New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
| In ancient Greece this was the first day of rites involving initiation into the cult of Demeter and Persephone, known as the Eleusinian Mysteries. On this first day of ritual, sacred objects were brought from Athens to Eleusis, where the temple of Demeter stood at the base of the Acropolis. These arcane artifacts played a part in the secret rites that promised union between the initiate and the divine goddess. One of these mysterious articles was a kiste or "sacred chest" that contained objects symbolic of death and rebirth. No one knows for certain what these chests contained, but it is suggested that its contents might have included an egg, a phallus, a golden snake, and the seeds of a pomegranate. You can create your own sacred chest, mindful of the myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone, who each winter descends into the underworld to live with her husband Hades and returns again each spring to join with her mother Demeter, symbolizing the annual cycle of death and rebirth.
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