Awakening the Below Podcast

Oholomo
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  • Spirituality
  • Updated Monthly

Many spiritual traditions teach us to transcend suffering, rise above the human condition, and seek light beyond the darkness. But what happens when awakening pulls us in the opposite direction—into the raw, messy, fully human experience? In this series, we explore Awakening the Below: returning to the body, to pain, to ancestral memory, and to the sacredness hidden in the very parts of life we were taught to avoid. Together, we uncover how true awakening is not just about rising above, but also about falling deeply into life, where even suffering becomes divine. www.awakeningthebelow.com

Episodes

  1. Integration, Being Human, and "The Middle"

    May 22

    Integration, Being Human, and "The Middle"

    Oholomo and Jack talk about how the Above and Below meet in the Middle, resulting in an integration of spiritual realization with ordinary daily life. Topics covered: * Present-moment awareness and memory difficulties * The “Above, Middle, Below” model of awakening * Witness consciousness and emotional detachment * Spiritual superiority/arrogance * Therapy alongside spiritual practice * Different people need different spiritual “medicine” * Monastic vs lay ideals and role models * Healthy expression of anger * Spirituality as embodiment, not escape Connect with us: * Oholomo’s website * Jack’s website * My Rising Rose YouTube channel This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.awakeningthebelow.com

    1h 6m
  2. Suffering, Redemption, and Spiritual Fantasies

    Apr 4

    Suffering, Redemption, and Spiritual Fantasies

    Oholomo and Jack dive into the raw, real-time experience of redemption rising unbidden from the depths, and why the spiritual mainstream keeps getting suffering wrong. Topics Covered: * When the underworld comes to you — ancestral emotions surfacing uninvited and what to do (or not do) with them * Synchronicity as invitation: Netflix, a long-lost phone call, and the doors that are always opening to the below * Why sitting with suffering without an agenda is radically different from trying to heal, filter, or transcend it * The redemption that lives inside the wound itself — not beyond it * Feeling the unresolved trauma stored in the earth and the body * The savior fantasy: why thinking you’re the one who will heal the land or your lineage is just another ego project * Time-bending moments where personal, ancestral, and historical timelines snap into alignment * The identity game: why “I am awareness” or “I am God” are just versions of the same ego move * Why spiritual perfection is a myth — and authenticity is the actual goal * Honesty as the only prerequisite: being exactly what you are, rawness and all * How the “above” and “below” both become escapism if they don’t flow back into the middle — ordinary, everyday human life Connect with us: * Oholomo’s website * Jack’s website * My Rising Rose YouTube channel This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.awakeningthebelow.com

    1h 4m
  3. The Body, the Emotions, and the Darkness

    Mar 7

    The Body, the Emotions, and the Darkness

    Do you find yourself waking down instead of waking up? Oholomo and Jack explore the rarely-mapped territory of descending into the body, psyche, and underworld — and why it may be the missing piece in modern spirituality. Topics Covered: * Why inner healing must come before unleashing the body’s energies * How even enlightened teachers can have dangerous blind spots around the body and desire * Above, middle, below: a three-directional map of spiritual awakening * Why Western spirituality is obsessed with transcendence — and what it’s missing * Tantra, shamanism, and other traditions that genuinely embrace the below * Sexuality and sensation as the body’s languages for spiritual knowledge * Meeting darkness on its own terms, not as something to transform into light * Ego-death, surrender, and learning to trust the descent * Why spiritual emergence is so often misread as psychiatric crisis * How two fellow travelers of the below found each other — and why this conversation needed to happen Connect with us: * Oholomo’s website * Jack’s website * My Rising Rose YouTube channel This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.awakeningthebelow.com

    58 min

  4. Feb 14

    Awakening the Below, Radical Surrender, and Ego Death

    In this episode, Jack sits down with Oholomo to discuss their shared experiences of “awakening the Below” — a spiritual path that moves downward into the body, the earth, and the underworld rather than ascent and transcendence. Topics Covered: * Oholomo’s kundalini reversal experience * When the mainstream spiritual frameworks don’t fit * The distinction between “Above” and “Below” spiritual paths * Reimagining the Buddha’s enlightenment story from a Below perspective * Awakening the Below vs. spiritual emergency * Integrating ancestry and intergenerational trauma in awakening * Ego dissolution through inclusion rather than transcendence * Why normalizing diverse awakening experiences matters * Liberating the body to be itself Connect with us: * Oholomo’s website * Jack’s website * My Rising Rose YouTube channel This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.awakeningthebelow.com

    1h 47m

  5. Feb 7

    Welcome to the Awakening the Below Podcast

    Hello and welcome to The Awakening the Below podcast. This is a series of conversations between the spiritual teacher, Jack Morrigan, and me, Oholomo. Together, Jack and I give voice to the underbelly of the awakening process. We talk about what we call The Below — that is to say, the difficult emotions, traumas, strange bodily ailments, spirits, ghosts, ancestors, demons, the imaginal, the soul, energies of the earth, the elements, the dark feminine, and much more — that arise for some people in the process of spiritual awakening. Without any background knowledge to help contextualize these things, surprise openings to the below can be difficult to understand. They're consequently often interpreted as spiritual emergencies or mental health crises rather than the blessings and opportunities that they truly can be. The goal of our conversations is to validate and normalize such experiences in order to encourage people to lean into and even embrace the precious dark wisdom that comes from below. Listeners who like what they hear in these episodes may want to check out the book, Awakening the Below, which teaches readers to recognize the signs of the Below when they appear, to navigate the depths more confidently, and to fully integrate these experiences into their spiritual development in a healthy and meaningful way. I look forward to this journey with you in this series. Let's begin our descent. Connect with us: Oholomo’s website Jack’s website This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.awakeningthebelow.com

    3 min
  • 5 Episodes

About

Many spiritual traditions teach us to transcend suffering, rise above the human condition, and seek light beyond the darkness. But what happens when awakening pulls us in the opposite direction—into the raw, messy, fully human experience? In this series, we explore Awakening the Below: returning to the body, to pain, to ancestral memory, and to the sacredness hidden in the very parts of life we were taught to avoid. Together, we uncover how true awakening is not just about rising above, but also about falling deeply into life, where even suffering becomes divine. www.awakeningthebelow.com

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