THE IMAGINAL - Shame & the Underworld
Dare to travel to worlds only your imagination can take you.
"Imagination is crucial to create the next phase on our planet, and Charlotte Young's Imaginal provides a guide to explore our inner worlds, help release clutter and inherited patterns, and emerge with fresher eyes and more courageous hearts."
Sally Mathrick - Health writer, educator, naturopath
“It was beautiful and took me to some very deep and painful places.... But your divine voice and guidance led me back out to an experience of healing.
It is exquisitely powerful and beautiful.”
Dr Jennifer Harris, Contemplative Creative Arts Therapy
& Reflective Practice Supervision
The Imaginal
This is a movement meditation for adults that provides you with an opportunity to travel within, and to other realms beyond.
The imagination is a powerful thing. A powerful place.
This is a focused kind of imagining; a journeying where you actively engage your imagination with a specific intention or purpose in mind. That’s the kind of imagining we’re promoting here at the Imaginal. A guided meditation journey where you get to star as the key player in the story.
Shame & The Underworld
PLEASE NOTE: if you have or have had any mental health issues in the past, it is strongly recommended that you seek
the advice of your mental health professional or other qualified health provider before participating in this activity.
We all carry shame. Not just in our stories—in our cells too—from the personal, to the generational to the cultural. Brené Brown, professor, lecturer and author spent thousands of hours researching shame with hundreds of case studies. She defined shame as:
“The intensely painful feeling or experience of believing we are flawed and therefore unworthy of acceptance and belonging.”
In I thought it was just me Brené Brown writes that the reason shame has so much power over us is precisely because we don’t talk about it: It’s like the elephant in the room that just gets bigger and bigger in our own mind and being, and the longer we don’t shine a light on it the bigger and darker the shadow. The idea in this Imaginal is for us to bring shame into the light. To go into the shadows, take a journey to the underworld and to meet shame there. Before we can start talking about it with others, it’s a good idea to get acquainted with it ourselves first.
A note on “The Descent of Inanna”
The “Descent of Inanna” is an ancient tale (thousands of years old) from Sumeria. Inanna the Queen of Heaven and Earth belongs to the Mesopotamian era. It is through her story that we’ll be going into the underworld.
After you’ve listened to the tale, we’ll start the active imagination/guided meditation journey. This is where you’ll hear some of the story but instead of Inanna, you’ll be in the starring role – taking part in the descent to the underworld; death in the underworld and then the ascent, back home.
Happy Adventuring!
In an Imaginal
You get to be the star; the audience (witness); the director and the creator. Deciding to travel, with a focus on some of the less welcome emotions, (shame, rage, grief etc) is an intrepid act. It’s an opportunity for some light to get in which in turn, results in seeing these emotions (the witnessing), and hopefully acknowledging and even allowing them (the directing). Not knowing, before you depart, what will arise (the creating) is part of the adventure. Large doses of curiosity and playfulness - those wonderful characteristics that children know well - are highly recommended.
Co-Creation
Together we will co-create; The Imaginal provides the scaffolding, with a theme, a story and a guided movement meditation and you bring the building materials; your participation, experience and imagination. However you show up, will be your part in this co-creation. It’s recommended you carve out a space that’s free from interruptions, that’s private enough to take a deep dive into the material. All up, you’ll need around an hour per Imaginal.
“A beautifully written, beautifully told story which captured me and took me on a vivid path of internal shifts and awakening.”
Jennie Teskey, Midwife and Counsellor
Why include the body?
The body has its own wisdom, intelligence and memory. By allowing it to shake things out and express and move, you’ll be shifting something. Who knows what! The idea isn’t to ‘fix’ or ‘repair’ as this implies a pre-existing ‘brokenness’. Instead, the idea is to allow whatever wants to come to the surface to arise; to witness it; to move with it and be with it. When it comes to big emotions, we can sometimes get stuck.
By physically moving though (there’s an invitation to MOVE at some point, in each Imaginal) you’ll be shifting something, even if it’s just for that particular moment.