Demeter Goddess of the Harvest

There's so much to learn about ourselves through the studying of gods and goddesses. It's just dawning on me now as I'm studying Demeter, Greek Goddess of the Harvest. These deities that have survived history are like mirrors; they being the many faces and characteristics of ourselves, I realized, we created god in our own image??? As I am learning, these personified gods and goddesses have many aspects to them, good and bad, dark and light. So as I can identify with all the good things about Demeter,the Good Mother, I am alert now,to her shadow side and must also acknowledge it in myself as well and take an honest and hard look inside. The Shadow side of the Good Mother Archetype can be "devouring, abusive and abandoning. And can make her children feel guilty for becoming independant and leaving her." {www.goddess-guide.com} Though she was "a loving mother, persistenat and empathetic, her weakness was her depression and that she lived her life through her daughter" Wow! you can imagine how I felt when I first read that! LOL but a valuable challenge none the less. Her daughter Persephone kidnapped and dragged into the Underworld to be taken as a wife never to see daylight again, Demeter abandoned all else to search for her daughter with unending urgency. Her story is interesting, I highly encourage you to do your own research, but her devotion and committment to find her daughter is inspiring. Her struggle with Depression is warming and humanizes her, so that She was the only Greek Goddess of the time to be involved daily with the common folk. She understood the human emotions of suffering and grief. The Goddess Demeter is asociated to the Harvest Season as the Good Mother, the life giver, the Corn Mother, the Queen who resided over grains and fertility of the Earth, the giver of food. When you honor Her you are honoring not only the Harvest, the Sanctity of Marriage, the Cycle of Life and Death, and the divine order but you are also honoring yourself. You are apart of what you have created as god, both good and bad, we are none the less divine and beautiful in our humanity. "the story of Demeter illustrates the tremendous capacity of a woman to love and nurture, with her own fiamly and the world at large. It also reminds us to stand firm for what is good and right, even in the face of adversity, when powerful forces are against us. She reminds us of the Seasons of a womans life, that even though there are times of grea sorrow there is also great joy to be found." www.goddessgift.com/goddess--myths/greek_goddess_demeter.htm