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Inside of the Episode:
* Vision and the Underworld: A Necessary Passage for Creative Entrepreneurs
* What happens when we avoid Underworld realities and initiations.
* An invitation into the Yin, the “Cthonic Necessity”, the Unknown and Unlanguaged
* Receiving Soul-Level Vision and Internal Sight
* Vision and the Underworld: Our Winter theme inside of the Vision Society.
Timestamps:
* 00:00 High Vibrational Creativity and the Need for Underworld Travel
* 01:26 Exploring the Underworld as a Creative Entrepreneur
* 01:57 Vision Society: A Business Incubator
* 02:21 The Role of the Subconscious
* 03:52 The Importance of Deep Roots
* 07:00 Embracing Underworld Initiations
* 08:03 Practical Examples and Deep Work
* 10:44 The Gifts of the Underworld
* 13:09 The Cthonic Necessity
* 24:47 Receiving Internal Sight
* 27:51 Honoring Your Soul's Essence through Vision Development
Links + Resources
* “Personal Growth Won’t Save Us” with Stephen Jenkinson
* Die Wise: A Manifesto of Sanity and Soul by Stephen Jenkinson
The honest Creative Process always, always leads us into the underworld — not as punishment or evidence of some kind of internal instability, but because it is underneath the “World” as we know it that culture begins. Our “World” is the product of what was once inseminated in the deep, dark black of imaginal. Someone imagined from the thick of the Underworld the futures that we are currently living. This place underneath the “World”, is where our known examples of the manifested imagination begins.
[Like seeds in the warm wet soil. Always, like seeds in the soil.]
When we avoid the Underworld parts of the Creative Process, we create hydroponic visionary realities that are robust with green, chloryphyllic ideas and utopias, but they are often not strong enough, nor tested enough, to withstand nature’s storms and the many seasons of vision, creative process, and life.
“We are a growth addicted, limit defying culture. And we are trying to live a hydroponic spirituality — a spirituality that has no earth.” Stephen Jenkinson
This Underworld reality is not necessarily a place of wrath, forgottenness, and rage as Abramhamic religions have taught us, but a place where darkness, fire, water, fungi, and bacterial cultures thrive and bring texture, flavor, spice, and depth to our conscious experiences of the Upper World, our physical domain.
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The Underworld is what holds our imaginal cells, our stories, our procreative energies, our context, our myths. When we learn how to engage the Underworld, we receive our vision like a fresh first bleed of maturation or like a first wet dream. It’s in the Underworld that our internal eyes open and we learn how to see in the dark. The Underworld is where Vision is born. It is where our vision comes to life. And when vision comes to life, our drive and imaginal responsibility also comes online.
This is because passage through the Underworld is an initiatory experience. It is a sign of maturation when we can make it through to the other side of “death”, the liminal, the most bottom part of the Underworld experience, and be granted our internal eyes, our most inward gaze through which we learn to really see and feel the relevancy of the immaterial reality. This passage is the cthonic necessity that adds flavor, texture, rootedness, presence, and depth to the creative and / or entrepreneurial experience.
And if you want the kind of presencing, reach, magnetism, and / or deep inner prayer life that no one will see, passage through the underworld is a necessity. Touching, feeling, and experiencing your darkness and your wilder parts is part of the maturation of your channel, your voice, and your vision.
The Underworld is where Vision is born, it is where vision comes to life. And when vision is born, so too is born our creative responsibility.
Vision is born from the cthonic necessity.
My Qi Gong teacher describes the cthonic necessity as the thick, unhurried, unambitious energy of Yin. It is the deepest death. It is the soul descent. It is the nothingness, the unformed, the uncarved block. It is where our energy is thick, unlabeled, and unnameable. And it is through dwelling with the cthonic necessity that we are granted passage into true, soul-level vision.
This means that your true soul’s Vision comes from walking through the dirth and the deaths of the Underworld. Your highest soul’s calling comes from going to the deep, dark, unnameable black of yourself and being willing to not know anything beyond what you feel.
It comes from walking through the dark. It comes from saying hello to your inner wilderness, the thick, alive, darkness of the spirit. It comes from seeing and experiencing yourself without the contours of light. It comes from contending with your loud, anxious, restless human thoughts. It comes from feeling the vibrancy of silence. The wisdom of the Void.
Vision comes when you’ve met your unknowing, your grief, your shadow, your abandoned parts with gentle, loving curiosity and kindness.
Vision is born from the cthonic necessity of descending to the soul-level parts of your humanity. Vision is a neutral occurrence. It is just what happens when we are moving through and learning from the dark.
If you want to access a vision that does not compromise your soul’s essence, that has the potential to pierce through the noise and touch someone else’s soul or make impact in even the most subtle of ways, you have go through with the cthonic necessity of deep world travel. You have to allow yourself to commune with your shadow and to touch your subconscious, your void places, your dark.
You have to learn who you are when stripped of convenient, protective personality constructs, ego stories, and clever shapeshifting identities. You have to locate your backbone when the world and all the structures you thought were home and safety have been stripped away. You have to learn how to get still enough to listen, quiet enough to hear your own soul whisper your own soul’s true name. You have to get low enough to feel, see, smell, hear, touch your body and the true, burning coals of fire living beneath your skin.
Vision comes when we have learned how to listen, how to witness, how to see in the dark.
This season, inside of the Vision Society, we’re exploring the topic of Vision and the Underworld.
The Vision Society – A Sacred Space for Spirit-Led Entrepreneurs Who Are Scaling to Six Figures and Beyond
The Vision Society is a business development incubator for soul-driven women and queer+ entrepreneurs who believe their work is more than just a product or a service—it’s a vehicle for pleasure, oracular stewardship and transformation, and a living prayer for our shared futures.
If you’ve ever felt the pull to build a business that regenerates rather than depletes, honors your cyclicality, and allows your creativity to flourish without compromise, you are in the right place.
The Vision Society might feel like home for you if you are done with hollow and robotic “best practices”, hustle culture, and complicated sales funnels.
We’re here for women and queer+ entrepreneurs in the initial stages of business development who are ready to:
* Sell with soul in a way that actually builds revenue while staying true to your authentic voice and values.
* Build regenerative business models that honor your body, your creativity, and the earth.
* Navigate a volatile world with courage, clarity, and a vision that serves something greater.
* Step into greater depths of leadership through intentional, embodied rites of passage.
Here, you’ll find not just tools and strategies but a culture that holds space for your spirit, your process, and your unique contribution to the emergent earth.
Learn more about The Vision Society here. Winter Enrollment Closes on January 8th.
Clicnt Testimonial
“Daje and Team, the ecosystem you are building, the nourishing soil you are tending, the way you are anchoring and rooting in these concepts, the space you are holding is such a gift. As a once self-described visionary who has felt much like she was wandering in the wilderness (and also who has reclaimed so much of her wholeness) over the last decade, I am not sure that I would have been able to reconnect and re-engage with these concepts at this level in any other environment…I find myself reclaiming pieces of myself I had forgotten or that I thought were lost forever. And re-imagining what it might feel like to reclaim my possibility rooted in a new paradigm. I feel so grateful to be able to share, learn and be held in this space. THANK YOU.”
Booth A., Vision Society Member
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit storyworkstudio.substack.com
Creators and Guests
What is The Inner Circle with Daje Aloh?
The Inner Circle podcast is a sanctuary for visionary leaders, ecospiritual entrepreneurs, and creative changemakers who are reimagining what it means to lead, build, and create in a world undergoing rapid transformation. Hosted by writer, teacher, and story doula, Daje Aloh, this podcast explores the intersection of regenerative business, astrology, personal mythology, and threshold work offering soulful frameworks and grounded guidance for navigating change.
Each episode brings forward deep reflections on topics like lunar cycles and leadership, the creative rites of passage, building soul-aligned offerings, and deconstructing toxic entrepreneurial culture. Through interviews, seasonal transmissions, and story-rich teachings, The Inner Circle invites you to reconnect with the intelligence of your vision, the timing of your body, and the future that wants to move through you.
Whether you’re a coach, artist, founder, healer, or facilitator, this podcast will help you root your leadership in authenticity, shape your brand through resonance instead of reach, and attune your creative process to natural time.
Topics include:
• Astrology and Leadership
• Visionary entrepreneurship & brand integrity
• Creative process & mythopoetic frameworks
• Regenerative business development
• Human Design, astrology, & soul-led marketing
• Thresholds, rites of passage & future writing
If you’re tired of performative leadership, productivity pressure, or watered-down spirituality in business, the Inner Circle will meet you where depth and direction converge.
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