On The Blessedness Of Choice

A homily for the Spring Equinox on March 20, 2026. Written, as always, without authority.

Dearly Beloved,

Blessed Spring Equinox, dear ones (and blessed Autumn Equinox to my readers in the Southern Hemisphere!). I greet you in the name of Aphrodite and the name of the Divine on this, the Spring Equinox of 2026.

Well, we made it. Another year and, despite it all, the trees are green with leaves and the flowers are starting to bloom. I have to admit it, I’ve been depressed. The world has been hitting me right in the heart and head and body again and again and it doesn’t feel good. I’m scared for the future of my country and the future of the world. I’m scared for my wife and myself. But my little garden is flourishing and my precious little Gerbera daisy that my wife gave me as a gift on my last birthday has three big, beautiful flowers already, with another bud already coming up. Dear Mother Demeter is showing us, as She does every year, that no matter how dark or cold the Winter, Spring always comes. Life always reaches back out and grabs the world.

And since I am a hapless fool for the gods, it has me thinking about the mystery of it all. Thinking about Queen Persephone and how, rather than picking above or below, She chose both. Oh sure, some versions of the myth say She was tricked, but I simply have more respect for Her than that. I don’t believe that the queen of the Underworld and living goddess of the cycle of life, death, and rebirth can be trapped by a mere technicality like some rhyming demon or tax attorney. I believe that She chose to eat the pomegranate seeds, that She chose to split the world between warm and cold, light and dark, and life and death. By doing so, by choosing “both/and” over “either/or”, She gave the form to nature, the ontotheological structure of our world, that we now take as normal. Natural. She gave rise to the incredible variety of life that only the catastrophic and transformative power of death can create, and that variety, that sheer organic exuberance as the world dances from one realm to the other, has made all the difference.

Imagine that Long Winter that Mother Demeter brought upon the world. You can situate it into mundane rather than mythic history and call it the Ice Age if you like. King Zeus and King Hades came to an agreement. Kore, the Girl, the Daughter, was taken. Demeter, the enraged and grieving Mother, held the world hostage and demanded that Her daughter be set free. And then, within that moment where the world was held in balance between life and death, in that moment after the Long Winter was finally over but just before Spring finally sprang into life, Queen Persephone chose to spread the seasons given to us by Mother Demeter between life and death. Between warmth and cold. Between above and below. Her choice to serve both sides of existence wed what had until then been two different worlds, that of Life and that of Death, together. She turned time from a line into a circle and then into a wheel, an engine alternating between the mutually attractive and repulsive forces of life and death to power the world.

My wife, Alex, wrote a beautiful version of this myth called “Persephone’s Choice”, which will be the centerpiece of our online public Equinox ritual tomorrow (March 21st, 5pm PST, message me for the details). This elegant version of the myth centers Queen Persephone’s agency in this moment, Her love for King Hades, and Her sense of love and duty towards the dead. The dignity of the goddess is respected, Her difficult choice is honored, and the resulting world is cherished. It is this telling that rings true to my ear.

Just like Queen Persephone, we have choices given to us by circumstances largely beyond our control. One can fight the Fates, but one cannot defy Them. Death comes when He will, but—and this is an important “but”—so does Life. We are given our lives by our ancestors, woven into them by the Fates, and then given choices, seemingly endless choices, that span the rest of our lives. Sometimes those choices aren’t fair or just, but they are the choices we are given nonetheless. Within those limits, we are wildly, terrifyingly free, and that power of choice can be wonderful but it can also be terrible, because we all have to live with the consequences of our choices the same way our world has lived with the consequences of the choice of Queen Persephone.

Once there was a Long Winter and a year that didn’t end. Mother Demeter, stricken with grief and righteous rage, strove against the will of King Zeus. And at long last She won. But the daughter that returned to Her was changed by Her experiences. By Her choices. When She was taken against Her will, She was Kore, the Girl, the Daughter. She returned Persephone, the Woman, the Queen, and eventually the Mother of Her own children (the exact number is an issue of some debate, but Zagreus and Melinoë for sure). Rather than letting King Zeus or King Hades or even Mother Demeter decide for Her, She made Her own choice, a choice that fundamentally altered reality. And by doing so, She became a power in Her own right.

So what is the lesson here? What can we learn from Queen Persephone’s choice?

1. Our available choices often get handed to us by outside forces.

2. Those choices may be deeply unfair and unjust.

3. Our choices can be opportunities for transformation.

4. Our choices can be opportunities to gain power.

5. Our choices affect others.

6. Our choices are for keeps.

Those last two are really important. Within the limits set by the Fates, we are free, but we must endeavor to be responsible with those freedoms, because our choices change the world that we all have to live in. Queen Persephone’s choice altered our world forever. Our choices can do the same.

The world is getting rougher every day. The Long Night is underway and there is a good chance some of us are going to have to make some hard choices over the coming year. Choices that will define us. Choices that will have consequences. I invite you all to consider the choice of Queen Persephone and to weigh your own options carefully. Because we will all have to live in the world that your choices help create.

Blessed Spring Equinox, dear ones. May all of the gods bless you and your choices until next we speak. I remain…

In love,

Soror Alice

Art: Odilon Redon, “Spirit Of The Forest”, 1890.