Katabasis is Greek for “to go down” or “to descend.” To be in the Belly of the Whale is to engage in your own personal katabasis. It is a realization that the way you have lived your life up to this moment is not in accordance with your own true nature. If this were not so, you wouldn’t have taken up the Way of the Coyote in the first place.
Katabasis means asking yourself, “If nothing changed from this day forward, could I live the rest of my life this way?” If the answer to that question is, “no,” then obviously something must change. In katabasis, change happens when the fear of staying the same forever becomes greater than the fear of changing forever by taking the journey into the unknown.
Katabasis: Time in the Ashes
“The word ‘ashes’ contains in it a dark feeling for death; ashes when put on the face whiten it as death does…some men around thirty-five or forty will begin to experience ashes privately, without ritual, even without old men. They begin to notice how many of their dreams have turned to ashes.”
–Robert Bly, Iron John: A Book about Men
The way to escape the Belly of the Whale is by completing the process of katabasis.
Katabasis is Greek for “to go down” or “to descend.” To be in the Belly of the Whale is to engage in your own personal katabasis. It is what the poet Robert Bly referred to as “spending time in the ashes.” When our old ways of being in the world burn down around us, we cannot go on anymore the way things were. We must start over by finding a new path. The way to escape the Belly of the Whale is by reversing this process of katabasis. To explore one possible way of doing this, complete the exercises on this worksheet.
What is your own personal katabasis? What past thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds have led you to descend into the ashes? What sameness can you not allow to continue for the rest of your life?
As of this very moment, what is your own true nature?
As you spend ashes time in the Belly of the Whale, what are you casting aside about the way your life has been in the past?
What new thoughts, words, deeds, and feelings would you need to embrace in order to live more fully according to your own true nature in the future?
What about your current reality needs to change in order to live according to your own true nature?
Use the definitions below to formulate your answers to the questions that follow:
- Assumptions – Guesses we make, often without supporting evidence, about the way the world works
- Perceptions – The “filter” through which we view the world, based on our assumptions about how the world works
- Intentions – What we are trying to accomplish with our lives
- Motivations – What we hope to be rewarded with if we accomplish our intentions
What assumptions about the way the world works would you have to change in order to re-create your present reality so you may live according to your own true nature?
What perceptions about the way the world works would you have to change in order to re-create your present reality so you may live according to your own true nature?
What intentions would you have to change in order to re-create your present reality so you may live according to your own true nature?
What motivations would you have to change in order to re-create your present reality so you may live according to your own true nature?
Use the information from the previous questions to make a list of all the thoughts, feelings, actions, and beliefs you would like to leave behind in the ashes as you prepare to leave the Belly of the Whale. This list should consist of things you never hope to return to; the things you cannot allow to continue. The list represents the old self that you are “dying” to in preparation of being reborn in your new ecospiritual True Self.
Now that you have completed your list, go to an outdoor space, preferably during the evening, and build a small fire if possible, being sure to follow all fire safety precautions as you do so. Once you have built your fire, take the list you created above. Hold the list in your hands and make an announcement to the Universe that you are dying to your old way of being and that the old you is being symbolically cremated. Now throw this list on the fire. As it burns your old self is melting away into the ashes, in preparation for the birth of the new you.
If you are doing this as part of an ecospirituality group or program, your coach may go around the fire and have each participant say something meaningful about their list before throwing it on the fire. At the end of the ceremony, you may finalize the death of the old self by burying the ashes in the earth.
Share Your Thoughts on Katabasis!
Have you had your own katabasis experience? What was it like? How did you resolve it? Share your thoughts in the comments below!