The journey to the underworld is needed for us to realize we are already dead, for us to encounter in full consciousness the truth about ourselves as we are.
—Peter Kingsley, Reality
Whether it occurs in an actual public ceremony in one’s tribe or deep within the psyche of the modern suburban dweller, sending ripples across our lives and relationships, the soul’s initiatory journey to the underworld is a necessary process in our commitment to becoming conscious. While it is a rite of passage attended by deepened wisdom and ripening resilience, its overriding intention is to teach us who we truly are, not what we have come to believe we are as a result of our ego enlargement.
What does that mean, “who we are”? It means that the sacred Self, the divine or the Creator within, is our authentic core, transcending the human ego and rational mind. Most sacred traditions teach that the purpose of our earthly existence is to discover that the sacred Self is our essential identity and that the ego we have been compelled to create in our human experience is “already dead” in the sense that we are so much more. This is the ultimate truth about us.
Thus, as we navigate challenging times, some profoundly healing and grounding questions to live with are: Who is navigating these challenges? Who is struggling to survive or even thrive? And most importantly, who do I want to be as I encounter what may feel like infinite loss?
In these times, our ego designs are being individually and collectively shattered, and if we have not reclaimed or developed a relationship with the sacred Self, the losses may become untenable, perhaps even lethal. Living only from the rational mind and ego is no longer sustainable. Something more is required, because we are something more. Whereas we may have spent years amassing wealth, possessions, and career successes, as well as raising children, our world and its hurting hordes are asking more from us. Life is now asking more of us than we could have imagined in our youth, when we set out to accomplish our fondest hopes and dreams. The collapse of industrial civilization is a journey to the underworld for every inhabitant of planet earth—an extraordinary opportunity to comprehend, perhaps for the first time, the truest truth about ourselves.