Descent into the Underworld
The Spiritual Path has both the Ascent and the Descent. Often we can find ourselves longing to stay in the Ascent—the light, the bliss, the connection, and yet we also embrace the Descent—the dark, the pain, the unknowing, in order to grow.
The Descent is a laboring process and it cannot be rushed, controlled, or predicted. You can take care of yourself and save yourself a lot of suffering if you open yourself to the wisdom of the Underworld.
There is great Beauty in this process if you can open to it, allow it. When you resist, it is much more painful and exhausting. And opening yourself vulnerably to those trusted souls in your life is often a part of the medicine being offered to you.
A few invitations:
1. Notice patterns of a Descent process: fatigue, overwhelm, chaotic mind, feelings of extreme alone-ness, hopelessness, and despair. The sooner you are aware, the smoother your process can be.
2. Create as much space as you can in your life, your schedule, your responsibilities in order to rest, listen within, and nourish yourself.
3. Ask for help when you need it.
4. Slow your life waaaay down. If it is not truly necessary, leave it for a later date.
5. Work with the plants: teas, tinctures, flower essences.
A Practice:
Set yourself up in a nice comfortable nest.
Notice and allow sensations, thoughts, emotions to come up and be expressed. Often tears are the healing balm for grief.
Move your body in ways that feel good but without much effort.
Allow the Yin, Feminine energy to move through your body.
Journal.
Take a nap, or just rest for at least 20 minutes.
With Love,
Glenna