Awakening the Below: Navigating Through Darkness and Spiritual Emergency

A guide to assist those in spiritual crisis or difficulty

This book is a companion for those who are traversing the underbelly of the awakening process: difficult emotions, trauma, strange bodily ailments, spirits, ghosts, ancestors, demons, the imaginal, the soul, energies of the earth, the elements, the dark feminine, etc. This is what the author calls ’the Below’.

Without any background knowledge to help contextualise these things, surprise openings to ＂the Below＂ can be difficult to understand. They are consequently often interpreted as spiritual emergencies or mental health crises rather than the blessings and opportunities that they truly can be. The goal of this book is to validate and normalise such experiences, in order to encourage people to lean into and even embrace the precious dark wisdom that comes from Below.

Awakening the Below will allow readers to recognise the signs of the Below when they appear, supporting them in navigating the territory more confidently and to fully integrate these experiences into their spiritual development in a healthy and meaningful way.

Oholomo writes about spiritual awakening from a fresh perspective that combines forty years of experience with Buddhism, Advaita, yoga, shamanism, Western paganism, and Jungian perspectives.