“This is the only prayer I know. This is the only prayer that only I know. This is my prayer, in the tongue of my embodiment. A language only I know.” — Shireen Qudosi. A practice in embodiment through non-linear movement that is as sacred as any inherited prayer.

The cave, a geological cavity, is allegorical code for going inward. The underworld is a state of creation and dreams, the weaving together of things, of attachment and detachment. Ushered by forms of silence, descent into the underworld cuts the fantasy that tethers us to world outside. The outer world that determines what is ‘normal’ is created by the same systems that have taught us to see the underworld as dark and fearful, systems that have pushed humanity further away from a true homecoming.

It all begins with an idea. If we’re winning the war against terror — if we’re doing this right — more come. If we don’t find a way to fold people back into our values and civilization then we’re fueling more civilizational rifts. A growing multi-generational population even more vulnerable to extreme terror and radicalization, caught in the rift of having no identity, no belonging, no future, no choice, no hope.