A Blessing for the Underworld Journey*
Holy One who is ever-present,
even in our darkest nights and
descents to the underworld,
bless us with a felt sense of your abiding
as life strips away all our comforts
and securities, everything we thought we needed.
Help us to build our endurance
and strengthen our vision
to see you shimmering in the night.
It is so hard to stay here,
we want to run to brighter fields,
to numb ourselves to the anguish,
bless us even in the running and numbing,
and help to guide us back to presence,
to the call of this journey,
which is to move through,
to let it break our hearts,
to release all of our old sacred images
so we might embrace a more expansive
sense of You, Source and Holy Mystery.
Let Innana’s wisdom be our guide,
let Persephone’s transformation be our hope,
help us to gently release
our sense of being victim
and embrace our sovereignty,
so that our darkest nights
can one day become
luminous with grace for others.
Dearest dancing monks, artists, and pilgrims,
Sometimes we come to a place in our lives when we reach the limits of our rational thinking and can’t see any way out of our circumstances. This is often the experience of the dark night, where we reach what theologian Constance Fitzgerald calls impasse:
“By impasse, I mean that there is no way out of, no way around, no rational escape from, what imprisons one, no possibilities in the situation. In a true impasse, every normal manner of acting is brought to a standstill, and ironically, impasse is experienced not only in the problem itself but also in any solution rationally attempted. Every logical solution remains unsatisfying, at the very least. . . Any movement out, any next step, is cancelled, and the most dangerous temptation is to give up, to quit, to surrender to cynicism and despair, in the face of the disappointment, disenchantment, hopelessness, and loss of meaning that encompass one.”
In a genuine experience of impasse our usual ways of operating become frozen. Our left brained analytical approach to life where we try to force solutions and reason things out is ineffective and so the right brain becomes activated bringing its gifts of intuition and creativity, it brings solutions outside of our perceived expectations. Fitzgerald describes this as a “reverse pressure on the imagination” where the imagination is the only way forward.
It must be stressed, writes theologian Dorothee Soelle in her book Suffering, that if the suffering of the impasse is not allowed expression, “there is a corresponding disappearance of passion for life and of the strength and intensity of its joys.” Finding ourselves in this state of impasse, we must find ways of expressing the deep pain and anguish we feel or we will be destroyed by it, or made completely numb by apathy. Lament is a necessary stage in the creative resolution of terrible situations and suffering. This opens the new pathway through and ahead.
The experiences of mystics across time reassures us that the usual rational ways of proceeding are of no use, but when we allow ourselves to have the experience of impasse, when we move fully into it, when we bring our hearts of grief, only then can transformation enter in. The dark night invites us to reach the impasse of the heart and stay in that place of unknowing, to make room for all the challenging ways we feel, until the creative moment arrives again.
Join us for a 6-week deep dive online retreat into my book A Midwinter God which starts on January 20th. With weekly live sessions and lots of additional guest teacher content to enrich your journey through the darkness and a lovingly facilitated forum.
You are also invited to join Therese Taylor-Stinson for Centering Prayer this Wednesday, January 15th.
With great and growing love,
Christine
Christine Valters Paintner, OblSB, PhD, REACE
P.S. Thank you to all who shared their word for 2025. It is always a delight to see how Spirit is moving through the community. Read the words from your fellow dancing monks in the comments section here then head over to this blog post to see the winners of the prize drawing.
*Blessing written by Christine for a book of blessings (due to be published in spring 2026)
Photo © by Christine Valters Paintner, Galway City, Ireland
