Getting closer to Easter the topic of this meeting is Resurrection. But before resurrection can occur, death is a presequisite.
So I want to invite you to join me in a descent to what I have called Ground Zero.
Please have a piece of paper and a pencil ready, to write down three definitions that will arise during this exercise.
Trance: Descent to Ground Zero
Some of you may know that the Sumerian Goddess Inanna went – like Christ – to the underworld, died there and was resurrected after three days. (*)
I am sure all of you will remember situations when you were faced with something so overwhelming that it felt like death. A loss, an illness, a devastating event .
Please brace yourself and join me in a descent to what I have called Ground Zero, utter darkness where you will be unable to move on, helpless and powerless.
However, there is a mechanism that will allow you to return to life.
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So – sit comfortably, your feet grounded, close your eyes, take several deep breaths, into your Hara, your center of gravity under the navel, and relax.
What is your mood right now? Let it go.
Be aware of your breathing, and with every out-breath you sink deeper into this dark realm, darkness,
Leaving behind you’re intentions of just a couple of minutes ago,
Your plans,
your concepts of what should be.
They do not matter anymore.
And you plummet deeper and deeper into a darkness you hoped never to experience.
There is nothing to support you, keep you safe.
No maps or stars to guide you, how to move on, just darkness.
Sink into it. Accept it.
This is Ground Zero where nothing lives, nothing grows, nothing is. Just emptiness.
And there, in the deepest darkness she is:
Meet your Shadow Sister, the Goddess of the Underworld, forever wailing about her fate, for what she has lost most dearest to her.
Let us join her in her pain and desolation, help her mourn, help her cry. Join into her moans and cries, show her you empathise, are willing to participate in her devastation. As loud as you can in the tradition of wailing women.
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All of a sudden you can hear a faint call, the call of your eternal soul, which will guide you out of this darkness, but first you have to make a sacrifice, you have to leave something behind to be able to ascend again.
What comes to your mind? What do you still cherish but know it is obsolete?
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Choose wisely. See it …or feel it…. or hear it clearly.
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You will remember what it is when you will be back in your normal state of mind.
In placing this ritually at her feet, you notice that you are being pulled up to from where you came.
The darkness changes to a twilight, like dawn in the morning, everything still a light grey.
Then you are approached by figure, who smiles at you and offers you in a chalice the Water of Life. You drink.
What invigorates you, what fills you with energy again, makes your synapses fire again, enables you to be creative again? See and feel is clearly. Remember it well.
And you are approached by a second figure, who smiles at you and offers you the Bread of Life.
What revives your senses? Gives you strength and power over your body?
You eat from the bread . You feel it, see it, hear it. Remember it well.
And slowly you ascend the last steps.
The light is getting brighter, the new day will welcome you soon, you carry Water and Bread of Life with you, when you carefully step out into the daylight.
Take a deep, joyful breath, feel alive and tingling with a new perspective on life.
When you are ready, open your eyes and write down what you had to leave behind and what Water and Bread of Life constitute for you right now.
Thank you for your willingness and courage to join me on Ground Zero.
mf Women Matters 2021-03-15
(*) The myth of Inanna, Goddess of Heaven and Earth, lets her descend to the underworld through 7 gates and according to the laws of the underworld she has to leave behind an insignia of power at every gate and finally stands naked and powerless before her Shadow sister Ereshkigal. And she dies. After three days her servant whom she left at the entrance contacts the God of Wisdom who creates out of the dirt under his fingernails two figures of no specific gender who mourn with Ereshkigal, repeat what she wails and finally she consents to let Inanna go.
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