Let Go, Come Closer

Sunday, December 14th, 2025
Facilitator: Sara Bensman

The origins of the seasons is understood through the tale of Persephone, who spends her winters in the underworld with the dark god of that world, Hades. In most tellings, she is taken by him against her will, but perhaps she chooses to be with this dark lover.

Persephone’s mother, Demeter, the goddess of seeds, growth and fertility, decimated by the loss of her beloved daughter to the world of death, arranges a solution in which Persephone is returned to her. But then, in a surprising twist, Persephone eats the pomegranate seeds from the underworld and this act commits her to returning to Hades every winter. And thus begins the seasons.

This back and forth she does each year between the verdant world of creation and the dark world of death is what makes Persephone both complex and familiar. Don’t we all have to find the balance within us to survive the vicissitude of life? We are constantly in the throws of calling what we love closer and letting go of what no longer feeds us. This mix is an honoring of that tension between moving towards and releasing, making room in our internal closet for the springtime by honoring the letting go of the winter.

Photograph by Laura Pashby