I've spent a considerable amount of time recently exploring what shamans call the Underworld, doing a series of trial runs in preparation for my first attempt at soul retrieval.
It's easy to see how that realm got such a bad rap. It's definitely hot and steamy, dark, and it stinks. The souls down there do not seem happy, but they don't seem to be held there against their will. Something I haven't encountered are demons whose purpose is to torture those poor souls, nor have I captured even a glimpse of the Devil himself (though I know he's there somewhere).
It appears to me that a visit to the Underworld is completely voluntary. My guess is that all the steam and gunky goo down there functions like a big ole mud bath, cleaning "heavy metals" out of souls in preparation for whatever it is that comes next.
From what I've seen, Hell is a soul rehab center, but not the fancy kind like the places where celebrities go to detox. Can you imagine? What I've found makes sense, at least to me. If I were - for example - Rush Limbaugh, I can easily imagine that at death, right after seeing my life flash before my eyes, I might decide to get into soul rehab as soon as possible.
Surprising to me is the realization that Hell can be addictive. Some of the souls down there don't seem to remember that they can leave whenever they want, so they sit and boil for eternity. Go figure. Or once they get started with the cleansing process, they never want to stop. It's like people on diets who are so successful they don't know when to stop losing weight, or people so addicted to running that they ruin their knees, feet, hips and backs, but still run every day. Diets and running seem like such good things, done in moderation. The same is true in Hell.
What is all the steam and gunky goo anyway? The mad scientist in me is so curious. My theory is that it's a nasty brew of unexamined shadow material from all of mankind throughout all of history, stirred into a toxic stew of memories and emotions so painful that when they come up, people reject them outright. Then of course there's the hellish matrix of all the "heavy metals" from all the souls who have ever visited. No wonder it stinks so bad. Though taken in the right "dose" a visit to Hell can be medicinal, please trust me when I say it is not a pleasant place.
After a shamanic journey to the Underworld, I take a "real world" shower complete with a nice sugar or salt scrub or other exfoliation treatment. Next I take a journey onwards and upwards so I can visit with the Cloud People, who cluck their tongues, shake their heads, bathe me in clean white light, groom my energy and then send me back to the earth plane with a little pat on my behind to remind me where I belong.
My job, if I decide to continue the study of soul retrieval, will involve a dip down into this nasty place at some point in every treatment. What I'm asking myself today is whether this really is the direction I want to take my healing practice. Wouldn't you think twice?
20 comments:
yeah! definately! x janelle
Your descriptions of your soul retrieval preparations raise interesting questions about the nature of the underworld, aka hell. Is it some place "other" from the here and now, where souls go when they die (which is what the Christian tradition in which I was raised would argue), or is it something internal, where perhaps some part (maybe all?) of one's soul gets stuck in the here and now while the body carries on? I guess what I'm asking is whether hell is something outside of ourselves or whether it is a prison of our own making. Thinking about the metaphysics of hell is a fascinating business. Thank you, Reya, for giving the grey cells a workout!
I don't know where it is or what it is. And I can't say that my experiences have anything to do with the way other people perceive the cosmology of the soul.
Who knows? Whatever the Underworld is, though, I'm told I'll have to dip in there quickly every time I do a soul retrieval. Eww.
wow.
Just wow.
Another post that makes my brain cells work overtime. You rock!
This was wonderful.
Count me a member of the clean white light.
I guess it stands to reason that Mick Jagger has aged just as much as we have. This was certainly from an earlier era. Love that British accent.
Barbara, you are funny!
If anyone needs soul retrieval, it's Rush Limbaugh!
My immediate response is
don't go there
unless you can envelope yourself
in some white light bubble
and extend robotic or
bubble protected arms,
an impenetrable space suit,
to gather what you need. . .
no goo on you
and i mean it
Love you so so much,
hell as "shadow material from all of mankind throughout all of history, stirred into a toxic stew of memories and emotions so painful" - thats a persective which resonates
some of what you say reminds me of hell in the Pullman trilogy too...
Lettuce, the books of the Pullman trilogy are on my all-time fave list; I, too, thought of that particular version of hell when reading Reya's description.
You do make me consider things in a different way... that hell might be good in moderation... hmm... not sure I go with that but it is something to consider.
When you do healing now, do you bring the pain into you or do you only bring it out of the healee? If you bring it in to you, even a little bit/briefly, then I'd suggest that this is not the right time to do soul retrieval.
I do not take on the pain of my clients, not ever. I don't think of pain as a free-standing entity. I think pain is the result of energy that's either packed in too tightly into a small space or someplace where it isn't supposed to be.
Sometimes I pull small bundles of energy out of a client and "flick" them out into the world. Once the energy is free to move and expand, it stops causing problems. At least this is my perception. I don't believe in "bad energy" as a free-standing entity either.
Deborah, all I have to do is dip my soul retrieval pouch into the goo, then get out asap. "Dip, then SNAP" as my guides are telling me.
As for getting into the goo, I'm already there - the parts of me that are unexamined or about which I'm so ashamed I can't face them in the real world. There's plenty of you in there too and everyone you've ever known.
It also seems to me that hell has all the rejected "stuff" of the world - bad writing pens that leaked all over your shirt, old Metro tickets that didn't work, shoes that looked good but always killed your feet, etc.
Not literally stuff, these objects appear in Hell as the emotions with which they were rejected - frustration, anger, disappointment, annoyance.
One more thought, then I promise I'll stop (though clearly I could write a book on this!)
There are deeper layers of Hell than the place I have to go if I decide to do soul retrieval. I sense that the lower you go, the worse things get. The Devil probably lives down there somewhere.
I only have to visit "Hell-Lite."
I just read "Jack and the Beanstalk" to the shelter kids last night. I suddenly had this image of you dipping your beautiful little elk pouch in the goo and scampering out just as Jack climbed down the beanstalk as the FEE-FI-FO-FUM from the giant was heard. I hope you are ultimately as successful at soul retrieval as Jack was at piling up gold!
I'd rather be good at piling up gold!
Look at it this way. A lot of people have already succeeded at piling up gold. You are blazing the trail for soul retrieval! Wouldn't you rather be a pioneer? :)
Shamans have been doing soul retrieval for 100,000 years in almost every culture, all over the planet. This is not new in any way. sigh
Like I said, gimme the gold!
when i first glimpsed this blog, "not for tourists" and talk about hell...i thought you were talking about the folly of visiting DC in August!
I believe you
I believe in you
I do not want you hurt
If this endeavor brings you
great joy, fulfillment, calm
and light, peace and understanding
then who would I be not to support you in it.
I love you and want you healthy and happy and unhurt--and often you evoke my lioness working so hard to guard an adventurous, brilliant and beautiful cub--no matter how much 'older' and smarter you may be.
Oh and btw, don't let anyone ever tell you that you are crazy--you, darling Reya, are a treasure
and a treasure to this world.
Love you so much,
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