December

Change, endings and rebirth

December closes the calendar: a time of reflection and preparation for change. Its myth belongs to Pluto/Hades, god of the Underworld, and Demeter/Ceres, goddess of agriculture and harvest, so powerful she too was called “Mother Nature”. When Pluto took Demeter’s daughter Persephone as his queen, Demeter’s grief left the land barren until a compromise was reached: six months with her mother in spring and summer, six with her husband in fall and winter.

Moving between two worlds made Persephone a symbol of duality and of rebirth. If Demeter is the endless cycle and Pluto the transformation at the end of things, Persephone is the reinvention that follows, the hope of light after a time of darkness. December, the author writes, does not signal the end; it reminds us to stop, reflect, remember, and plan for what lies ahead.