The soul ascends back the way it came, like Theseus' return from the convoluted lair of the Minotaur, guided by a thread

Ariadne giving a clew of thread to Theseus, by Pelagio Palagi

While, guided by some clew of heav'nly thread,
The perplex'd labyrinth we backward tread.

-- Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon (1637-1685)