Persephone: 6 Powerful Ways to Connect With the Goddess of the Underworld
Who is the Goddess Persephone?
There’s something intangibly alluring about Persephone.
From her fairytale-like origins as spring maiden, to her rise as the Queen of the Underworld.
She is the daughter of the storm god Zeus and the verdant grain goddess Demeter.
Persephone’s other name is Kore ‘Maiden’—her spring maiden aspect.
The myth of Persephone’s descent is one of the most well-known stories in western literature.
The origins of the name ‘Persephone’ are lost to time.
The ancient Greeks often referred to her using titles rather than her name.
This is in line with their general fear and aversion to all things underworldy…
(That’s not a word, but now it is).
There’s also a suggestion from classicists that her name may have pre-Greek roots—meaning she may predate some of the more familiar Greek gods.
Fast forward to 2023.
Persephone is a goddess that’s frequently being reinvented—countless romance novels have been written about her.
Yes, I’m into those kinds of books lmao.
What Can I Pray to Persephone For?
Persephone can be prayed to for help with:
New beginnings
Guidance in dark times
Independence
Personal power
Protection
Renewal
Shadow work
Is Persephone reaching out to me?
I have no idea!
But the fact that you’re here reading this article probably means you’d like to honour her.
You don’t have to be called by a deity to worship them.
If you want to worship Persephone (or any god), that’s enough of a reason to do so!
How to Connect With Persephone
One of the best ways to grow fulfilling relationships with the gods, is to venerate them within their own cultural context.
Honouring the gods of ancient cultures means acknowledging that they knew best about how to honour and petition the gods.
Honouring Persephone in the way that she was worshipped for generations, increases your chances of building a long-term relationship with her.
Cultural Context Matters
A big part of embracing the ancient Greek cultural context is not imposing your past religious beliefs onto Persephone’s worship.
If you were brought up with a monotheistic religion, you will have internalised some toxic beliefs about deity.
Here are some things to be aware of when connecting to Persephone and other Greek gods:
The myths aren’t literal.
The gods welcome everyone regardless of gender, sexuality or ethnicity.
The gods don’t get angry.
The gods don’t have ‘beef’ with one another.
Below you’ll find how to begin a relationship with Persephone, rooted in the ancient Greek culture she was worshipped in.
persephone summary
Festival: Thesmophoria
Home: Underworld
Parents: Zeus and Demeter
Colours: Black, red, white
Plants: Asphodel, pomegranate, wheat
Symbols: Pomegranate, torch
Traditional Offerings: Barley, frankincense, honey, milk, olive oil, votive offerings, water, wine
Non-Traditional Offerings: Cakes, candles, fruit juice, flowers, honeyed milk, pomegranates
Epithets: Kore ‘Maiden’ Khthonia ‘Of the Earth’ Karpophoros ‘Bringer of Fruit’ Sôteira ‘Saviour’ Megala Thea Great Goddess Hagnê ‘Holy One’ Daeira ‘Knowing One’ Praxidikê ‘Exacter of Justice’
1. Learn About Persephone’s Myths and Epithets
The first step to connecting to Persephone is to read her myths.
Just remember, don’t take the myths literally.
It’s unlikely that the ancient Greeks engaged in mythic literalism and we shouldn’t either.
The myths are stories that reveal insights into the nature of the gods in a more subtle, allegorical way.
Persephone’s most famous myth is her abduction into marriage by king of the underworld, Hades.
But there are other more obscure myths.
For example, the one where Persephone creates humanity out of clay.
Yes, really.
Persephone’s Epithets
Epithets are titles or descriptive functions of deities that were used in antiquity.
Some of these epithets are cult titles and some are titles from the poetic tradition.
Epithets help us to understand the full spectrum of a deity and their function in ancient times.
Here are a few of Persephone’s epithets:
Kore ‘Maiden’
Khthonia ‘Of the Earth’
Karpophoros ‘Bringer of Fruit’
Sôteira ‘Saviour’
2. How to Create An Altar to Persephone
Before we talk about altars, I just need to tell you that Persephone in her underworld aspect is considered a kthonic deity.
I mean, technically, she’s a liminal deity.
But that’s getting complicated.
The ancient Greeks worshipped the Kthonic gods differently to the Ouranic gods and kept their rites strictly separate.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?!
Just keep any altar to Persephone away from any Ouranic deity altars.
As mixing them together could incur miasma.
Ouranic deities are to be kept pure and not come into contact with death.
In ancient Greece, Kthonic gods were honoured at night, outside with offerings made directly into a pit in the ground.
But feel free to create a separate Persephone altar because not everyone has a garden.
And digging random pits into a park might make you look a bit weird.
‘Sorry, I’m just digging this pit because I need somewhere to bury my offerings to the DREAD QUEEN OF THE UNDERWORLD…’
If you’re worshipping Persephone in the spring or you’re specifically drawn to her Kore aspect—then you can honour her using Ouranic praxis.
But in this post we’re focusing exclusively on her role as Queen of the Underworld.
Thus, we’re only going to be discussing Kthonic rites.
Persephone Altar Ideas
Image of Persephone
Offering bowl
Incense burner
Black, red or white candle(s)
Black, red or white crystals
Roses, bees, pomegranates, light and dark
3. How To Pray To Persephone
The ancient Greeks would have prayed to Persephone with their hands palm down towards a pit in the earth, with eyes averted.
Sometimes they would bang upon the earth to get an underworld deity’s attention.
How to do it
Sit before your altar or offering pit.
Hold your palms facing down towards the floor.
Avert your eyes.
Whisper your prayer out loud.
For example:
Hear me, Persephone! Saviour, Holy One, Queen of the Underworld. Or whatever name it most pleases you to be called.
Come from your place in the Underworld.
I have created an altar for you and I would like to feel your presence in my life, may this offering of incense please you.
Unfortunately, Persephone doesn’t have a Homeric Hymn...
But she does have a surviving Orphic Hymn!
What’s nice is we can incorporate these into our veneration of the Greek gods.
I like to give a physical offering and then recite a hymn, but you definitely don’t have to recite one every time you make an offering.
Orphic Hymn to persephone
Daughter of Zeus, almighty and divine,
Come, blessed queen, and to these rites incline:
Only-begotten, Pluto’s honoured wife,
O venerable Goddess, source of life:
'Tis thine in earth’s profundities to dwell,
Fast by the wide and dismal gates of hell:
Jove's holy offspring, of a beauteous mien,
Fatal, with lovely locks, infernal queen:
Source of the furies, whose blest frame proceeds
From Zeus’s ineffable and secret seeds:
Mother of Bacchus, Sonorous, divine,
And many-formed, the parent of the vine:
The dancing Hours attend thee, essence bright,
All-ruling virgin, bearing heavenly light:
Illustrious, horned, of a bounteous mind,
Alone desired by those of mortal kind.
O, vernal queen, whom grassy plains delight,
Sweet to the smell, and pleasing to the sight:
Whose holy form in budding fruits we view,
Earth's vigorous offspring of a various hue:
Espoused in Autumn: life and death alone
To wretched mortals from thy power is known:
For thine the task according to thy will,
Life to produce, and all that lives to kill.
Hear, blessed Goddess, send a rich increase
Of various fruits from earth, with lovely Peace;
Send Health with gentle hand, and crown my life
With blest abundance, free from noisy strife;
Last in extreme old age the prey of Death,
Dismiss we willing to the realms beneath,
To thy fair palace, and the blissful plains
Where happy spirits dwell, and Pluto reigns.
4. How To Give Offerings To Persephone
All Pagan traditions are built on the concept of giving offerings to deities.
The ancient Greeks had a word for the reciprocity they built with the gods through offerings.
Kharis.
The ancient Greeks believed that through devotional acts such as prayer, offerings, attending states festivals and pious living, they could build beneficial long-term relationships with the gods.
In return, the gods may occasionally favour them.
To build a relationship with Persephone, it’s preferable to give her regular offerings.
If you’re unable to make physical offerings because…
REASONS.
Then try devotional action-based offerings.
State out loud that you’re devoting something you’re doing to Persephone as an offering.
For example:
Hear me Persephone. Maiden, Holy One, Great Goddess. Or whatever name it most pleases you to be called. I dedicate this song to you in offering. Praise Persephone!
As for physical offerings…
Offerings to Persephone should be given whole and poured directly into a pit in the ground.
Offerings made to Kthonic deities should not be consumed.
Nothing terrible is going to happen if you do accidentally take a nibble—but it’s ritually taboo.
Offerings
Grains
Honey
Milk
Olive oil
Wine
Devotional acts
How to Give offerings
Giving Kthonic offerings is a very simple process:
After darkness has fallen, wash your hands.
Go outside and direct palms towards the ground. Avert your eyes and whisper your prayer aloud.
Pour out a libation of honey mixed with oat milk.
Keep your eyes averted and spend a few minutes in quiet contemplation.
How Do You Dispose of Offerings?
If you can’t place your offering directly into a pit in the ground, you have some other options:
Pour libations down the sink.
Compost any food offerings (or use the bin and invest in a composter later).
Avoid leaving food or material offerings outside because, littering.
How Often Should You Give Offerings?
The answer is as often as you want to.
The more important a deity is to you the more frequently you’ll probably want to give offerings.
You can give offerings daily, weekly or monthly.
It’s defintely not a historical thing…
But an appropriate day to give offerings to Persephone is on a Monday or a Saturday.
It’s fine to give offerings to her whenever you wish.
5. How to Communicate With Persephone
We can communicate with the gods in several ways. Historically, these would have been through:
Prayer
Offerings
Divination
Signs
Theurgy
As I’ve been whittering on about for most of this post, we can utilise what the ancients did for (hopefully) similarly successful results.
Divination
Divination was super popular in ancient Greece.
We can use it today to (maybe) recieve a message from Persephone.
To connect with Persephone through divination follow these steps:
Wash you hands.
Ask your question out loud in the form of a prayer.
Make an offering.
Shuffle the deck.
Interpret the cards and spend some time journalling about their meaning.
I’ve had a lot more success with this kind of practice by using decks that resonate with the energy of the deity I’m attempting to commune with.
That’s just a fancy way of saying that the deck’s art reminds me of the deity.
Personally, I feel like Tarot of Vampyres screams Persephone.
It’s all gothic romance and pretty people.
Signs
It’s embarrassing the amount of people who seem to think anything from a pendulum falling out of their bag, to a bird taking a dump on their car is a sign from a god.
Not everything is a sign.
Signs are uncommon.
They tend to really leap out at you as being really significant.
If you need to ask, ‘is this a sign?’
Then it probably isn’t.
Follow the steps below to ask Persephone for a sign:
Ask for the sign in the form of a prayer.
Make an offering.
Ask for the sign to appear within a reasonable timeframe.
Wait and see!
If you don’t receive one…
Be cool, soda pop.
It’s literally fine.
MEDITATION
You can ask Persephone to connect with you during meditation and see if you receive any messages.
The first few times you do this, you’re unlikely to receive anything.
But that’s nothing to feel bad about.
It takes a lot of practise to successfully enter altered states of consciousness and receive genuine divine guidance.
Emphasis on the genuine.
When it comes down to it, modern life really isn’t conducive for meditation and inner stillness.
Scroll.
Scroll.
Scroll.
Ad infinitum.
The best thing you can do to improve your ability to meditate, apart from attempting to do it regularly…
Is to put down the phone.
Give yourself brief periods during the day when you’re not listening to, or watching anything.
Unfortunately, we can’t have it all.
The age of distraction pushes us further away from the divine.
If we really want to connect with the gods, then we have to prioritise the health of our psyche’s.
To contact Persephone through meditation, follow the basic steps below:
Quiet your mind through deep breathing.
Ask her to be with you in the form of a prayer.
Make an offering.
Chant her name as you deep breathe.
Sit in stillness for around five to ten minutes if possible.
Write down any insights.
For more direct ecstatic experiences of the gods we turn to theurgy or theourgia.
For a modern interpretation I recommend:
6. Devotional Acts to Connect With Persephone
While tradition is a useful roadmap…
The view can get boring sometimes?
Modern devotionals to the gods are the fun stop offs along the way.
Below, you’ll find a few modern devotional activities to the goddess of light and dark.
Grow plants
Persephone is also known as Kore and she’s associated with all the lovely, green-growing things.
If you have access to private outdoor space—start a garden!
Grow some herbs, plants or actual veggies.
Gardening is an excellent devotional activity to dedicate to Persephone, as you can offer her small amounts of flowers or produce as an offering.
Light a Candle
Persephone represents both light and dark.
In the evenings, light a candle and whisper a prayer to Persphone to illuminate the darkness.
Meditate on Balance
I love a bit of simple meditation.
This is something you can do weekly or monthly—to help restore balance.
Hold a black crystal in one hand and a white crystal in the other.
You can meditate on the Persephone herself, the polarity of light and dark, or even the balance of it within yourself.
Shadow Work
Shadow work is a way to explore and integrate the repressed or hidden parts of ourselves in order to become more complete.
A modern interpretation of Persephone’s mythology is a journey to acceptance and balance of Persephone’s dark and light sides—by choosing both, she becomes more whole.
Journalling is the easiest way to begin shadow work.
Journal about this prompt:
What part of myself do I avoid looking at—and why?
You can also pull a tarot card to go deeper.
Shadow work should never replace therapy or be performed if someone has experienced trauma.
Poking around ones psyche can be distressing!
Visit Cemetries or Graveyards
Visiting the dead is a great devotional activity to Persephone—while you’re walking, try to pick up any stray litter, or stand up knocked over vases of flowers.
Walk around and contemplate the ending of a life cycle.
What does death mean to you?
Play Music
Put that Spotify subscription to good use!
Modern songs can also be played as offerings to the gods—I’ve linked some songs that give me all the Persephone vibes.
You can play any of these as offerings to her, or you can listen to them as a way to connect with her underworld energy.