Beneath the Sea With Sedna

Adlivun, "those beneath us", is the undersea realm of Inuit cosmology ruled by Sedna, the sea goddess and mother of marine mammals, where the souls of the dead are believed to reside for a period of purification and testing before being permitted to move on to other, more pleasant regions of the Inuit afterlife. Traditional accounts describe the passage through Adlivun as difficult and its ruler as strict, with Sedna herself, according to widely recorded origin narratives, dwelling there in pain after having had her fingers cut off by her own father during a storm at sea, an injury from which the various sea creatures, seals, walruses and whales that humans depend on for survival, are said to have been born, tying Sedna's ongoing suffering directly to the material abundance and moral obligations of Inuit hunting life. A soul's treatment in Adlivun and its eventual release depends in traditional belief partly on how well the living have honoured the taboos and respectful practices owed to Sedna and the animals under her care, connecting the realm's afterlife function directly to Inuit hunting ethics and practical survival.