Delighted to see my essay “Out of the Dark Depths” in the Winter 2023 issue of Parabola: The Search for Meaning.
The issue theme of this New York-based magazine dedicated to the world’s religious, cultural, and mythological traditions is “Darkness and Light,” and in my essay, I recount an unexpected spiritual awakening that occurred to me while swimming in an underground burial lake, a purported entrance to the underworld in Yucatan.
“We used to bury our people down there, at the bottom,” said my Yucatec Maya guide as he pointed at the cave’s dark mouth, dropping underground at a 45-degree angle. “We would keep them there for eight years, then remove the bones, clean them, and bury them in the ground outside for good . . .”
I did the first public reading of this essay at the annual group reading of the California Writers Club, Long Beach chapter – a warm, supportive group of local writers. (12/10/2022)
It was also mentioned in the winter 2023 issue of the CWCLB newsletter Currents.
Lane Igoudin | Author, Professor, Dad 