Pain creates separation from the world of normal life. When it doesn’t leave, we feel submerged, as if we’re sinking into our own personal underworld of darkness and despair.
In world myths, the underworld is often depicted as the dwelling place of unhappy spirits and demons. In fact, in Greek mythology, the river leading to the underworld and is known as the “river of pain.”
In many stories the hero or heroine must make a tremendously dangerous and difficult journey there as part of their personal quest for wisdom or to regain something or someone lost.
In world myths, the underworld is often depicted as the dwelling place of unhappy spirits and demons. In fact, in Greek mythology, the river leading to the underworld and is known as the “river of pain.”
In many stories the hero or heroine must make a tremendously dangerous and difficult journey there as part of their personal quest for wisdom or to regain something or someone lost.
The Place We Least Want to Go
The underworld is usually a dangerous place, full of enticements to linger too long and thereby be trapped forever. The hero must find the person or thing they seek while not succumbing to temptations to stray from the path. They must walk with single-minded focus and use all of their courage and fortitude to pass through the land of darkness and illusion. Often, they are required to leave something behind or offer a gift to the gods that dwell in the underworld before they are released or can find their way back home again.
Like the trials of heroes and heroines of myth, pain initiates us into our own underworld journey. It demands something (or many things) and does not release us from its grip easily. Everything that is familiar, dependable, and bright seems far away and there is very little to rely on along the journey.
Finding the way back is full of treacherous pitfalls, and we can easily get lost. Like the heroes and heroines of myth, we have to depend on our own source of inner courage, strength, and stubborn will to find our path through the darkness and out again. One thing is certain: there are no easy outs, and no short cuts.
Like the trials of heroes and heroines of myth, pain initiates us into our own underworld journey. It demands something (or many things) and does not release us from its grip easily. Everything that is familiar, dependable, and bright seems far away and there is very little to rely on along the journey.
Finding the way back is full of treacherous pitfalls, and we can easily get lost. Like the heroes and heroines of myth, we have to depend on our own source of inner courage, strength, and stubborn will to find our path through the darkness and out again. One thing is certain: there are no easy outs, and no short cuts.
We Become the Path Out
The challenge is in not falling into despair, not being tricked and mesmerized by the spirits of the underworld that try to lure us into staying there. These spirits represent victimization, self-pity, loss of hope, and despair.
We may think we are alone there because the underworld feels like such a desolate place and the journey can certainly seem very dark and foreboding. Nevertheless, in every underworld myth, there is always a way back, always a path through. There is a track to follow, a guiding spirit, or a river that flows through the underworld and out again. If we look around us, we can find signs that others have been there before us, leaving clues about how to find our way out again. They have left their writing, their art, their poems, and their music.
We may be tempted to sit down and give up, but we have to find a way to keep going. We may become discouraged because we think that our healing can’t start until we leave the underworld, but that’s an illusion. Pain is what brought us here, but our commitment to healing is what guides us through.
Healing doesn’t start only once we have left the darkness, it is, in fact, the path through. It is the path that others have left for us, and it is also the path we create by believing in ourselves and by taking step, and then another. Each step is not just along the path, it builds the path. In a way, we are the path out.
We may think we are alone there because the underworld feels like such a desolate place and the journey can certainly seem very dark and foreboding. Nevertheless, in every underworld myth, there is always a way back, always a path through. There is a track to follow, a guiding spirit, or a river that flows through the underworld and out again. If we look around us, we can find signs that others have been there before us, leaving clues about how to find our way out again. They have left their writing, their art, their poems, and their music.
We may be tempted to sit down and give up, but we have to find a way to keep going. We may become discouraged because we think that our healing can’t start until we leave the underworld, but that’s an illusion. Pain is what brought us here, but our commitment to healing is what guides us through.
Healing doesn’t start only once we have left the darkness, it is, in fact, the path through. It is the path that others have left for us, and it is also the path we create by believing in ourselves and by taking step, and then another. Each step is not just along the path, it builds the path. In a way, we are the path out.
Image: Orpheus and Eurydice, Edward Poynter, 1862 (Wikimedia Commons
SUBSCRIBE
 | Sarah Anne Shockley has lived with nerve pain from Thoracic Outlet Syndrome since 2007. She co-produced and directed Dancing From the Inside Out, a multi-award winning documentary on AXIS Dance Company (integrating wheelchair and able-bodied dance). She is a regular contributor to The Mighty and author of The Pain Companion (New World Library, June, 2018), The Light at The Center of Pain, Living Better While Living With Pain, and 30 Days of Living Better While Living With Pain. |
RSS Feed
