Love... It is the first feeling that spring evokes, usually to the human spirit. She sometimes travels in songs, saying, "I fall in love every spring," and transforms into pollen, floating in the cottony and fragile air with her ecstatic dance... Who does not meet, doves awaiting spring, animals arising from hibernation, seeds... Spring love is a childlike master that reigns not only in the human soul, but also in all of nature and the animal world.
Few people today are familiar with the mythological and epic story of spring... Surprisingly, this story serves two functions, much like the dualism that exists in the human soul. Ironically, the reflection of the dark and mortal world is the first cause of winter and the light and vital spring. The magical word "Love," which warms the heart of the dark lord, who is in an underground exile similar to Hades, brings spring to the realm of the dead, while the same emotion causes winter and death on Earth, the world of the living. Doesn't love, in the human soul, kill and resurrect, make one laugh and another cry?
How was our story?
That dark soul of Hades, the god of the underworld, was enlightened the first time he saw Persephone. While darkness reigned in a land devoid of sunlight, Persephone had risen to her world like the sun. How he couldn't stand the smell of a daffodil flower, and how he captured and kidnapped it to his solitude in the land of the dead to make a lamp... He had taken it by force to the dark beds of the land of death without asking... Persephone, whose eyes and lips were dry from crying, was given a pomegranate instead of a solitaire ring. And as soon as he ate the first one, Hades' love settled in his heart as well... And Hades was well aware that if he ate anything from the underworld, he would never return to Earth. Love was now also death, burning with the fire of the pomegranate. As a result, the fire of love was possibly the first torch of the land of death.
Demether, the Goddess of Fertility, the painful mother who ran to her son's cries, could not find her daughter anywhere, even though her desperate searches continued. She begged the Sun God Helios for days and finally learned her daughter's location from him. When he realized it was no longer possible for him to return, he suppressed his cries and vanished. The crops turned yellow and withered, the flowers dried up, hurricanes blew furiously, and then winter came and froze every crop, killing the earth. Before him, no one knew, no God knew the white snow. Silence had brought about a white death on the earth, comparable to the darkness of the land of the dead. All the Gods pleaded with Demeter to return, but she always said, "Persephone." And Zeus finally decided that Persephone should spend six months underground and six months on earth. That's why spring is a holiday in every geography... Demether's desire to resurrect the dying nature, the joy of reuniting a mother and her daughter... It is a feast worthy of commemoration, with the reason for spring being love...
In fact, every person spiritually descends to the world of the dead with Hades during the winter, and when spring arrives, they break their soul and its velvet curtains. She wrapped herself in thick clothes all winter to feel safe like Persephone in the underworld. They are actually a shroud that is scented with linden. Maybe one unknowingly mummifies oneself like this until spring. When you peel a pomegranate, you don't realize that every grain belongs to winter...
Spring, on the other hand, ushers in rebirth, with each seed stripped of its shell. Souls, like bodies, extricate themselves from their mantle. A state of ascension in the souls and a bit of mania, madness, how beautiful is this enthusiasm... While stepping on the grass and smelling the wildflowers, one does not look for anything else... He knows that love is fire, it brings both winter and spring. Would winter be worth anything if there was no love, and would spring be worth anything if there was no winter?
Love... Just as the fire of the pomegranate turned something burning into winter, a person must believe that one day he will emerge from his own winter of pain that hurts everyone. Every value, every person, every love, every success, in short, everything he has, taken from him and taken to the land of the dead, returns to him one day. But now the form of the thing or the presentation tray is different. As long as one is not afraid of love, one should know that it is made of fire and snow, and that spring comes after winter... When Persephone went for a walk in the countryside again, she knew she had to return, and she only had six months left in Demether, who hugged her and covered everything in flowers from her joy... But they were never afraid to think about it constantly, to live in the present moment, and to love. They did not hide in their homes, crying in beds. They did not die today and were buried six months later. Mother and daughter stood up and just created, savoring the moment, fearlessly smelling the wildflowers and daffodils...
While the seasons change, many people today experience "spring fatigue," which is a type of depression. Maybe he comes out to spring tired of waiting for Demether in the depths of his soul. After a long hibernation, bodies like Demether cannot believe that spring has arrived. Like Persephone, both skins and souls long for the sun and care, so going for a walk during sunny hours, breathing in the fresh air, remembering these two heroines while watching the joy and chirpy feast of nature, getting skin care, and having both a tired and a healthy body are all good things to do. Indulging the soul a little, creating a new sleep arrangement to end the winter sluggishness, refreshing by drinking plenty of water, and thanking Demether by eating plenty of spring vegetables and fruits all help to overcome depression in a healthy way.
Do yourself a favor this spring by reading a mythological story, using a care and regeneration cure, looking at nature with gratitude, and starting over. Remember you are alive and you only have six months to create, so why not celebrate every moment of it?
Psc. Elif Yılmaz Masal Psychological Counseling Services @maviperiden