Into Darkness

 Recorded this spiel partially in response to a question asked about the Suffolk Jungian Circle recording on alchemy and partly because of various other things going on. Greek mythology has two related concepts for stories (or subsections of larger stories) of katabasis and anabasis - respectively the journey into the Underworld and the return to the land of the living. This is paralleled in the Christian tradition by notions of the Harrowing of Hell, in both versions a key feature is that the traveller is going into the Dark Place in order to retrieve something - a lost loved one, a treasure of some sort etc.

As the recording hopefully emphasises, there are lots of different ways to understand what the Dark Place is and the nature of the voluntary journey there. A lot of people end up in Dark Places, but they rarely go there willingly so it is debatable whether the notion of katabasis applies to all such terrible experiences or only to ones of a voluntary nature (and ones with an intent to retrieve some lost thing). There are definite parallels to shamanic soul retrieval practices and to less mystical therapeutic techniques, where the journey is a metaphorical inward one.

As touched on in the alchemy recording, Jung would argue that everyone who lives long enough will find themselves at a crossroads where true wholeness can only be achieved by being prepared to journey into the darkness - though they may also choose to avoid this for a time and lurch on as less-than-functional damaged goods.

It would be interesting to promote a discussion about how such journeys are understood in different cultures and spiritual traditions, as well as individual experiences of confronting the dark and rescuing what it keeps hidden.

The related concept of nekyia is also touched on, the conjuring up of the dead into the realm of the living, usually to answer some question known only to those who are long lost.