the myth of demeter and persephone and the archetypal ... · development of personality … means...

THE MYTH OF DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE AND THE ARCHETYPAL NECESSITY FOR DESCENDING INTO HADES

KRISTINA DRYZA

Kristina Dryza © 2018

“The power of myth, its reality, resides precisely in its power to seize and influence psychic life. The Greeks knew this so well, and so they had

no depth psychology and psychopathology such as we have. They had myths. And we have no myths as such - instead, depth psychology and

psychopathology. Therefore ... psychology shows myths in modern dress and myths show our

depth psychology in ancient dress.” – James Hillman


“All the most powerful ideas in history go back to archetypes. This is particularly true of religious

ideas, but the central concepts of science, philosophy, and ethics are no exception to this rule. In their present form they are variants of archetypal ideas created by consciously applying and adapting

these ideas to reality. For it is the function of consciousness not only to recognise and assimilate

the external world through the gateway of the senses, but to translate into visible reality the world

within us.” – C G Jung


“For somewhere we are all virgins, sensitive, she, psychologically naïve, unexplored in our emotional life, unwilling to be called into involvements, unawakened to the terribleness of truth, resistant to major challenge, preferring where it is safe, at home, familiar and protected, with books or bits of handiwork, kindly, charitable, obedient, well meaning. Yet from all this goodness little can come unless the psyche’s womb receives the fiery seed of one’s own unique essence which fulfils its creative longing and from which inner fertilisation issues the experience of renewal.” – James Hillman


“Trust is an aspect of the virgin and the anima, one who is unto herself, who is who she is. To truly know oneself engenders trust in oneself. The word trust has several roots: the old Norse word traust means confidence,

firmness; trust is derived from the same root as true and truth; and from the old French triste, the appointed place

for positioning oneself. And as Jung says: The development of personality … means fidelity to the law of one’s own being. For the word fidelity, I should prefer, in this context, the word used in the New Testament, pistis … this means trust, trustful loyalty. Fidelity to the law of

one’s own being is a trust in this law, a loyal perseverance, and confident hope.” – Michael Owen


You’ve got to get yourself together You’ve got stuck in a moment

And now you can’t get out of it Don’t say that later will be better Now you’re stuck in a moment

And you can’t get out of it And if the night runs over And if the day won’t last

And if our way should falter Along the stony pass

And if, and if the night runs over And if the day won’t last

And if your way should falter Along the stony pass

It’s just a moment, this time will pass – Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of, U2


The grapes of my body can only become wine After the winemaker tramples me.

I surrender my spirit like grapes to his trampling So my inmost heart can blaze and dance with joy.

Although the grapes go on weeping blood and sobbing “I cannot bear any more anguish, any more cruelty”

The trampler stuffs cotton in his ears: “I am not working in ignorance

You can deny me if you want, you have every excuse, But it is I who am the Master of this Work.

And when through my Passion you reach Perfection, You will never be done praising my name.” – Rumi


the myth of demeter and persephone and the archetypal ... · development of personality … means...

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