Issues raised in the article on the mythology of petroleum are also current here, in British Columbia. The federal government continues to propose expansion of pipeline to carry crude oil from the Alberta oil sands to tankers in Vancouver to the horrors of First Nations (aboriginal people), British Columbians as well as many environmental activists.  

Images of tar sands are images of trauma and desolation. I believe individuals drawn to work in these areas must have traumas that resonate with the land. Many fall into patterns of addition to cope with the intensity and never consciously start working on their internal wounds.  

The opportunity to become conscious of these patterns, work through them, to turn them into the gifts, is continuously available. About a year ago I worked with a man in his early twenties that described his experience in the Alberta oil sands as going to hell and back.  

What brings to mind is an article by Kalsched (2004) and his description of Dante’s descent into the Inferno, nine levels down into the centre of the earth where Dis lives, the life-negating, disintegrating energy of the underworld. In clinical situations Dis is found in dissociation, disintegration, disillusionment, disavowal, disheartened, disgrace, discourage, disease, and even disaster—loosing one’s connection to the stars, destiny, and hope. 

I sure hope there are enough people working through their shadows so that the “underworld [doesn’t need to] eradicate the upperworld. It doesn’t matter what patterns/traumas we are working on, the main point is that we can transmute these patterns into beautiful gifts so we don’t have to live them as wounds.