The next day someone asks, "Don't those rocks at the stream's edge hurt to walk on?" I reply, "I go barefoot a lot. I have Hobbit feet." But the truth is that if I walked on those rocks the way I do in shoes, it would hurt. The faster pace and heavier trod would bruise me. Yet, because I am barefoot, I walk slower, lighter, with greater intention. And, because I am barefoot, I don't have to avoid the mud puddles in those first few days of camp before the sun finally dries out the ground mid-week. I can, with glee and full abandon, splash right in and feel the mud squish between my toes.
As the week progresses we dive into the myth of the Sumerian goddess Inanna. Together we descend into the underworld realm of her sister, the goddess Ereskigal. I walk Her descent barefoot. In the story, Ereskigal strips her sister of something at each of the seven gates to the underworld until Inanna finally arrives naked. As we wade deeply in the story, I too relive a time thirteen years ago when my life was stripped away. The memory is vivid as if it were seeping up from the forest floor through the cells of my soles.
In the myth, motive is unclear, but there is a breach in the sisters' relationship and Ereskigal casts upon Inanna the eye of death and hangs Her exposed and lifeless. I remember my own experience of leaving a very successful work position in 2000, thinking I was going to move into a PhD program, one that didn't materialize. Like Innana, my work, my identity, and my sense of carefully constructed ego, were stripped away. I had to finally face a pattern of depression and relationship choices that had been shadowing me since college. In the story, Inanna hangs there for three days. I hung in the depression long enough for my eyes to become accustomed to the dark - long enough to realize hanging in the dark can actually be a relief, a repose, a rest, and a place where nothing is required of us. I hung in the dark long enough to realize that the dark is no scarier than what's up there in the light.
In the myth, Inanna has allies and help, as did I. The god Enki sends flies to the underworld to empathize with Ereskigal who is in constant labor giving birth to the dead. Ereskigal, moved by their empathy, wants to gift them. They ask for Innana's corpse and reanimate Her with the water of life and the food of life. At the next evening's ritual, still barefoot, I remember, like Inanna, my own reanimation back to life and the sacred circles of folk who brought me aid, support, and tenderness.
The ascent was in some ways harder than the descent for both Inanna and myself. Slowly and painfully, I transitioned from one kind of life to another, one kind of way of being in the world into another, and re-emerged into the upper world of light, changed forever. Now, I love my current life, and found myself filled with love and thanksgiving to Ereskigal for the painful and cathartic process. Working this myth at camp, I re-emerge barefoot, with gratitude for the life flowing up through my soles into my soul.
My story is common. Most of us find resonance in these ancient archetypal myths because to walk the Earth is to love and struggle, to lose and find, and to discover our own true power often after being stripped of, or letting go of, something or someone. The pantheons of deities continue to infuse our very cells with the wisdom of these stories, spiral turn after spiral turn, as we walk barefoot through time.
I recently read a medical article about the health benefits of walking barefoot on the Earth. It turns out it can actually reduce the risk of heart disease, boost our immune system, and may help regulate both the endocrine and nervous systems. Each of us, and the Earth Herself, is a lovely collection of sacred cells, embodying the Feminine Divine. May the power and gifts of The Goddess fill our souls through our soles, and may we in turn give Her back our barefoot devotion.
For more about the health benefits of walking barefoot on The Earth go to:
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