After the Summer Equinox, the Sun starts slowly making its decent into its fall position. Each day, the hours of sunlight we get decreases. Once we hit the Autumn Equinox, we are officially in Shadow Season. The veil between worlds is gradually growing thinner. The veil will reach its thinnest on October 31st. As the nights grow longer and the veil grows thinner, it gives us an opportunity to use this "darkness" to our advantage. Every one of us has shadow aspects. Parts of ourselves we aren't entirely happy with so they get shoved away, into the dark, where no one can see. Unfortunately, this isn't a very spiritually healthy thing to do. It can lead to depression, anxiety, and stunted spiritual evolution. That's where shadow work comes in. Shadow work is the process of acknowledging our shadows and integrating them. The internal work of making the unconscious, conscious. The art of loving ourselves wholly.
What exactly is our shadow self? Simply put, it is things about our personality and/or appearance that we are unhappy with and behaviors that we deem negative. These things get buried into our subconscious. They can manifest as unhealthy habits or harmful behavior patterns. Shadow aspects can also trigger us. We tend to be unaware of these unhealthy habits and harmful behavior patterns. When we see them in other people, or project them onto other people, we feel triggered. Shadow aspects usually stem from child hood and past lives. Therefore, shadow work also involves inner child healing. It is important to note that shadow integration is constant, ongoing work. There are always circumstances and life experiences that affect us and can cause shadow aspects. As a child we all experience varying degrees of trauma which in turn trigger shadow aspects to form. On the extreme side of the scale this is mental abuse, physical abuse, and bullying. On the less extreme side, this is occasionally being made fun of or outer influences swaying our beliefs. For example, media influencing young girls to believe beauty is being thin, large breasted, and bleach blonde. Or swaying young men to believe they must be athletic and have a large muscle build. This is the type of shadow integration that involves inner child healing and self love. Learning to look at ourselves in the mirror and love every part of us. Even the parts we learned not to like. Integrating that scar because it is a marker of what you survived. Empowering yourself to know that you are successful, even though you were told you never would be.
Some shadow aspects are negative behaviors. These could be behaviors we learned as a child or unhealthy coping mechanisms we developed. This could include lying, procrastinating, addiction, narcism, negative self talk, gossiping about others, over eating, stealing, etc. A good start to integrating these shadow aspects is asking yourself, why? Why do I do this and who taught me it was ok? Did your mom constantly manipulate you and others, teaching you it was ok to manipulate people to get what you want? Did your father physically abuse your mother, teaching you it was ok to harm others? Did someone disempower you so to cope you learned to disempower others? Maybe instead of picking up these bad behaviors, you learned to cope with drug abuse or some other form of self harm. What ever the behavior or reason, get to the root of it. Just like gardening, you need to pull the weed out by its roots to prevent it from returning. Next is slowly working to change your bad habit or behavior. Be conscious of when you get the feeling to repeat it. Ask yourself what you can do differently. You can journal what you are feeling and why. Talk about how you feel and release suppressed emotions you've been holding on to. Try to pick up new healthy routines. Repeat positive mantras daily that are in alignment with what you are trying to achieve. Finally, practice forgiveness. Forgiveness for others, but most importantly for yourself. Forgive yourself for what ever you have done to harm your self or others. Acknowledge that everything happens for a reason. This experience taught you a lesson or helped to teach someone else a lesson. Even if that lesson was simply what not to do. Sometimes people harm each other unintentionally because they are not spiritually evolved or aware how their actions and words affect others. As we grow and evolve, we can start to recognize how we affect others and make a conscious decision for that affect to be a positive one. This does not excuse bad or harmful behavior but a place of understanding and acceptance can help lead us to healing and self love. Knowing that someone else's behavior is not your fault and truly has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with them. Be grateful for all of your experiences and lessons you have learned! Especially the hard ones that encourage the biggest leaps in spiritual growth!
Most of us are doing shadow work without even realizing it. We are doing it when we vent to a friend or therapist, releasing emotional baggage. We are doing the work when we recognize negative behavior patterns and actively do something to change them. We are integrating our shadow when we learn to love ourselves more and ripple that love out to others. This is some of the most important work we will ever do in our lives. It is detrimental not to avoid our shadow aspects because they will always be a part of us and they will always pop up out of the shadows at some point. Repressed shadow aspects will usually pop up at the worst times, causing harm to yourself and/or others.
Some crystals to help with shadow work are zebra jasper, Picasso jasper, labradorite, black moonstone, and obsidian. Black obsidian is very harsh and direct! Snowflake, mahogany, and sheen obsidians are much more gentle for beginners. Shadow season is of course a great time to consciously get down to the nitty gritty of shadow integration. Full Moons and Eclipses are also times that our shadows tend to pop up, so these are great times to reflect on how you are feeling and why.
As always, I hope this helps! Wishing you all many Blessings!
"It was the I realized, it was never about you. It was about me. I needed to forgive myself. Not because you were without blame but because I was a fool for seeing you as something other than what you truly are."
- Morgan Richard Olivier
"Your shadow is nothing more than the part of you that is unconscious and therefore hidden from your awareness. The unconscious is filled with all kinds of things that you have judged unacceptable about you. And shadow work is nothing more than the art of making the unconscious, conscious and the unacceptable, acceptable."
- Teal Swan
"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."
- Carl Jung
"Shadow is that hidden, repressed, for the most part inferior and guilt-laden personality whose ultimate ramifications reach back into the realm of our animal ancestors."
- Carl Jung
"Carl Jung called this his shadow work. He said we never see others. Instead we only see aspects of ourselves that fall over them. Shadows. Projections. Associations.
- Chuck Palahnuik