It's a challenge to fully describe the myth of Demeter and
Persephone as teaching a moral lesson. The myth's primary level of explanation or
lesson might be more natural than all else in terms of explanation of the season change.
On a more symbolic level, one can use the myth to teach the nature of creation and
destruction being one in the same. The same regenerative forces that end up
replenishing the earth and driving its bounty are also the same that bring coldness and
a sense of desolation to the Earth. Demeter must live with the joy of being with her
daughter, but is also bound to live with her absence. She is incapable of living a life
that is totally present with happiness and elation. By the same token, she is relieved
of living a life of total despair and misery. This might be the symbolic lesson to all
readers, suggesting that consciousness is complex enough to bridge both the experiences
that bring us happiness and the ones that cause us to hurt. Perhaps, there is a moral
lesson here, after all.
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