Why Every Culture Has an Underworld Myth

BY NICOLE LAU

From the Greek Hades to the Egyptian Duat, from Norse Hel to the Mayan Xibalba, every culture imagines a realm beneath the earth where the dead dwell and the living must sometimes descend. This is not coincidence or cultural borrowing—it's the human psyche recognizing a universal truth about consciousness, death, and transformation.

The Universal Pattern

Despite vast differences in culture, geography, and era, underworld myths share striking similarities:

• Location: Below the earth, beneath the surface world
• Inhabitants: The dead, shadow beings, chthonic deities
• Access: Through caves, wells, cracks in the earth, or death itself
• Journey: Descent is difficult; return is even harder
• Transformation: Those who descend and return are changed
• Guardians: Threshold beings who test or challenge the descender

This pattern appears independently across continents and millennia. Why?

The Psychological Answer: The Unconscious

Carl Jung identified the underworld with the unconscious mind:

• The surface world = consciousness: What you're aware of, your ego identity
• The underworld = unconscious: What's hidden, repressed, unknown
• Descent = introspection: Going inward, facing what's been avoided
• The dead = past selves: Old identities, unprocessed experiences, ancestral patterns

Every culture has an underworld myth because every human has an unconscious. The myth is not about a literal place—it's a map of inner territory.

The Existential Answer: Death Awareness

Humans are unique in knowing we will die. This creates existential terror and fascination:

• Where do the dead go?
• What happens after death?
• Can the living visit and return?
• Is death an end or a transformation?

The underworld myth answers these questions symbolically. It's not a literal geography but a psychological necessity—a way to think about death without being paralyzed by it.

The Initiatory Answer: Transformation Requires Descent

Every mystery tradition includes a descent:

• Eleusinian Mysteries: Persephone's descent to Hades
• Shamanic initiation: Journey to the underworld to retrieve power
• Alchemical nigredo: Descent into blackness before transformation
• Christian mysticism: Dark night of the soul

Why? Because transformation requires death of the old self. You can't become new without first descending into dissolution. The underworld is where the old self dies so the new self can be born.

Cultural Examples of the Universal Pattern

Greek Hades

• Ruled by Hades and Persephone
• Divided into regions: Elysium (blessed), Asphodel (ordinary), Tartarus (punishment)
• Guarded by Cerberus, the three-headed dog
• Heroes descend: Orpheus, Heracles, Odysseus, Aeneas

Egyptian Duat

• The sun god Ra travels through it nightly
• The dead must pass through twelve gates
• Heart is weighed against the feather of Ma'at
• Transformation occurs through trials and judgment

Norse Hel

• Ruled by the goddess Hel, daughter of Loki
• Located in Niflheim, the realm of ice and mist
• Not punishment but a cold, shadowy existence
• Odin descends to gain wisdom from the dead

Mayan Xibalba

• "Place of Fear," ruled by death gods
• The Hero Twins descend and defeat the lords of death
• Trials include houses of jaguars, fire, bats, and blades
• Descent is necessary for cosmic renewal

Mesopotamian Irkalla

• Ruled by Ereshkigal, Queen of the Dead
• Inanna/Ishtar descends, dies, and is resurrected
• Seven gates, each requiring removal of a garment/power
• Descent strips away all pretense and power

The Archetypal Structure

Despite cultural variations, the pattern is consistent:

1. The Call: Something compels descent (love, duty, necessity, crisis)
2. The Threshold: A boundary between worlds (river, gate, cave)
3. The Guardian: A being who tests worthiness (Cerberus, Charon, gatekeepers)
4. The Descent: Going deeper into darkness and difficulty
5. The Ordeal: Facing death, shadow, or impossible challenges
6. The Gift: Gaining wisdom, power, or a lost soul
7. The Return: Ascending back to the surface world, transformed

This is the monomyth of descent—as universal as the hero's journey but moving downward instead of outward.

Why Descent, Not Ascent?

Many spiritual traditions emphasize ascent (enlightenment, heaven, transcendence). But the underworld myth insists on descent. Why?

• Ascent bypasses shadow: You can't transcend what you haven't integrated
• Descent grounds transformation: Real change happens in the depths, not the heights
• The treasure is below: What you need is in what you've rejected
• Wholeness requires both: Ascent without descent creates spiritual bypassing

The underworld myth is the corrective to one-sided transcendence. It says: before you can rise, you must descend.

The Modern Relevance

We still live the underworld myth, though we've forgotten the language:

• Depression: An involuntary descent into the underworld
• Grief: Descending to retrieve the dead
• Addiction: Being trapped in the underworld
• Therapy: Guided descent into the unconscious
• Midlife crisis: The call to descend and transform

Understanding the myth helps you navigate these experiences consciously rather than being overwhelmed by them.

Every culture has an underworld myth because every human has depths. The myth is not about a place beneath the earth—it's about the territory beneath consciousness. And everyone, eventually, must descend.