Friday, January 20, 2012

11-19-2011 The Underworld


Where’s that?!  You ask.  Right here, sort of.   If you are alive in a body on earth there’s your ticket. Fun Stuff:  Primal fear, rage, terror, panic, lust, greed, jealousy, murderous desire.   All those wonderful emotions that let you know just how individual and separate you are. Or it can be like a void, a state of disconnect or gray fog. Or being very much in the Unknown in some or many aspects of your life, whether inner or outer planes. Usually characterized by feeling cut off, separate, alone, in chaos or uncharted territory, with all the challenging attendant emotions.  The Underworld also contains the Numinous although I suspect many give up before reaching anything that looks anything remotely like luminosity or numinosity.



 Oh THAT, you say. The Sacred Muck. Some of you might ask why you ever want to go in there. However, since most of my readers have no doubt been there – many times -- a better question to ask is, how can I make the most of this experience? I decided to use The Underworld as a focal point after reading some of Anonymous’s new blogs on the site, and finding this interesting website with some good info about it:




Personally, I’ve spent time there. Some folks have more of a predilection for it than others. You do get used to it.   If you are at all on a path of evolving multi-dimensionality you know that trips to the Underworld are just part of the territory;  they come up, like it or not.  Aspects of yourself will surface, some of them quite gnarly, mangled, scary etc.  Usually one is thrown there by something unpleasant and/or unexpected, something triggers it.  Or it can be a purely inner plane experience that comes upon one from the depths of the subconscious, with no external stimuli.   Whatever its origins, I've found it essential to be able to work with these experiences as they arise.  To push them aside is impossible and untenable, I require the clarity and integration that comes from taking these journeys into the Sacred Dark. 
                    


As we live in accelerated times, you want to have some good tools in your tool kit because like the lotus flower, in order to bloom in the light, channels must be cleared for roots to grow in the muck of the dark.  So if this is new for you, I say get used to the program and surrender, it makes it way easier than fighting your dark nights of the soul.  This IS alchemy of the soul we are talking about, where you experience whatever stuff is coming up in your psyche in a safe manner so that you can feel whatever is there to feel – then cry, write, scream, go outside and rave to the trees, throw a bloody fit in private, break down in your support group, whatever it is you need to do to give some kind of expression to the emotions without harming or involving others – and you will emerge better, clearer, stronger in some way. Feeling like you’ve been through the wringer perhaps, but shorn of unneeded baggage. 

  

As you're working with these things, always bear in mind that it's yourunderworld journey, even though you may have strong outer world triggers of some sort.  Not recommended to actively engage or involve others in your clearing process, unless they are there to help facilitate.  Don't hesitate to get professional counseling if things get too much for your evolving psyche, by the way, and choose a therapist who will have a sensitivity towards understanding things like kundalini awakening, psychic openings, shamanic experiences, etc. if you feel that is what's going on for you.  By all means try to steer clear of the Prozac approach to the Underworld. 

   

HOW! You ask. Okay, so let’s say you are in a particularly difficult and emotionally volatile time. Something is bringing up survival level fear. Isn’t too hard to imagine that in this day and age. If you’ve looked the debt death spiral in the face lately in your personal life, you know what I’m talking about: BIG YUCK!! Anyone lost their job or other source of income recently? That’s the thing with these amped-up energies – things are going to happen to prod you off center and out of your comfort zone. Especially if you actively embrace your  process.  Sorry but you will not get sugar coating from me. I’m here to give you some tips to survive the journey.
So let’s say through no fault of your own you lose your job one day. Unfortunately you did not also lose your hell’s bills. Nobody likes the feeling of having the legs knocked out from under them, but events are rapidly collapsing now and these things are happening, so what do you do? What can you do? Run around like a chicken with your head cut off, driven by survival level fear? What will you attract by that? What if instead, before you decapitate anyone, you recognize the need to radically shift gears and:

Take some time for yourself. Taking personal time to work on the inner plane with the energy dynamics of the issue will serve you very well. When emotions are running in a volatile mode and threatening to derail your life, that is the time to take a walk, take a break, hole up, jump in a hot bath, go to your favorite power spot and pray, go climb your favorite tree – just remove yourself from the human world and give yourself freedom to feel, process and speak your truth to your Divine Self. It is in the feeling and expression of whatever is coming up that will allow it to process, clear, integrate and/or heal. Once you do this, its hold on you is less and less. It may take time and repeated reappearances. Really deep wounds can cycle or be triggered again and again, even after you thought you were done with it. You know you are done with it when it pops up and you smile because it doesn’t bother you any more, and then you never hear from it in a troubling way again.

Breathe. If you find yourself in the middle of dense intense energy and you’re spinning out, by all means BREATHE!! You can make your breaths really conscious by involving your mind and imagining you are inhaling peace and well-being, exhaling heaviness and dense emotion. And remember: If you have stuff coming up in your psyche and feeling centers to be healed and released – be sure you are releasing it! Don’t get stuck in it again. Let it go. Let go. It’s not needed any more, you are releasing it. Not wallowing in it again. 
      

Invoke Sacred Space so that you feel safe in allowing emotions to process.  You want to be completely secure in your body and surroundings to be present for what will come up.  Be advised that being in Nature can also trigger fear and therefore more Underworld experience so choose a safe setting if you are dealing with heavy emotions.


Allow.  Some of it won’t feel, sound or be very nice. Resist labeling it. You may not even know what it is you are clearing. Your left brain and mind don’t have to know. Just allow it to come up, express and release. Your power ends where your fear begins – so the old saying goes. I’ve found it to be true. 

 

Art – Engage in some art process that allows you to work with your emotions. I have had phenomenal openings and clearings through painting. More on that will be forthcoming. It doesn’t matter what form you choose although I do not recommend a performing art. You don’t want to scare anybody if you happen to shapeshift. Something on paper is good, it gives you a clear footprint or record of the process. Mask making is also helpful and fun. Writing -- Collage making -- Ritual -- Dance and body movement – all these modalities can help one go deeper, clear, heal and become empowered through releasing.  Here's a nice article from Eckhart Tolle today on Creativity:


Commune with the Elements in some way. Do something really powerful to purify like a sweat lodge, fire walk or vision quest. Hold a ritual. Pray aloud, speak to Nature outdoors. If you know how to work with the Elements you can use their help in releasing and cutting chords. Or if you are not comfortable at first talking to trees, just take a brisk walk or engage in an outdoor activity you love.  Move the energy of the emotion by moving your physical body. Then sit under a tree and breathe, ask the Tree Spirit to help you release.  

 The plant world provides us with many allies.  Burning white sage, copal or other resins and botanicals is helpful
 in 
clearing your energy field and home.  
Special Technique: Engage in a Warrior’s Distraction. This is something I’ve done when something happens that is really sharply upsetting and jarring, where you are spinning with a lot of heavy, angry, potentially violent-feeling emotions and just don’t know what to do. I used to do this when my ex and I would fight. Can you imagine, 2 Capricorns of german extraction in the garden, butting heads over how to plant beets?   Ouch. Nein. Sometimes all I could do was go up on the hillside where the manzanita was growing and start making little lined pathways with rocks. Like little fairy paths. It would be very therapeutic. I always liked to move rocks around, even if I felt horrible and my field was infected with the energy of conflict. Somehow the activity of just allowing my emotions to process through as I look around for little rocks to make it all pretty up there is a most satisfying activity. Well, what ever works for you. If you have a predilection to break china I suggest you take up mosaic. 


Embrace the Unknown. When you don’t know how something will work out, that is an opening. Don’t let it be filled with dark thoughts and fear. You can decide. If darkness and fear well up, call upon the power of the Violet Flame to transmute the darkness. Choose pro-actively to hold that opening in your heart and mind in love and light for a positive outcome. Of course it is very easy to go into fear when it’s things like your foundation being shaken by your spouse leaving, or you have no food, or a job or loved one is lost. I’m not here to tell anyone what they should do in the face of some of these emotions, other than how to potentially deal positively with yourself so you can hear your highest guidance. The idea is – whenever you get to that place where you’re looking at where your life is going and you know it must go in some way but you can’t see how – you purposefully and actively hold the thought and the inner space inside that All is Well, even if you can’t see yet how things will work out. You fill your field on purpose with positive energy and really turn on thoughts and feelings of:
   
Gratitude and Appreciation.  In order to really get into the postive energy flows again, be grateful and appreciative. Get a positive heart flow going. Start giving things away like compliments, appreciation, praise, things you don’t need, your time and attention to a loved one or perfect stranger for no reason at all, do some work for someone– give what you can freely, with no strings attached. With no thought of receiving anything in return.  Smile for no reason at all, on purpose.  I also find this to be a beauty tip.  Most of us as we age look much better smiling than sulking, quite frankly!

Seeing Outside the Box: If something is leaving your life, you are being given the opportunity to see things differently and do something new. Try to reframe your circumstances as a creative opening: “I am now free to do xyz”. You start with whatever fragments of dreams you have. It takes no money to mine your inner being for your desires, make a collage or other piece of personal process art, work with manifestation principles, read about your interests on the internet, learn something new, join a support group in cyberspace or in your local area, or take a free class. 
   

And finally: Trust that “when one door closes another opens”. If something is leaving, look for something new coming your way. Expect it. Again, hold space for a positive outcome in the face of the Unknown and trust that there IS a way forward even if you can’t see it. And THAT means – you simply DO NOT allow any thoughts and feelings of failure, lack, not enough, oh no the debt death spiral, etc., into your being. You can call upon the Violet Flame to transmute dense energies as they arise. With practise this is a most useful and efficient tool.   Sometimes I have to keep doing it if something is really dense.  Learn to increasingly feel and know that you are transmuting the dense emotions by invoking the Violet Flame.
 
 .. Sometimes in the silent place where Life, Art, Sanity and Chaos intersect, I have heard the most eerie and otherworldly laughter come out of my mouth, sending what seems like ripples across multiple dimensions of creation. And I've wondered, who hears that...


Well, these are just a few things you can do as different aspects and fragments of self come up to be integrated and healed, triggered by all manner of inner and outer happenings. This is just a very short and superficial coverage of a subject that is vast, and is by no means a last word. Since change, chaos and upheaval are so rampant in people's lives, it’s crucial to have some good tools to work with yourself. Tools and methods will also change over time.


fear no power tools
Some things for me that have been consistently useful are hatha yoga, lots of quiet meditative time with nature, simple pure diet, creative arts of all sorts, writing, herbs, baths, ceremony.  Knowing that I can handle whatever comes up is of tremendous assistance. Even in the face of what looks and feels like a hideous experience, there can be purpose and a very bright side -- treasure, really -- if one dares to get down in the muck.

Oh there's one more thing. One of the very best things you can do for yourself is find a way to laugh.  I've found it to truly be one of the most simple, powerful and cathartic ways to work through some of the worst.

Blessed Journeys!!

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