Persephone Rising

AI oil painting of Persephone, Goddess of Spring and Fertility, and Queen of the Underworld, in the style of Alphonse Mucha and Gustav Klimt

On January 6, 2026, the asteroid Persephone will pass its recent retrograde shadow point - the sign and degree it went retrograde and has now returned to, filled with clarity and containing a message for us from her time in retrograde motion that can help us move forward in the holistic creation of our lives.

This is also, coincidentally, the day of Venus’ Superior Conjunction to the Sun, at 16° Capricorn, marking her transition from Morning Star (Venus Lucifer) to Evening Star (Venus Hesperus), also known as the Full Moon of Venus. In Capricorn, Venus is marking her ability to come fully into herself, to manifest her values and desires out into the world in a way that supports and sustains her.

This sentiment echoes in Persephone’s unfolding message for the collective, which starts out quietly, gracefully even, but with multiple pings of synchronicity which, to me, indicates something we need to be paying attention to.

The Analytical Bit

On July 1, 2025, asteroid Persephone went retrograde at 9° 52’ Pisces, and retrograded back to 26° 06’ Aquarius where it stationed direct on October 17, 2025. Since then, it has made its way back to 9° 52’ Pisces where we find it on January 6, 2026 - and it will be conjunct the North Node in Pisces by only 25 minutes (less than half a degree, a very tight conjunction).

The Nodes of the Moon (North Node and South Node) represent, in an individual’s chart, the direction and path of soul growth indicated for that person in their lifetime. In the collective chart, which is the current transit chart, the Nodes represent the collective soul growth - what we are collectively evolving away from and toward.

When Persephone went retrograde, it was in a Grand Water Trine with the Sun and Jupiter in Cancer and Apollon, Vesta, Lilith, and Juno in Scorpio - that is a whole lot of wise feminine energy converging together. Additionally, a kite was formed with Mars in Virgo (8°) as the apex - in direct opposition to Persephone - which indicates a breakthrough is meant to happen, and this one involves intelligent, masculine action in direct polarity to the feminine aspect going within (retrograde) herself for introspection.

Interestingly, when she stationed direct on October 17, she was also exactly trine the Sun, which was then at 25° Libra, and also trine asteroid Psyche at 22° Gemini - another Grand Trine, but this time in Air. Joining the air party was another Grand Air Trine, and this one involving Persephone’s counterpart, Pluto, at 1° Aquarius, conjunct Pallas at 7° Aquarius, trine Uranus at 0° Gemini, and trine Venus at 5° Libra. The Moon at this moment was exactly conjunct the South Node at 17° Virgo, indicating - along with all the air sign alignment - that it was time to release emotional attachment to things that no longer serve us, and that could be in the realm of overthinking or rumination.

The Significance of January 6

January 6th is the traditional Christian celebration of the Epiphany, or Three Kings Day, and commemorates the day when the Magi came to visit the infant Christ, manifesting his divinity in human form. It marks the end of the Christmas season.

In the USA, we also cannot ignore our recent history of a government insurrection and coup attempt on January 6, 2021, which does bring a shadow onto the otherwise lightness of this day. Especially considering they eventually succeeded, and we are now facing our collective shadow.

But even shadow and darkness has a role in our spiritual illumination, because it acts as a polarizing agent, allowing us to see and discern more clearly our path, and to perhaps choose a different, more beneficial path with more clarity.

Venus, the planet of love, art, and values, in union with the light of the Sun in Capricorn on this day is significant. We are collectively burning away our value system for one that is more sustainable and supportive. Mars and Mercury are also conjunct the Sun and Venus, marking this as a collective cleansing and psychic renewal of heart, mind, and body.

Persephone coming out of her retrograde journey and conjuncting the North Node in Pisces is also significant, because she represents the very seat of human kindness and compassion. She, and the North Node, will be forming a “trivigintile” aspect - 54° apart, or 3/20 of the 360° zodiac - to the Venus-Sun-Mars conjunction.

Vigintiles are a minor, but harmonious and subtly powerful aspect, that are similar to the deciles as both split up the zodiac by degrees of tens. Deciles, as the name suggests, are 1/10 of the zodiac, while Vigintiles are 1/20, so a Vigintile is essentially a bidecile, and so forth. They are of a similar nature to quintiles, which divide the zodiac into 5ths, forming a pentagram.

Vigintiles, like deciles and quintiles, are thought to represent subtle, intuitive, creative, or synchronistic influences, spiritual insights, and opportunities for higher awareness, with an overall emphasis on spiritual evolution - though their effects may unfold slowly and delicately over time. This aspect is like psychic seeding, where we may be brought information or sudden knowing by unseen forces acting on our behalf.

In Pisces, this is absolutely going to be the case. We may expect dream messages, subtle body sensations, profound experiences during meditation, surprising inspirations, or sudden clarity about complex philosophical or spiritual concepts.

“One of the most reliable indicators of vigintile activation is the emergence of new perspectives that seem to arise from nowhere. These insights often feel both novel and somehow familiar, as if accessing knowledge you’ve always had but couldn’t previously articulate.”

Persephone is awakening. Rising from the Underworld. This transit is subtle, but significant. She is seeding us with Love, and with the realization that we are the creators of our own world.

This is akin to having an earth angel visitation.
We must pay attention and listen to the message she is bringing.

Oil painting of Persephone, Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Underworld by Alphonse Mucha and Gustav Klimt

Persephone’s Story Tells the Tale

(There are multiple name versions for many Greek and Roman gods and goddesses and they often become intermingled in our modern nomenclature. When I work with their astrological counterparts, I use “Persephone” for Kore/Persephone/Proserpina, “Ceres” for Demeter/Ceres, “Pluto” for Hades/Pluto/Aidoneus, “Mercury” for Hermes, and “Jupiter” for Zeus/Jupiter. For discussion of the myth, I will use Persephone, Demeter, Hades, Hermes, and Zeus.)

In mythology, Persephone was born to the goddess Demeter, the goddess of grain, abundance, and fertility.

According to Homer’s Hymn to Demeter, Persephone was picking flowers one day in the fields of Nysa with several of her Oceanid nymph companions when Hades, the Host of Many, “The Wealthy One*,” arose from the Underworld in his chariot and absconded with her.

*The Rape of Proserpina*, marble statue, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 1621-22

Hades had been eyeing the lovely Persephone for a while, and deciding he was ready to have a wife he petitioned her father, and his brother, Zeus, for permission to take her for his bride. Zeus consented, figuring it would be a good match, and neither of them felt it necessary to consult with the maiden’s mother, Demeter, so Persephone was taken.

Demeter became grief-stricken when she found out and when Zeus refused to return her, Demeter caused the Earth to go barren and cold and the soil to no longer be fertile. The people began to starve; if they all died, there would be no one to worship the gods. Demeter was summoned to return to Olympus to forge a compromise.

According to Homer’s Hymn to Demeter, Hermes was sent to retrieve Persephone. Hades sent her away willingly and apparently lovingly - yet before he released her, he tricked her into eating several (four or six, depending on the source) pomegranate seeds before she left the Underworld, which bound her irrevocably to him.

You could say that Persephone’s “eating the fruit” of the Underworld could signify that she consummated her relationship with Hades. It could have been against her will (it certainly seems that way), or at least against her knowing full details of what such an act might mean. Another way to view this is to see it similarly to the Eve and the Apple myth: eating the fruit imparted upon her deep knowledge and wisdom that would change her forever.

It was her initiation into the mysteries of the hidden world.

As an innocent maiden, she might not have known or appreciated what this wisdom would grant her. We can see this as “rape,” or we can see this as a gift beyond measure.

Because it was a rule of the Fates that whoever consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there, Zeus compromised with Demeter and Hades that Persephone would thus spend four (or six) months of every year in the Realm of the Dead with Hades, and the remaining months in the world above with her mother. Demeter’s protest would continue any time her daughter was away, and her return would renew the world in the joyful blossom of Spring.

Goddess of Spring and Nature, Queen of the Underworld and the Dead

When Persephone was in the world of the living, she was revered as the Goddess of Spring and Nature. When in the Underworld, she reigned as Queen of the Dead alongside Hades, who revered and respected her and who shared his sovereign power with her equally.

Her story and power revolve around death, rebirth, and the immortality of life. She represents all of humanity as everyone alive will enter her realm. We all end up her subjects. She is bigger than any other sovereign. And more compassionate by miles.

Persephone Makes the Underworld - and Us - Whole

Before her abduction, the Underworld was ruled by ruthless, controlling, patriarchal Pluto alone - the container of all souls - and it was a dreary place of loss and despair. Once she took her place as his counterpart, and he uniquely shared his power with her equally, a rarity among the gods, her grace and gentleness would be introduced to death (Pluto), softening it/him and expanding it beyond mere punishment. It could now be a time of reunification with loved ones, relief after the harshness of life, and gentle, sweet rest with the promise of renewal and rebirth on the other side.

Persephone became the compassionate antidote to Pluto’s ruthlessness.

AI depiction of Hades and Persephone, from https://mythnerd.com/hades-and-persephone/.

Persephone is the feminine face of the Underworld - or, the inner world - and the compassionate side of death. She represents the balance and the duality between light and dark (she leaves and enters the world at the time of the Spring and Fall Equinoxes, when we have equal light and dark), growth and decay, life and death, consciousness and unconsciousness, masculine and feminine, death and rebirth. She is the human face of all souls, as we all must die. She connects us with our ancestors and helps us to perceive this part of ourselves so that we can become truly conscious and whole humans, able to bridge the gap between consciousness and unconsciousness, light and shadow, and fully see and truly understand all that life is.

Persephone represents the Inner Marriage of masculine and feminine; she is the ultimate matriarch of compassion and understanding. She sees us all in our wholeness, in our highest soul form, and advocates for our well-being. She represents the warmth and blossom of new life, the renewal after death and loss, the continuation of everlasting life.

As Queen of the Underworld, she is literally Queen of All Souls - queen of every human being that has ever lived across all time. She is not riding some chariot across the heavens and bestowing grace among her favorites, she treats every soul that crosses her threshold - and all of us will, eventually - as her cherished subjects who are worthy of dignity and grace.

She is the bridge between worlds. She is the respite after the trial. The peace that silences despair.

She represents the cycle of the seasons in our world, and the renewal of Spring after the decay of Winter. She is the embodiment of duality and the interconnectedness of all things in this world.

She is how we accept death, because she represents for us eternal life. She is the mythological equivalent to Christ Consciousness.

And this transit, with her asteroid conjunct the North Node in Pisces and in mystical vigintile aspect to the Superior Conjunction of Venus and the Sun, is sparking the potential for that to grow within us. For us to experience a spiritual awakening.

Additionally, as Persephone and the North Node are in trivigintile aspect (54° apart) from the Sun and Venus, Pluto is 16° from the Sun/Venus (just 1° shy of a quattuorvigintile or 1/24 of the zodiac), and is 37° from Persephone (1° shy of a decile or 1/10 of the zodiac), echoing the intuitive, creative, and synchronistic influences and spiritual insights, and indicating that Persephone and Pluto are indeed working in tandem on our behalf. The dark and the light are conspiring together to enlighten us.

Pluto’s Final 10-Year Out of Bounds Journey

From 2025 - 2035, we will experience the last ever, for thousands of years, series of Pluto going Out of Bounds (OOB). This is huge, as I’ve written extensively about before, and it represents, as it is going OOB to the South, a mass spiritual awakening that involves a final dissolution of tyrannical power grabs and dictatorship - and the rebirth of a collective consciousness that is geared toward cooperation in service of the greater good. It is a shift from the self-focus and destruction of the ego to the benefit of the collective good.

If this world is hard, ruthless, intense, fearsome, and destructive, then it is up to us to activate our inner Persephone, our compassion, balance, and wholeness. This transit is seeding this very thing.

We are being activated and called into service of the greater good, to set aside ego in service of collaboration and to create the beautiful, sustainable, beneficial, supportive, and illuminating world we dream of.

We are being reminded of our creative power, for life is about creation. Venus represents art and beauty. She is being renewed by the powerful energy of the Sun. Persephone is the bridge between inner and outer, consciousness and unconsciousness, and in tandem with the North Node in Pisces, she reminds us that we are all the same, we are all One, we all come from the same Source and will all return there. We must care for one another. We must use our power to create a beautiful world that allows us to blossom into our highest selves. We must remember we are each artists, for life itself is an ongoing work of art.

Joseph Beuys quote, “Every human being is an artist…”

The energies of Persephone and Pluto are working together, fostering the inner (the Underworld) marriage of feminine and masculine so we can finally become whole - holding our light and our darkness together with compassion - and create a better world based on care, cooperation, and collaboration instead of vampiric, parasitic, domination and extraction.

Persephone is rising so that we can remember how to become whole again.

We are relearning how to integrate our wholeness, something we once knew, but after “The Fall,” forgot. This entails healing and embracing both the long denigrated, abused, and shunned feminine, and the overinflated, overburdened, and invalidated masculine - in both genders.

This sacred inner union is what Yeshua taught. What Carl Jung taught, as his concept of individuation—the journey of becoming a whole human being. What so many teachers, philosophers, alchemists, and guides have been teaching for millennia. The Inner Marriage. Failure to live in this balanced way is the missing of the mark, the original sin, all along.

We cannot survive as a species until we become conscious, whole humans, embracing our light and our shadow, our inner world and our outer world, our humanity and our divinity. Our inner masculine and feminine. Our body and our spirit, our mind and our heart. Our Love. Bringing Love and Creativity - in essense, Art - back into the picture is what will save us. It is the only thing that can.

Art tarot card, Thoth deck (also called Temperance)

Persephone is the image of that Universal Love that spans across time and space. Endless Soul Love.

She is rising. No more Pluto ruling alone. His dominion is ending.

Persephone’s North Node Transit and Related Aspects

Persephone conjunct North Node in Pisces: January 6 - 10. Exact conjunction on January 8, 2026.
Moon opposite Persephone and conjunct the South Node in Virgo; Moon inconjunct Pluto in Aquarius; Moon trine Eros in Taurus; Moon trine Juno in Capricorn; Moon square Mean Lilith in Sagittarius: January 6, 2026
(Moon was also conjunct the South Node on October 17, 2025, when Persephone stationed direct)
We are being called to release our emotional attachment to overthinking and remember how to have faith in the heart, become heart/intuition-led.
Persephone sextile Mercury OOB: January 6
Mercury brings us a message from outside our normal realms of consciousness (out of bounds).
Persephone square Psyche: January 6
We are called to recognize that this is a task, or a lesson, on the path to awakening.
Persephone square True Lilith: January 6
Releasing resentments and defiance that only continue strife should be released in favor of putting energy toward creating the world we want to live in; our focus will become our future.
Sun conjunct Venus and Mars continues through January 17, 2026. Mars exact conjunction with the Sun on January 9, 2026 at 19° Capricorn.
Venus into Aquarius (and conjunct Pluto) on January 18, 2026, during the NEW MOON IN CAPRICORN at 28°, conjunct Astraea, Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Pluto. Persephone still conjunct North Node in Pisces and trine Jupiter in Cancer and in exact decile (36°) aspect to Pluto.
Venus-Mars exact conjunction (renewal of love and desire) on January 7, 2026 at 18°10’ Capricorn.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
UPCOMING IMPORTANT TRANSITS:
- Persephone is quindecile (24°) the Solar Eclipse at the New Moon in Aquarius on February 17, 2026, which is conjunct Mars (19° Aquarius), Pallas (7° Pisces), Venus and the North Node (8° Pisces). Persephone also conjunct Mercury (16° Pisces), Nessus (20° Pisces), Saturn and Neptune (0° Aries) for this eclipse. Her counterpart Pluto is also quindecile this eclipse from the other side at 4° Aquarius, making Pluto and Persephone biquindecile from one another (48°). Persephone and Pluto are both part of this eclipse portal story and in decile aspect to it, indicating a subtle but powerful seeding of creative and spiritual awakening.
- Persephone is conjunct the Saturn-Neptune conjunction at 0° Aries on February 20, 2026 by 6° orb.
  Persephone at 24°15’ Pisces conjunct Mercury and Nessus at 20° Pisces. Moon also in Aries (14°) during this groundbreaking, historical event. She is aligned with the ignition point.
- Persephone at 27° Pisces is quattuorvigintile (15°) the Sun and Pallas at 12° Pisces and quindecile the Moon at 12° Virgo during the Lunar Eclipse at the Full Moon in Virgo on March 3, 2026. She is also conjunct Venus (26° Pisces) and Mercury (20° Pisces), as well as Neptune (1° Aries) and Saturn (2° Aries); Persephone is within 42’ (less than one degree) of being in a perfect trivigintile aspect, again, with Pluto at 4°36’ Aquarius; Persephone is square True Lilith at 24° Sagittarius; and, Persephone is sextile Uranus at 27° Taurus during this bookend of the powerful eclipse portal.
- Persephone into Aries, March 9, 2026: Just after the powerful Lunar Eclipse on March 3, Persephone joins the front line of the Revolution for the People with Saturn, Neptune, and Venus in Aries. Venus enters Aries on March 6, 2026, just 3 days before Persephone follows her into the fray. Persephone is now sextile Pluto in Aquarius.
- Persephone at 3° Aries is conjunct the New Moon in Pisces (28° Pisces) on March 18, 2026. The New Moon joins the crew in early Aries to fire compassion and creativity into those fighting for clarity and truth. Persephone is now sextile Pluto in Aquarius.
- Persephone is conjunct the Spring Equinox, Sun into Aries, on March 20, 2026. Persephone walks us into her Spring Portal and back to life, renewing hope. She is returned into the clear light of day. This event sees a conjunction of the Sun (o°), Neptune (1°), Persephone (3°), Saturn (4°), all in early Aries and sextile Pluto (5° Aquarius), and sextile Uranus (28° Taurus).

Asphodel flower, associated with Persephone

Persephone in Astrology

Persephone in a prominent position in your chart can indicate an innate ability to perceive both worlds at once, the conscious and the unconscious, and to help bridge it for others so they may also see and perceive in a compassionate, loving way. It denotes a harmony with the rhythm and mysteries of life and an ability to hold and express depth in a graceful way.

Persephone is asteroid #399 and can be found in any chart. You can look yours up on astro.com by selecting Extended Chart Selection and adding it into your selected asteroids.

If you’d like me to look yours up for you and discuss its meaning in your chart,
please contact me and we can get started!

*Psyche In the Underworld*, by Paul Alfred de Curzon, 1820-1895.

End notes:

* Pluto’s name means “The Wealthy One,” and refers to his dominion over all things in the Underworld, which includes not only the souls of the dead but also all the precious minerals and metals found underground as well as fertile soil that feeds the living.