The Souls Journey

Artist Unknown

Warm greetings <3

I was getting ready for a walk the other day and wanted to listen to a story of sorts, so I looked through a few different podcasts rooted in mythology and used a kind of bibliomancy approach to choosing. The intention when landing on a story was that it be supportive, a bridge between the seen and unseen, a palette cleanser for inner knowing.

This is what I settled on:

The myth of Er from Plato’s The Republic.

Er, the main character could also be understood as a being of the Earth, a human, a soul; an image of any person who is susceptible to the fluctuations of living, to seasons of life, to inner Winter Spring Summer and Autumn.

The story begins with Er falling in battle. He is left under corpses for days before he awakens in the underworld (a parallel, unseen reality with various connotations depending on who you ask), unfamiliar territory for the character. Er is instructed to take note of what happens in the underworld as he follows a gathering of souls on a journey.

The journey ushers the group into what appears to be the center of existence, where a cosmic spindle (undertones of the tree of life in Celtic mythology) rests on the knees of the primordial Goddess Ananke, her daughters- three sisters, representing past, present, and future, are weavers of the fabric of life and sitting at the base of the spindle (in Norse cosmology these characters are known as the norns or sisters of fate). They keep the spindle turning through song, a chant that coincides with the music of the cosmos (what we might understand as the vibration AUM in Yogic philosophy), enlivening the unseen, spinning the universe on and on, materializing existence.

Each soul passes before the sisters. Each soul blessed with a unique journey, an intelligent blueprint, and valuable gifts.

The soul’s journey on, across the Plain of Forgetfulness to the River of Lethe, the stream of forgetfulness. The group drinks from the river, forgetting their experience of being at the center of the cosmos and what the sisters imparted to them.

Er was the only who did not drink from the river, otherwise, this story would be lost to the waters of Lethe.

As night settles over the plains, all sleep but Er. During the dark hours of rest, a thunderstorm and earthquake happen simultaneously, the above and below working in harmony to grant life to the sleeping souls. The souls are carried by the force of these great events to the time and place of their birth.

Er arrives in the seen world (Earth) lying on a pyre that was built for his death; a symbol of the birth-death cycle that all living things experience in a lifetime and multiple times within the soul’s journey of remembering it’s unique story, gifts, and blueprint.

Here, the story ends.

Something that stuck out to me is that Er's conscious journey into the underworld and back to Earth, the very existence of this story, are indicators that remembering, unraveling, and coming home to ourselves is quite possible and oftentimes, accompanied by an underworld journey (navigating our depths). And, that remembering is not just an individual experience, it's also a collective remembering, a cultural remembering, an ecological remembering.

Also, this story normalizes the forgetting- the losing ones sense of self, purpose, meaning. I personally hold a lot of shame around the forgetting and not having mastered x,y, and z and I feel like this story says "It's okay, there's nothing wrong with you, you are not bad."

Artist Unknown

This interpretation is inspired by Michael Meads translation, with my own interpretations based on Vedic philosophy (Yoga & Ayurveda) and Norse & Celtic cosmologies. I don't claim to be a mythologist or a historian, just a lover of all thing ancient, holistic, mystic, mythic, creative, and wild and where they intersect.

Meade shares, that of concern, is not whether we should or should not believe this tale, because myths are not about believing, but rather act as pathways for learning, remembering, and imagining.

I love myths, folk tales, stories passed down through the ages because they remind us, that even among our forgetfulness, we remain a part of something vast, wise, and meaningful.

However, unraveling the forgetfulness is an important part of the human journey, because it disconnects us from the soul, the natural world, and the unseen, leading to individual and collective dissonance and a culture of fragility.

When we remember ourselves, our center, our interdependence and interconnectedness, we become a vessel for healing, meaning, and understanding to our communities and the collective…and my goodness, we could use more of that. We also uncover more fulfillment, love, beauty, creativity, resilience, overall well-being, and purpose in our individual lives.

So, with all that being said, I’m excited that next week starts our 12-week summer series, Confluence: Where Roots Meet Rivers.

Time + space to be human together, to resource & remember, to unlearn and relearn.

I’ll be weaving in practices, tools, and teachings from yoga, ayurveda, somatics, animism, mythology, and collective transformation as a part of our time together.

What you can expect: arriving (likely through story, myth, or poetry), orienting to here and now (somatic tools), a gentle movement practice (yoga asana with seasonal considerations), time for tending to the soul (somatic practices), mindfulness + meditation, and togetherness. 

The practice will follow the shape of a parabola or the natural rhythm of the nervous system, breath, rainbow, and life cycles.

We will practice in a circle and each week will bring in a new focal point that falls under the theme of confluence.

This is a bit of an experiment for me as I integrate these different yet related practices into an experience.

For my virtual folks, I am sensing an online option for this somewhere down the pipeline.

Drop ins welcome
Location: Cowee School (Franklin NC)
Class packages available (at registration) or drop in for $15
If money is a barrier, you are still welcome

For context:

Yoga: (physical, mental, emotional, energetic, and spiritual practices that clear the way for deeper awareness, connection, and truth)

Ayurveda: (living in rhythm with nature and the elements of earth, water, fire, air, + ether to cultivate holistic well-being)

Somatics: soma means the living organism in its wholeness, so these are tools and practices that work through the whole person to nurture the relationship and congruence between actions, behaviors, beliefs, values, relationships and environment

Animism: a worldview that perceives everything imbued with Spirit, sentient, and in relationship

Trauma responsive care: an approach that considers we live in a traumatizing world and/or world that doesn't meet our basic needs for safety, belonging, and dignity and therefore we develop unconscious patterns that need to be cared for

Liberatory discourse/Collective transformation: questions dominant power structures and systems of oppression that hinder individuals and groups from living a meaningful, empowered, fulfilling life