Why the Gods Descend Into Darkness: Mythology and Transformation

WARNING: This post explores themes of suicide that may be triggering for some readers.

If you are paying any kind of attention to social media, you have likely seen some form of spiritual content come across your page. Maybe it's a manifestation coach telling you, "You just have to want it bad enough," or someone encouraging you to "raise your vibration," avoid negativity, and pursue constant light. While I think removing perpetual negative energy and unhealthy people from your life is both healthy and necessary, if we look at the oldest sacred stories humanity has preserved, we find something very different.

Odin hangs himself.
Thor walks willingly toward his death.
Persephone descends into the Underworld.
Inanna is stripped of everything before she can be reborn.

Again and again, the beings we see as divine choose darkness—not because they have failed, but because transformation requires it.

Across many different cultures, myths teach that darkness is not the opposite of the sacred. It is often the place where wisdom, sacrifice, and transformation begin.

Darkness Was Never Evil in Norse Thought

Before we continue, I want to start off by saying that I am not a mopey, dark, pessimistic person. I don't dwell in negativity, but I do acknowledge the darker parts of myself and of life in general. In this post, I will primarily be referencing Norse mythology, as it is the tradition I am most familiar with.

I say this because much of modern spirituality often interprets darkness through a modern lens and later religious frameworks, but Norse cosmology is much more nuanced.

Like many creation myths from different cultures, night existed before humanity. In the Bible, God created the earth and all things. It was only after God created light that Adam and Eve were created.

If you have ever read the Norse creation myth, it feels surprisingly similar to the Big Bang Theory we learn about in school. However, if you have never heard or read it before, I'll give you a short synopsis.

In Norse mythology, the universe began in the vast void called Ginnungagap, where the icy realm of Niflheim met the fiery realm of Muspelheim. From their meeting emerged the giant Ymir, whose body later became the world after he was slain by Odin, Vili, and Vé. His flesh became the earth, his blood the seas, his bones the mountains, and his skull the sky, illustrating that creation itself arose through sacrifice and transformation.

This creation myth highlights something very important: creation often emerges from chaos, death, and transformation rather than effortless perfection.

Many people avoid chaos. They choose safety over risk. This can apply to many things, such as changing jobs or careers, exploring connections with other people, or even exploring different ways of thinking through shadow work.

As I have mentioned in my other posts, shadow work is about facing the darker parts of ourselves that we have pushed into darkness. Facing these parts can lead to a death of sorts—a death of the ego, a death of our perceived persona. These transformative experiences often provide wisdom.

Odin: The God Who Chose Suffering

If you have read or researched even surface-level information about Odin and his role in Norse mythology, you probably understand that he is a god of wisdom and knowledge. Unlike the gods of many other mythologies, Odin didn't simply know everything. He had to sacrifice for his wisdom, and he did so willingly.

To gain the knowledge of the runes, he willingly hung himself from the branches of Yggdrasil (the World Tree). For nine days and nights, he hung upside down, pierced by his own spear, suspended between life and death. This brings to mind The Hanged Man tarot card, which often implies a need to shift perspective, be patient, surrender, and let go.

Odin didn't fight to conquer wisdom; he died to become worthy of receiving it.

This was not Odin's only sacrifice in his pursuit of deeper wisdom.

If you have ever seen a depiction of Odin, you have probably seen him portrayed as an older, shirtless, powerful warrior wearing a horned helmet, either riding an eight-legged horse or accompanied by two wolves and two ravens. Other depictions show him looking more like Gandalf (more accurate, in my opinion), and the oldest depictions of Odin are much simpler. However, they all have one thing in common: he is always missing an eye.

If you have done even a basic study of Norse mythology, you have probably heard the story of how he lost his eye and why.

For those of you who don't know, Odin gave one of his eyes for a drink from Mímir's Well, the well at the base of Yggdrasil (the World Tree). This exchange was made for insight. He literally lost ordinary sight in order to gain deeper perception.

Stories like these, whether you believe in the gods or not, typically carry a deeper meaning. The lesson behind this story is that every meaningful gain requires surrender.

Another story with meaning is Thor's journey toward Ragnarök. Thor is often seen as a mighty warrior, but his story isn't one of invincibility; it's about duty. Thor knows that he is destined to die at Ragnarök, but he still fights anyway. He defeats Jörmungandr, and nine steps later, he dies.

Okay, so you're probably wondering, "How is that transformation if he dies?" Sometimes the greatest transformation we can go through is fulfilling our purpose despite the outcome. This is a nice contrast to modern ideas that success always means winning.

Now, if you're anything like me, you either haven't figured out what your purpose is yet, or you know what your purpose is but don't yet know how to achieve it. I know that my purpose in life is to help, teach, and heal people. Someone else with the same purpose may have chosen a career in healthcare, while others may have become therapists. As for me, I have chosen to help guide people through tarot and to be a classroom teacher.

For me, that path is changing. I have left the classroom, and while I am still unsure how my teaching journey will continue, I know that teaching is an important purpose I have to fulfill because it brings me fulfillment to share my knowledge and guidance with others.

Descent Is a Universal Pattern

These are just two examples from one culture. Many cultures preserve this same symbolic structure. For example, Inanna (Mesopotamia) descends into the Underworld, removes a piece of clothing at each gate, and dies. She returns transformed. The theme here is the stripping away of her identity as she once understood it.

Persephone's story (Greek mythology) is similar. She is abducted into the Underworld and returns changed, becoming a queen rather than a victim. Osiris undergoes a similar journey. All of these stories have one thing in common.

In these stories, death is literal. In our own lives, however, "death" can represent the ending of a cycle, the recognition of unhealthy patterns, or the closing of one chapter before another begins.

This is one reason the Death card is one of my favorites in Tarot. It symbolizes endings and, in some cases, loss. But with endings come new beginnings.

Even the Buddha experiences a death of sorts—not through a descent into an underworld, but into inner darkness. He faces temptation beneath the Bodhi tree and becomes enlightened by confronting illusion rather than avoiding it.

Where It All Comes Together

In previous articles, I have spoken about Carl Jung and the mythic shadow. The shadow is everything we reject about ourselves, and myths externalize these internal processes. The dragon, the underworld, the giants, the "wicked witch", these are often symbolic representations of the unknown parts of ourselves.

Knowing this, many myths begin to take on a more psychological meaning rather than merely a historical one.

So this is where I'm going to be vulnerable with you. A big reason I started this blog is because of my own journey of spiritual and personal growth. To say the least, I have learned a lot about myself, much of which has been uncomfortable, at least at first.

It all started when I realized I was unhappy in my marriage. Not because he was a bad person, he wasn't, but because I was growing and changing, and he wasn't. Of course, the ending of our marriage doesn't rest solely on him. I played my part in it as well.

The end of that relationship completely shifted my world. After 13 years together, I am learning who I am again. I have changed careers, grieved the loss of my marriage, and my identity is still changing. I am facing tremendous uncertainty and have, at times, been extremely lonely.

At times, I've worried that others might see me as having failed or judge me for leaving my marriage and career. Myths are one way that history, spirituality, and the world teach us not to view these experiences as failures, but rather as initiations.

No, I am not suggesting that every hardship is meaningful, at least not by itself. But periods of uncertainty and loss can become catalysts for growth depending on how we respond to them.

What Myths Are Really Teaching

After researching many of these myths, I noticed they share recurring lessons. They tell us that darkness, or the shadow, can be a teacher. It can be a threshold that we choose to cross or not. It can also be a place of sacrifice and revelation. The shadow or darkness that we face isn't inherently good or bad, but it is necessary because transformation requires us to enter places we would rather avoid.

From the stories of the Egyptian gods to the tales of Greek heroes, every mythology tells the same truth in a different language. The gods do not avoid darkness; they enter it willingly. Not because suffering is sacred, but because wisdom often waits on the other side of what we fear most.

Often, we learn more about ourselves in those moments than at any other time. If your own life feels like you've entered an unfamiliar forest, perhaps you are not lost at all.

Perhaps you are standing where every great story truly begins.