Spiritual concepts
Underworld
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Within Greek thought, the Underworld was actually the physical layer - where we are now! It wasn't some level below the physical. The Greeks regarded the spiritual world as the true world and the physical world as a dark sombre place in comparison. It is Plato's cave and Pluto's cavern, down a tunnel into the dark.
But in shamanic thought the underworld is a level and layer broadly classified within the Earth layer but not physical. It is used to store the software - spirit and functions - of animals. Thus a shaman who 'did the dive' not only saw his own animal based software - his reptilian characteristics, but via this level could visit, via bridges, actual animals and communicate with them at this level.
The whole of Alice in Wonderland is about the Underworld, going down - doing the dive - to meet animals and communicate with them. As you should be able to appreciate being able to understand and communicate with animals and birds was a great asset to a shaman.
The underworld appears however to be the storage place for a number of other systems besides those of animals. If I roughly summarise these they are
- Systems of animate life - These systems are not uniquely human, the same functions can be found in any number of animals and species of life, thus all the functions related to dogs, cats, horses, snakes, reptiles, fishes, plants and so on are found at this level. These systems are all, however, the fundamentally basic systems of animation:
- The Basic animation systems of living things – the systems that make a plant grow, a dog bark, a horse whinny, a human smile or cough, a flower seed, a bulb sprout, a fish swim, a snake slither, a bird fly, a human walk, a reptile crawl, a baby chuckle, a whale breathe air and spout, a dolphin, squeak, a mouse burrow, a cat wash its paws, a worm wriggle, a woodlice chew, a bacteria, swim, a frog jump, a kingfisher plunge, and so on and so on – too many functions to even begin to mention
- Contrasting systems of the emotions - - systems which do not animate but which control very basic animal like emotions. Where the air section appears to contain functions such as happiness, joy, kindness, meekness, and so on, the underworld contains the contrasting systems. So we might find systems such as loneliness, grief, despair, melancholy, sadness, pride, distrust, jealousy, fear, gluttony, envy, desire, lust, greed, passion or as Dante would have said 'systems governed by the appetites'.
- Systems of survival, life and removal – these are systems that are needed for species in general to survive and subsequently die - hunger/need for sustenance, sexual arousal and intercourse, birth, death and so on.
- Systems of illness – all the systems that create illness are also here. Thus the systems that respond to bacteria and microbes as well as other illnesses. In effect, a pathogen has a set of activities that cause the disease, but there are also systems that respond to the disease. In the observations I found all sorts of illnesses mentioned, everything from Syphilis, Insanity, and Nervous diseases to diseases such as influenza. So when you say you are feeling 'low' or at a 'low ebb' this is why
- Systems of inanimate matter – hence those natural systems related to geological formations, minerals, rocks, volcanic forces, plate tectonics, erosion, and so on. Certain natural systems related to the weather, air, winds and so on appear to be held at this level, so contrary to what one may logically think – air systems should be at air level, water systems at the water level, this is not the case – they are found here at the lower levels.
It is worth noting that this is a huge number of systems, by far the greatest chunk.
The idea of the underworld [and hell] being at a 'lower' level than Earth is an interesting one, as the images often associated with both hell and the underworld can be induced by using infrasound – that is sound of a lower pitch than that we can hear – as opposed to ultrasound which is sound of a higher pitch than we can hear.
The very low virtually inaudible sounds made by church organ pipes, by tunnels and the resonance within them, by some electric fans and so on can induce in people [without their having used drugs or other mechanisms of trance], a deep state of melancholy and gloom. Some may even have hallucinations – see ghostly figures or experience visions of a terrifying kind.
Observations
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- Ancestors, the - Art - David Lewis-Williams from The Mind in the Cave
- Asclepius - The Egg
- Baldrs draumar - Odin goes to Hel
- Benjamin, Walter - On Hashish - The dive
- Bern Zinc tablet
- Bibliotheca - The myth of Demeter and Persephone
- Blodeuwedd
- Brittany - Isle de Sein and the Realm of the Dead
- Brittany - Ys
- Charles Hopkins on Orpheus
- Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz - The First Day
- Clare, John - Wilt thou go with me sweet maid
- Custance, John - Wisdom, Madness and Folly - In the Caves of the Unconscious
- Custance, John - Wisdom, Madness and Folly - On the depressive phase
- Custance, John - Wisdom, Madness and Folly - On the depressive phase
- Custance, John - Wisdom, Madness and Folly - The atavistic tendencies of mania
- Custance, John - Wisdom, Madness and Folly - The horrors and insights of the depressive phase
- Dante - Inferno - Canto 02 - 07
- Dante - Inferno - Canto 08
- Dante - Inferno [anger]
- Dante - Inferno [egg shape]
- Dante - Inferno [envy and discontent]
- Dante - Inferno [gluttony]
- Dante - Inferno [obsession]
- David Lewis-Williams - Cave art
- David Lewis-Williams - Caves and spiritual experience
- Dr Robert Crookall - More Astral projections – Mrs Eileen M. Gullick
- Dr Robert Crookall - More Astral projections – Mrs Myles Reese of Codsall, Staffs
- Dr Robert Crookall - More Astral projections – Mrs Winifred Burles, of Bath has several OBEs
- Egyptian Book of the Dead - Spell 127
- Egyptian Book of the Dead - Spell 168
- Eliot, T S - Four Quartets - 03 Burnt Norton III
- Empedocles - On Nature - 233-364
- Gnostic Gospels - Mechizedek
- Grof, Dr Stanislav - Diving to the Underworld
- Heinz Insu Fenkl - Drums and drumming 002228
- Hesiod - Theogony - 02 Order of creation
- Hesiod - Works and Days - The five ages of man
- Holderlin, Johann - The course of life
- Howard Storm - And his terrifying rebirth experience
- Isaac Luria - Nefilat ‘appayam
- Joan Halifax - On shamanism
- John Milton - Il Penseroso
- Jung, C G - The Spirit in Man, Art and Literature - On the dive
- Leary, Timothy - DMT hell trips
- M A Czaplicka - Siberian shamanism - The young shaman Enchu
- Madame Guyon
- Master Naong - Song of the Pure Land
- Masters and Houston - The dive
- Mayan - Popol Vuh - 08 The Story of Blood Moon
- Mayan - Popol Vuh - 11 The Spirit beings of disease
- Mayan - Xbalanque
- McKenna, Terence - On the realm of DMT
- Mircea Eliade - A initiation ceremony
- Mircea Eliade - Altaic shamanism and the descent to the underworld
- Mircea Eliade - Australian aboriginal beliefs on death
- Mircea Eliade - Australian Aboriginal Initiation rites
- Mircea Eliade - Batu Ribn rises at the Centre of the World
- Mircea Eliade - Describes Doing the dive
- Mircea Eliade - Inuit beliefs of death
- Mircea Eliade - Kahuna ascent of the spirit on death
- Mircea Eliade - On Drum Maps and Drumming
- Mircea Eliade - On Ostyak shamans
- Mircea Eliade - Sami out of body flight
- Morrells, Luce and feeling the vibes of the crypt at Glastonbury
- Mutwa, Vusamazulu Credo - And the underworld
- Norse - Jelling
- Paul Devereux - Inca paths
- Paul Devereux - Mayan - Chichen Itza cave
- Pinchbeck, Daniel - DPT - the jaded emptiness and sublime beauty of the evanescent empire
- Poetic Edda - Baldr's Dreams [extract]
- Poetic Edda - Völuspá [extract]
- Poetic Edda - Völuspá [extract]
- Poetic Edda - Völuspá [extract]
- Porphyry - The cave as the symbol of the perceptible cosmos
- Previn, Dory - Mythical Kings and Iguanas
- Reichel-Dolmatoff – The Tukano Indians - Hell and the Abyss
- S'RÎMAD BHÂGAVATAM – Canto 11, Chapter 05 – Of those who kill their soul and miss the peace
- Sacred geography - Ancient Egyptian - Abu Simbel
- Sefer ha-bahir – Para 29 – The letter Heh
- Seven Ages of Man - 06 Dwarfs/The Neanderthals - On caves as cathedrals
- Shaikh Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani - Irshad al-‘awamm - Darkness and Light
- Shaikh Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani - Irshad al-‘awamm - Earth and Underworld
- Shaikh Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani - Irshad al-‘awamm - Levels and layers
- Sikhism – Japji 34
- Soustelle - Aztecs and Mexica - The three routes on death
- Swedenborg, Emanuel - The True Christian Religion - Lower earth
- The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead
- The Book of Taliesin - Marwnat Madawg - Llyfr Taliesin XLI
- The Homeric Hymn to Demeter - 01
- The Papyrus of Ani – Spell 84 - From How to Assume the Form of a Heron
- Thelmar, E – 20 I seemed to be sent out of my body into a sort of Limbo
- Tirgereh - Prayer to the Celtic goddesses
- Uxmal - Mayan - Governor's Palace
- Uxmal - Mayan - The Nunnery
- Vaughan Williams - Flos Campi
- Vaughan Williams - Symphony no 6
- Vaughan, Henry - The World
- Viscount Adare - Experiences in Spiritualism with Mr D D Home - 13 A question and answer session with spirit beings
- Vitebsky, Piers - Siberian shaman
- Vitebsky, Piers - The experiences of the Sora shaman
- W.Y. Evans-Wentz - Chalchatongo and Mictlan, the Aztec land of the dead
- W.Y. Evans-Wentz - The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - Caves as the place of rebirth
- W.Y. Evans-Wentz - The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - Celtic and Egyptian Mysteries compared
- W.Y. Evans-Wentz - The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - Mithras Mysteries
- W.Y. Evans-Wentz - The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - Tara as the centre of the Irish Mysteries
- W.Y. Evans-Wentz - The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - The Pyramids as the site of the Mysteries
- W.Y. Evans-Wentz - The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - The Three Circles of Existence
- Yram - And the realm of the disembodied soul
- Zimmer, Dr Heinrich - Karma-loka