As I have moved through the middle years of my life, the twin themes of abduction and initiation from ancient mythology have become increasingly meaningful. My recent viewing of Hadestown have brought them to the forefront of my awareness yet again.
In the ancient stories of many different cultures, the abduction of a maiden is a common component. From the perspective of modern, Eurocentric culture, abduction is abhorrent. Because we want to get to the triumphant ending, It’s easy to slide past this part of the story without really paying attention to its significance.
Capitalism has taught us all that our goal in life is to be independent and self-determined. Success is measured by the amount of money one can amass for one’s own personal use. These resources are necessary, so we’re told, to ensure our complete comfort, physical safety, and continuing security. The subtext is that when we experience discomfort, misfortune or heartache, it’s because we didn’t do all the right things to ensure our own success. Sadly, Christianity has bought into this rhetoric, adding a layer of spiritual failure to the mix.
The truth of being human is that no amount of money can shield us from all difficulty. Our hearts break, regardless of our level of financial security. Our bodies suffer any number of ailments, both minor and catastrophic, no matter how well we we’re able to feed, clothe and exercise them. Misfortune comes our way, despite our best efforts to shield ourselves against it. The more of life I live, the more I have experienced the way life unfolds in ways I deeply do not like, and brings me experiences I profoundly wish to avoid.
This is the significance of abduction in mythological studies. It is any experience we have that we don’t like, didn’t choose and cannot change.
It is any event we feel compelled to rail against. It is also any experience we have in which there is an expectation from forces outside ourselves that we would just go along with whatever is happening. We feel bereft of agency.
Abduction, by its nature, is chaotic and confusing. We are disoriented, and particularly in the early stages, all of our efforts to make sense of our experience just increase the difficulty.
The myth of Hades and Persephone illustrates the possibilities for soul growth in abduction experiences. Persephone is introduced to her power of choice, and to the opportunity to take responsibility for her own responses. She becomes both Queen of the underworld, as well as an honoured part of royalty in the world above. She symbolizes the process of our own soul work in uniting our external oriented being with our hidden inner being.
It is our surrender to what we cannot control that transforms an abduction experience into a process of initiation. Once we stop trying to reassert our control, space opens within us to begin seeing beyond the discomfort, disorientation and fear. Our heartbreak becomes fertilizer for our own growth. Though it seems paradoxical, it is in surrender that we rediscover our agency.
The heartache doesn’t disappear.
The discomfort doesn’t vanish.
The fear and anger and grief and anxiety don’t go away.
Rather, we learn to embrace ourselves within the feelings. We grow in our ability to accept our experiences as simply part of life, rather than judging them and ourselves in them.
This process of surrender is not giving up. It’s not a fatalistic “there’s nothing I can do about this”. Most of all, it’s not about ignoring my own reactions and denying the emotions that surface.
Rather, it’s being willing to acknowledge to myself that I am in the current of something I cannot control or change, and that I would prefer not to be here. It’s softening my resistance to not being in charge of my own experience, which then allows me to tend the grief, the anger, the fear, and all the other emotions I feel.
Surrender is letting go of the expectation that things “should be” any different than they are. It is a messy process. It is also happens in layers, moments of resistance followed by moments of letting go. We can’t force it. All we can do is be willing to allow it to unfold within us.
This is one of the most difficult pieces of soul-work. It runs contrary to so much of what our cultural and religious systems have taught us. It is also a foundational principle in every mystical tradition, whether it be Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, or Islam—the path to peace begins with accepting our experience as it is.
Once we can loosen our grip on how we feel life “should be”, we make room in our souls for gifts from Spirit. Peace arrives on a whisper. Joy surprises us alongside the ache. Reminders of Divine Love tiptoe into the struggle.
This surrender begins the transformation of an abduction experience into an initiation. Next week, we’ll explore what soul-initiation looks and feels like.
