“To go down, as we shall see, is the most natural thing, but to get back up again – that is the surprisingly profound achievement upon which this book is based.”

My book Once upon A Place: Forests, Caverns, and Other Places of Transformation in Myths, Fairy Tales and Film sounds just like your realtor: it’s all about location, location, location. And one of the strongest and most influential locations in what I call the World Journey (those fantastic literary epics of quest and adventure) is the Cavern. It’s definitely downward–you can generally fall into it, or trip and land in it, or dig your way down, or jump down a well as some German girls do in old folklore.

To go downward. It’s what Alice did in Lewis Carroll’s magical journey of a girl who was so bored (insert: lonely, uninspired, unmotivated) that she followed a little white rabbit down a hole and through a magical portal. If you read his story you’ll enjoy page after page of her fall–her descent is languid, slow, and ripe with reflection as she passes ledges with books and antiquities and tries out various positions in the air as she falls.

Descent

Down. It’s where we go when we’re depressed. I’ve certainly felt lonely and isolated and I readily related with the term “down.” It’s a state of lethargy and a sense of loss that makes your body sulk, sink, bend, or fall. We can all relate with this and it’s not fun.

“…the fact that someone can rise up means that they have fallen down in the first place…The idea of traveling downward to reach it is ancient. Our ancestors expected to descend into the Abyss where things are unknown, life is precarious, and survival is all but impossible. To the ancient mind, the interior of the earth was where seeds were sown and bodies were buried. Underground places—such as grottoes, catacombs, graves, caves, and caverns—were especially sacred (and feared) because they were closer to the revered and terrifying Underworld.”

Resurrection

However, once you are down, you must–your life depends on it–you must rise up. This is resurrection, also known as feeling better, finding a solution, letting go, making changes, and finding your voice. Resurrection is what seeds do after they fall to the earth and lay dormant for months in the dark. They sprout.

This, I share in my book, is the entire point of quests and adventures, especially those in myths and fairy tales. Even modern film bases much of its cinematic creativity on the idea of descent and resurrection especially in the pursuit of personal growth. Literature and film are jam-packed with stories of people who have fallen–and figuratively entered caves, caverns, wells, and oceans–and found their strength to rise up again.

If it weren’t for their victory of resurrection, there would be no story. The character would simply be gone. But they’re not… and we’re not. It’s a testament to the collective positive power of  change and support and conversation and questioning and defiance and creativity that we usually (almost always) dust off the dirt and stand up again.

The symbol of going down (into a cavern, down a well or whatever other imagery the storyteller has come up with) is your clue that a character is navigating the World Journey. It’s somewhere you’ve been before, and if you reach down you can pull up that bit of yourself that is down there, too.

Once Upon A Place: Forests, Caverns and Other Place of Transformation in Myths, Fairy Tales and Film is available for pre-order now! Purchase from your favorite bookstores or order from Amazon, Llewellyn, Barnes and Noble, and anywhere you get your favorite books. Go here for more info about Once Upon A Place.