Processing / Darkness / Practicing What I Preach

[qos]

I spent all day yesterday processing the ritual and descent experience, and it's going to continue to preoccupy me today -- which is going to be tough, given some high demand tasks I have to complete at work.

Ereshkigal is quite serious about me, and I'm both excited and unnerved by that. I trust her, but she's scary.

There was a lot of rich material in my meditation with her this morning, far too much to post here when I need to get ready for work. The key point I'm going to be pondering today, however, is this:

I need to get around my cultural tendency of equating light to goodness and dark to evil.

Intellectually I know they do not automatically correlate. Intellectually I know that deities of darkness and death are not evil; they have been perceived as evil and frightening by humanity because we fear death and the unknown. And as Ereshkigal pointed out to me this morning with one of her unnerving smiles: For several years now, I've consciously and deliberately stood for understanding as a tool against fear. Time to practice what I preach.

Comments

[oakmouse]

Welcome to full-scale underworld priestess training. *g* Now's when it gets serious.

The light/darkness thing is challenging in some ways, isn't it? When I got hit in the face with that one, I spent some time meditating on what was good about darkness. Hit a rich vein, too: memories of star-gazing at night with my dad, and lying in a soft warm bed in a dark quiet room and being totally comfortable (Aspie recharge time, yay!), and things like that. It helped a lot to own those things about darkness that I love and enjoy. Really takes the edge off of the cultural assumptions.

Reading your material about connecting with Ereshkigal and being challenged and taught by her is an enjoyable reminder of my early time with Ana, when the serious ride was just beginning for me. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

[shadowandstar.livejournal.com]

Welcome to full-scale underworld priestess training.
Ha! Indeed!


It's always nice when you share the similarities in our experiences. Sometimes it feels very alone and strange out here -- or "down there" in the underworld.

[oakmouse]

It's often just as good for me to hear your experiences. We all work in isolation to some degree, and it isn't that common to find someone to share notes with. It does feel very alone and strange, and it's nice to know somebody else is going where you've been --- or has been where you're going.

[shadowandstar.livejournal.com]

*hugs!