“Until you make the unconscious conscious it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
Carl Jung
It is important for an individual who is coming into this space to understand the duality of the human experience – the light and the darkness within us. We encourage everyone who feels called into this space to take time to explore your shadow with the intention of healing and further integration and begin the work of illumination within the darkness or the negative aspects of your psyche and spirit.
It is important for several reasons, but most importantly so that we can understand the depth of our being and our capacity to heal.
The shadow of our being is typically the dark, heavy trauma that we carry within our bloodline’s or incarnation.
Oftentimes they are heavy/dense emotions:
Arrogance, Avarice, Contempt, Cowardice, Cruelty, Disobedience, Distrust, Domination, Envy, Gluttony, Impatience, Impenitence, Indifference, Intolerance, Jealousy, Lack of Discipline, Laziness, Lust, Malice, Over-ambition, Over-sensitivity, Presumption, Pride, Prudery, Pugnacity, Retaliation, Self-pity, Sentimentality, Shame (hurt pride), Snobbery, Timidity, Vanity, Violation of confidence, Wastefulness.
Suppressing the shadow self can also prevent us from reaching our full potential. This is particularly true when specific character traits of the soul/spirit have been suppressed due to direct trauma, anxiety or incorrect belief systems that have been instilled during childhood or experiences throughout life, such as drug abuse and physical violence.
Ultimately, the more we suppress feelings and negative emotions into the subconscious – the greater the power they have over us. Moreover, these emotions and energies can assert themselves in different ways and at unexpected times creating turbulence along/throughout our pathway. This could be through chronic/acute mental health issues, chronic/acute illness, anxiety, addiction, PTSD, low self-esteem, and depression.
“Facing our shadow”
is a process of creating a compassionate inquiry with our internal world and experience and taking the time to learn about and understand/inventory these parts of the self that are often times discarded due to traumatic/life-changing experiences. Creating a deeper level of acceptance for our journey in life and what it takes for us to heal these parts of the self, is part of the process of “self-discovery” and is necessary if we are to truly understand who we are on the deepest of levels.
We do this by: understanding and creating an inventory our triggers and writing them down; looking for patterns or recurring themes, and talking about them with trusted family, friends, or mentors.
Here at the temple, we do our best to assist you in developing this practice if you don’t already have this in mind when attending our ceremonies and space.