03/18/2026
I wanted to share a few more images of me as Persephone on Carnival Day, beautifully shot by my friend George Long / (to whom we are always so grateful to for capturing all the Mardi Gras magic) ā both in the middle of the parade and at the end of the night!
If youāre a true Stamina Divaaaaā¢ļø (IYKYK), than you know that making it to Wonderland / for fried chicken and champagne is your reward for stomping and hoofing your way all over the French Quarter and back to the Bywater to guzzle the last dregs of carnival magic from the golden chalice! I may have had my crown (the tooth kind) fall out of my mouth, and my sole (the shoe kind) break on the way there, but I finally made it to the heavenly garden (relatively) in one piece, to have my portrait taken on the porch by George.
It really felt like Year of the Snake was not quite done with me ā shedding more and more layers, even as we galloped on that fateful day of the eclipse and lunar New Year, into Year of the Horse! My crown and sole notwithstanding, I am VERY proud that the rest of my costume held up so well, considering that I was up until 2:30am the night before securing resin pomegranate seeds to copper jump-rings to my face chain and headdress!
I started donning it all around 7:30am, and was out the door by 8:45am ā so I am VERY proud that everything held together into the night, especially considering I was convinced it was all going to fall apart within the first two hours!
Creating a costume like this has a lot of layers ā first, all the conceiving and construction that goes into building it out, the energetic attunement of embodying an archetype, and then all the logistical engineering to make sure you can walk, dance, roam, and ummmā¦pee while wearing it for hours and hours!
Mardi Gras is a mega-marathon and major Olympics for costumers, and hitting all these marks feels like a real accomplishment. Itās truly our time to shine ā and having amazing photographers who make sure to document all our hard work is such a blessing.
This wasnāt my most elaborate or insane costume by far, and I relished being quite comfortable in it all day, as well as not being such a showstopper that I couldnāt walk more than a few feet without stopping to be photographed (though I do relish that experience, some years ā when the costume warrants it!)
I did think it would be very obvious that I was Persephone, considering that I was bedecked in her emblems ā though I admit that some of the ones are chose (like the juvenile deer skull) are more obscure.
To me, skulls, specters, pomegranates, ghostly wheat, and a three-headed dog (my Cerberus!) all clearly scream her name ā but perhaps not everyone is obsessed with her mythology as I am? I think people mainly saw the pomegranate color, and just assumed I wasā¦ A pomegranate death goddess? Butā¦that is Persephone, no?
Iād love to know: what other images or symbols do you associate with Persephone?
Persephone (or Kore, Proserpina, Persephassa) is the goddess of springtime, abundance, and agricultural bounty. She is the maiden of flowers, tender and innocent as new blooms bursting forth in this tremulous, liminal time where winter is a fast-fading memory, but harsh freezes are still possible.
A while back, I emerged from a brutal Pluto transit in Capricorn (aspecting my Capricorn Sun/Mars/Mercury) that lasted over a decade, so I very much resonated with Persephone emerging from the underworld, changed irrevocably ā not the same maiden who was taken down into the darkness, but somehow even more herself than she ever was before.
I know grief intimately now, and many beings that I love now dwell in the underworld. Embodying Persephone was a way for me to honor both my sorrow at losing them to death, but to also honor the way their spirits live onā¦
I am also honoring my own juiciness, abundance, beauty, and fruitfulness. I may now longer be a maiden, and I was never a mother to human babes (though I do think fur-babies count, though I did not bear them!) but before I completely embrace the wisdom of the crone, I wanted to take the opportunity to reign as the Queen of the Underworld, ruler of shades, but also still a bearer of spring and new life.
Persephone rose again, up from the depths ā to restore springās rosy flush to the land, and to take up the mantle of her own fleshly form once more. She is no longer innocent and naive, but now understands the mysteries of life and death.
People might not know how to relate to us who venture down to that realmā¦ Because after going through all that ā and we must still reek of death, roots, and soil. But Persephone is just glad to feel the fresh air on her skin again, and to bathe in the waters of truth ā cleansed, renewed, and ready to share her original medicine, as pure as cold spring rain.
Hail Persephone! May we be inspired by her to create beauty in the midst of sorrow, play wildflower seeds in the dead of winter, to live in the moment, keep our eyes open to the mysteries, and to remember the innate knowledge our souls were born with, so that we may flourish and one day wilt and die with grace and trust.
ššŗšÆļøš
