The Underworld of Illness

In the presentation, you will learn how the pattern of archetypal descent applies to someone living with chronic illness, profoundly affecting the way they see themselves. There is wisdom to be gained from serious illness along with the inevitable losses. An archetypal perspective on chronic illness might even illuminate the path to becoming a wise elder.

Chronic illness offers an inherent opportunity for contemplating the soul’s special relationship to death and its proclivity for pathologizing. As Hillman (1975) said, “We owe our symptoms an immense debt. The soul can exist without its therapists, but not without its afflictions.” Our first inclination, however, is to seek a remedy, to fix the problem and end the suffering. But before we fix, we must listen. And once we listen, we can learn.

The presentation will center on the Homeric Hymn to Demeter to explore transformative suffering. When Hades abducts kore, she is a nameless, unsuspecting girl gathering flowers in a meadow. Her experience in the underworld, veiled in mystery, utterly changes her life. The kore, no longer the nameless daughter of a powerful mother, becomes Persephone, queen of the underworld. So too, when someone is confronted by life-altering illness, they may feel like they have entered a foreign world, alone and unseen by others. They can hardly describe the experience to themselves, let alone to loved ones. Yet the Hymn suggests the underworld experience may offer a new role with new powers.