Psycho-Social Connections

Carlson, Kathy. Life’s Daughter/ Death’s Bride: Inner Transformations Through the Goddess Demeter/ Persephone. New York: Shambala, 1997. Print.

While picking flowers, a young woman is abducted away from the familiar world of her mother to the ghostly underworld of Hades. This splitting of Mother and Daughter is the crux of the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone, a tale that holds as much meaning for us today as it did in ancient times. The story of how Demeter's daughter becomes Persephone, Queen of the Dead, and is ransomed back from death by her mother depicts profound psychological transformations. Writing from the perspectives of Jungian psychology and goddess spirituality, Kathie Carlson examines the deep reverberations of this myth in both ancient religion and the inner lives and relationships of contemporary men and women. Included in her discussion are: The Mother-Daughter archetype as feminine self, Hades as shadow in men and animus in women, the plight of women who "live the myth backwards," and the mystery path of Demeter.