I read Mel Rye‘s August newsletter earlier this week where she talked insightfully about our ‘creative seasons’. I find it such a helpful concept and it reminded me of an audiobook I listened to a long time ago called The Creative Fire by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Dr Estés is a Jungian psychoanalyst and cantadora (keeper of the old stories) who uses storytelling and myth to illuminate core human experiences.

In The Creative Fire she talks about the ancient Greek story of Demeter and Persephone as an allegory for the cycles of our creativity. It’s a powerful retelling that has stayed with me since I first read it over 15 years ago.

The story goes that one day the goddess Demeter’s daughter, Persephone vanishes. Distraught, Demeter, the goddess of fertility and agriculture, neglects her duties and roams the Earth searching for her daughter. In her grief and despair the plants wither and die, plunging the world into a barren winter.

Eventually she uncovers the location of her daughter – she is in the one place Demeter can’t go – the Underworld. Demeter demands her return and an agreement is reached. However, while in the Underworld, Persephone consumed food. As a result she is tied to that place and must return for a portion of each year. This grieves her mother Demeter, who lets the world fall into barrenness (winter) until her daughter returns each year, bringing spring.

Used traditionally within Ancient Greek mythology to explain the seasons, Dr Estés consider this story as a metaphor to explain those times when we lose our creative fire (Persephone), we grieve it’s loss, and our world feels barren and empty until it returns.

Those frustrating times – creative winters as Mel calls them – where it seems like nothing is happening are an important part of the creative process. Much as we might like to, we cannot create endlessly. These winters give us time to rest, and time for our subconscious to do it’s mysterious work that then bursts forth an unexpected bounty of creative growth, much like what happens quite literally in the natural world where the ground appears to go barren over the winter months, before bursting into life again come spring.

The Creative Fire is an audiobook which is read by Dr Estés herself and is well worth a listen. You can find a 15 minute preview of it on YouTube: The Creative Fire: Myths and Stories on the Cycles of Creativity

I find the power that stories and metaphors have over us fascinating – their ability to help us remember, to communicate and understand important lessons down the ages. The story of Demeter and Persephone is thousands of years old. That it still resonates and has meaning today is a wonderful marvel.

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If you found this article interesting, you might enjoy my quarterly newsletter Skail Mail where it first appeared.

Skail Mail is sent 4 times per year, and features a small collection of sneak peaks into my sketchbook, things I find interesting, and updates on new classes I’m teaching or events I’m participating in.