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. Any dream of a descent into an underworld signifies a journey into the unconscious and a way of coming to terms with inappropriate emotions or actions. Possibly the best known such journey is that of Persephone when she was captured by Hades or Pluto and thus became Queen of the Underworld. There are two meanings that might be given from a practical perspective to dreams of the underworld. One deals with the criminal underworld, an area of organized flouting of the law; the other is the more frightening transitional stage. Dreaming of the first suggests that we instinctively feel we are doing something wrong, whereas the other suggests that we are hampered by fears and doubts. You might also like to consult the entries for Death and Hell.