“Chaos, confusion, darkness,
Into the underworld I go.”
The underworld is a fascinating place. As the name implies, it is the world below the one we usually inhabit. We know the world. But the underworld is the land of the hidden, the place where our waking self cannot go. The underworld holds all that is unknown.
In popular culture, to be an underworld figure means to be part of a crime syndicate. In mythology, the underworld refers to hell, or the closest equivalent of, depending on the culture in question. The underworld gives home to all that is unthinkable, all the traits in human consciousness that contain darkness. In the underworld lies all that is hidden.
What does it mean then, to travel to the underworld?
It means acceptance of the chaos, confusion and darkness that exist in our world. These qualities are present, just as harmony, clarity and light are present.
To travel to the underworld, we must accept that we cannot have a light and that we cannot see ahead. There is no path, there is no destination.
But there is a way. Both to the underworld, then back again.
-A.S. Lenah Valley, 28/7/22
