creation of a pomegranate mandala. Tasting the pomegranate symbolises the willingness in us to assume the role of Queen, rather than victim and to bring forth Spring out of the darkest place.
