Persephone was not abducted into the Underworld. She entered of her own free will.

Could it be that Perspephone chose to enter the Underworld? There are many re-imaginings of this myth reprinted below. The overall thread is that Persephone wanted to understand the deeper mysteries, and the only way of doing that was by going down below. In the pre-patriarchal understandings of this myth, Pluto was female, and part of the tripartite structure of the Great Goddess: Maiden (Persephone), Mother (Demeter/Ceres), Crone (Hecate). Although the process of death, transformation and rebirth is the realm of Pluto in the modern world, it is much older than the Greco-Roman myths.
I have included excerpts from many authors, and have highlighted those sentences that illuminate this re-imagining of the Persphone myth:

Excerpted from 'Persephone and Virgo' by Mirjam

Here are several motifs. First there is the young Persephone, the girl who doesn't want to leave her mother, which can lead to a person not developing in his/her life. She might think it is enough to "keep clean" on a surface level, a trivial, everyday level, dealing with what food to eat or what method to do housecleaning with etc. The classical Virgo type is often described this way. She might be very clever doing the mundane functions, but does not dare to meet any great challenges. In that sense life is coming to a halt, she has not really stopped living with the mother.

Then there is in Virgo a very sensual side, that she often doesn't realize. Maybe they are only afraid of their own strong, inner sensual forces and hide themselves behind a facade of "purity". In Persephone we see this in the fact that she actually stays with her dark husband and, in some varieties of the story, give [sic] birth to a child, Dionysos (which is a divine child). We are told of no struggle from her part to get away.

A third factor is that she has herself brought about her fate, even if its done unconsciously. She goes away and plucks that narcissus and everything is thereby put into motion. It could be said that it is her ignorance that opens the door to the hidden forces from the underground. And through this she gets a chance to experiences which she never would have gotten had she stayed with the mother all the time. And it is exactly these experiences that allow her to grow as a human being.

What I think stands out is the pomegranate, the symbol of fertility, and the divine child Dionysos. Virgos often have a sort of spiritual quality which in certain circumstances can prepare for something special to grow within. To be self-sufficient is also to be clean and untouched in spirit, which can sometimes be seen in Virgos. But even the most pure and untouched human being can benefit from having an encounter with the dark forces of the underground. The myth tells us that this is one place where something divine can be born, if we are called upon to pick the narcissus.

Excerpted from 'Persephone - An Intuitive View' by Aimee Bova

In my view, Persephone was a wise woman, a knower of hidden knowledge. I believe she gleaned her knowledge from the spirits in nature. Plant spirits, animal spirits, water spirits, all spirits. I believe that Persephone was not abducted by Hades at all. I think she was well aware of him and had already encountered him as an energy all ready present in the cycles of change all creatures experience. Even if the world was ever verdant and green prior to “Demeter’s Curse” (the catalyst for seasonal changes), still, no flower bloomed perpetually. Always, there would be a process of change; creatures would be born, would grow, and renew themselves. I believe also that Hades, like Persephone exists today as much as then. In my view, Hades is the regenerative force that governs the renewal part of the process. The period of rest and sleep all life must go through at some point. I also liken this period of renewal to what we call death. Yet, it is not death at all, merely a process of change.

Persephone to me represents life and creation, therefore, she could not exist without Hades nor Hades without her. Each was an equal part of a greater whole. The dichotomy is that they were each still “whole” yet seemed to express themselves in contrast to the others focus of activity. To me it seems that in her embracing of life, she would had to have embraced death, Hades; and vice versa. So both are part of existence itself; an existence which is ceaselessly changing, ever in motion. In this light, I feel that contrary to the “victimized” female she has been portrayed as, she rather went willingly and knowingly with Hades to the underworld. Establishing herself as the knower of the whole. In turn, Hades received the promise of life immanent. Their relationship in my view served to unify both worlds. There was no one greater than the other here, no one more dominant. There was only one life, one world, one existence.

...upon her descent she become familiar with the aspect of existence called “the underworld”, “hell”, “dissolution”; symbolizing the awakening of the subconscious, that is, knowing the record of her existence, the Akasa. Her establishment as the new reigning Queen of the Underworld, and her ability to move between both worlds fluidly suggests to me a unique step in development. She was thoroughly aware of the depths, the soul of her being and had mastered death. She was master of both worlds, working with the greater order of existence and regulating the seasons as part of the cosmic plan. She was no longer unconscious, but consciously, subconsciously and now super-consciously aware from the process of evolution she experienced as symbolized by her life upon earth, her descent into the netherworld, and her return as Queen. A being transcendent.

Excerpted from Goddess Myths

...long before the mythical Hades was ever conceived, in more ancient, pre-patriarchal times, Persephone was Queen of the Underworld and was another form of Hecate. Originally, the Triple Goddess was represented by Kore, the virgin; Demeter, the mother preserver; and Hecate or Persephone, the destroyer. In later years, Kore and Persephone became the same Goddess. The pomegranate was an ancient symbol of female fertility; the souls of the underworld ate pomegranates so that they could be reborn.

Excerpted from CERES: SINGING UP THE CITY by Freya Mathews

The story of Demeter and her daughter, Persephone (also known as Kore), was in fact the oldest story in Greek mythology, deriving from the myths of Isis (Egypt) and Inanna (Sumer), where the latter is the earliest myth still extant in the Western tradition. Isis and Inanna were survivals from pre-patriarchal Old Europe, and they both preserved many features of the neolithic and paleolithic Great Goddess - the fertility Goddess who was for many thousands of years the primary deity of the agricultural peoples of prehistoric Europe and the Middle and Near East. The myth of the Great Goddess was one of renewal - of birth, death and regeneration. In its original form, it revolved around the annual sacrifice of the young Horned God, a grain god who was the son and consort of the Great Mother: the god was sacrificed/harvested annually in order that new life could arise out of his death/blood. In Sumer and Egypt, this primordial agricultural myth acquired new spiritual depth and maturity via a detailed telling of the goddess' own mortifying descent into the underworld: through her encounter with the shadow side of existence in the realm of death, the sources of life within her were restored and replenished, and she brought renewal back to the world above.

Excerpted from Estelle Daniels (Astrologickal Magick, Samuel Weiser, 1995, pp. 269-270) -- Purchase at amazon.com

Pluto was originally a female deity, but when the matriarchalists were subjugated, was changed to a male, although the powers and attributes remained pretty well intact. Pluto as a female deity was a Crone aspect of a chthonian, deep-earth Mother Goddess. She ruled underground wealth, mines, magick, deep mysteries, death and spirits of the dead, initiation and transformation. Persephone was a Maiden Goddess, daughter of Demeter the Earth-Mother, who ruled fertility, the fields, crops, and agriculture. Now consider that when Persephone left her mother to go down to Hades/Tartarus, the underworld, it was of her own free will. She voluntarily left her Mother to study with the Crone the things which were in her sphere of influence. She went to study, in brief, magick. And she was initiated into the Mysteries and underwent a transformation. This was symbolized by the eating of the pomegranate and her need to spend a portion of each year in Hades/Tartarus. Once she was an initiate, she was bound to pay homage for all she had learned, and to presumably spend a certain amount of time studying and broadening her knowledge, and hopefully attaining higher levels on initiation, eventually becoming One with the Crone in knowledge and understanding. Yes, Demeter suffered from loneliness because of the loss of her daughter, but both benefitted from the transformation and knowledge gained. And this may be a myth explaining the true reason for winter -- a time to study, to go within and explore the mysteries of life, death, the cycle of the seasons, and renewal. The Maiden returns each spring and life renews itself, but the Maiden is more wise and tempered by her sojourn into the underworld, and the secret knowledge she has gained. Eventually there is little difference between Maiden, Mother, and Crone -- all are aspects of the same Great Goddess. And that is the deepest Mystery of all.

Tags: astrology ceres pluto persephone demeter hecate goddess