At the Bottom of the Well, You Transform

In Motherhood: Facing and Finding Yourself, Jungian Analyst Lisa Marchiano writes, “darkness can seem chillingly empty, but really it is always pregnant with the germ of new life… It is in this darkness that new things grow. It is this darkness that gives rise to transformation.”

When we grieve, we are thrust into darkness. It can feel as if we will never see light again. We don’t recognize that we are transforming, that something profound is happening within us. That our loss has changed us, will reshape us, just as the tide shapes the shoreline.

When we feel like we are unbecoming, cast down to the bottom of the well and unable to see light, when life as we know it seems to be falling apart, perhaps our eyes are closed. If we open them with courage and curiosity, we might see that within the darkness we are being remoulded and rebuilt, brick by brick, cell by cell, by life. Life becomes a mason of evolution and transformation, calling us to change and reminding us again and again that we are finite.

The truth is that you can survive this, that the darkness will not overcome you. You will find your way out of the well, and you will have been changed. You will be different. And yet, you need not fear darkness, for in the darkness we meet parts of ourselves that allow us to connect more fully to life itself. Embrace the darkness, for within it lies the quiet work of your transformation.