Our Own Underworld

People often come to me for readings when they are navigating their own underworld.

For example, when a person loses their job because the company they were working for has decided to eliminate some positions, and the person had been content in that job and therefore not out looking at other prospects, the sudden displacement sets them off on a journey that can include a deep reexamination of what else they want to do or can do for a living.

While on that journey, a person may encounter higher stress levels, rejection by prospective employers, perhaps frayed relationships with their spouse or partner as well as with friends, and they might also encounter new spiritual perspectives that they might not have previously considered. A result of their underworld journey might be that they are learning to simplify their life. They might also find an opportunity to do work that is even more satisfying than their old job. And all of this will probably happen over a period of months, perhaps as much as a couple of years to get readjusted and repositioned. Some may end up starting their own businesses, which may present them with this whole spectrum of challenges, yet once they have done it, they will feel like they have emerged from the crisis as a new person.

Similar events take place during a separation or divorce. Most people know that an unresolved difficulty in their relationship can lead to a break up, yet some deny this conclusion until it actually happens. Others know for certain that this is coming, yet when the time comes they may be stunned for awhile, unable to jump in and get started again until some time has passed. We get comfortable with our habits and routines, our places and our things and change represents challenge. How we handle those challenges determines how well we make the transition. Our perspective will either enable or disable our ability to see all of our prospects.

A person going through their underworld journey needs to adjust their vision, becomes sensitized to new feelings, begins to find different activities meaningful and fulfilling, and makes new friends along the way. The underworld journey serves to open them to all of these developments. The harder a person tries to grasp on to the memories of the life they used to have, the harder it will be to begin a new life, but inevitably they will. The difference is in how they do, not whether they will.

Some people when faced with a health crisis learn to live differently. They change their diet, take up different forms of exercise, change their thinking and extend their life. Others simply refuse to change and continue on the same patterns that contributed to the problem in the first place, and their result is inevitable.

A significant number of people during recent years have embraced a more open and flexible approach toward their spirituality and have discovered a great deal of joy and satisfaction with it, along with new perspectives about life. Yet there is still a feeling of displacement which requires some period of adjustment while these changes are in process.

All of these are examples of part of a person's underworld journey which will transform their life. One person may choose to view their journey as the one version of Persephone's story, where she is dragged into it against her will, while others will view it in the way of the second Persephone story, where she realizes that it is time for a change, even if it causes some disruption in the world around her. How do you view your underworld jouney?