What is Shadow Work in Spirituality?
When we go outside on a sunny day, what do we see? A shadow.
And does that scare you? Probably not. It shouldn’t because it is a part of you. A reflection of you. And that’s how we are going to approach this topic.
Your shadow work is the stuff you don’t want to see, or the ‘stuff’ you feel belongs well, in the shadows and in the depths of the subconsciousness mind.
I refuse to say, unconscious mind, because well, even the conscious mind has to be aware of the unconscious aspects of self? You can’t turn off your consciousness, otherwise you cease to exist! Some may say the unconscious mind is more the ‘auto-pilot’ mode for your behaviors, that’s the subconscious mind.
From a spirituality context, many famous hypnotist, like Dolores Cannon may go back to past lives with her clients, to unearth these subconscious attributes that you may have ‘unconsciously’ pre-programmed into your current life.
Once the gig is up, as in the subconscious mind reveals to you, the pattern in which a theme you kept exploring, keeps coming up. And now you’re aware of it. You awareness to it, ceases to exist it the previous pattern or blockages, unless you presently consciously continue to re-enact the theme again and again. And again. And again, but why would you?
To demonstrate that equation see here:
Subconscious Mind (Old Habit and Pattern) + Technique or Experience to bring forth the Subconscious habit to the Conscious Mind = Breaking Awareness.
Or better yet: SM + CM = A
All lives are simultaneous existing by the way. Past, Present and Future are all NOW, as science is slowly catching up with this.
And the NOW, is where YOUR power exist. Because you can transmute the past, with the new found love you have unearthed TODAY.
Many of the shadow aspects of your-self, is buried away in past lives, karma, and/or wedged in your current experiences.
And when you start to release this past karma, it can feel like the dark night of the soul, which I will get to later.
But picture a Sufi dancer, majestically disrobing her heavy garments, her ‘cloaks.’ So to say, until she reaches her fine cloth found in the center. Remember, it makes for a heck of a performance.
Shadow Work – According to Carl Jung:
Carl Jung, famous Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst coined the term – Shadow Work.
He also stated, “shadow work is the path of the heart warrior.” And you know what, I tend to agree. Understanding human psychology assist in loving all parts of the self.
From a spirituality standpoints, all parts of self or what I like to call, the ‘I AM,’ are projections from a single – Source. And these subdivided personalities or ‘personas’ of Self call it you, me and Bob are projections from a true self known in Hinduism as, Atman. Atman being, “The essence that is eternal, unchanging, and indistinguishable from the essence of the universe.” Given that you have free will of course, to play out your persona or personal identity as you please.
So we have the, ‘SELF.’ The persona or personality of you. The one places the mask on and plays her part in the collective ‘whole’ of the universe.
“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
―
Then we have the ‘Ultimate SELF.’ The one without the persona or ego. The eternal you let’s call it.
Freud called it – Id. Ego and Superego. Carl Jung, who was Freud’s student, called it Ego, Personal Unconscious and Collective Unconscious.
The Yogi Masters of our time, called that which is beyond the Ego and ‘Self’ – ATMAN. And BRAHMAN – The ‘God Head,’ or the ‘Entire Cosmos and Universe.’ The ALL.
I bring these points before you today because it’s important to see how different aspects are categorized. It really doesn’t matter to get a concept, the transformation is in the experience, not the textbook. Though it helps in understanding.
With Jung, the shadow work may be unresolved issues in your childhood or past that, if they continue to go unresolved. May or will end up as unresolved projections towards others.
Things we don’t want to look at, embedded in the human psyche: Jealousy, envy, competitiveness, comparing, self doubt, controlling, playing the victim, and so forth. If these go unresolved, you play these out in themes or archetypes in your current life, until you break the pattern or cycle.
We all know people who don’t look at all aspects of their self, shadow included, and tend to ignore it. They only focus on the positive aspects of their nature. They are afraid of their own shadow and the gems that live there. Hence, they live their lives tip-toeing around their shadow because they are afraid of what they will find.
They are afraid that they are that, which they will find, when they are not.
Life has colors, and that’s how I tend to see it. Many stories in the 3D reality tend to play with the villain, the hero, the challenge, the climax story archetype.
Those who haven’t amalgamated their shadows and make peace with it – tend to repeat it. This is what we call in a spirituality context, individuals who keep on repeating the same old soul themes over and over again, until someone wakes them up from their vicious cycle and says, ‘SNAP OUT OF IT!’
The Dark Night of the Soul:
This is the night when your subconscious mind, bubbles up to the surface all that stuff = ‘shadow work,’ you don’t want to look at and it just purges that night. Full moons tend to bring this about or eclipses depending on where it falls. Like the shores to the sea, they tug on the elements and themes within you.
I have heard many tales from clients, that it feels like death. And honestly, it does. I’ve had several ‘dark nights of the soul,’ myself and all I can say is, you get over it. There was a funny meme online where everyone is screaming on the roller coaster expect for one woman. You’ve been there, done that. Next.
So how does the Dark Night of the soul feel like? Night sweets, anxiety, panic attacks. You name it.
It’s a spiritual purge of memories, negative thoughts, and negative patterns and belief systems bubbling up to the surface to be released. Don’t give it too much thought or analysis. Just let that s**t go.
Basically as you shift through this, it’s like lifting the weights off a hot air balloon and raising up to HR = Higher Realms.
I know these are hard topics to talk about, but hopefully, someone out there reading this, will read this and feel less alone or, “Hey, I went through one of those?” And maybe understand why all of a sudden, in a day or two, they feel the heavy weights being lifted like a balloon!
Honestly, I love this GIF. And would like to meet this woman one day, and run in our Sari’s down this alleyway yelling out blissful statements. But I digress.
Remember that with the dark night of the soul, ‘this too shall pass.’
Shadow Work Exercises:
Some of the basics, of Shadow work to raise your vibration are:
1) Self Acceptance & Unconditional Love:
Accept who you are, what you are, and most importantly where you’re going and who you are becoming.
People LOVE to sit and rotates on the past, and live in the past. They psychoanalyze it to death and I’m not for that.
Today we have new spiritual treatments where with a skilled Teacher, you can shift through those old patterns in a matter of meditations. Those who tend ignore their ‘work,’ tend to repeat it.
But those that accept it, as it is. Without judging it. Move through it a lot more quickly.
Hence, self acceptance.
It is not a part of your identity, it was an experience that shifted through to who you are TODAY. Today is what counts.
2) Bathtub and Salt Scrubs:
Honestly, it helps and your body intuitively knows what to do about this. People think a ‘Spiritual Awakening,’ is all unicorns and rainbows and it’s not. You go through your moments, you meet you demons, and you tell them to F**k off. It’s just that.
I have a Dissolve and Rise meditation with affirmations if you would like to print it out and take it with you in the bathtub for meditation.
Prep your bathtub. Clean it prior, fill it roses and flowers. These carry a high frequency. Especially roses. These are not cliches, they were turned into cliches by cynical people.
Also gather a nice scented candle. Dim the lights, and focus on your breath. Fill it with warm water and bath salts. Salts ‘extract’ remember.
Remember the full moon and tugging away. Well, allow the salts to tug away gently at your soul.
And just dip into the sea of your subconscious mind and let it go. Whatever life throws at you, as the saying goes, it wouldn’t have come your way if you couldn’t handle it. Now, you handled it.
3) Reiki and Body Work:
This really helps. I highly encourage people to work with a skilled Reiki Master or a RMT.
As you deal with a lot of upcoming and overflowing volcanic explosions of energy on Earth – Reiki and body work, massages, or anything of that nature, which can assist the energy to move through and out, to not to be ‘stuck’ within you, helps a lot.
The body remembers. The body has intelligence. Listen to your body, to help alleviate any past traumas or experiences you may have had, allow it ooze out of the pores of your body by just WITNESSING it. Don’t activate or re-live it, just re-lease it. And so it is.
I chatted with Farah Siddiq, Cosmic Reiki Master on my podcast Happy Freya, on shadow work, ancestral healing, and breaking your habits on things that no longer serve in this lifetime. I encourage you to have a listen.
4) Hypnotherapy and QHHT:
I chatted with Marilyn Dyke, a Level III Quantum Healing Hypnosis Practitioner on my podcast of what QHHT technique is and how it helps people.
People have reversed life long conditions in the offices of talented QHHT Practitioner.
I visited her as she was my practitioner and so glad we did it. You never know what comes up from these sessions and what to expect as I shared in this Episode. All I know is that, it helped. A LOT.
Delores Cannon who founded the QHHT hypnosis, found all it can take is one session. She asked the subconscious part of the mind (SM) of her clients, as it revealed things – what the client was ready to see and what was relevant. After that, she asked the SM if what s/he has learned was learned, can the soul now move along his or her journey without having to experience this anymore.
And so it is, if the subconscious mind or some say, Oversoul twiddles it’s nose, like a Genie and passes yes towards the client. Especially if the clients has learned his or her lesson.
Remember my formula above?
SM + CM = Breaking Awareness. Now the client is aware to it, it breaks. Many practitioners of the metaphysical field know this!
5) Get out in Nature, Shut off the Tech:
Highly recommend this as in ‘unplugging’ from the virtual world, and ‘plugging into your HS,’ higher self. The Atman. The eternal you.
Not what some technocrats, designed as an artificial world for you to live in, but be in the harmonically of Source, that which is a part of you, designed in tune with the ever evolving, ever changing harmonics of you.
I highly implore you to get out of your head, get out of your house, and get back into the magnificent body that is you and go explore nature.
6) Dream Analysis and Spiritual Advisor:
Usually the subconscious mind, surfaces in your dreams through symbology or repeat dreams. It could come in the form of animals, or events. Places significant in your childhood or memories, and so forth.
I highly encourage people to seek out these resources and more. This list is in no way exhaustive of all that life has to offer in forms of assisting you transition more into who you really are. We haven’t even touched upon sound and color therapy yet! Which is a whole topic, in and of itself.
However, these soul-utions listed here, are heavy hitting solutions. They assist to elevate you to the next level and I hope you found it helpful.
If you need any assistance with any further questions. Please feel free to email and book a complimentary 15 minute session.
Loving the unique expression that is you,
Pamela
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_(psychology)
Royalty Free Images:
Woman in bathtub by Bruce Mars
Triangle Image by Pixabay