The end of the world as we know it
The Medicine of Descent
October is asking something different of us.
The trees are beginning to let go.
The light is changing.
Energy is moving downward
Into the earth.
Into the roots.
Into what has been forgotten.
Perhaps this is not the time to reach higher.
Perhaps it is time to descend.
To put our head to the ground and listen.
What are the roots saying?
What needs to be composted so that it can become nourishment for what comes next?
What if letting go is not an ending,
But another way of feeding life?
I imagine climbing onto the back of a great Dragon.
The Dragon lowers its head toward the earth, and together we descend.
Down into the dark.
Down beneath what we already know.
Down into the place where another kind of knowing lives.
The Way of Inanna
There is an ancient story of descent.
In the Sumerian myth of Inanna, the great goddess journeys into the underworld.
At each of the seven gates, she is asked to relinquish something.
Her crown.
Her ornaments.
Her garments.
The symbols of who she has known herself to be.
Gate by gate,
she is stripped of what she carries
until she arrives with nothing.
This month, Venus—the planet associated in astrology with love, beauty, relationship, creativity, and value—begins her retrograde journey.
We might hold this movement as a mythic invitation:
What are we being asked to lay down?
What identities have become too small?
What rhythms no longer belong to us?
What might happen if, instead of immediately reaching for an answer, we paused long enough to listen?
“The Descent of Inanna begins with the goddess hearing a call. She honors this call and ventures to the Underworld, a realm from which no one returns. As she moves through her journey, she is stripped of her garments of power. Internal resistance rises up within her at having to let go of these items, but she goes forth despite this resistance knowing that she will enter the Underworld naked and bowed low. The myth ends with Inanna honoring and celebrating her sister Ereshkigal, the Queen of the Underworld. Can we mirror this teaching? Like Inanna, might we also bring a sense of humility and reverence with us into our descent as we face “the end of the world as we know it”?” |
Seana Zelazo |
The Revolutionary Act of Pausing
There is medicine for slowing down.
Leaning in.
Letting go.
Recalibrating.
Trusting.
Listening.
Perhaps one of the most revolutionary things we can do in a world that continually asks us to move faster is to pause long enough to remember.
To prioritize Presence.
Presence first.
Before doing.
Before fixing.
Before responding.
Before deciding what comes next.
To come back into relationship with the four bodies:
Physical.
Emotional.
Mental.
Spiritual.
And ask:
Where am I?
What am I listening to?
What is asking for my attention?
What is mine to respond to?
Intention.
Attention.
Presence.
The Artistry of Connecting
This is also the ground from which Seana Zelazo and I have been creating The Artistry of Connecting.
We have been asking:
How do we listen deeply in a changing world?
How do we stay connected to ourselves, one another, the Earth, and the unseen intelligence moving through life?
And how do we know when—and how—to respond?
The practices we are exploring are simple, but perhaps quietly radical.
Listening before speaking.
Feeling before fixing.
Connecting before acting.
Allowing the body, imagination, creativity, nature, ritual, myth, constellation and the Oracle within
to become part of how we know.
Perhaps this is one way the world as we know it ends.
Not through abandoning the world, but through changing the way we meet it.
One person listening differently.
One relationship becoming more present.
One circle gathering with intention.
One human remembering that we belong to a living Earth.
The old rhythm loosens.
Another rhythm becomes audible.
Put your head to the ground.
Listen.
Perhaps the Dragon is already moving beneath us.
Perhaps the descent has already begun.
And perhaps, somewhere deep beneath the surface, our roots already know the way.
Curious to learn more about this course?
You can explore with us if this is a good fit for you:
May we walk in beauty together,
Santjes and Seana
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