The actual rites involved were intimately based on the Myth of Demeter's loss and reunion with her beloved child. One day whilst out gathering flowers, Persephone was abducted at the Fountain of Cyane by the God of the underworld-Pluto. Demeter, in a heartbroken state, searched for her far and wide to no avail. Eventually the Nymph Arethusa informed the distraught mother to the whereabouts of Persephone. With this news, Demeter urged the mighty Jupiter to bring back the youthful Goddess to her rightful place. He agreed to restore Persephone fully to Demeter on the condition that the Corn-maiden had not eaten anything whilst in Pluto's realm. Unfortunately, herein Persephone had devoured the grains of a Pomegranate. However, after observing Demeter's deep lament, Jupiter ruled that the Young Goddess could spend six months with her mother and the rest with Pluto.

This ancient Pagan legend is undoubtedly a seasonal metaphor, time-locked into the changing cycles of nature's rich harvest bounty. The beautiful flowers of the earth, the ripening young cornfields wisely personified in Persephone. Demeter becomes the golden, mature inheritance of the earlier spring sowing. She is the great Earth Mother who turns the green meadows into gold and thus knows all things under the life-giving sun.

The mysteries were celebrated with much solemnity involving massive processions, veneration and spiritual initiation. The Romans adopted the feast of the Eleusinia at the period of Hadrian and aspects of it may have filtered through into Britain with the localised worship of Ceres (the Roman equivalent of Demeter.) Incidentally, Ceres gives her name to cereal - the food grains of the corn crop.

September grants us a last chance to savour the fading light of summer. Soon, the equinox is upon us with the first promise of autumnal frost. Hot, halcyon days drift into nostalgia as familiar russet and copper hues again take precedence, painting the woodlands with their eternal glory. Light and dark are now in balance, like the harmonised mythological structure of Persephone's shared time with Demeter and Pluto.

We benefit from seeking to understand the lessons from the storehouse of antediluvian, Pagan knowledge. This timeless wisdom speaks more to the intuitive/psychic levels of man than the worldly mundane. Without balance on all levels, chaos reigns supreme! Our Pre-Christian forebears knew this old truth well and thus captivated such realisation for us in all the ancient mysteries.