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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:20:28 GMT -5
www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/Self.htmlThe Self is simply the centre and the totality of the entire psyche. It is the archetype which contains all the other archetypes and around which they orbit. It's something of a paradox, and extremely difficult for the conscious ego to accept. Hero archetype: a Self symbol, but where the god symbolizes the collective unconscious, the hero is a mixture of it with human consciousness {Examples: Jesus & the Buddha}. It's an anticipation of an individuation process approaching wholeness. Links: The path to self discovery through Coloring Theraphy The Deeper Self: A Christian View The Self Edward C. Whitmont, The Symbolic Quest: Basic Concepts of Analytical Psychology (New York: Putnam, 1969) The Self draws its power exclusively from the collective unconscious; it is transpersonal rather than personal and is not conditioned by a person's individual experiences. The Self is both: * the "guide" of the process of individuation, the regulating center of the personality * the "goal" of the process of individuation, the symbol of perfect fulfillment of all potential (this is an unconscious goal, not the goal of the conscious ego) Symbolism in Dreams and Narratives: Because the Self is the most complex of the archetypes of individuation, its symbolism is the most rich and varied. All symbols of the Self include the characteristics of power and impersonality; symbols of the Self are never peer figures, nor are they strongly individualized, vividly personal, or strikingly sexual beings. The Self may be symbolized by: * Persons: an aged seer or priestess, a wise old man or woman, a young child (i.e., the goal/end, or the beginning); the Cosmic Man, hermaphrodite, or Royal Couple; an inner voice, guardian spirit, daimon, or genius * Animals: Phoenix (bird consumed in flames and reborn from its own ashes); Uroboros (snake biting its own tail); Totem * Things: items that serve as the guide or goal of a quest—the Holy Grail, the Elixir of Immortality, the Star of Bethlehem, the Philosopher's Stone * Geometric Figures: especially counterbalanced and concentric geometric figures, such as the Hindu mandala, or the peace sign Self Projection: Because the Self is so powerful, it contains both the concepts of Good and Evil. It is only projected onto transcendental figures, either images of God or the Devil, or religious leaders who are divinized by their followers. Possession by the Self: Because the Self is associated with the deepest levels of the collective unconscious, it is extremely powerful. When possessed by the Self, the ego loses control of the personality through positive or negative Inflation (literally meaning "blown into"). Positive inflation results in megalomania as the ego identifies with the power of the Self and is carried away by the unconscious (in myths, this can be symbolized as deification; Herakles, for example, loses his mortal body in the funeral pyre but his spirit is carried up to Olympus by Athena). Negative inflation results in annihilation of the ego, which is completely overpowered by the Self, resulting in a state of complete withdrawal or catatonia (in myths, this can be symbolized as being swallowed up by a monster, turned to stone, etc.). Integration of the Self: Because of its unconscious, transpersonal nature, the Self can never be truly integrated by the ego. What the ego must learn to do surrender its need to always be in control by recognizing the value of the Self's guidance and deferring to its superior wisdom. In myths this is often symbolized by the ego-bearer's learning to trust the mystical figures who are directing him/her even when their advice seems dangerous and contradictory. On the other hand, the ego must always maintain a safe distance from the unconscious, recognizing the dangerous power that can never be defeated or controlled.
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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:21:24 GMT -5
www.reiki.org/reikinews/ShadowSelf.htmlReiki and the Shadow Self by William Lee Rand We create our own reality. This phrase is frequently repeated in the healing community, and many accept it as true. And it is easy for us to accept that when we make plans and carry them out, that we are creating our own reality. Or when positive things happen, it can be a boost to our self-esteem to accept credit for causing them, even when they seem like nothing more than good fortune. But when calamity strikes, how many of us take credit for our misfortune. Frequently, when something negative happens to us, resentment, anger and fear begin to take over making it difficult to avoid blaming others or to blame circumstances that are seemingly beyond our control. By following this path, we sometimes gain sympathy from others, and validate our feelings of self-pity, which is a reward of sorts. And when confronted with the possibility that we have created our problems, our response is to state that we would never choose to create something so negative for ourselves. In this way, people often try to rationalize the idea that there must be some exceptions to the concept that we create our own reality, but as many have found, this is simply a way of giving up our power and remaining stuck in the illusion of helplessness. It is possible to take personal responsibility for our unwanted experiences in such a way that we take back the power to create our lives in a healthier and more fulfilling way. The mystery of personal responsibility for all our experience begins to clear up when we begin to understand that who we are is much more than what happens in our conscious mind. We have a deeper side to our identity that most know very little about and for the most part are completely unaware. This deeper side is often called the unconscious mind. Many psychological processes take place within the unconscious that have a powerful effect on our lives. By gaining a better understanding of it, we will be better able to deal with our experiences of powerlessness and transform them into a life of greater freedom and accomplishment and in so doing, become the person we are meant to be. As stated above, it is not just the conscious mind that is creating our reality, but our unconscious mind as well. The unconscious mind has a powerful influence on our decisions, our communication with others and especially on our body language. It also expresses directly through our energy field and by working in combination with the previously mentioned influences has a major effect on our total life experience. The unconscious mind can have both healthy and unhealthy aspects and it is the unhealthy aspects that are often called the Shadow Self. By working through the power of the unconscious mind, the Shadow Self is responsible for creating our unwanted experiences. Therefore, the only meaningful way to prevent unwanted experiences from taking place is by getting to know the Shadow Self and then to help it heal. One important insight is that the Shadow Self is actually created by the way we deal with our unwanted feelings and thoughts. In our society and especially when we are growing up, if we express feelings such as anger or jealousy, or other socially unacceptable behavior, we are often told by our parents to “stop it” or “don’t do that” which is a message to take our feelings and shove them inside. At first we may not do this well, but with repeated commands from our parents each time we experience these feelings, soon we develop skill at shoving our unwanted feelings inside. Eventually, we learn to do this automatically and the process becomes unconscious. We don’t even know we are doing it. These unwanted feelings don’t simply go away, but accumulate in the unconscious mind, still very much alive and often even more angry and resentful for having been rejected in such an uncaring way. These Shadow Self feelings take on an identity of their own, retain a great deal of energy and are intent on expressing themselves. Because the Shadow Self is in the unconscious mind, we are unaware of it and the influence it is having on our lives. It is through this process that the Shadow Self is empowered and motivated to create difficulties in our lives. So, if we want to get to know our Shadow Self, all we need to do is look at the condition of our life. Unwanted experiences are actually a reflection of our own Shadow Self. This means that if there is someone in your personal life that you have strong negative feelings about and wish would go away, it is your Shadow Self that has attracted them to you and caused you to feel the way you do toward them. And in fact, it is likely that the characteristics of this unwanted person that you dislike the most are characteristics of your Shadow Self. In other words, you have these same or similar traits within you. This is sometimes a difficult thing to accept at first, but if you can, it becomes possible to stop yourself from directing your negative feelings toward the outer person, and turn your attention inwardly to consider your inner state and search for any aspects within that may have the same feelings or characteristics you dislike so much in the other person. This about face in your behavior requires humility, but the effort is worth it. It is a step in the direction of healing and of changing not just your inner world, but your outer world as well. Once you begin to do this, a process of inner discovery and healing becomes possible. The Shadow Self exists because, rather than heal the feelings that have created it, for one reason or another, you chose to ignore and deny them. If you are to heal, it is necessary to reverse the process by paying attention to the Shadow Self and accept it as part of yourself. When you begin to do this, only then is it possible to heal. Once the Shadow Self begins to be accepted and the healing process begins, you will find it much easier to accept the outer person as well, making it easier to find solutions and resolve issues. Or it may result in the person going away with little direct contact needed, or in you simply not being affected by them as you have in the past. Reiki can be used to help this process. As an example, if there is someone in your life that is causing you grief, and you would like to use this experience to get to know your Shadow Self better and to heal, meditate on the feelings you have toward the person. Then ask yourself, “Is there a part within myself that is similar to this person?” As you do this, locate where in your body or energy field these feelings and/or the part resides. Direct Reiki energy there with your hands. Use the mental/emotional symbol along with the power symbol or the master or other Reiki symbols you feel would be helpful if you have them. As you do this, speak to the Reiki energy with your mind and ask it to show you the part of yourself that has attracted this experience into your life. This can bring up hidden aspects of yourself that you have been unaware of, but need attention. When you begin to feel the part, let it know that you are sorry for ignoring it for such a long time. Tell it you would like to get to know it better and to help it heal. This process may feel uncomfortable at first, but continue sending Reiki and it will help you work with your emerging Shadow Self. Allow yourself to have compassion toward the part(s) that come into your awareness. Continue to send Reiki and also, if you are open to it, say a prayer and ask for help from the Higher Power using whatever name feels comfortable to you. Continue sending Reiki, feeling compassion and looking into this part of yourself with the intent of understanding it and helping it to let go and heal. As you do this continue to thank the Reiki energy and/or the Higher Power for its help. You may also include an affirmation such as, “I release all negative feelings into the Reiki energy to heal now” or similar words or other affirmations you feel are right. Continue to do this until the session feels complete for now and end the session with the intension that the healing will continue as long as is needed. Repeated sessions may be necessary until you have let go of all the negative feelings and you feel at peace. As you use this technique or variations of it, hidden parts of your personality that had been intent on creating problems for you will become allies that you can consciously direct to achieve goals and create a healthier more satisfying life. This is because the Shadow Self has what can be called a Radiant Self counterpart that becomes available when the Shadow Self begins to heal. The Radiant Self has the same abilities as the Shadow Self, but uses them to create benefits for you and to attract positive situations and experiences. I invite you to think about these ideas and to apply them using your Reiki energy. I am sure you will find it to be an exciting, empowering experience that will bring benefit to your life as well as the lives of those around you.
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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:23:30 GMT -5
www.shadowwork.com/about.htmlThis page will walk you through the principles and theory behind Shadow Work®. Here you can get answers to questions like: * What is Shadow Work®? * What is a shadow? * How do I recognize my shadows? * Why would I do Shadow Work®? * What is a safe container? * What is the Shadow Work® process like? WHAT IS SHADOW WORK®? Shadow Work® is a personal growth process which brings your hidden powers out of the shadow and into the light. We all have these hidden powers within us. But we don't always allow ourselves to use them. We have all been hurt, and we have learned to hide parts of ourselves so we don't get hurt again. Shadow Work® is a way to explore the inner landscape and discover the gold that is hiding in the shadows. It is a way to become more and more who we really are. Shadow Work® is a way to face the hurt, the fear, the anger, and learn how to live more fully. Most of all, it is a way to love ourselves for the journeys we have chosen. Back to top WHAT IS A SHADOW? The term "shadow" was first used by Carl G. Jung to describe the repressed or denied part of the Self. Robert Bly popularized this idea in A Little Book on the Human Shadow. Bly says that we were each born into a "360-degree personality." As infants we expressed the full breadth of our human nature, without editing or censoring. As we grew up, however, we learned that certain slices of our 360-degree pie were unacceptable to the people around us. Maybe we were shamed for crying or punished for being angry. Maybe we were ridiculed for wanting attention or acting proud of ourselves. So, we learned to repress those slices of our pie; the ones that got us hurt. According to Bly, it was as if we threw these unacceptable qualities over our shoulder into a bag, which we've been dragging around behind us ever since. In Shadow Work®, we define "shadows" as all the parts of ourselves we have stuffed into the bag. These may be "positive" parts or "negative" parts. Our shadows are all those parts we have split off, repressed or denied — the parts of ourselves we are afraid to show. We believe it is proper and useful to have a shadow bag, and to keep some shadows in the bag. But when the weight of the bag slows us down and prevents us from being who we really want to be, it is time to open it up. It is time to find a safe place to look into the bag, examine its contents, and see what needs to come back out. Back to top HOW DO I RECOGNIZE MY SHADOWS? You can identify your shadows by looking at what you project onto others. When you deny a trait in yourself, you tend to be very aware of that trait in other people. In the twelve-step tradition, they say, "If you spot it, you got it." This means that you are most aware of those traits in others which reflect your own shadows. You may react irrationally to one of these traits in someone else, becoming unduly annoyed and blowing things all out of proportion. You can also notice the traits which you admire the most in others. Who do you look up to? Who are your idols? We often project our golden shadows onto others, and get stars in our eyes, because these people represent the qualities we have disavowed in ourselves out of a false sense of modesty. You could say that we paint other people with our shadows, for better and for worse. Another way to spot your shadows is to look for things you find yourself doing by accident. No matter how hard you try to keep your bag sealed, your shadows may leak out in a way that seems beyond your control. For example, you may promise yourself that you're going to spend more time with your family, when you actually spend more time at work. You may find yourself jumping into a questionable relationship, when you know that this person isn't right for you. You may ignore your own rules about eating, smoking or drinking. When you repeat a pattern of behavior involuntarily, it is a sign that your shadow is running the show. Back to top WHY WOULD I DO SHADOW WORK®? We believe that the core of every shadow contains a nugget of strength and power. Your shadows are like a gold mine of creative, useful energy. However, you may find that when a shadow has been in the bag for some time, it becomes crusty and a little smelly. When you decide to open the bag and examine some of the material hidden in there, you'll want to be in a safe place. Your everyday life might not be the best arena for breaking in a new shadow. For example, you might not want to start expressing your repressed grief when you are at work. You might not want to experiment with your anger in your relationship. Your shadows can mess up your life; that's why you put them in the bag in the first place. Shadow Work® creates a place in your life to let things out of the bag slowly, choicefully and safely. In Shadow Work® you can experiment in a safe environment first, without the fear of real-life consequences. You might not want to dive into your shadows alone either. Trained facilitators can help you keep it safe and help you break the job down into manageable parts, so you don't lose your perspective. Shadows can be very seductive. A trained coach can help you remember the overall goals you have chosen for yourself. HOW IS SHADOW WORK® DONE? You can choose to experience Shadow Work® in one of two ways. First, you may choose to attend a Shadow Work® Seminar, where you can work in a group with other people who have come to examine their shadows together. Here you can also share the path with others, who will help motivate you with acceptance and encouragement. You may choose to learn from watching how others process their shadows. When you see others finding the courage hidden within their fear, or the power in their anger, you may be able to apply that learning directly to your own situation. Or, secondly, you may choose to experience Shadow Work® in a coaching context. You may prefer the privacy of working one-on-one with a Certified Shadow Work® Coach, where you can be coached over the phone, or choose from sessions lasting from several hours to several days. Back to top WHAT IS A "SAFE CONTAINER"? In Shadow Work®, the container is the circle in which safe processing can be done. Building a safe container means that outside pressures must be temporarily set aside, so you can see clearly. In a group setting, everyone agrees to withhold judgment, to examine their own prejudices, and to refrain from giving advice. It means that the group members learn how to appreciate and learn from the different journeys we have each chosen. Feeling the depth and power of love in a truly safe Shadow Work® container is often an inspiring experience. Once you feel the safety of a Shadow Work® container, you will find it quite natural to begin your own Shadow Work® process with whatever issue you choose. In a coaching session, the safe container is built between you and your Shadow Work® Coach. In an atmosphere of complete privacy and safety, you will find yourself easily accessing very deep states of emotion, release, resolution, inspiration, creativity and peace. Back to top WHAT IS THE SHADOW WORK® PROCESS LIKE? The Shadow Work® process starts when the Shadow Work® facilitator asks the question: "What would you like to have happen?" Whatever you want to have happen then becomes the guiding force in your process. Most often, people want something that falls into one of these categories: * to understand why they behave in a certain way; * to get help or support for unfolding more of themselves; * to work with feelings like fear, grief, anger or shame; * to break through old patterns of behavior. Using the Shadow Work® tools, the facilitator can help you symbolically reconstruct your issue, so the shadow can be identified and viewed objectively. The facilitator can then help you with powerful techniques to re-capture and harness the energy of the shadow. Options for dealing with the shadow are measured by what you want to have happen. You will not be pressured to go beyond your own level of choice. A Shadow Work® process generally involves the safe exploration of deep emotions. Each human emotion is like a doorway that can open up to an expanse of internal energy. * Anger opens up to our ability to set our boundaries. It helps us learn when to say, "Yes" and when to say, "No." It keeps us from getting trapped in unhealthy situations, and it helps us know who we really are. * Sadness is a doorway to our connection with other people. It opens us up to love, revealing our vulnerability and desire for loving relationship. Sadness helps us connect with the spiritual realities we hold sacred. It helps us stay in tune with our bodies, and with nature. * Fear can help us detach from a situation, and look at it objectively. Fear can be a wonderful advisor, which creates new options for our future and counsels us about the present. * Joy can inspire us to live our dreams. Joy can give us courage and direction when we are lost, and bless us with the knowledge that our lives have real meaning. Exposing parts of your shadow can feel risky. To effectively work with your shadows, you need a place where you feel safe — a place where you can trust others. Shadow Work® provides you with such a place.
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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:24:52 GMT -5
www.suite101.com/content/shamanic-shadow-self-a19681Shamanic Shadow Self Jung and the Shadow Apr 25, 2007 Jill Stefko The Pagan, Shamanic Celts and Lakota Sioux believed in Shadow Self, the part of people that is rejected. Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, shared the belief. Carl G. Jung Personality Theory, a Brief Overview Carl Jung was Sigmund Freud’s heir apparent until they had a falling out over what Freud called Jung’s obsession with the, as it was called then, “occult.” Jung believed the psyche is made of different parts. The Persona is the part we reveal to others, the mask or veneer we project to the outer world, other people. The Ego is the center of our consciousness or our identity. It is not the total psyche, the personality or the soul. Anima/Animus are, respectively, the female soul image of the man and the male soul image of the woman. This is a messenger between the unconscious and the conscious. There are two types of the unconscious, collective and personal. The collective is universal and ancestral. The personal unconscious has all of what is not in the conscious, that of which we are aware of, but these memories, thoughts and experiences can be brought to awareness. It is also where thoughts and experiences that people are not comfortable with and submerge. The Shadow is that part of people they do not like and reject, the darker side of human nature. The Self is the total and the center of the psyche. Nagi, Lakota Shadow Self Nagi is one of the Sixteen Great Mysteries of Lakota Sioux tradition. Nagi is Ghost and Shadow Self. Ghosts are the humans’ shadows. It is believed that there is a circle for those who have not done Earth walk in compliance with the Laws of Spirit and have used others for their own personal gain or have killed another or themselves without moral cause. This circle lies between Earth and the Spirit World. They must walk the circle endlessly until the prayers and offerings of the living are able to release them. The Spirit World is for those who have lived in accordance with the Creator’s ways. This is to live in balance and harmony and as one mind, one prayer. When people are not in balance, it is time to embrace the Shadow Self, acknowledging it exists and learn from it in order to heal and walk in balance and harmony. Ads by Google Spiritual Healing Discover How Your Mind Can Effect Your Body - Free Online Course! VolunteerMinisters.org Jungian Analyst Nancy Dougherty, LCSW Austin Texas area www.njdougherty.comKsa, Goddess of Water, one of the eight Supernaturals, can help us confront the Shadow. As people experience negative thoughts and events, they are often submerged only to come into awareness again and again until we are able to confront them for resolution if we step back and allow the answers to come to us. Celtic Shadow Self According to Celtic belief, Shadow Self is the part of a person’s mind and being that have the parts of us we reject and keep hidden from others. Most of these aspects are negative, although some are positive. Among the positive could be the desire to practice Shamanism in all of its positive aspects, but some people fear rejection from others, so this is kept secret. Shadow Self is born with us and remains so until we die. Every time we have negative thoughts and feelings we dwell on, Shadow Self grows in strength. Although the Shadow is negative, it is not evil. It must be accepted and confronted so it can be worked with and one can be in balance. A good example of unbalance is ignoring what one needs and making unnecessary negative sacrifices or denying the needs are real.
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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:26:02 GMT -5
www.soulfulliving.com/the_shadow_process.htmThe Shadow Process gives us access to loving all of ourselves. This deep and profound work teaches us how to love each and every aspect of our humanity. It enables us to embrace both the darkness of our smallest self and the brilliant light of our highest self. Making peace with our dark side is a sacred journey. It demands rigorous honesty, courage and a great deal of compassion. Embracing our shadow delivers us emotional wholeness and the absolute freedom to be who we are. When we are filled with self-love and self-appreciation, we automatically attract the miraculous experience of love and appreciation from others. The Secret of the Shadow by Debbie Ford What is the Shadow? The shadow contains all the parts of ourselves that we try to hide, deny or suppress. It is the keeper of all the aspects of ourselves that we dislike and the qualities that we judge as unacceptable. The shadow wears many faces: angry, critical, fearful, lazy, controlling, selfish, weak, pathetic… These are the faces we don’t want to show the world and the faces we don’t want to show ourselves. Most of us expend huge amounts of energy trying to get rid of or control these unwanted aspects of ourselves. We hope that by hiding or fixing our "bad qualities" we will have the peace, success and happiness we desire. Most of us are convinced that we are flawed and inadequate so we become masters of disguise, and go to great lengths to hide our bad qualities from those around us – even from ourselves. The result of turning our backs on our dark side? A life that slips by only half lived. Dreams that are never realized, or worse, that lay buried under years of resignation and shame. Until we make peace with our shadow we will continue to be at war with ourselves. And our outer world will mirror our inner struggle. What we resist persists – and we will create and attract from others that which we most dislike in ourselves. Until we feel authentic compassion for each and every aspect of ourselves, we will continue to draw forth people and events that will mirror the negative feelings we have about ourselves. Until we take back our power and forgive ourselves for being human we will attract people who push our buttons and reactivate our emotional wounds. And until we find the courage to love ourselves completely, we will never truly be able to experience the love from those around us. We don’t need to guess how we really feel about ourselves at the deepest level. All we have to do is look at how the outer world treats us. If we’re not getting the respect, love and appreciation we desire from the outer world, it’s more than likely we aren’t giving these things to ourselves. This is the benevolence of the Universe in action. The whole world is a mirror of our own consciousness, and when we make peace with the disowned aspects of ourselves, we make peace with the world. The Dark Side of the Light Chasers by Debbie Ford Embracing The Shadow The process of embracing our shadow side calls us to uncover the gifts and receive the wisdom hidden within each and every aspect of ourselves, particularly the ones that we are ashamed of or embarrassed by. Rather than viewing our weakness, our smallness, our insecurities or our rage as enemies or as obstacles to moving forward in our lives, this process guides us to embrace our so-called defects as the powerful teachers that they are. The Shadow Process is founded on the understanding that every quality, every emotion and every experience comes bearing great gifts. Once we learn how to uncover these gifts we become the powerful masters of our lives. We develop the ability to transform thoughts, beliefs or situations that once held us back into fuel for our spiritual evolution and the manifestation of our dreams. Embracing our shadow allows us to reclaim the power we once gave away. When we are at peace within ourselves, our self-esteem no longer depends on the approval of others. Our own sense of self-worth is no longer at the mercy of how other people feel about us. When we receive the gifts of our dark side, something truly miraculous occurs. Our wounds are transformed into wisdom and the parts of us we once believed to be our deepest flaws are revealed as our greatest assets. Embracing our shadows is the ultimate act of self-love. There is no greater love than the one that allows us to shine a light on the aspects of ourselves that we have judged and made wrong. Embracing our dark side gives us a new found freedom to be with the darkness in others. For when I can love all of me, I will love all of you. Shadow work is the path of the heart warrior. It takes us to a new place where we can open our hearts to all of ourselves and all of humanity. Shadow work is not about perfection; it’s about integration. It is the path of reclaiming each and every aspect of ourselves and discovering how that aspect can serve us. It requires us to look at our lives from the perspective that we have been given everything we need to fulfill our hearts’ desires. And the greatest of these gifts lies hidden in our shadow. If we look for the gift of our weakness, we may find that it has actually given us strength or that it has allowed us to be supported by others. The gift of our fear might be our determination or our ability to set good boundaries. The gift of an upsetting situation is that it could lead us to read a life-changing book. The gifts of our pain are here for us to receive, but first we must be willing to look for them. Each of us must make the conscious choice to step out of the belief that we are victims of our lives and open up to the possibility that we have created our particular circumstances for a reason. We must commit to looking at our lives as though each and every quality, person and circumstance has been drawn to us in order to give us specific insights and wisdom. This requires us to examine each aspect of ourselves and our lives and ask, "Why would I need this? How could this be a catalyst for me to grow and evolve? How could this quality or situation serve me in creating the life I desire?" Transformation requires nothing more than having a shift in perception. It is choosing to look at our lives in a way that empowers us rather than disempowers us. At its core, this process requires us to make the choice to see ourselves though the eyes of the Divine. I believe that the shadow is the greatest gift that God could give us. It is the teacher, the trainer, and the guide that supports us in uncovering our true magnificence. The shadow is not a problem to be solved or an enemy to be conquered, but a fertile field to be cultivated. Dig your hands into its rich soil and you will discover the potent seeds of the person you most desire to be. Our most hated, feared or shamed qualities are the ones that hold the key to living the life of our dreams. What the Shadow Process provides is a way to love what we have feared, to decode the messages we receive from within and to unleash the power that is hidden within you. © Copyright 2002 Debbie Ford. All Rights Reserved.
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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:26:52 GMT -5
www.soulfulliving.com/gift_of_the_shadow.htmBeyond Blue Snow: Finding the Gift of the Shadow by Father Paul Keenan When I was growing up, my parents had a large painting called "Shack in the Woods" over their fireplace. It was by a Canadian artist named Franz Johnston; and it depicted a lonely shack surrounded by a huge forest of trees, deep in the shadows of a rural Canadian winter. My parents loved the painting; but Nana, my mother’s mother, absolutely hated it on sight and never changed her mind about it till her dying day at age ninety-six. The particular object of her wrath was a patch of blue shadow that the artist had placed so as to run from the edge of the cabin to the outermost of the trees. It was clear to all of us that he was depicting the deep sylvan shadows of a wintry dusk. To Nana, it was "blue snow;" and, to her, no artist in his right mind would ever paint blue snow! Heart Storming by Father Paul Keenan There’s a big difference, of course, between shadows and blue snow. When I grew up and eventually became interested in Spirit and the inner workings of the human person, it occurred to me that those two interpretations of that painting marked a classic difference in the ways we view our shadow and that this difference captured the way in which we deal with the murky, shady side of ourselves. Our shadow is that dark side, the side we would not like to hang out on our clothesline or display on a resume. Yet it is a side that is there, one that can either help us on our life’s journey or present a formidable obstacle. If we are wise, we learn to embrace our shadow and see it as a helpful aspect of ourselves, one that can lend depth and beauty to our personality. Our first tendency, however, is to see our shadow as "blue snow" – an abomination, an anomaly, something that we would do better to write off and forget about. Growing up in the 1950’s, even in a together and non-dysfunctional family like mine, there was scarcely any recognition of the darker side of life, much less an acceptance of it. The face of life was that it was happy, that we were all together, taken care of and, hey, what could really be wrong? If you didn’t like something, you could complain; but you could bet that your complaint would be met with a slap, with ridicule or with an admonition that kids in China or Russia or some other remote corner of the world would be happy to have it half so good. If you cried, you were a baby. If you got mad, you were a problem. If you acted out, you were punished. Your negative feelings were "blue snow" -- how could you even think of putting them out there for people to see? When my mother’s second pregnancy ended in a stillborn baby boy, there was absolutely no mention of it. It was nearly twenty years later, when my parents were entertaining a colleague of my father’s from the university, that a pre-dinner daiquiri mysteriously unleashed a flood of memories as my mother sobbed out the story of her long-lost infant son. What is this shadow, this murky and unpurged side of us, the "blue snow" we try so assiduously to avoid knowing and to keep others from knowing as well? We call it by many names -- interesting, isn’t it, how many of them end in the suffix "-pression. --Depression, Oppression, Repression, Suppression. That suffix comes from Latin roots meaning "to press." The image is that of our taking something and pressing it down, pushing it in, keeping it from … "ex-pression," which means "pushing out." What happens is that we take something that to us seems scary, unappealing or unpleasant and try to assure ourselves that under no circumstances will we hold it up for personal reflection or show it to others. We believe that it is too frightening or too shameful to acknowledge or to have acknowledged by those around us. What if others found out? Stages of the Soul by Father Paul Keenan The very name "shadow" should tell us something about how to deal with these scary and hard-to-reveal phenomena. Once we accept the fact that what we are hiding really is a shadow and not merely "blue snow" that shouldn’t be there, several healing realizations can surface. 1. A shadow is a shadow of something else. What we are experiencing flowing up out of the surface of our awareness is not an isolated something in and of itself. It is a story, a voice in the song of Life; and that song is about some fact, habit or feature of our lives. What we are so afraid of when we encounter our shadow is that it could be something that, if discovered, would simply destroy us. People have told me that they are amazed at how candid I am, in my writing, about the fears, failures and foibles that have been part of my personal history. Over the years, I have learned that every one of those things that I would hide, has a story to tell, a story that is a very important part of the moral of the story of my life. For example, when someone asks me, "How did you get into radio?" part of the story involves being forced to acknowledge a physical illness and a sense of personal inadequacy both of which had to be faced and healed. When I tell the story (you’ll find parts of it in my first book, Good News for Bad Days), I am actually allowing those sub-plots to find their voices, to bestow unique tonalities to the overall story of my life. Like the shadows in my parents’ painting, each of the dark moments contributes something positive to the painting or the song of my life. 2. A shadow becomes visible only when it comes into the Light. The shadow is a sign of the Light, though it appears to be a sign of the darkness. This is so important to realize. A shadow can be seen only because Light is shining. When we feel uncomfortable about some aspect of ourselves or about some deed or history of deeds in our life story, it is good to remember that what is happening is that we are beginning to come into the Light of Truth. That Truth is the truth about ourselves because of who we are. Admitting or acknowledging the evil aspect or unbecoming feature brings it into the Light. That is uncomfortable at first; and as we allow this to occur, we may find ourselves being overcome by a feeling of helplessness or powerlessness to conquer the shadow. Remember this -- the Light into which you are coming is the Light of Truth. By nature, Truth is gentle and purifying; it builds you up, and does not take you down. The light you are afraid of coming into is the light of ridicule and condemnation, but that is a false light that, in the end, collapses into nothingness. The Light of Being, the Light of Truth, is very gentle with its own, and you are one of its own. That you are a child of God, made in the image of Being itself, is the only truth about you that ultimately matters. The Truth that is God transforms the shadow by lighting it and making it beautiful, just as the light of the sun or the moon transforms the shadow of a tree, making it a part of the overall beauty of the forest. When I finally sought medical treatment for what turned out to be my thyroid condition many years ago, I remember collapsing on the hospital bed in relief that I could finally give up the pretense of being well. In a short time, the doctors told me I was near death; and I recall surrendering once again in complete powerlessness over my condition, telling God, "Do whatever you want with me." At that moment, I experienced a profound inner peace, which, without words, told me, "It’s going to be all right." It was that Inner Light that carried me through to recovery over the next several weeks. Though some of my doctors tried to make me feel shame for having waited so long to seek help, their attempted humiliation of me was nothing in contrast with the gentleness of the Light that told me to relax and let it find the appropriate place for my illness in my life story overall. Good News for Bad Days: Living a Soulful Life by Father Paul Keenan 3. There are times when it is appropriate to be ashamed, and inappropriate not to be. What matters is that the shadow has a gift to give us, and that God’s Light can help us to find that gift. When we truly have done something foolish or wrong, when we have hurt others and ourselves through our actions, it is appropriate for us to feel shame. It is never appropriate for us to stay mired in shame. The gift of the shadow is that it can turn shame into beauty, wisdom, depth, direction and graciousness, that it can give us a gift. Said more accurately, it is not the shadow by itself that so gifts us; rather, it is the shadow illumined by the Light of God. Those of us in helping professions can recall, perhaps, how shallow many of us were when we so eagerly came bounding out of our years of training, ready to take on the world. How little we knew back then! When we have lived a little, failed a little, lost a little, come up against some barriers, made some mistakes, even done some things that were downright wrong -- we approach our work so very differently. What is it that is different about us? Is it a trace of compassion? Is it a new level of caring? However we describe it, we are different -- perhaps more humble, both in the sense that we are more modest in our claims, and in the sense that we know more intimately the Light that guides us and holds our hand as we help others to heal. When I was studying graduate theology, one of my professors told us about a dream he had experienced. In that dream, he was being chased by a dark man, who eventually put him in danger of death. At the last minute, the man tossed a backpack to my professor, and disappeared. After awakening from the dream, the professor told us, he experienced an insight that freed him from something that had been burdening him for a long time. The shadow side of our lives is friendly like that. It is a sign that at the deepest level of reality there is Light, not darkness; Gentleness, not condemnation; Purpose, not chaos and despair. It all begins when we acknowledge the murky side of life, not as anomalous "Blue Snow," but as shadow, the darkness that proves the existence of Light. © Copyright 2002 Father Paul Keenan. All Rights Reserved.
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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:27:56 GMT -5
www.soulfulliving.com/befriending_the_shadow.htmBefriending the Shadow by David Richo, Ph.D. The poppy petals: How calmly They fall. -Etsujin The Jungian archetype of the Shadow includes all that we abhor about ourselves and all the wonderful potential that we doubt or deny we have. We project these negativities onto others as strong dislike and project our positive potential as admiration. We can re-member and restore these capacities to our psyches. We explore our dark side as a source of creativity and untapped potential. How does our dark side manifest, go into hiding, and emerge to hurt or liberate us? What is evil and how do we protect ourselves from it? What is the shadow in our family, relationships, religion, and in the world? We learn ways to make friends with our shadow both positive and negative so that our lost life can be restored and renewed. Inner foes become allies; dark angles within us become archways of light. Shadow Dance by David Richo To befriend the POSITIVE personal shadow: Use this triple A approach: • Affirm that you have the quality you admire or envy in someone else. This can be a simple declaration or affirmation such as: "I am more and more courageous." • Act as if you have that quality by making choices that demonstrate it. • Announce it: Tell everybody you know that you are making these changes and ask for their support. These are three steps we take. They are usually followed by shifts in our personality; we begin to act in wiser, more loving, and more healing ways with no further need for effort. This is the grace dimension, the spiritual assistance to our work. To befriend the NEGATIVE personal shadow, here are five A’s: • Acknowledge that you have all the attributes humans can have, that you contain both sides of every human coin. Acknowledge that you have the specific negative traits you see in others that evoke a strong reaction of repulsion in you. The urge to observe coexists with its opposite impulse to expose. • Allow yourself to hold and cradle these as parts of yourself. Acknowledge that they may have gone underground for a legitimate purpose and are now ready to be turned inside out and become something more creative and empowering in your life. • Admit to yourself and to one other person the fact of these shadow discoveries about yourself. • Make amends to those who may have been hurt by your denial of your own shadow: "I saw this in you and it is in me. I have blamed you for what I am ashamed of in myself." Make amends to anyone you have hurt by any underhanded ways your shadow has impacted him/her. • Become aware of the kernel of value in your negative shadow characteristic and then treat it as you did the positive shadow above: affirm it as true of yourself, act as if it were true, announce your discovery and program to others who can assist us in following up on it. As you do this work, do not scold yourself as a critical parent for all your deficits. Have a good talk with yourself as a kindly adult: "I have been controlling and that is wrong of me, but there is a kernel of positive value in that controlling. It is my capacity for getting things done, for organizing, even for leadership. I will now concentrate on and release those wonderful attributes. I will find my positive shadow in my negative shadow!" This is working with what is rather than attempting to eliminate what is, and thereby working against psychic truth. Shadow embracing reverses self-alienation and connects us to our own rainbow reality. To see your dark side, to see what you are really up to while not shaming yourself for it reconnects you to your true self and reveals its spacious grandeur. Such vision is a form of mindfulness. Turning against the external tyrant is useless. You have to see him in your own mirror: "This face is mine. I accept the fact that there is something dark in every one of my motivations. And I still see the light in me too." Jung, toward the end of his life, wrote: "I am astonished, disappointed, and pleased with myself. I am depressed and rapturous. I am all this at once and cannot add up the sum." How to Be an Adult in Relationships by David Richo The theme of letting go keeps appearing in our work of deflating our egos. Why do we not let go as easily as the poppy petals do when their season ends? Why is it not automatic in us as this phrase of Rilke suggests it can be: "Make it as easy as the earth makes itself ready for spring"? To ask why surrender does not happen without pain is like asking why we do not have strong muscles without working out. It takes practice, both psychological and spiritual practice that have as their purpose to grant an unreserved assent to every human predicament we find ourselves in. The ego cannot do this; it has too many vested interests in survival based on its props of control and entitlement. In the past it was thought that fasting, self-flagellation, asceticism, etc., made a contribution to one’s own holiness/wholeness or to those of others. These practices were reproved by the Buddha who saw them as life-negating. Our best offering to the world is in capitalizing on our own vast body/soul potential. What helps us toward wholeness and what helps others is the release, not the inhibiting, of our hidden reserves. This release is found especially in meditation, yoga, body-oriented therapies, dream work, and active imagination. The central purpose of these practices is the letting go of ego not the splitting of mind and body. The mind’s subjugation of the body can be another ploy of the ego to keep us divided against the Self! Ego thrives on oppositions, so defeat of oppositions is the true letting go of ego. A body image is the ego’s version of our body. We confuse these two and think they are the same. Actually, our body is a marvelous tool and full of wonders unguessed at by the mind. The ego version of the psyche does not give the complete picture of who we are either. Dreams, poetry, imagination, and projection give clues that there is more to us than ego. In body and mind we are more than we seem. An intriguing metaphor for the dissolution of ego is the metamorphosis of the caterpillar. When it becomes a cocoon, it goes into dissolution, becoming a yellow, undifferentiated, gooey mass. This is a necessary stage before it can be adorned in its splendid butterfly raiment. We will feel like an identity-less mess when we let go of ego. Our first reaction may then be fear and that makes us hold on more tightly to the F.A.C.E. we do not want to lose. We fall back into the old patterns of control and combativeness. In reality, the time has come to let go of those ingrained habits and to allow dissolution. It is time to lie still, as mummies do. In fact, a mummy is a cocoon, lying quietly for as long a time as it may take for its new life to open. Sometimes the work is to dissolve rather than solve. Letting go of ego proves to be what wants to happen in us. It is not a goal but a program already and always in place for beings like us, so infused with urgent yearnings for Buddha’s paradise beyond fear and desire. No coming. No going. Everything is pretending To be born and to die. Copyright © 2000 David Richo, Ph.D. This article is an excerpt from Shadow Dance: Liberating the Power and Creativity of Your Dark Side by David Richo, PhD, Shambhala Publications.
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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:29:38 GMT -5
www.soulfulliving.com/goddess_kali.htmThe Goddess Kali Helps Us Dance with Hungry Ghosts of the Past by Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway "If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well dance with it." --George Bernard Shaw Every family has its dark secrets. And we all have our elephants on the table – the issues that are so obvious but which are never discussed, acknowledged or healed. Many of our lives are shaped around dysfunctional family backgrounds, and we tend to try to disassociate from them, as we get older. It’s a good idea to grow up and leave the past behind. But if we don’t examine the pain of the past and make an attempt to heal it, we will drag it with us through life … and hungry ghosts of the past will plague us. A Goddess is a Girl's Best Friend by Rev. Laurie Sue Brockway But what is scariest and most unsettling about a hungry ghost from the past is we don’t really know what it is—lost spirit or fiendish monster of our own minds. All we know is that there is a presence that somehow holds a power over us; we may not even know why. So they become part of our shadow selves, and can insidiously haunt our daily lives -- until we make a decision to set them free. It’s a human impulse to run from the darkness. Yet when you understand the truth about the shadow, you will come to understand that running from it does not bring you to safety – while running to it and embracing it will. Like ghosts in the attic, unresolved relationships and unsettled problems of the past make a racket – until we learn to look them square in the eye and say, "boo." We have to be willing to step into the darkness in order to own it, acknowledge it and begin to heal the pain, fear, shame, perceived sins of the past that lurk in the shadows. Black Mother Goddess Kali is known as one of the most powerful and most beloved spiritual allies of the Hindu tradition. But Kali is also the universal mother. It is believed that she goes into the darkness with us, and for us, to swallow our sins, worries, and concerns. She can show us how to radically transform our lives by embracing our own darkness, rather than fearing and fleeing from that which haunts us. She can spiritually hack away at the handcuffs that keep us shackled to the hungry ghosts of the past. There comes a point in the process when you must surrender fully to her healing powers, and let her bring you back cleansed, transformed, whole. "Kali represents the entire physical plane. She is the drama, tragedy, humor, and sorrow of life. She is the brother, father, sister, mother, lover, and friend. She is the fiend, monster, beast, and brute … The full and seductive, terrible and wonderful earth mother always has something to offer." --Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Also known as Kali Ma and the Black Mother, Kali is the powerful Hindu Goddess who is in charge of darkness, death and regeneration. Many people fear her because she is so awesome looking, but Hindus love and adore her as their great mother Goddess and they see her as a manifestation of power that is fierce and potent. She is shakti (female energy) incarnate and the manifestation of primordial power. While she is the consort of the great Lord Shiva, she is also seen dancing wildly, with his form beneath her feet. They are partners in darkness, and in dancing the dance of death and regeneration. She brings life and death … she is regeneration and rebirth. In many ways she is the consummate representation of the classic power of the Divine Female – the power to birth, to bring death to the old and to regenerate. Her haunts are cremation grounds, where she takes life, and then recycles it into new life. Her symbol for cutting away at evil and darkness is to behead humans, but what that image really represents is the cutting away of the human ego and all the problems it causes. She eats pain, and swallows despair, and the secret shadows of our lives. She wipes out oddball beliefs, worn out thoughts and constructs that no longer serve us. She is a wild Goddess. Black (or blue looking) and wearing a garland of skulls around her neck, she has four arms; a symbol of domination over the world. In one hand she holds a head dripping blood, in the other three she wields various weapons. One of her hands removes fear and another grants bliss. Her tongue is sticking out and her eyes look wild. How Kali can help us own up to our shadows: * Admit we love our ghosts. Since our scariest ghosts are usually people we love, know or have known, it’s not easy to let them go. We know our ghosts intimately; know the places they rattle their chains and make windows and doors open to the frightening, howling wind. We know the way they scare us, and how they are likely to strike. We are familiar with the way they go bump in the dark night of our souls. Sometimes we put them there to cover up even deeper pain or to allow us to avoid dealing with something uncomfortable. It is not easy to give up our ghosts because we love them … or we have become so accustomed to them that we fear what life may be like without their racket and disruptions. * Surrender to Divine Will. If you are in deep pain about your past and truly yearn for liberation, you can surrender it in its entirety to Goddess Kali, and to the Divine Spirit of All That Is. There comes a point when we must allow Her to decide how to handle things because we are clueless and emotionally paralyzed. Sometimes in order to gain everything, we must loose everything and then build our lives anew. We live in fear of the transition period--in which all seems lost. We are too preoccupied with fear and guilt to see our way clear. Surrender your problems and fears and she will return them, transformed, and perhaps unrecognizable--your life will be forever changed in an empowering way. Kali can help you put life in perspective. Call to her with this salutation from www.kalimandir.org. "To the Devi who abides in all beings in the form of intelligence Salutations to Her, Salutations to Her, Salutations again and again." * Recognize she is not so scary: Kali is only dark from a distance… as is our own shadow. Many people fear her, as they do their own darkness. This poem by Hindu Saint Ramakrishna Paramhansa (1836-86) explains how the Black Mother looks fierce before you get to know her, but she’s not so intimidating on closer examination. "Is Kali, my Divine Mother, of a black complexion? She appears black because She is viewed from a distance; but when intimately known She is no longer so. The sky appears blue at a distance, but look at it close by and you will find that it has no colour. The water of the ocean looks blue at a distance, but when you go near and take it in your hand, you find that it is colourless." * Keep her image near. People of the Hindu faith, and practitioners who adapt Hinduism into their spiritual practice, often honor the images of deities to help them feel more connected and give them a ways to focus. Place Kali’s image on the door of your apartment--the way you would post a warning sign about your alarm or watchdog--as a symbol that "this home is protected from Hungry Ghosts" by Kali. If it’s too intense outside, keep it on the inside of the door. Be Liberated and Healed on "Kali TV"—A Media Meditation Kali demands that you face the truth. Daytime television has become an American arm of Goddess Kali, taking people through the darkness of family life and digging up the old bones long buried in the back yard. This gives all of us a chance for catharsis and release. The father who drank, the mother who gambled, the uncle who abused, the brother who drugged have all become icons of day time TV, parading family problems across the screen and showing us that we all have problems and … there is always someone worse off. Crazy as they may seem, they all reveal a little part of us, and showcase their dramas and traumas on our behalf. The cosmic talk show meditation. When you are ready to meet your ghosts and transform your life, take on the task of identifying your pain, and shame, and freeing yourself by sharing it the way many people do these days: By going on TV. Your TV show will be in your mind and your studio will be entered through a meditation. This is not a task for the meek-hearted and is only suggested for those who are ready to confront the hungry ghosts of the past. For this exercise you will need a black candle, a TV set and some time alone. 1. Sit down for the show of your life. When you will be undisturbed, pull up in front of your TV for inspiration, but don’t turn it on. Think of some of the talk shows that really try to help people work through bizarre problems – such as the recently cancelled Sally Jessy Raphael show, which inspired this meditation, or Oprah--and create a composite talk show host who embodies the qualities of Kali--harsh when she has to be, honest to the bone, willing to take your hand and lead you into darkness … and stand by to pull you out when you have had your fill. 2. Light a candle to the shadow of shame. Before you begin, light a black candle. Whatever happened in your childhood is past, yet there is a part of your mind that does not allow it to be put to rest. It is like the talk show that never ends. It replays like a movie, it comes up like a broken record, and it can be so imbedded in your psyche that it runs your life without you even realizing it. The process of shinning a light into darkness takes longer than it ever took for the original incident that changed your life, but you must honor your own process of discovery and gain insight. Begin by lighting a black candle. It represents Kali Ma--the Dark Goddess--and it contains your shame, pain, and your fear; your depression and sadness. As it melts, it is symbolic of melting the darkness in you, so you can see the light of any given situation. Imagine as the candle melts down that Kali is taking in all the blackness, so you no longer have to. Trust that she can take all that, and more. 3. See yourself on the Kali Show. Sitting in a comfortable position, with your feet on the ground to anchor you, take three cleansing breaths and close your eyes. Imagine you are at the "Kali Show," waiting back stage so she can introduce you. Feel any nervousness you may have about going on TV to tell your family secrets. See Kali come out, to audience applause. Notice that she is not as scary as you thought, or as big. She seems tough and yet kind. Trust that she will help you through this. Know in that moment you will be able to lean into Kali, for she is the cosmic talk show host who can expose the dark root of your problem and she is the great mother who will nurture and protect you in the process. 4. Tell Kali and the world the truth about your pain. She calls you out of your temporary back stage cocoon and invites you onto national TV. The audience is sitting there waiting to hear your dark secrets. Millions of people will watch this, including the people who you may talk about. But Kali assures you that if you get it out of your system, and just say it now, you will be healed. She tells you that expressing your pain out loud is the first step to healing it. And that having people bear silent witness will help cure your fears of sharing your truth. She urges you to take this opportunity to inventory every horrible thing you hold against your family, and against yourself. Own your own darkness. Why do you feel so wounded? What are the things in your past that cause you the greatest pain? Who do you blame for your wounds? It is time to tell them how they’ve hurt you. Notice the feelings that course through you. Are you afraid to tell your hungry ghosts the truth, or is it liberating? Whatever the feeling … keep following Kali’s instructions. Know you are safe, you are grounded. 5. Who are your hungry ghosts? Kali, Queen of the Cremation Grounds, demands now that you identify the hungry ghosts of your past. She asks you to name the relatives and loved ones who haunt you… be honest. They can be dead or alive. Who has hurt you, betrayed you, and messed your life up in some way? Who brings tears to your eyes and has scarred your soul? To whom do you attribute your pain? She asks you to name them one by one, and then asks you to look into the camera and tell them how you feel. She places a warm hand on your back for comfort and says, "go ahead, and look them in the eye and tell them how they hurt you." The camera zooms in for an extreme close up and she encourages you to feel the depth of pain, to relive the initial trauma. There is no place to hide. It is time for the shame to be laid bear. The audience starts chanting your name, encouraging you to address the hungry ghosts. You feel the fear welling up inside, pressing against your chest … and your heart. You try to hold it in … you try to keep it back … you can feel it burning in your esophagus. Then you realize you can’t keep the ghosts safe for one moment longer. They must be exposed. And you realize all these years you have been hurting yourself trying to protect the people who hurt you. Big hurts or little ones, you have turned them against yourself. Kali is showing all four arms, and you feel them on you. "Go ahead," she urges. "Tell them now and you will never have to tell them again." 6. Tell your "shameful" secrets. Blurt them out. Dad, you b*st*rd, you ruined my life… Mom, you made me hate myself.... Sister, you stole my attention … Brother, you broke my heart ... Grandma, you never loved me … Uncle John you tried to fondle me. Whatever comes up let it hurl … and hurl it right home to the source. Don’t be afraid. Let it out of you until there is nothing left to say. Then allow a moment of silence … even allow the audience a moment of shock. Then watch the shame disperse. Poof. It is as if a great weight has lifted. Feel the release, and the sense of relief. Let the feeling of liberation begin to seep into every cell of your being and uplift you. 7. Dance with Darkness. As a surprise, Kali has all the people you have just unleashed upon backstage. And somehow, when she brings them out, they don’t seem so scary. They seem small, weak, tired, powerless. The parts of them that scared you once and haunted you suddenly seem deflated. They can no longer hurt you. Kali begins the wild dance of death and regeneration. She begins to dance with your hungry ghosts and suddenly they are smiling. They are no longer hungry ghosts who drain your battery and steal your life force…. They are people. Regular people. They have no power over you. She teaches you to dance with the darkness so that it does not feed your fears or your shame. Kali turns some music on and you dance like a wild woman, with Kali, and all the Hungry Ghosts. You dance away darkness and shame. Your heart is lighter. 8. Praise Kali and pray to her. Thank her for her help and for having you on the "Kali Show." Hindus praise Mother Kali in many ways. She is considered the great, all-powerful Devi, the dark destructress and the rebirther of the new you. Call to her in this Shloka, or prayer to Devi (Sanskrit for Goddess) from Hindunet (www.Hindunet.org). O mother, who is present everywhere, who is embodiment of Universal Mother, O mother, who is present everywhere, who is embodiment of Power and Energy, O mother, who is present everywhere, who is embodiment of Peace, I bow to thee, I bow to thee, I bow to thee. 9. Reach out for ongoing support. A healthy person learns to balance dark and light, the way the earth balances day and night. The shadow has its reasons and seasons, and brings us important lessons to learn. But we must also know when we are way out of balance, have had enough, and need emotional rescue of a practical nature. If you feel the Hungry Ghosts of the Past chomping at your heals, dance with them if you can. Stay present with feelings and fears and see what they have to teach you. And when the burden it too much, give it all over to Kali. She can take that – and more. Kali helps heal the soul, and the ego that gets in the way of spiritual evolution and oneness with the Divine. Remember to seek professional and peer help as needed, and be willing to try practical approaches such as counseling, support groups or 12 Steps programs. This, in addition to spiritual nourishment through a Hindu Temple, Yoga, or spiritual practice and participation in any way that is beneficial. Remember this Kali Affirmation: "My truth shall set me free."
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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:30:55 GMT -5
www.soulfulliving.com/reclaiming_the_shadow.htmBuild Your MESHE - Seek the Space: A Process for Reclaiming the Shadow by Karen Deborah Farris Each month, Karen offers her spiritual insights for "being present" in all aspects of life, by calling upon the techniques of her four guiding principles, MESHE, HESHE, MISON & ORBIT. I’d like to demonstrate the interweaving relationships of MESHE, HESHE, MISON & ORBIT so that you can see how your relationship with yourself (MESHE), your relationships with others (HESHE), and your relationship to the whole of life (MISON) allows for a clear detection of your shadow. MESHE, HESHE, MISON & ORBIT by Karen Deborah Farris Our shadow is most often seen when we project it onto others. Because it is comprised of the parts of ourselves that we do not accept, we often recognize it only after we have reacted to it in someone else. A good indication that what we are reacting to in others is really our own shadow is our dramatic response to it. We will either revere it to the point of lowering our own image of ourselves, making us feel less than others, or we’ll hate it to the opposite extreme of raising ourselves up, making us feel better than others. I call these "raisings" and "lowerings" ORBIT, for they cause us to react in endless ungrounded patterns either emotionally, physically, or mentally since they are themselves not grounded in truth. The biggest misconception about the shadow is that it hides from us things we would not want to see in ourselves, but the truth is that there is only our splendor awaiting. Stay with me here and I’ll show you what I mean. MESHE - (mee-shee) your relationship with yourself Visualize yourself and everyone else in the world as a hand-drawn flower. The center of our flowers symbolize the first principle of MESHE - being present - and around this center circle we each have endlessly unfolding petals that make up (1) What We Like & Love, (2) our Physical Body & Environment, (3) our Creativity & Expression, (4) our Intuition & Inner Voice, and (5) our Authority & Personal Truthz. The second principle of MESHE states the necessity of these five element’s presence at all times, that is to say that the stronger every person’s MESHE is, the more evenly balanced are these five main aspects of self. Now, the reason I say "endlessly unfolding petals" is because throughout our lifetime a flow of development in these five areas continues to occur. For every moment that we are present - in MESHE - we are changed, and that change creates a deepening, a widening, or a new birth of Petals. As we learn to reclaim our shadow, so we further grow our MESHE and on and on it goes throughout our lifetime. To make this visual and tangible I’d like to ask you to do a drawing with me that will accompany this description: Take a blank piece of paper and lay it out horizontally. Draw a circle in the bottom right-hand corner with five evenly sized flower petals around it - this is a MESHE Flower. Draw a second MESHE Flower into the top left-hand corner. The two MESHE Flowers you have just drawn represent all the MESHEs in the world. Just multiply by a trillion! HESHE - (hee-shee) your relationship with others Now, look to the blank Space between the two MESHE Flowers you’ve drawn. That is the place where your relationships take place - in the empty Space between yourself and another. Not in the circle of each other’s flower, nor in yours or someone else’s petals, but in the Space between yourself and another. It is in this clean, clear Space that a third thing is born, the thing that is your authentic relationship. To represent the third thing created in this wonderful clear Space, let’s draw into the middle of the page between the two MESHEs a bird about the size of the flowers. We’ll call this the Third Bird. Third, because it is the third thing created and Bird, because it has the characteristics of flight, in that your authentic relationship exists without the boundaries of what we as humans normally feel constrained by. What is authentically between yourself and another is not restricted to time and space as we usually know it. The Space is there whether you are together or not, and the authentic relationship can exist even beyond our lifespan. I use a bird flying through the air to convey a sense of surpassing these kinds of normal boundaries. So, if you ever feel disconnected from your loved ones, just go within, tune into the Space that is there between you, and feel your way back to them.... When you’ve finished drawing the Third Bird, wrap a circle around it. This same circle goes all the way around the world. It is how all of us relate to everyone else, all of the time. Not all people who come in contact with each other will have a Third Bird arise in the Space. And not all relationships will always be able to detect the third thing that they create. Sometimes, relationships drop away and will only return once all there is is clean clear Space, from which quite often, something authentic arises again. Deep long-lasting relationships tend to build a solid base of love and trust which weathers well through the ages, creating a tangible sensation ever present between them. The healthiest of relationships have a large area of clean clear Space for both people to express and respond in their individual ways, as well as a few Third Birds that they make. The more developed the MESHEs, the larger the Space and healthier the Third Bird. MISON - (my-sahn) your relationship to the whole of life. Back to the drawing we go. In the upper right-hand corner draw a circle with eight to twelve lines radiating out. The lines moving back toward the left and center of the page are going to be longer then the ones reaching toward the upper right-hand edges. Your imagination, however, sees the lines reaching across all of life. Take the lines toward the far edges but when you get to the MESHE Flowers and the Third Bird, allow the lines to stop at the images and then resume after they have passed so that you aren’t drawing lines over these symbols. These radiating lines represent your relationship to life, grounding deeply into everything you know. MISON is the relationship you have that is the foundation for everything else. This is why we don’t want to draw over our other symbols, for what we want to see when we look at this picture is the way in which everything sits upon MISON. MISON is our foundation; it is why and how we got here. Its principles are of pure acceptance - no-mind, oneness, the whole. If you want to get a taste of MISON, go out into nature and watch how the rocks and river, mountain and oceans live. When we tune into their stillness, acceptance and all around beingness of their existence, we are able to feel how that too expresses something of our nature. Our connection to spirit, the whole, nature, whatever you want to call it, allows us to survive this crazy, in-your-face world. If you are feeling a little overrun by the activity of daily life, you might just need to reconnect with the great outdoors. Other ways of restoring this much needed connection can come from being with animals, listening to and writing music, exposure to art, poetry, movement and meditation. ORBIT - (or-bit) falling out of relationship with ourselves, others and the whole of life The symbol for ORBIT is three concentric circles. When I draw them, I start with a little circle, then a bigger one around it, and bigger one around that. Let’s go to the picture again. The space that lies between the two MESHE Flowers and the Third Bird is fertile ground for us to project our shadow. Go ahead and draw ten or twelve symbols of varying sized ORBITs throughout the image to represent the presence of the shadow from both MESHEs. Make sure they remain between the Flowers and the Third Bird, though, and try to place an even amount on both sides. As you do this, observe how easily the Space between the MESHEs fills up. See how the ORBITs block the MESHEs access and view, one to the other. And how it can even begin to block the Third Bird - our well-earned, authentic relationship. Now let’s begin to put a personal touch on these ORBITs, and start the process of discovering and detecting our shadow. The best way I know for owning our own shadow is to gather up every criticism, discomfort or fear we have about the people around us, for that, in a nutshell is where the shadow lies. Add to that list the parts of ourselves that we are aware we do not like or we fear are not good enough in some way and we have a master serving of the shadow complete. What we might not know is that this material, this simple list that many of us, were we to be honest about it, could come up with in five or ten minutes, is not as under control as we think, and not as short as we might first imagine. The list is long and its effects run rampant in our lives. You can see, from the drawing you have just made how invasive our ORBITs can be, how they limit the Space between ourselves and others, block a clear view of our partners, as well as intrude upon the access to our authentic relationship. Take a moment now and go through this list as I’ve just described it and see what you can come up with if you don’t think about it too hard and you don’t censor your responses. Think through it in relationship to your family, friends and acquaintances - our reaction to the checkout person in the grocery store can reveal as much about our shadow as a strong response to a sibling or mate. When you detect a response write it in a similar sentence most closely related to these examples: Jane’s friend Angela is so much prettier than I am. She dresses smartly, is lean and athletic, and I’m just a chocolate bonbon eating freak. When Lydia bites her nails I want to scream at her, "Don’t you know how beautiful your hands would be if you stopped biting your nails!" When Adam talks to his old girlfriend on the phone, I feel jealous, stupid and angry. When my mother calls me every day to ask me if I miss her, I feel sick in my stomach. Jessica is so creative, I could never be as imaginative as she is. Our own list of five or six responses will be the personalizations we can now associate with the ORBITs on our side of the picture we have drawn. Open Circles - a process for reclaiming the shadow We are about to add to this picture the last of our set of symbols - Open Circles. Open Circles are the working symbol for things we want to get into MESHE with or we want to work on for ourselves. The process of adding these Circles to this image will help us to detect and reclaim the shadow, while providing a process for emptying out the Space between ourselves and others. Let’s now add to the drawing a row of Open Circles that runs down both edges and resides on the outside of each MESHE Flower. When you have completed drawing them you should see that the MESHE Flower on the lower right-hand side of the page now has a vertical row of Circles to the right of it, and the MESHE Flower on the upper left-hand side now has a vertical row of Circles to the left of it. Now let’s review the sentences we wrote out and see if we can’t turn each of them into a Circle that names our shadow. Apply this same stream of consciousness process to your own list of sentences: Jane’s friend Angela is so much prettier than I am: One of my shadows is that I think I am not pretty enough. So, I would place into a Circle something to represent this view of myself. She dresses smartly: Do I have judgments against people who dress well? Do I think they are trying to impress others? Or do I perhaps feel like I myself cannot afford good clothing, and maybe don’t have the kind of taste that would allow me to own the sorts of clothing I see on others and envy? I will put into a different Circle each of the ideas I have discovered about myself related to this sentence. She is lean and athletic: What is it about her being fit that threatens me? Is it our differences in body type that I feel I can never be like her? What is it in me that makes me think I’m supposed to look like her anyway? Or is it perhaps that I have been neglecting myself and I am uncomfortable because I see her putting her physical health first in a way that I have yet to do for myself? Again, I shall place into Circles those discoveries that best fit me personally. I’m just a chocolate bonbon eating freak: Why am I being so mean to myself? I don’t eat bonbons all the time. In fact, I’ve gotten to where I only eat three at one sitting and I eat them less then once a week. I used to eat them for days and never go outside. I have to stop being mean to myself for liking bonbons. And to be honest, if I exercised more, I would be less concerned about my diet in general. I’ll put exercise in one Circle, and being nicer to myself in another. See how that works? Now, for every shadow that you have named you get to remove one ORBIT symbol from the Space and write it into the Circles down the sides. Watch how the Space empties out as you decode the shadow, name the ORBIT, and reclaim the material by placing it on an Open Circle behind your MESHE Flower. Your focus and attention can now be on your own issues as you slowly make your side of the Space between the two MESHEs cleaner, healthier, and a more open fun place to play! And what about the other person’s side? Never mind about that! You take care of your own ORBITs, and if you run out of them give me a call. I’ll give you a free session and tell you what to do when you are the only person in the world who doesn’t have any shadow work to do! In all seriousness, you will only care what the other person is doing if you have shadow and ORBITs to reclaim. Otherwise, once your material is complete, the situation or relationship will either transform into something new, or slip away without the slightest painful notice. Build Your MESHE - Seek the Space So, the process of reclaiming the shadow is one of Building Your MESHE, which means being present in all that you do and expanding your MESHE in the areas of the Five Main Aspects of self; and Seeking the Space, which means naming and detecting your ORBITs and shadow material by pulling them over to your side of the Open Circles to be healed and transformed. The result is a vibrant way to honor the authentic relationships you have with your friends, family and acquaintances.
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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:31:55 GMT -5
www.soulfulliving.com/shadow_of_fear.htmRecognizing the Shadow of Fear by Kay Nuyens Our shadow self is the hidden part of our personality, our unpleasant qualities that we wish to hide from the world. Robert Bly, a leader in the men’s movement, illustrates the shadow with a powerful image of a big bag that we drag behind us. He claims we spend the first half of our lives putting everything into the bag, and the second half pulling it out of the bag. I can attest to that! I spent the first part of my life fighting my insecurity, and the next half in actually admitting to it and dealing with it. Debbie Ford, author of The Dark Side of the Light Chasers, refers to our shadow as the mask we wear to hide our authentic self. We seem to adopt personas or masks to "fit" in the world, gaining recognition or trying to please others at our own expense. It helps to understand that we all have some weaknesses, and yet in our weaknesses can also be found our strengths. The other side of our shadow is our strength. If there is an aspect of ourselves that we do not accept, we will continually draw to us people who show us that very quality. We need to really honor ourselves when we are courageous enough to look closely. These are just opportunities to heal our issues. Now I find myself getting excited when something does trigger me into judgment. I can look at that aspect of myself, and when I "get it," I know that it is an opportunity for personal transformation. Tess Marshall, a friend and therapist, states it like this: "You spot it. You got it!" With intention and effort, we can "get it" and choose to change. That’s power! That’s making the decision to move into our greatness. Let me share a personal story. My husband and I went to party. Tom is fun and very outgoing. Tom was speaking to a woman who did not know he was my husband. She was surprised when she found out that we were a couple. She looked at me intently and remarked, "You need to be more like him!" Remaining very centered, I stated that we have been happily married for thirty years and our personalities balanced us very well. My husband, bless his heart, retorted, "Yes, you know, like the Yin and the Yang." Later that evening, I found myself reflecting quite solemnly upon her comment. I began questioning myself about being "too serious" at times. This inner reflection went on for quite a while, then I began to laugh out loud. This woman’s statement to me was an opportunity for more self-acceptance. I had moved back into my feelings of insecurity! I really like the person I am today. I love everything about my life. It did not matter what she thought about me. She had come as a teacher, perhaps as a test. I approve of me, regardless of whether she approved or not. It no longer mattered! A quote from Eleanor Roosevelt states: "No one can make you feel inferior without your permission." Mastering Our Leading Role I no longer have to deny my insecurity, and I no longer have to judge it. I just acknowledge it and make another choice. Recognizing my shadow of insecurity is not self-criticism, it’s actually very freeing. Now, having embraced it, I no longer have to defend it. I have the power to release the fearful, childish part. I can assume my inner strength, acknowledging my greatness and Divine connection. I am secure at my core. I know who I am. I invite you to look at the people in your life who may be mirroring your shadows. These people annoy you, irritate you, "push your buttons" causing you to move into judgment. In actuality we are reacting to our own self-projections. It would be too horrifying to hate a part of ourselves, so it is easier and safer to negate a trait in ourselves and project it on another. We are in fear: False Evidence Appearing Real. Know that the traits we most firmly deny are actually parts of us. Otherwise we could just observe some experiences and not get so caught up in them. We would not be taking things so personally. Now we can ask, "Why am I triggered here?! How does this relate to me?" It takes courage to accept the possibility that we may have these negative traits in common with people we dislike. We do, even if only to a very slight degree. It’s that "unconscious" recognition that is creating the emotional response. After all, it has been said that we all have a little bit of Hitler in us. Debbie Ford states, "If we can own the evil or the hate in ourselves, we wouldn’t need to project it onto others." Don’t be afraid to look inside. With acknowledgment we can transform. I invite you to carefully examine the traits of people who offend you. People who trigger judgments in us can be our best teachers, if we have the courage to look at these mirrors. If we can identify that part within us, own it, and then allow ourselves to disengage from it, we then move into self-acceptance. Each of these "negative" traits do have a gift for us, provided we choose to see it. We always have a choice how we actually demonstrate these traits. We have both positive and negative traits within us. As we realize that we are all things, good and bad, we must be very compassionate with ourselves. We learn to give total acceptance of all parts of ourselves, embracing all of our qualities. They are us. We then allow our masks to fall away and we can be ourselves! What Mask Are You Wearing? It is important to be gentle with ourselves, realizing that we also mirror the positive aspects of traits. We gain valuable insights about ourselves as become aware of our traits. For instance, I recognize that I do have a tendency to be naïve. It has proven to be very embarrassing, and I have had to learn plenty of lessons around it. The gift of naivete is my ability to trust people. Awareness is the key. What does my reaction to others tell me about myself? The focus is on me. These are people who can "push my buttons" and cause me to be judgmental. * Steve is too blunt. The question I ask myself is, "Do I always speak my truth?" * Nancy is too bossy, authoritarian. She causes me to look at my lack of assertiveness. * Pat is loud and attention-getting. Sometimes I wish I were more spontaneous. These are people in my life who mirror my positive traits. * Tom shows me trust and respect. It’s the core of our relationship. * Ann is a dependable friend. We will always be there for each other. * Mary is caring and gentle. I believe that sensitivity is gratifying. I invite you to make a list of people in your life who "push your buttons." What are they mirroring for you? It takes courage to look at that part of ourselves. I remember a time in my life when I would feel jealous if someone had more than I did financially. My sister shared with me an affirmation that I have never forgotten. "What God has done for others, He does for me and more." Then make a list of people in your life who mirror your positive traits. Know that you recognize their traits because they are also in you. Affirm your goodness. If these traits were not in you, you would not even recognize them in others! Bless yourself with gentleness on this journey. We are all in the process of becoming. We do the best we can in every moment. The following poem is from Serena Rainbow, www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/5731Our Mirror The good you find in others is in you too. The faults you find in others, are your faults as well. After all, to recognize something you must know it. The possibilities you see in others, are possible for you as well. The beauty you see around you, is your beauty. The world around you is a reflection, a mirror showing you the person you are. To change your world, you must change yourself. To blame and complain will only make matters worse. Whatever you care about, is your responsibility. What you see in others, shows you yourself. See the best in others, and you will be your best. Give to others, and you give to yourself. Appreciate beauty, and you will be beautiful. Admire creativity, and you will be creative. Love, and you will be loved. Seek to understand, and you will be understood. Listen, and your voice will be heard. Teach, and you will learn. Show your best face to the mirror, And you’ll be happy with the face looking back at you. ©Copyright 2002 Kay Nuyens. All Rights Reserved.
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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:32:43 GMT -5
www.soulfulliving.com/embracing_our_dark_side.htmEmbracing Our Dark Side by Margaret Paul, Ph.D. Our wounded self, the aspect of us that has our fears, limiting beliefs, and desire to control, is our dark or shadow side, not because it is bad but because it is cut off from the light of Spirit. It lives in the darkness of fear and the heaviness of false beliefs instead of in the light of love and truth. Moving toward "enlightenment" is moving into the light of truth. When we release our fears and false beliefs, our energy lightens. Do I Have to Give Up Me to Be Loved By God? by Margaret Paul Doorways to Darkness The light of Spirit enters our hearts when we choose to open to learning about loving ourselves and others, and the darkness enters when we choose to close our hearts and act from anger, fear, shame, judgment or hurt. This is what happened in The Return of the Jedi, the last of the original Star Wars series. In this movie, the emperor, who was the epitome of darkness, was trying to get Luke to join the dark side. He knew if he could just get Luke angry enough or frightened enough, he would want to kill his father, Darth Vader, and then the emperor would own Luke as he had owned Luke’s father. The emperor knew that anger and fear were the doorways to darkness. Our anger, fear, shame, judgment and hurt are the cracks in our energy field through which the darkness enters. The darkness can also enter when we cloud our energy with drugs, alcohol, nicotine or sugar. Do you recall the trial in San Francisco that employed the infamous "Twinkie defense"? About twenty years ago, the mayor and a city supervisor were shot down inside City Hall and their killer got a short sentence because of his "diminished capacity" due to having eaten a diet of only junk food. In one of my dialogues with my spiritual Guidance, she challenged me about darkness. She said, "Margie, you have worked for many years to be physically healthy. Not only that, you have striven to be immune to illness. Likewise, for many years you have sought to become a more loving person. Now your task is to become immune to darkness." I was blown away. Becoming immune to darkness means never acting out of my wounded self’s feelings of fear, anger, shame, judgment or hurt but always moving into an intent to learn about these feelings as soon as they come up, and releasing them to Spirit once I learn how I am causing them. I can tell you, it’s quite a challenge! I don’t know if I will ever fully accomplish this, but it certainly is a worthy goal. Through purifying ourselves on the physical and emotional levels by eating well and doing our healing work, each of us can reach a place where our frequency is high enough that we can do this, we can hear our spiritual Guidance all the time. Being in conscious connection (and dialogue) with both our emotional feelings and our spiritual Guidance at all times is one of the goals of the 6-Step Inner Bonding process that I teach. By dialoguing with both our feelings and our spiritual Guidance, shining the light of truth into our wounded self’s fears and false beliefs, and releasing our emotions to Spirit, we begin to heal the cracks in our energy field through which the darkness enters. The Inner Bonding process is about developing a spiritually connected loving adult self who can release the beliefs and emotions of the wounded self, open to the joy and creativity of the core Self, and stay connected with the wisdom of Guidance. When we feel hurt, angry, judgmental, shamed, blaming, depressed or frightened, we can dialogue and discover and release our beliefs and behavior that are causing these feelings. These painful emotions come from our own limiting beliefs and unloving behavior toward ourselves. However, when you have been operating most of the time from your wounded self, you cannot suddenly become the loving adult you need to be in order to do the dialogue process and release the painful emotions. So, often, your early dialogues may be between one aspect of your wounded self (for example, the part that chooses to indulge in binge eating), and another aspect of it (the part that is furious at being overweight). Since dialoguing between two aspects of your wounded self won’t get you anywhere, you might conclude that the Inner Bonding process doesn’t work. Here’s what’s really not working: We cannot bring light to darkness with darkness. In other words, we can’t heal our darkness by being furious at it. We can transform darkness into light only by learning about and loving the darkness. We heal darkness only with light--the light of love. Our challenge is to acknowledge, welcome and embrace the part of us that we judge as bad, unlovable or unworthy, and it’s a challenge that calls for the loving adult. But how can we have a dialogue between our wounded self and our loving adult when we haven’t yet developed a loving adult? Here your imagination comes into play. You need to imagine that the dialogue is between your wounded self and your personal spiritual Guidance. (If you have not yet created this connection, see pages 173-178 in my book, Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By God? for how to create this). You ask your wounded self questions and offer comfort and help, not from your own thoughts, but from what you would imagine your loving, wise and powerful spiritual Guidance would say and do. (You can see two examples of how this works in the dialogues in chapter 8 of Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By God?) Or, if you know a person who you feel really is loving, wise and powerful, you imagine that person in dialogue with your emotions. Either one is a good stand-in for your loving adult. Susan Sarandon, in the movie Dead Man Walking, is a wonderful role model for loving behavior. She plays a nun who has been asked by a murderer on death row to help him avoid execution. The murderer, played by Sean Penn, is a despicable human being. Not only did he rape and murder in cold blood, he is a racist and he continues to avoid responsibility with his blame, lies and manipulations. Almost no one in the nun’s life supports her efforts on his behalf. They accuse her, blame her, shun her, yet never once does she lose her connection with God. She tells the murderer that he is a son of God and therefore greater than his worst acts. While never condoning his acts, she never condemns him as a person. She lovingly confronts him with himself. Although she does not like him, she loves him. She becomes the face of God for him, and through her love, which is God, he opens his heart and is redeemed. Penn’s character is very dark, the worst of the wounded self, while Sarandon’s is very light, the best of the loving adult. Given that you might not have role models of loving behavior in your daily life, you can use your spiritual Guidance as your role model to emulate and assimilate. Eventually, when you do this long enough, you begin to take on the qualities of your Guidance. This is how you develop your loving Adult. It takes practice. You have to learn to concentrate on this imaginative process and to trust what you hear. When clients of mine first start to do this, I generally hear them say, "How do I know this is real? It feels like I’m just making this up, that it’s just my imagination." Many of us have been brought up to believe that when we create--whether it be poetry, a painting, a song, a musical score, a book, a screenplay, a theory--we bring these things forth from our own minds. We may believe that we actually have the capacity to be creative all by ourselves. The truth is that creativity flows when we are open to Spirit and use the gift of our imaginations. I no longer believe that my theories, my writing, my paintings or even the words that flow from me when I am working with someone or leading a workshop come from my own individual mind. I experience my mind more as a receiver of Divine information, which I can then transmit through my writing, speaking and painting. Just as love, compassion, truth, peace and joy are not feelings we generate from within our own small selves but are gifts from Spirit, so too are our imagination and the creativity that flows from it. We all have the capacity to learn to access the Source of wisdom and creativity. It has taken me time and practice to trust the information that comes through me. I have learned over the years that when I do not trust my spiritual Guidance, bad things happen. This really hit home for me in the summer of 1995 when I was leading an Inner Bonding five-day intensive in Missouri. It was the fourth day of the intensive and I was pouring some tea from a pitcher during one of our breaks. I heard my spiritual Guidance say, "Do not drink that, it is contaminated." I decided I was being paranoid and drank it anyway. The next morning I woke up with a terrible sore throat--the first time I had been sick in years--and so did a number of other people, all of whom had drunk the tea. Even with all the years I had been dialoguing with and listening to my Guidance, I still lacked trust and needed another lesson in humility: that my individual mind, unplugged from spiritual Guidance, doesn’t know much. So it takes a lot of practice, yet practicing seems to be difficult for many people. If you were determined to become accomplished at a particular skill, for example playing a musical instrument, you would think nothing of practicing every day. In fact, you would know that you needed to practice daily in order to become skilled and then continue practicing daily to maintain your skill. Becoming skilled at connecting with yourself and with your spiritual Guidance is no different. You will become skilled only by daily practice, and you will continue to reap the benefits only by daily practice. It is only through daily practice that you will learn to consistently hear and trust both your Guidance and your true Self. The problem is that the wounded self won’t practice, so unless you pray daily for help in shifting your deepest desire from getting love to being loving, you will not have enough of a loving adult to override the wounded self and make the decision to practice. Many of my clients, coming to me for help because they are suffering, find that they start to feel better within days of starting to practice Inner Bonding. Then, as soon as they feel better, they stop practicing and go right back to feeling badly. Sometimes they then conclude that Inner Bonding doesn’t work. This is like saying that if you have a young son and you give him love one day but ignore him for the next few days, he should continue to feel happy because of the one day you did give him love. This doesn’t work with your inner child any more than it does with real children. Just as babies need you to be constantly tuned in to them, your inner child needs you to be constantly aware of your feelings and needs. Becoming this aware and maintaining this awareness takes daily practice. The good news is that practice really pays off. Clients of mine who have been practicing Inner Bonding for an extended period of time (it varies for each person) find that eventually they do it all the time. They naturally stay tuned in to their emotions and their spiritual Guidance, and they naturally dialogue with them whenever they feel anything other than peace and joy inside. They find themselves doing it in the shower, while preparing meals, doing chores, waiting in line at the market or stuck in traffic. After much practice, they are delighted to find that they no longer allow themselves to feel badly for any length of time. They learn to release their painful feelings and move back into peace and joy. They are progressing rapidly toward wholeness and oneness with God.
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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:33:24 GMT -5
www.soulfulliving.com/in_quest_of_ourselves.htmBraving the Dark Continent: In Quest of Ourselves by Lionel Fisher In January of 1994 I moved, I mean really moved. Me, my old dog Britt and an iguana named Mel. "Gone to the Beach," read the change-of-address notice I tucked into my greeting cards that Christmas: "I haven’t retired, just retreated. This year I stopped the world and got off. On Washington’s North Coast Peninsula, about a mile from Oysterville. Drop by for a beer if you’re in the neighborhood. If I’m not home, check the beach. I’ll probably be walking the dog." Yes, indeed. Celebrating Time Alone by Lionel Fisher Surfside is a far smaller place than anywhere I’d lived before: minuscule, nondescript, inconsequential alongside Portland, Miami, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Manila and Hong Kong, my former cities of residence before this galactic leap of faith. It’s a reclusive place, the last knuckle on a rainscoured finger of land lapped by the beige waters of Willapa Bay and the gray Pacific, wrapped by khaki sands and olive clouds except for summer when the sky is the color of washed denim. Here, wind and water lean on the land, thrusting a constant coolness from across the sea, buffing the stars at night to an awesome brilliance. Yet, on the morning after my precipitous move, I wrote in my journal: "Took our first walk on the beach, me and Britt. Had a scared, hollow, desperate feeling inside me the whole time. I’m lonely today—for the crowded city and all the people I’ve purposely fled. I have to keep reminding myself why I did it, that nothing is forever. Paths ventured on can be reversed. God, I sound like Hamlet." Another entry later that first day: "It’s an afternoon like the one when I first saw this house—cold and somber, a gloomy rain mottling the leaden surface of the canal below. But it seemed peaceful to me then, comforting and picturesque. Today it just seems grim. "What if I’d rented that townhouse on the Willamette in downtown Portland instead of sinking everything into this godforsaken wedge of sand? How would I feel right now, watching the rain falling on the river in the city? Probably worse because I’d have abandoned a dream. "I know the changes I have to make aren’t geographical, they’re inside me. But can I bear to be alone long enough to make them?" Anxiety, Kierkegaard affirms, is the dizziness of freedom. Iguana Mel and faithful old Britt loved the beach right off. Most days of that first summer at the beach together, Mel could be found gazing out a living room window, following the sun and dreaming, no doubt, of bright green love. Britt, however, lasted only until the fall. She was a very old dog and cherished friend who deserved her last bright season drowsing in sun-warmed sand, but I wished she could have been with me one more summer. Six days after she died, I drove to Portland and returned with a nine-week-old Australian Shepherd named Buddy Holly Fisher. That's the name I scrawled on the American Kennel Club papers I never mailed because I wound up spending the registration fee on a bottle of scotch to toast the rest of our life together. I could do without people I quickly found out, but not having a dog by my side would be intolerable. And so we’ve lived these past six years—one writer, one lizard and one pup, who now weighs more than Winona Ryder—in a snug little house by a canal, a stroll away from the tawny sands of the blue Pacific. It’s what I had dreamed of for a very long time. In Deserts of Their Making Call them the new hermits. In greater and greater numbers they are going against the grain of society, deliberately out of step in the march of life around them, consciously out of sync with the ordained way of doing things. Like the desert fathers of old, who were the rebels of their time, they are foregoing common ground for individual paths in search of their own destinies. They were the ones, notes Benedicta Ward, "who broke the rules of the world which say that property and goods are essential for life, that the one who accepts the direction of another is not free, that no one can be fully human without sex and domesticity. Their name itself, anchorite, means rule-breaker, the one who does not fulfill his public duties." The new hermits are modern men and women of all ages, in all walks of life, driven by a fierce need for self-actualization, daring to venture into deserts of their own making. Having pursued the American Dream, they have come closer than any generation to being perfect parents, perfect co-workers, perfect neighbors, perfect friends. Some have achieved wealth, status, even fame in the process, only to find it wasn’t enough because they’ve lost sight of who they are and the preciousness of the ordinary. Having kept faith with conventional wisdom, they have found it wanting. No longer consumed by practical considerations and manifestations of success, they are attempting to bring real meaning and passion back into their lives. Driven by a fierce need for independence, self-knowledge and a feeling of relevancy, for them time spent alone, away from the soul-robbing demands of everyday living, has become crucial to understanding their true selves, why they are here, their pertinence to God, themselves, the world. And they are found everywhere. Rock stars, certainly, aren’t noted for making inward journeys, but John Frusciante is grateful for his. "I spent six years going inside myself in a way that people who are stuck with the idea that they have to accomplish something with their lives never got a chance to do," said the guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. "The scariest thing," notes Kansas writer Laura Wexler, "is that for the first time I know no one can decide anything for me but me. Because no one knows what I know about myself." "We yearn for Walden Pond," cautions writer Ted Morgan, "and forget that one can drown in Walden Pond." Or on the edge of an ocean, without ever setting foot in the water, as I feared I would when I moved to the beach. It seems such a formidable feat, being alone, because society bludgeons into our collective consciousness that no man or woman is an island, that a solitary existence is cruel and unusual punishment meted out by a vengeful god for unpardonable sins. Little wonder, then, so many us can only bear to be by ourselves when we’re firmly connected to others, as if by a deep-sea diver’s lifeline or in a sturdy shark cage, capable of being hoisted out of harm’s way. Only when we’re securely tethered, assured that we’re fully protected and can quickly pull ourselves back up to safety are we willing to descend into the murky depths of ourselves. The Long Journey Home And so I rose and went to my Innisfree. To a snug little house, not of wattles and clay in a bee-loud glade like Yeats’s, but where the murmur of sea on sand lulls my gimcrack spirit. Here, I’ve become like Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s open, empty beach, "erased by today's tides of all of yesterday’s scribblings." But not the memories. They came flooding back first, coursing over the weirs of denial I’d built to hold them at bay for as long as I can remember. With the memories came the remorse, the renounced sorrow of a lifetime of failed choices, lost opportunities—all the irretrievable acts of love and courage and kindness never consummated because I hadn’t understood their importance until it was too late. I was one of those people who had always sought himself in others, shunning my own company as if it were diseased, cramming my life with activities and people in search of the person I wanted to be, yet never searching in myself, always in others. But the time came when I desperately needed to narrow my quest, to return, in Doris Grumbach’s words, to "the core of myself, to discover what was in there, no matter how deeply hidden." To see if the things I could give myself were better than the things I had sought from others, to put my life on an even keel and keep it there. To wake up each morning with the day the same as I’d left it the night before. There were no answers in those first anxious months at the beach, only fearful questions. How long could I endure this cold, gray place before it seeped into my soul and destroyed me? Could I bear the regrets I’d repressed for so long? How could I survive my loneliness alone when I could hardly stand it in the midst of others? What dreams would find me when I could no longer flee them? And if I ran now, again, would I be running forever, with all hope abandoned of finding—what? What was I looking for anyway? Coming to the beach meant facing my deepest disquiets, my despairing unease with who I really was and everything I would never become. It meant confronting all of the curdled remorse, the disavowed guilt that seems to struggle to the surface when everything else is still. It meant discovering if I could be complete alone, not merely as an adjunct of someone else. Whether I needed others to energize and validate myself, to make me feel of some worth and consequence. It meant asking myself questions I’d never dared raise. It meant learning if I could stand the answers. I had desperately sought my salvation in others. With time getting short, could I find it in myself? "Nine-tenths of wisdom," someone once wrote, "is being wise in time." If I let this time of reckoning pass, would it ever come again? What the God of Solitude Teaches Seven years after moving to the beach, lock, stock, barrel, fax, modem, computer and Word Perfect, I’ve begun a tally of what I know about solitude. I’ve learned, for one thing, that it’s best taken in large doses, as anyone knows who’s tried to shake an addiction, be it drugs, alcohol, food, gambling, sex or people. A jealous mistress, solitude demands but gratefully rewards uncompromising devotion. I’ve come to believe there’s an overworked, undervalued God of Solitude up there, relatively low in the divine pecking order, with a full and varied job-description that includes making sure whatever goes around comes around. She’s also in charge of rewarding risk and commitment: giving everyone exactly what they deserve, even though she usually takes her sweet time about doing it because she’s so busy. It’s because of her that the guy who won’t quit his day job never achieves his dream. She makes sure nothing of real value happens to us until we believe in ourselves. What the God of Solitude teaches is that nothing not worth the risk is worth attaining. That the greater the gamble, the dearer the prize. That failure, loss and rejection won’t kill you, but not trying surely will because it breeds regret, and enough regrets are lethal. It’s because of her I’ve learned to ask myself, "Who are you trying to impress anyway?" And to hear my exultant reply, "Not a blessed soul!" But myself, of course. It’s because of her I’m finally in a time and place where my self-affirmation, my self-fulfillment, my self-esteem have little to do with what other people think of me and everything to do with what I think of myself. How sad, the God of Solitude teaches, that we spend our entire lives auditioning for others: parents, teachers, employers, suitors, spouses, lovers, strangers, friends, only to realize we should have put ourselves at the head of the line, earned our own love, respect and affection first. And everything else would have taken care of itself. How tragic, she whispers mournfully, that we wait so long to free ourselves from other people’s expectations, to find our true worth in our own eyes instead of the eyes of others. Look in the mirror, the God of Solitude teaches. You will see the only eyes that matter, the only eyes that truly appreciate and understand you. In them, you will find all the respect and approval, all the love and esteem you desire. Then everything you receive from others will come as a gift, not a need. And you will know, at last, that far from the price, solitude is the prize that time alone can give you.
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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:34:55 GMT -5
gwion.tripod.com/index22.htmlTHE SHADOW SELF The Shadow self is a nebulous astral body, which is part of your personality and mind. It is the opposite of everything you are whether it is negative or positive, containing all of the parts of yourself that is hidden from society. Most of the aspects are negative, but some are positive. Positive aspects would be the practice of Shamanism, paganism, healing, magick and religious beliefs, which we keep hidden to avoid ostracism or criticism. In some family circles showing compassion, empathy or any emotions would be considered a weakness. However, the shadow self is mainly composed of all of your suppressed negative emotions, desires and feelings which we experience. It holds outdated social ideas, gender based, sexual, racial stereotypes and prejudices. It feeds on discouragement, depression, fears and doubts. The shadow self begins building the day we are born, it will exist until the day we die. It grows each time we dwell on negative feelings. It is our opposite and becomes an opposition. It will gain power when we deny its existence, and will attempt to dominate to control our lives. The shadow self wants you to fail in every aspect of your life, including the practice of shamanism. The part of the shadow self which contains positive aspects is good, not evil, even if there are traits which you have denied. You cannot approach the shadow self with the idea of destroying it, as it is an important part of yourself, which is of value on your journeys. By confronting the sahow self you will learn to channel its energies into a shamanic ritual. In order to be balanced a shaman must have both positive and negative aspects, which is where the shadow self plays an important role. A good example which requires the negative side would be to keep you from being overly compassionate which will allow you to be deceived by every person who tells you a sob story. In order to gain the cooperation of the shadow self you must learn how to recognize it, which must be done during jorneys or through a depp meditation. It may take you more than just one journey to find the shadow self as it may avoid you and any confrontations because it is motivated by fear. In order to confront the shadow self you must undertake special preparations before you go on your journey. Avoid eating meat for at least 24 hours. You may have chicken broth and vegetables. During the last four to six hours you should only have fruit juices, sodas or water. Always consult your doctor before you undertake this fast, especially if you have a health condition which may be aggrivated by this type of fasting. Shadow Journey Set up your blanket. Purify the area with incense, placing your cauldron to the left of your stone and the chalice to the right to symbolize the otherworlds you may be journeying in. You should also place tokens of your animal allies near you if you have them. You should also set out any crystals you wish to use for this journey to amplify your shamanic powers. Place your sword near the area you will be sitting or lying. Take the staff in the hand which you you most, and the Silver Branch in the other, then go to the East. Tap the staff three times on the floor, calling your intention for this journey. Do this at each of the four quarters, then lie or sit with the staff on one side of you and the sword on the other. Put on a drumming tape or shake the silver Branch until you feel yourself slipping into your altered state of consciousness. As always relax your body and dump your problems into the water. You will find yourself standing at the edge of the sidhe mound. You will feel your sword in one hand and the staff in the other. Go inside the dark tunnel until you reach a door which opens to the Underworld. You Animal Allies and other helpers will come to your aid as you step through the Underworld door. Tell them why you are making this journey. They will have suggestions as to where you should go and how you should proceed to find your shadow self. They will also accompany you on your journey. You journey through the underworld will be long and tedious. Your shadow self will do its best to avoid you. As always listen to everything your spirit guides tell you, use your senses, be aware of the scenery, symbols, and creatures you encounter. If you cannot find your shadow self in the Underworld, then you must journey to the Upperworld. Use the Rainbow bridge to get there or by exiting the sidhe mound and climbing up through the cave or the World Tree. As before be aware of any symbols, or creatures you encounter. Speak with any deities you encounter and listen to their advice. Your shadow self may also avoid you by fleeing back to the underworld. You should follow it until you Allies and helpers help you find it or advise you to try again another time. When you finally confront your shadow self you should approach it with respect and confidence. Salute it with your sword, and ask it to join you in a conference. Some shadow selves may attack you, at which point you will need to hold your sword in front of you or protection, others will flee in fear making it necessary for you to track them down again. You must convince the shadow self to sit down in front of you, to speak with you as if you were speaking with a troubled friend. Make certain that you affirm your right to control your life, yet acknowledge your shadow self's strengths, as well as the power it con contribute to your work as a shaman. When you and your shadow self are finished with your conversation, ask it to help you with your future journeys. Then bid it farewell returning to the white light that borders the physical world.
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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:44:31 GMT -5
Crystals for the Shadow Self Apache Tear: "Sometimes people on a spiritual path may deny the Earth plane and its lower-frequency energies. They may feel that the Earth is not spiritual and that one must move beyond the physical in order to attain spiritual understanding. They may even believe that only high-frequency energy is 'of the Light', and that low-frequency energy is negative." heavenandearthjewelry.com/ecommerce/control/product/~category_id=metaproperties/~product_id=apacheTearsArAquamarine: "They are stones of the Water element, bringing one in touch with the subconscious, the domains of spirit, and our deepest emotions." heavenandearthjewelry.com/ecommerce/control/product/~category_id=metaproperties/~product_id=aquamarineAr;jsessionid=2444A2AC0A32402E13A6F7B629063D31.heavenandearthjewelry.com-www-j2ee01Astrophyllite: "has the ability to direct Light into the darkest recesses of one's being and experience. It can help one perceive and understand one's most buried and unacknowledged thoughts and feelings. By bringing these shadow aspects of the self to conscious awareness, wholeness, self-accpetance, and self-forgiveness can be achieved. Astrophyllite is excellent for those who feel they are beyond redemption or salvation due to their ego investment in the shadow self." heavenandearthjewelry.com/ecommerce/control/product/~category_id=metaproperties/~product_id=astrophylliteArBlack Jade: "Black Jade helps one honestly assess where one's own limitations lie. These limitations may be in one's emotional maturity, behavior patterns, ego expression, etc. Once such limitations are identified and faced, they can be cleared or remedied. This process is called 'facing the shadow self'. It is a critically important part of everyone's spiritual growth. Black Jade helps lend one the fortitude to undergo this process and to face and love one's shadow self." - This stone is also helpful for protecting against "people who are projecting anger and aggression". They mention that it is a "helpful ally in times of war or world crisis, when one wishes not to be swept up in the negative mass consciousness." books.google.com/books?id=-46X8VXHA_UC&lpg=PP1&dq=the%20book%20of%20stones&pg=PA212#v=onepage&q=black%20jade&f=falseBlack Merlinite: "Merlinite is stone of magic, shadows and descent into the darkest, deepest places within one's being. It takes the heart centered energy of Manganese to its deepest level descending into the depths of the heart and the darkest places of the shadow within oneself. It reveals one's deepest motivations and assists in connecting with and integrating the shadow self." heavenandearthjewelry.com/ecommerce/control/product/~category_id=metaproperties/~product_id=merliniteBlkArBlack Phantom Quartz: "Black Phantom Quartz is a useful tool for seeing and integrating one's personal shadow. The shadow self contains all that has been denied or labeled unacceptable by one's family, community, culture, and by internalizations in oneself. We are mostly unconscious of our shadows, and keeping the shadow in the unconscious saps one's life force. Therefore, inner work that brings shadow material to consciousness can free these bound energies for use by the conscious self. Such work also reunites the missing or 'lost' parts of the soul, healing the psyche and bringing a deeper sense of wholeness. Using Black Phantom Quartz in meditation, prayer or dream work can assist in the inner doors so this material can be experienced, understood and released." books.google.com/books?id=-46X8VXHA_UC&lpg=PP1&dq=the%20book%20of%20stones&pg=PA70#v=onepage&q=black%20phantom%20quartz&f=falseChrome Diopside: "On another level, it can help with emotional healing, by bringing an understanding of one's dual nature and how to integrate the two halves to form a complete whole." www.healingcrystals.com/Chrome_Diopside_Rods__Extra_.htmlCovellite: "Covellite is also a facilitator into the deep journey of the self and can be of great assistance in bridging the unconscious shadow side into one's conscious awareness. Few people wish to take the journey down into the dark side of the soul, but this path is of absolute necessity if one wishes to make the leap to a 'higher' level of being as described above. The paradoxical truth of the psyche is that to ascend we must go down." heavenandearthjewelry.com/ecommerce/control/product/~category_id=metaproperties/~product_id=covelliteArDravite/Brown Tourmaline: "Many metaphysically inclined people have embraced spirituality in order to avoid looking downward into all of this [the 'basement'], but it must be done for there to be any real progress. No one will reach Heaven by flying. The downward journey into the darkness is the gateway to the Light." heavenandearthjewelry.com/ecommerce/control/product/~category_id=metaproperties/~product_id=draviteArHematite: "Its frequency is that of the over-arching resonant field that contains the polarities of Light and Dark, positive and negative, Higher Self and Shadow Self, soul and body." heavenandearthjewelry.com/ecommerce/control/product/~category_id=metaproperties/~product_id=hematiteArJet: "Those engaged in exploration of past lives, the personal subconscious, and/or the archetypes of the collective unconscious may find that Jet facilitates one's going deeper into these unknown worlds." heavenandearthjewelry.com/ecommerce/control/product/~category_id=metaproperties/~product_id=jetAr;jsessionid=9D41FBF75673AA30B1EB26F18273CC75.heavenandearthjewelry.com-www-j2ee01Pink Opal: "Pink Opal is a lovely stone for healing the emotions, especially those connected with subconsciously held pain." books.google.com/books?id=-46X8VXHA_UC&lpg=PP1&dq=the%20book%20of%20stones&pg=PA290#v=onepage&q=pink%20opal&f=falseProustite: "A major aspect of one's personal depths can be called the Shadow. This encompasses all the rejected, denied, shamed and lost parts of oneself that live in the unconsciousness, the 'basement' of the psyche....If one is willing to make the effort to reclaim and integrate this shadow material one will often find a great resurgence of life force and enthusiasm welling up from below." books.google.com/books?id=-46X8VXHA_UC&lpg=PP1&dq=the%20book%20of%20stones&pg=PA312#v=onepage&q=Proustite&f=falseRhodochrosite: "It will assist in the attainment of the solution to the puzzling concept relating to the contradiction of the duality of nature and the soul." www.shimmerlings.com/gemstones/rhodochrosite.htm
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Post by kapitanprien on Mar 6, 2011 10:49:59 GMT -5
Essences for the Shadow Self Alaskan - Monkshood: Alaskan Monkshood Essence: Indications: difficulty being in close physical contact with others; confused sense of spiritual identity; fearful of contacting the shadow self. Bailey - Moss: Moss is the essence for those who fear the dark spaces within themselves. * FES: Black Cohosh: Patterns of imbalance: Being caught in relationships or lifestyle which are abusive, addictive, violent; dark, brooding emotions. * FES: Black Eyed Susan: Patterns of imbalance:Avoidance or repression of traumatic or painful aspects of the personality. * FES: Scarlet Monkeyflower: Patterns of imbalance: Fear of intense feelings, repression of strong emotions; inability to resolve issues of anger and powerlessness. Need to be seen as 'nice' rather than 'real'. * Living Tree Orchid: Shadow Defense: Shadow Defense is a combination of 3 essences: Defender from the Dark, Pushing Back the Night and Shadow Warrior. * Living Tree Orchid: Shadow Facing: Shamanic mystery is encountered with this orchid, which also invites you to face your deepest fears. * Living Tree Orchid: Vital Core: It helps to release stored / blocked energies, including stored negative energies, and thereby helps to resolve shadow aspects of the Sacral chakra. * South African Essences and the Shadow Self - article: safloweressences.co.za/shadow.html * South African: Cancer Bush: This essence allows one to confront one's shadow, to wrestle in the cave of one's being with the demons of the inner world, to transform the ugliness and the dark aspects of one's nature. It brings one face to face with that which one fears in oneself, revealing that which awakens terror in one, allowing one to gain mastery and peace by going through the experience to emerge victorious. * South African: Grevillea: For those who feel judged by others or unaccountably intimidated or stymied by a person or situation, who are badly affected by criticism, easily rattled or upset by something external to themselves. This essence centres one in the Self, empowering one through the understanding that the external reality mirrors the internal reality, that the place of power is within and that, by owning and incorporating the shadow, whole realities can be turned around. * South African: Roella: For those who are strongly in their negative egos, who have a deep need to appear important to others and in whom this manifests as pride, elitism, a sense of better than and superiority, as well as prejudice and discrimination against others who are different to them, whether it be racial, religious or other differences. This essence allows one perspective on the self, and access to the Real Self, to assist in handling the negative ego. It facilitates self-love, humility and the integration of the shadow. * South African: Wild Ginger: or those who are prone to violent or abusive behaviour, for those who keep themselves under strict control, who resort to dogmatic views as a defence against an urge, whether conscious or unconscious, to violence. Many have an innate fear of their own potential violence. Mothers know the pitch of exhaustion and desperation to which they can be driven by infants or toddlers in a nuclear society where they are unnaturally isolated. Modern life sometimes causes unbearable stress which can force violent emotions to erupt to the surface. While such urges are judged, feared and denied, they will continue to exist in the dark recesses of the personality or be projected outward to manifest through others in one's reality. This essence facilitates the owning and acceptance of these aspects of the self, drawing them out of shadow consciousness, and allowing them to be transmuted.
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