Overview: Within Pagan Portals - Persephone we embark upon a powerful journey with Persephone, Queen of the Underworld and Goddess of Spring, as she helps us to discover our personal power and take control of our life.

Verdict: For those unaware, Persephone was the goddess queen of the underworld, wife of the god Haides (Hades). She was also the goddess of spring growth, who was worshiped alongside her mother Demeter in the Eleusinian Mysteries. This agricultural-based cult promised its initiates passage to a blessed afterlife

Indeed, Persephone was titled Kore (Core) (the Maiden) as the goddess of spring’s bounty. Once upon a time when she was playing in a flowery meadow with her Nymph companions, Kore was seized by Haides and carried off to the underworld as his bride. Her mother Demeter despaired at her disappearance and searched for her the throughout the world accompanied by the goddess Hekate (Hecate) bearing torches.

When she learned that Zeus had conspired in her daughter’s abduction she was furious, and refused to let the earth fruit until Persephone was returned. Zeus consented, but because the girl had tasted of the food of Haides - a handful of pomegranate seeds - she was forced to forever spend a part of the year with her husband in the underworld.

Her annual return to the earth in spring was marked by the flowering of the meadows and the sudden growth of the new grain. Her return to the underworld in winter, conversely, saw the dying down of plants and the halting of growth.

And to be fair, in other myths, Persephone appears exclusively as the queen of the underworld, receiving the likes of Herakles and Orpheus at her court.

Thus, here in Pagan Portals - Persephone: Practicing the Art of Personal Power by author Robin Corak, I myself found most all their prose to be highly informative, which leads to the most sincerest of credence that this is therefore a most useful book of the subject matter to hand.

For it not only explores the history of Persephone, how her story can be interpreted and suggest ways for us to use her energy in spiritual practice and for our own self empowerment, but it also serves as a book that features a good, fair balance of historical information along with different types of practical suggestions.

In conclusion, not a long read, which is not a band thing, but a compulsive one nonetheless, and one that along with its guided meditations, dutiful information and suggestions galore, had me enraptured with its prose from the very off, Persephone: Practicing the Art of Personal Power will be a much welcomed entity into your soul; for it is a well-researched book complete with guided meditations and journalism inspirations to enable the reader to, and importantly at their own pace, connect with their inner Persephone.

About the Author - A practicing pagan for roughly 20 years, Robin Corak is a long-time member of the Sisterhood of Avalon where she currently serves as the Board Secretary. She has been published in a variety of anthologies and teaches locally and nationally at conferences including Paganicon, and Pantheacon.

Robin is also the CEO of a large non-profit organization, a member of the Forbes Non-Profit Council, and a recipient of multiple leadership awards. She lives in Edgewood, WA, USA.

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