The under-world is the realm of our repressed and disowned psychic energies, personal and collective: what psychotherapy calls the personal and collective unconscious. It is part of the middle-worldMiddle-world. Ordinary physical reality together with its energetic layers: the realm of individuality, separation and mixed intentions, and the only realm where harm is possible. “If there is a hell, then it is the middle-world.” Read the full answer, created by humans through repression, and it has grown enormously since domesticationDomestication. The process by which, in domesticating other species, we domesticated ourselves. When dated precisely, Domestication begins with the Neolithic era, before the Fall proper, which begins with the first city-state cultures around 4000 BCE. What rewilding works to undo. More about this and the FallThe Fall. The catastrophe at the root of the whole diagnosis: the shift from animist, egalitarian hunter-gatherer life to owning, agricultural Taker culture. In domesticating other species we domesticated ourselves, cutting ourselves off from Mother Earth (Power-loss) and from parts of our own nature (soul-loss). When dated precisely, the Fall begins with the first city-state cultures, around 4000 BCE (Domestication begins earlier, with the Neolithic). A sickness, not our true nature. ‘Fallen culture’ is used interchangeably with Taker culture; the Great Rupture is a looser alternate name. Read the full answer. The Lower-World, by contrast, is a real, wild, spiritual realm of nature that exists in its own right, and the two are not the same thing at all.
What is the under-world? #
The realm of what we have pushed away. It is not the same as the Lower-World: it is the realm of repressed and disowned psychic energies and parts of self, both personal and collective (the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious), and part of the middle-world.1 It is “a realm full of ‘demons’ and ‘monsters’, both personal and collective.”2
Is the under-world a shamanic realm? #
Not in the same sense as the Lower-World and Upper-WorldUpper-World. The realm of Father Sky and of Spirit: spacious, rarefied and clear, layered in tiers, offering not escape but perspective. Not better than the Lower-World: we ascend rooted, and bring the gifts back down. Read the full answer. It is something humans made, within the middle-world: “We create, in effect, a whole new part of the middle-world, the under-world (as opposed to the Lower-World).”3 The Lower-World and Upper-World, by contrast, are transpersonal realms that exist independently of us. The unconscious (the under-world) and the shamanic Upper and Lower Worlds are not the same thing, and Paul Francis, who is a psychotherapist too, works with and in them all, as appropriate.4
How was the under-world created? #
Through repression, on a vast scale. As children we learn what Carl Rogers called “conditions of worthConditions of worth. Carl Rogers’s term for the conditions placed on love and acceptance in childhood, internalised as conditions of self-worth: the wonky stories of the middle-world self that override the Soul’s original instructions. More about this”: “the conditions that we must meet in order for other people to accept us and include us into the group.”5 What is not allowed gets pushed down. With domestication this became a whole way of life: “In order to fit into our new domesticated, tamed, complex modern society, we learnt to disown and repress huge parts of our psyche. In doing this we created a whole new realm, the under-world.”6
The Fall was “an act of the mass suppression of the human psyche”, and repressed energy does not disappear: “If parts of it are repressed, they do not lose energy, but simply become out of control.”7
Did hunter-gatherers have an under-world? #
A small one. “Hunter-gatherer peoples would undoubtedly have had some degree of unconscious material, both personal and collective”, but because they lived more naturally there was less need to repress, and they paid close attention to their dreams, their bodies and the signs around them.8 “In hunter-gatherer times, the under-world was tiny compared to now. Since domestication and the Fall it has grown enormously, a thousand-fold or more.”9 That is one reason Therapeutic Shamanism draws such clear lines between the realms.
What is the Shadow? #
Jung’s name for the repressed material. “Carl Jung, the psychoanalyst, referred to this repressed material as the Shadow. The more we disown and repress parts of our self, the stronger they become, and the more they seem to take on a life of their own.” Because we are afraid of it, “to us it appears to be a monstrous thing”, and we often project it onto other people.10
The monsters are not monsters by nature. “In reality of course, the things that we are trying to repress are not demons at all. They may become ‘demons’, but that is a consequence of repressing them, not anything to do with their true nature.” And “The only way to heal Shadow wounds is to face and embrace the repressed and disowned parts of self.”11
When someone feels troubled by “demons”, are they inner or real? #
Under-world ‘demons’ are, by definition, inner: repressed parts of the psyche. But when someone feels possessed, these days either could be the case: “The demons could be objectively real, independent beings who are possessing the client. In that case, the demons do indeed need removing. Or, they might instead only be inner ‘demons’, fragments of the psyche that have been repressed. In that case, they need integrating, not removing.”12 Knowing which is the case, and responding appropriately, matters greatly.
How do psychotherapy and shamanism relate to the under-world? #
Each has its own territory. “Just as shamanism is specifically designed and equipped to deal with the problems of soul-lossSoul-loss. The sending-away of parts of the self in order to survive: through shock or trauma, or (the chief modern cause) exiling our own parts to fit in. With Power-loss, one of the two root causes of shamanic illness. Read the full answer and power-lossPower-loss. Disconnection from nature, the web of life and our place in it: like being unplugged from the national grid. One of the two root causes of shamanic illness, healed by reconnection (not by soul retrieval), beginning with the Power Animal bond. Read the full answer, psychotherapy (or at least any deep psychotherapy) is specifically designed and equipped to deal with the issues of the under-world.”13 Traditional shamanism grew up before the under-world became so large. That is part of why Therapeutic Shamanism brings the two together.
Both deserve honour. The pioneers of psychotherapy, “who set off into the darkness of the under-world to explore it, understand it, and bring that understanding and healing back to us, are every bit as heroic as the shamans who journey to the shamanic realms.”14 See Why does Therapeutic Shamanism bring shamanism and psychotherapy together?
Is a shamanic journey the same as a journey into the unconscious? #
No. The unconscious and the shamanic Upper and Lower Worlds “are not the same thing.” Shamanic journeys also differ from the Hero’s Journey: “Whereas the Hero’s Journey is largely an under-world quest, shamanic journeys are not confined to the under-world, and involve encountering archetypal energies from the other realms too.”15 A genuine Lower-World journey goes beyond the human unconscious into a realm of nature that is not of our making. See What is the Lower-World?
