Journeys of Descent and Ascent

As I mentioned a few blog posts ago, I am currently reading Angeles Arrien's The Second Half of Life. The cycle of descent and ascent is discussed, as this is a theme that can be found within all spiritual traditions.

Many traditional and indigenous societies regard the Upper World as the place to receive guidance, blessings, and ecstatic experiences, and view the Lower World as the place to which one journeys to retrieve one's lost soul and bring it back for re-integration in the Middle World - this world. The process of descending and ascending is a universal human experience, where the heavens and hells in our nature are completely revealed.

I am reminded of a fascinating teleseminar I had downloaded a few weeks back, which featured Emily Hanlon discussing The Myth of the Descent of Inanna and the Powerful Journey of the Feminine. Inanna, a Sumerian goddess, travels to the underworld where she encounters seven gates (interestingly, Arrien's book's subtitle is "Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom.") At each of the seven gates, Inanna must give up another aspect of her persona until she is stripped bare of artifice, dies to her old self and ultimately undergoes a resurrection. "The myth of Inanna shows us how to go deeply into the dark and find the hidden gift of the suffering," says Hanlon - as ultimately it is in the dark where ideas can germinate and be reborn. Recommended listening, for sure.