Greetings beloveds,

I hope you are doing well and know you are loved. It seems though that quite a few folks are going through a journey within the underworld. I have referenced the story of Inanna often which you can find a quick summary of here under Autumn Equinox. At this time we are about to witness the magic of Winter Solstice. As noted within my previous post Flowing with the Seasons, we are entering the underworld symbolically and often literally at the Autumn Equinox. Upon reaching the Winter Solstice we are solidly within the underworld with the longest night of the year representing the three days that Inanna spent deceased hanging from the meat hook.

It’s relevant to speak about this now not only because in the Northern hemisphere the Winter Solstice is occurring this Wednesday December 22, but because I have noticed that it appears that many of us are in the depths of the underworld hanging upon that meat hook. You could be at this point already where you feel that you are dead, no longer breathing or functioning within this world. Maybe all you’re doing is sleeping, feeling drained and as if you can’t do more than the bare minimum. Or perhaps you haven’t been able to sleep. The thoughts swirling around in your head clambering to gain supremacy but never being able to sort them all out. Crying, howling, running, fighting. Dying. Just to be reborn again a moment later.

Our lives are a cycle of never ending growth even after the we that we know ourselves to be has ceased to exist. It is painful, this growth process. Over the last few months I have seen countless people crying out in healing from their pain, trauma, and countless forms of suffering. Hateful words being spewed from even the kindest presenting souls. Judgement, discrimination, pride, despair, anger, greed, closed hearts- all of those things that we run away from but can never escape because they are the parts of us that need love.

There’s been an emphasis on shadow work within the spiritual community. Some are very opposed to it and some revel in it finding a freedom that can be seductive yet addictive but that is a conversation for another time. Spending time in the underworld dying is not a choice. It’s not something you can schedule or decide to take a “trip” into. In our society that has trained us into neurotic beings determined to have control (through which we attempt to seek freedom) we may feel drawn to taking action to address our shadow so that we are “in control”. It is only once we travel down that path that it becomes oh so clear that we are far from in control in the way in which we understand these concepts of freedom and control. One may think that choosing to engage with their shadow will offer them control and freedom. It won’t. It will cause you to go to the depths of your being. Deeper and deeper until we come to the point where separation from the world around us disappears. Where we see the connection between all the things that we have been, are, and will be.

The pain that you are experiencing, this nightmare that it seems we are encountering that is couched in darkness trying to hide the light as if they are not one, it is a stepping stone. It is not the end nor was it your beginning. There is no separation from the light and dark. As you heal you shift that energy into something different. Expanded past more than what it was when it was perceived as separate. There is power in that shift.

So yes cry, stay in bed, build a pillow fort, seek counseling or therapy, rage on against the atrocities bestowed upon you, embrace the joy that you can find, revel in the love that is all around you. Find your ways to heal and survive. Because it is only after you have been strung up upon the meat hook do you awaken to new life and way of being. So peel back your layers until there’s nothing left. Gather the soil of what you would like to refashion yourself to be, whole, and integrated (for now). Come back to us here in this space. We love you and need you.

But of most importance…do not be afraid to write a new story. The myths we know are crying out in the same manner demanding to be reborn. What is the new story? Tell it. Shout it. Even if it seems no one is listening because the soul hears all. I will share with you all one of the new myths that has come to light for me by the new moon. I hope that I will see more and more come forth.

With love,

-Rose