Mastering the Art of Suffering
It is not pretty, but it can be holy.
When the underworld opens, it does not do so politely.
I am writing this after a sharp descent into the belly of that place. Several days of raw, excruciating pain, heavy sadness and a kind of misery that settles into the core. It flooded in from all directions, caught me off guard, and pulled me deep into a dark taxonomy of feeling.
I know suffering intimately.
It grabs hold, will not be rushed, and cannot be fixed with cleverness or a checklist. Suffering needs its time. It wants to be felt. It wants witness. To rush it or try to escape it is to create an even greater rupture within the self.
Mastery is not denial. Mastery is feeling, surrendering, and letting it run its course.
There is a deception circulating in our culture: the idea that suffering must last forever, or that suffering itself is inherently “bad.” Neither is true. It can feel endless when you are inside it, but the deeper truth the body and soul reveal is that suffering is a crucible. It is medicine disguised as pain. And yes, it does get better, not by chance but through conscious effort and the bravery to reach for something better, something new, something evolved.
Today a beautiful woman asked me, “Will there ever be an end to suffering?” I asked myself the same question before I could answer her. The only answer that lands with integrity is this: not in the way we imagine. Suffering does not vanish like a problem solved. It transmutes. It becomes a passageway. And we must each do our part, by finding and reclaiming our true self, because only then does the possibility of ending suffering in the world begin to take root.
As the ouroboros teaches us, endings and beginnings exist together. Suffering, at its most honest, is a means toward transformation. When it is thick, there is no negotiation. Yet somewhere in the in-between, a window forms. It is narrow, and it will require bravery to step through. That is the invitation: to challenge the familiar and to feel into a new possibility.
We need suffering because it clarifies contrast. Contrast points us to liberation. To reach that liberation, we each bear responsibility.
Some speak of a spiritual war; my own view is less martial and more structural.
I see a fracturing of consciousness, a rupture within the self that replicates outward into culture and collective behaviour. The shadow that lives inside becomes amplified into the world.
Healing is the labour of reweaving those broken parts, of bringing light into where we have been divided.
So what do we do when the underworld opens?
Attend to the body first. Allow it to move, to cry, to rest. The body signals what the mind suppressed.
Be present with the grief. Sit with it like an old, troublesome friend. Name it. Breathe into it. Let it speak.
Seek witness. You do not have to hold this alone. Community, guided practice and honest conversation matter.
Remember transmutation. Suffering will not become meaningless if you refuse to learn from it. Ask: What is this inviting me to see, change, or restore?
If you feel the weight of this now, know this: the passage is real, and so is the possibility of coming through. That does not minimize the pain. It honours it and refuses to let it be the final chapter.
If you want accompaniment, I am running three signature workshops that take this work from idea to practice. Each workshop meets you in a different register: the body, the shadow, and the womb. If one calls to you, follow the link to learn more and to register.
Body Decodification
Learn to read the body’s language and uncover the hidden patterns behind physical symptoms. Through decoding, you begin to understand how the body communicates beliefs and memory, and how awareness creates space for release and transformation.
Healing the Feminine
A workshop devoted to reconnecting with the feminine principle within: softening control, healing suppression, and restoring trust in intuition, receptivity, self, and deep emotional flow. This is a reclamation of power through integration, not performance.
Unmasking the Saboteur
Meet the inner saboteur not as an enemy but as a messenger. This workshop guides you to unmask the hidden strategies that block growth and connection, confront unconscious fear, and reclaim your authority to choose a new pattern of empowerment, clarity, and self-trust.
Click through to learn more if you are drawn to any of these. If nothing here appeals today, carry this instead: feel it, tend it, and trust that the window will open when you are ready to step through.
With love,
~Tara