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A Tale of Lust; Second of the Seven Deadly Sins

Can you feel it? There’s a cool dankness in the air. The sweet smell of summer is giving way to fall. Soon we will rest over long winter nights, while the skies weep for Persephone and the joy of renewal that she will soon enough bring with her return.

But I am ahead of myself. Sit down. Let me tell you the story of Hades, Persephone and the Dark Gate. For this is an ancient tale of events long after the creation of Seven – but soon after the beginning of time itself – when the underworld, the ocean and the world of light and living were all quite separate.

At that time, Hades lived in his dark world without access to the world of light and the living. Only a crack between the 2 worlds existed - barely enough for souls of the departed to make their way; to pay their tribute and take their place in Hades own dark kingdom.

One day, as Hades awaited new arrivals, he caught a glimpse of a beauty. A woman he could barely see through that small crack. Just a lens through which to see the flash of a thigh and the curvature of living form. As his eyes came to focus, he was struck by beautiful Persephone. The grass turned green, flowers bloomed and fruits of the trees would burst with life as she walked across the earth. But she was just a fleeting vision, captured in that lens between his world and the world above, then gone.

Hades could not forget the beautiful Persephone. He had to have her. To possess her. To make her his own. Not satisfied with a mere glimpse, Hades set his two-pronged spear into that lens hole between his world and the next, wresting a cave into the world of light – where he laid in waiting.  On that day Persephone was stolen into the underworld, the dark kingdom.  And with that theft, the world of light became dark and leaves fell from the trees. The skies soon wept for the loss of beautiful Persephone.

Zeus, lord of the world of the living was greatly angered that his own brother, Hades, might steal his daughter for queen and slave. Not to venture into Hades world, Zeus called upon his son Vulcan to build mighty gates to block that cave. Dark Gates so well forged that no light, no air, not even a soul could pass to the Underworld. Zeus would deprive Hades of his tribute and of all new additions to his kingdom. Only Zeus would hold the keys to the Dark Gate.

But his great plan was flawed. Just as he punished Hades, so too did Zeus set punishment on the world of the living. For now, instead of light the world was trapped in darkness, the grass brown and the fields and the trees all barren. Worse still with gates so tightly shut, no soul could take rest in the Underworld – all trapped in limbo – neither living nor dead. Demeter, wife of Zeus and grief stricken that her daughter was taken from her, so met with Hades to arrange a deal. Zeus would give Hades the keys and set him master of the Dark Gate. In return, Hades would keep Persephone for just six months in the Underworld and set her free for 6 months to the world of light and living.

Thus, the seasons of our year were created and to this day our world lives and thrives for 6 months, when it blooms and in all things is wholly renewed - beautiful, and warm. But these seasons surely pass. Hades, Lord of the Underworld and Master of the Dark Gate whose lust for Persephone’s knows no equal recaptures her for six months, whereupon the earth turns cold, the days grow dark and the skies weep again for the loss of beautiful Persephone.

DARK GATE

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