DEMETER, the grain goddess, giver of gifts from below, who was there long before most other gods. As old as agriculture, which she taught to the humans. Preserver of the laws of nature, of "give and receive". Connected to everything underground, the seed as much as the deceased. Some traditions even called the dead "those who belong to Demeter", which makes me think of her more as a goddess of soil than a goddess of grain alone. Presiding over the rotting, the decomposition and the compost, from which new life can grow. She once seduced a human in a freshly plowed field. Godx, how I wish to have been that human! And how tasty the food from that field must have been! Aiiiiii!
Myth shows her in constant struggle with the newly arrived rapist gods who were made into her brothers and her consorts, mostly against her will. Her wrath unparalleled: When land was mistreated, her daughter stolen, her dignity disrespected, when some king felled a sacred oak tree just because he could, famine and hunger were the consequence of her rage. Life stopped creating Life and went on strike. Mentioned king, Erysichthon, got so hungry that he sold everything in order to buy more food, more food ...and more food. He could not stop eating. Nothing filled the void that opened up when he killed the tree spirit, disconnecting himself from the sanctity of all life. In the end, he devoured himself. Sounds contemporary to me lol
In tomorrow's first edition of HANG WITH THE GODxS! * You are all that * Weekly Archetypal Playtime (Online), we will follow Demeter's journey, her grief, rage, laughter and blossoming in embodied storytelling. We will not pray to her, but find her inside ourselves, the shadow, light and germinating power of a goddess willing to face patriarchal exploitation and stand for Life. It's an intuitively guided journey, a little bit of immersive online theatre and a little bit of ritual. Simple, fun, connected. Featuring a guest apperance by my sister Jovana Abroad as the goddess of jest and Vulvas. Stay tuned.
