“When peeling the pomegranate the goal is to release the seeds and discard the membrane surrounding the seeds“. How Do I Peel A Pomegranate by Ann Johnson
Human relationships present a challenge much like peeling a pomegranate, or perhaps at time, like unraveling a knot that has formed in the chain of a necklace, a ball of yarn or a length of thread.
In each case involving either the pomegranate and or the necklace, thread or yarn, efforts to release or dispel the knot require that we sit down and untie or as we like to say, unravel the knot.
We must bring our fingers or a sharp object into the center of the tension and pull apart the threads separate them from around each other.
In the case of peeling the pomegranate, the objective is to free the red seeds from the white gelatinous membrane holding them in place.
Persephone, daughter of Demeter and Zeus in the Greek myth detailing her abduction by Hades, eats the seeds of a pomegranate–4-6, some say 7.
Hades offered Persephone the pomegranate knowing that Hermes has come to take her home.
Brother to Zeus, Persephone’s father, Hades, or as some call Pluto, was Persephone’s uncle.
How often have we been abducted by the actions of family members, leaving our emotions tattered and torn?
Those closest to us have the greatest ability to hurt us.
The leaves and branches of a pomegranate tree weave in and out much like the vines and knots connecting and binding us to family and friends.
And yet Persephone becomes Queen of the Underworld, the place into which she has been taken, initially against her will and held hostage.
She does this only after eating of the pomegranate offered her by Hades.
Persephone peeled the pomegranate and ate its seeds knowing that those who ate of the food in Hades could never fully return to life above and on earth.
Things are never the same when life’s problems carry us away, even when the waters of perpetual change deliver us back to the shore on which difficulties first swept us away.
Examining these instances, our feelings, the occurrences leading up to and proceeding after the injurious event allow us time to adjust, space to heal.
We peel the pomegranate of our existence, the incident, its memories knowing that we can never go back.
Peeling the pomegranate, unraveling the knot of emotional hurt, eating the seeds from the tree of our lives and its happenings.
This is how we grow, the method by which we evolve…day to day, lifetime to lifetime.
How do you peel a pomegranate?
With the goal of gaining awareness and greater understanding of yourself and those closest to you.
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What is the pomegranate you wish to peel?
What’s your process for unraveling knots?
How difficult has it been to free the seeds from your pomegranate?
What knots remain in the necklaces and threads forming your life?