THE UNDERWORLD

As it is a "Highlander" type of religion ("There can be only one" God), once it came in contact with paganism, Christianity did everything it could to destroy, vilify and pervert it.
Thus, the concept of the underworld, the world of the dead...

...in Christianity became Hell, the world of sinners and of Satan, the ruler of everything evil.

Yet, the word 'Hel' from Norse mythology, which is where the Christian Hell originated from, stems from the Proto-Germanic noun 'haljō', and it simply means 'concealed place'.

Not only that, but in European Mythology the underworld HAS NO CONNECTION with sinning, suffering, torture, etc. Thus, just like witches, demonic spirits, and so on, this is yet ANOTHER INVENTION of Christianity in order to make paganism look unappealing, dark and evil.

'Hel' is, in fact, simply where we go to as we wait to be reborn.

Let us now look at SOME of the many interesting (and rich) examples of commonalities regarding the mythological underworld of "different" European mythologies...

The Slavic Veles, king of Nav (or Nawia), the underworld, the place for departed souls… His tool for connecting between worlds was music and song. Nav is enclosed away from the world of the living either by a sea or river located deep underground.

Also, according to Ruthenian folklore, Veles lived on a swamp in the centre of Nav, where he sat on a golden throne at the base of the Cosmic Tree, wielding a sword.

The Finnish Tuoni. He appears as an old man with three fingers on each hand, a hat of darkness and he’s the god of Tuonela, the underworld. Tuonela is sectioned apart from the world of the living by a great divide in which flows the dark river of the same name.

In Finnish mythology, the dead must cross the river Tuonela by taking a boat piloted by the daughter of Tuoni.

The Greek Hades is the god of the dead and the king of the underworld.

In Greek Mythology, the underworld is surrounded by five rivers: the Acheron (river of woe), the Cocytus (river of lamentation), the Phlegethon (river of fire),...

...the Styx (river of unbreakable oath by which the gods took vows), and the Lethe (river of forgetfulness).
The souls that enter the underworld carry a coin under their tongue to pay Charon, the ferryman, to take them across the river.

Manannan or Manannan Mac, a deity in Celtic mythology who belonged to the Irish mystical race known as the Tuatha De Danann. Son of Lir, the Irish God of the sea, Manannan's title was Lord of the Sea - beyond or under which the Islands of the Dead.

Another Irish deity is Donn, who’s said to be an ancestor of the Gaels and is believed to have been a god of the dead. Donn is said to dwell in Tech Duinn (the "house of Donn" or "house of the dark one"),...

...a place where the souls of the dead gathered before travelling to their final destination in the underworld, or before being reincarnated.

Note: It is commonly believed that Tech Duinn's location is Bull Rock, an islet off the western tip of the Irish Beara Peninsula.

And we are finally back to 'Hel'.
In Norse mythology, Hel was originally the name of the world of the dead; but later it also came to mean the goddess of death Hela.
And just like other European mythologies, in the Norse underworld there is river [called Gjöll, “Loud Noise”]...

..which must be crossed. It is spanned by a bridge named Gjallarbrú (“Bridge over Gjöll”) guarded by a giantess called Móðguðr (“Furious Battle”).

So, you see... Gods of the underworld, water (rivers or oceans), guardians and/or boats.
This has nothing to do with Hell and Satan.

This is PURE SYMBOLOGY in which there is a code, a message to be decoded and something to be learned.

So, get rid of the Desert Cult. IT IS NOT YOUR HERITAGE, but SOMETHING THAT WAS IMPOSED THROUGH VIOLENCE AND DEATH UPON OUR ANCESTORS.

Rediscover PAGANISM! Your TRUE ANCESTRY!

PS: Of course, there are more underworld deities and many subtleties to each of these myths and characters, but that goes beyond the scope of this thread.