Persephone was a Shaman
Someone who can travel back and forth in between worlds. This describes a Shaman. It also describes Persephone. Most stories that include Persephone focus on her as a maiden goddess who was abducted by Hades, the god of hell, into his dark and dangerous Underworld. What is overlooked is that this young, purportedly naive and clueless girl was actually a powerful feminine force, who spent her time in hell making sure that she could see in the dark. When she was finally returned to the land of the living, she used her powers to guide those who were also afraid of the dark. Today, we call these people therapists, psychiatrists, all good folks who want to help people navigate the darkest buried parts of their souls. But we forget about the original therapist: the shaman. Long before DBT, cognitive approches to therapy and psychotropic drugs to help those suffering from depression and other mental illnesses, there were shamans. These were the people who had suffered f...
