The Heroines Journey

But there is another journey often neglected or spoken about in a negative way and that is the Heroines Journey. Sylvia Brinton Perera, a psychotherapist, calls it the Descent to the Goddess. It is in the mythology and our consciousness but doesn’t get much notice. When masculine/eternal/manifested values took the focus we left this other journey by the wayside to decay. Even as women our focus became the hero’s journey and we forgot our own path. Women are the tenders of the underworld the unconscious/unmanifested. We got distracted and now no one is tending the underworld or the subtle realm.

This is a very dangerous situation. When we tended the underworld we knew how to navigate it, for our selves and others. We knew what was in there and what to watch out for. Now no one is tending this realm, we have forgotten how to navigate it and it has left us all very vulnerable and fearful.

Over time this journey even began to take on negative names such as depression. Depression became a fearful thing, something we want to avoid at any cost, even if it means taking medication. There are some forms of depression that are pathological and dangerous. But perhaps if we understood this journey better we would be able to differentiate between the pathological and the spiritual. Instead we made it all ‘bad’. In the end ‘what we resist persists’. The more we try to hold down this dragon the stronger it will emerge. Better to find our courage and face it.

The concept gained a small revival in spirituality with the idea of ‘the dark night of the soul’; but that is usually a fleeting experience, one that we need to somehow endure. I contend that like the shaman we need to embrace the journey to the underworld and learn how to navigate it in order to remove the fear. Fear in general comes from the unconscious mind which is why it is so potent. Fear is the perfect example of what is in the underworld that we need to conquer. Rage is another. We need to stop being afraid of the unknown, unseen, because until we do we will always be vulnerable. I personally feel that one of the reasons there is so much fear is because no one is tending the underworld.

The story of Innana/Ishtar is one example of this descent in mythology. Innana descends to visit her dark sister in the underworld. She is dressed in symbols of her ‘power’. One by one as she goes through the gates of the underworld she is humbled, stripped of her power, piece by piece until finally she stands naked and disempowered. Before she embarks on this journey she tells her handmaiden that if she does not return in three days and three nights that the handmaiden should go to the gods to ask for help for her return. When Innana does not return her handmaiden first goes to one of the most powerful gods who tells her that Innana should have know better than to go to the underworld. The handmaiden then goes to Innana’s father who also refuses saying that Innana is always acting out.

Finally the handmaiden goes to the god of the primordial waters who sends two helpers to the underworld to retrieve Innana’s body and resurrect her. They go to the underworld to appease Innana’s dark sister who is suffering. They appease her with compassion, reflection and healing. As a gift for their healing they are given Innana’s body. They resuscitate her. As she ascends moving back through the gates one by one she reclaims her power, but this time with great wisdom and ‘empowerment’.

That is a VERY simplified version of a very beautiful story filled with wisdom. It is work reading in it’s entirety to extract all the important details. There are two important points that I would like to make here. One is that although Innana knows she must make the journey alone she leaves instructions with her handmaiden to help her return if she is unable. We need other women to help us back, whether we are men or women taking the journey. Women are the midwives to help us re-birth, because of our knowledge of this process and birthing.

The second point which I didn’t go into deeply in my explanation but needs to be looked at is how she is allowed to return. The helpers ease the pain and transform the goddess of the underworld through compassion, reflection and healing. When the dark goddess is healed Innana is allowed to return. In other words the outer state reflects the inner state and transformation needs to take place in both places. As women regain their navigational skills all will benefit.

Just as women embark on the Hero’s journey men often make this descent to the underworld. But I think it is more difficult for men. Women still have the skills, the ability to navigate the darkness. We have not yet completely lost our intuition. Women have a monthly death/rebirth cycle that could be seen as a mild version of this greater journey. Experiencing the death and release of what could have been (a child) before we begin a new cycle. In ancient times this was something that brought women together a time of bonding. Women were not banished outside the tribe because it was disgusting. It was a time of healing for women, a time to bond in a moment when they were taking the journey. They were in a state of consciousness that was overly sensitive and very receptive, a time to be with other women (see Anita Diamant, The Red Tent). As women regain their navigational skills all will benefit.

When men and women stop battling with each other, between the sexes, and begin to move to co-creation we will see the importance of this cooperation. We will see why it is so important for each of the sexes to embrace their divine aspects. Navigating the darkness is one of the aspects of the Divine Feminine. We need to reclaim it so that all of humanity can benefit.

I had a very prophetic dream several years ago that I only understood recently, during one of our gatherings. When I had the understanding I knew that the illumination was correct because it brought tears to my eyes as I was telling the story.

In the dream I am with my animus (who I spent a lot of time with in those days). We are running out of what looks like a 7 Eleven or On the Run. As we are exiting the store I can see something that looks like thick black smoke progressively filling the store. It is not smoke, the store is not on fire, it is the ‘darkness’ moving in.

We run out of the store to our car which is parked in front. The car is a sports car I had when I was about 18, a brown Triumph Spitfire (haven’t yet understood why it was THIS car, but it was very clear). Quickly we jump into our car. He gets in the drivers side I get in the passengers side (no he didn’t open the car door for me; we were in a bit of a hurry).

Once inside I put my arm around his shoulders and embrace him. He grabs the steering wheel with both hands. In almost slow motion I take out a gold key (very large), put it in the ignition and turn it. The car starts. He begins driving. In the mean time the ‘darkness’ is now not only filling the store but it is all around us. It is becoming difficult to see. I KNOW that I must continue to embrace him, support him to keep him calm and centered. As long as I am holding him I am empowering him. He KNOWS that he must focus and follow my instructions because it is the only way out of the ‘darkness’. I am the one who can navigate the darkness with out being able to see. There is mutual respect for our roles. He can stay focused on what he is doing because I am guiding and supporting him. There is no conflict between us we move as one, respecting and acknowledging each others ‘power’, co-creating our destiny. (It is interesting to note that in many carvings in the ancient temples in Egypt you have exactly this scene of the queen embracing and empowering the king).

At the time I had the dream I felt it was a beautiful dream of having a powerful intimate experience with my animus. At the gathering when I told the story and tears came to my eyes I realized the profundity of the dream. I had never told it aloud before. All the women in the room felt the power of the dream as I told it. Because it was not just an intimate experience, it WAS the coming together of the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine in their empowered states. I had glimpsed behind the curtain and witnessed co-creation, the sacred marriage. The dream showed me the immense importance of the period of time we are moving into. Somehow telling it aloud I was able to transmit it to the women in the room. I had this dream in 2002 but didn’t fully understand then. It was merely a seed that was planted in me who’s time to come to fruition is now.

For the last two years I have been facilitating the journey with women. There is a lot of fear about the journey but I believe that is because we lack support. From Inanna’s story we see very clearly that although we embark on the journey alone we are supported. We need our ‘handmaidens’, sisters, to bring us back if we fail to return. All of these aspects reflect aspects of the Divine Feminine, cooperation, navigating, rebirthing, support, death and rebirth, most of them aspects that have been lost as we all set out on our Hero’s journey.

I believe to truly step back into our Divinity we as women need to reclaim these lost aspects of ourselves. This journey has taken me to amazing places. I also see it on the faces of other women as they return from a place deep with in them selves that they never knew existed.