Goddess of the Week: Demeter

Motherhood is not a television sitcom. It is not twenty-minute segments of hilarity followed by the perfect and permanent resolution of problems. Motherhood is a hard business. Don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise. Just ask the Greek goddess Demeter.

When her own brother Hades, lord of the underworld, kidnapped and married her beloved daughter Persephone, Demeter wandered the earth searching for clues to her disappearance. When she finally discovered the truth of her brother's crime, she found no sympathy on Mount Olympus. No goddesses cried for her. No gods came running to her aid. Accustomed to the sexual politics of conquest, at which most of them excelled so well, the immortals of ancient Greece threw Demeter and Persephone straight under the bus.

But Demeter was no June Cleaver or Carol Brady. She did not put her faith in laugh tracks and meatloaf. She put it in vengeance. The goddess of all green and growing things, she threatened to let the natural world die if she didn't get her daughter back. (Not a total psycho-bitch she secretly taught humans how to harvest grain so they could survive lean times.) Well, even the gods knew that there was no fun in omnipotence if there was no around to worship you, so the king of the gods, Zeus (Demeter's other brother), eventually capitulated and told Hades he had to give Persephone back.

Alas, Persephone had eaten three pomegranate seeds and once one eats in Hades one belongs to Hades. (Remember that the next time you're deciding where to dine.) A deal was made. Persephone would spend three months a year in Hades (one for each seed) and the rest of the time with Demeter. Each winter trees and plants wither and die because Demeter is once again mourning the loss of her daughter, and then Spring returns because Persephone is given back.

Isn't that motherhood right there? Sunny days interspersed with sadness and mourning. One day everything is lollipops and blue skies, and the next day you're cleaning vomit out of your ear or wondering how your charming offspring can be so consistently under-appreciated by teachers, peers and college admission officers. And that's if you're lucky. That's if your lollipops and blue skies aren't interspersed with demons like chemo or drugs or depression or whatever ugly hobglobbin is invading your happy home.

Channel the goddess Demeter: When overwhelmed by the demands of caregiving. She's been feeling your pain for thousands of years and she understands good times and bad times are always cyclical, which means the bad times always pass, but, then, so do the good ones.

Need a goddess? Is there an issue that plagues you? Is there a place in your life where you need more inspiration? More appreciation? More support? Tell me your need and I will find you your goddess.