A Dictionary of Dream Symbols

by Eric Ackroyd
(1) Underworld - Hades, hell or the like - may symbolize despair. You need to talk to someone.

(2) Descent into an underworld may have a positive aspect. It may symbolize death as a prelude to new life: not literal but the death of the ‘old’ you, to make way for (progress towards) psychic wholeness - a ‘new5 you. Is there some light in the surrounding darkness? It may symbolize your consciousness which is able to find, in the ‘underworld’ of your unconscious, your true self.

(3) The underworld may represent the womb, and entering it may symbolize regression; or an incestuous wish. (On regression) However, the womb symbolism may represent rebirth, as in (2) above.

Dream Meanings of Versatile

by Versatile - Anonymous
Almost every culture has a concept of the underworld, a place we go to after death. Dreams of the underworld, hades or hell are thought to help us come to terms with the illusions we have developed on the physical plane of existence and to prepare us ultimately to cope with death.

The underworld or afterlife was once thought to be a place that was full of terrifying monsters and dangerous animals, which had to be traversed before one was free of karma.

Little Giant Encyclopedia

by Klaus Vollmar
See Underground. Mythological symbol of the unconscious—the dark or shadowy gods of the deep.