A rich story for Ash Wednesday--and Lent--and winter moving toward spring--is the Greek tale of Persephone (per-sef-uh-nee) and Demeter (dih-mih-ter).
Persephone, young and beautiful, is abducted by Hades, Lord of the Underworld. Demeter, her mother, leaves the heavens to search for her.
It's a powerful force--what a mother feels for a lost child. A wonderful icon of the potential energy we humans have for life's most important adventures.
Demeter searches and learns about Persephone's capture--that Hades has taken her beautiful daughter as his bride. The one she longs to help is imprisoned in the underworld. And Demeter cannot go there herself. BUT she doesn't give up. She finds...a way.
It's a long and eventful story! I plan to refer to it over the next few days.
One word for this kind journey Demeter takes is Katabasis (kuh-tab-uh-sis)--a Greek word that means 'a going down.' The story of Demeter and Persephone shows us what the 'going down' is about: Looking for what we love--never giving up on what we've lost--insisting that whatever is imprisoned be set free.
Prayer can be very like katabasis. Prayer is sometimes described as the mind descending into the heart. Meditation also sinks us to that deep still point.
Katabasis can also be about justice--taking risks so that what we love and who we love can be set free.
Why does Jesus 'go down to Jerusalem?' Why does Gautama, awakened under the Bodhi tree, even though he's offered the chance to enter Nirvana now, choose instead to stay here for the rest of his life?
There are many crucial journeys life calls us to take that we can't manage on our own.
What have we lost? What do we love? What takes us to the place where we are empowered to take risks for what we love?
How do we get there? How do we see in the dark?
How do we trust the Frodo in each of us that says, "I will take the ring--though I do not know the way?"
What is the Wisdom and the Way of Katabasis?
