Descending Into the Underworld: The Ancient Myth That Lives Within Our Lower Chakras

Every culture speaks of an underworld—a realm beneath ordinary perception, where the soul journeys through darkness before emerging renewed. But what if this “underworld” is not only a mythic landscape or a place of the dead…

but a map of the human energy system itself?

The ancients encoded cosmic history, planetary memory, and the story of humanity within the chakras. When you explore the lower three centers—the Root, Sacral, and Solar Plexus—you are not just exploring parts of your body.

You are descending into the inner underworld.

This descent is not a fall.

It is an initiation.

The Underworld as the First Three Chakras

The lower chakras are our roots, our instinct, our survival, our inherited patterns, our stored trauma, and our deepest potential for transformation.They align with the mythic descent through the darkest realms before reaching the heart—the bridge to higher consciousness.

Let’s explore how ancient planetary mythology mirrors our inner structure.

1. The Root Chakra — Saturn / Cronos

The First Gate of the Underworld

At the base of the spine sits Muladhara, the Root.

It is the foundation, the anchor, the realm of memory, time, and inherited fear.

This chakra carries the energy of Saturn, known to the Greeks as Cronos—the god of time, cycles, limits, karma, and fate. But there is a deeper cosmic layer to this mythology, whispered in esoteric traditions:

Zeus [Jupiter] and this father, Cronus [Saturn] in Battle

Saturn was once a sun.

A dwarf star.

The ancient center of the solar system before a cosmic shift crowned Helios as the new ruling star.

When Saturn fell from central radiance to the 7th planet, an enormous energetic trauma rippled through the cosmos—and through us.

Because whatever the cosmos experiences, humanity inherits in subtle form.

Cronos carries the memory of loss, displacement, and dethroning.

This is the wound buried in the Root Chakra:

• fear of instability

• fear of abandonment

• fear of extinction

• fear of the unknown

• fear of losing power or position

This is why the underworld begins here.It is the realm of collective ancestral memory—the pain and pressure of time itself.

2. The Sacral Chakra — Jupiter / Zeus

Creation, Expansion, and the Womb of Possibility

Above the Root sits Svadhisthana, the Sacral chakra—the waters of creation, pleasure, relationship, life-force, and emotional flow.

This chakra resonates with Jupiter, the expansive king of the gods, known as Zeus.

In myth, Jupiter overthrew Saturn.

Creation replaced limitation.

Growth replaced confinement.

The new god dethroned the old.

But even this victory carries trauma.

Zeus defeated Cronus, swallowing his father’s reign in the same way Cronos once swallowed his children. The sacrificial cycle continued. Power replaced power. Trauma replaced trauma.

In the Sacral chakra we often find:

• wounds around relationships

• cycles of repeating family patterns

• emotional inheritance

• creativity blocked by fear

• pleasure shadowed by guilt

The Sacral is the river that must cleanse the debris of the Root.

The son [Ares], wins against father [Zeus] for Zeus would not use Ares' tactics

3. The Solar Plexus — Mars / Ares

The Inner Battle and the Lower Sun

Next we reach Manipura, the Solar Plexus—the seat of will, fire, identity, and internal war.

This chakra is the lower sun, burning in the belly.

Its mantra is RAM, echoing RA, the primordial solar force.

This chakra aligns with Mars, the god of war, known to the Greeks as Ares.

And what is Mars but the inheritor of conflict?

In the myths, even Zeus—the king of gods—battles with his own son Ares and loses.

The pattern repeats:

Father against son.

Creation against destruction.

Light against shadow.

Identity against destiny.

The war becomes internalized.

This is why so many feel an invisible battle within:

• the war between who we are and who we wish to be

• the war between fear and courage

• the war between instinct and intuition

• the war between the inherited self and the awakened self

Even the moons of Mars—Phobos and Deimos, Fear and Despair—mirror our inner landscape as we navigate this fiery center.

This is the heart of the underworld journey:to transform the inner war into inner power.

The Root [Cronus], the Sacral [Zeus] and the Solar Plexus [Ares]

The Underworld Is Our First Life

Before awakening, many live primarily in these three centers.This is not wrong—it is simply the starting point of the human experience.

This “first life” is the underworld life:

• driven by instinct

• shaped by trauma

• ruled by ancestral memory

• bound to survival

• guided by the lower sun (Mars)

• anchored by the fallen sun (Saturn)

But just above the Solar Plexus, everything changes.

The Heart — Middle Earth, the Bridge Between Worlds

The Heart chakra is the first step out of the underworld.

It is Middle Earth, the gateway between below and above.

Here the descent becomes an ascent.

Here the wars of the belly dissolve into the harmony of the chest.

Here inherited patterns give way to chosen consciousness.

The heart is where the lower world meets the higher world.

Where the underworld finally finds light.

Where the journey upward begins.

Join me on the discovery of you! #42isyou

The next blog—on the Throat, Third Eye, and Crown—will reveal how consciousness rises from Middle Earth into the Outer World, the realms of truth, vision, and divine connection.

Bill