Ascension News: Embracing Our Shadow Selves.

This offering includes an exercise at the end to begin to embrace dark and light shadow aspects.

The concept of the shadow began with Carl Jung who saw this work as important for anyone on the path of individuation. Individuation could also be another word for waking up in the sleepy world. Jung saw the shadow as containing both light and dark shadow energies. The shadow contains not just seemingly destructive aspects of the personality, but also potent, creative, and power.

Transcript

Ascension News,

Embracing our shadow selves.

The concept of the shadow began with Carl Jung,

Who saw this work as important for anyone on the path of individuation.

Individuation could be another word for waking up in the sleepy world.

Carl Jung saw the shadow as containing both light and dark energies.

What this means is the shadow contains not just seemingly destructive aspects of the personality but also potential creative and powerful gifts and capabilities also.

This Ascension News offering came about because of a comment on a recent transmission called Angelic and Star Race's support.

The comment was about whether this track was quote harmful to the shadow self because I do not want her harmed in any way or the connection to my natural darkness end of quote.

So it seemed this was a natural nudge from the universe to speak about the important topic of shadow selves.

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is a story written by Robert Louis Stevenson as a classic that in some ways appears to be the archetypal shadow story.

In the story Dr Jekyll represents respectable parts of the personality and Mr Hyde is the dark shadow.

In the story Mr Hyde begins to take over the personality and as a result wreaks havoc on his life.

This story highlights the fear we have about the dark portions of our shadow.

That if we do not keep it suppressed it will somehow take over our life and destroy or ruin us.

And this kind of connection is very Freudian because Freud believed the unconscious mind was a repository for socially unaccepted ideas,

Wishes,

Desires,

Traumatic memories,

Painful emotions that needed to be put out of mind by the mechanism of psychological repression.

For me there is a better story that highlights what the shadow is really about.

And this story comes from that wonderful book Embracing Ourselves by Hal and Sidra Stone.

I have summarised this story somewhat.

Once upon a time there was a tigress who was about to give birth.

One day she was out hunting when she came upon a herd of goats.

She gave chase and even in her condition managed to kill one of them.

But the stress of the chase forced her into labour and she died as she gave birth to a male cub.

The goats who run away returned when they sensed the danger was over.

They approached the dead tigress.

They discovered the newborn cub and adopted him into their herd.

The tiger cub grew up amongst the goats believing he too was a goat.

All went well until one day an older tiger approached the goat herd,

Attacked and killed one of the goats.

The rest of the goats ran away as soon as they saw the old tiger.

But our little tiger who believed he was a goat saw no reason to run away.

Of course he sensed no danger.

Although the old tiger was a veteran of many hunts he had never in his life been as shocked as he was when he was confronted by this young tiger.

He did not know what to make of the tiger who smelt like a goat,

Bleated like a goat and in every other way acted like a goat.

The old tiger grabbed the young one by the scruff of the neck,

Dragged him to a nearby creek and showed him his reflection in the water.

But the younger tiger was unimpressed with his own reflection.

It meant nothing to him and he failed to see his similarity to the old tiger.

Frustrated by this lack of comprehension the older tiger dragged the younger one back to the place where he had made his kill.

He forced the young tiger to take a bite from the dead goat.

When the young tiger had finished chewing he stretched and then for the first time in his young life he let out a powerful roar,

The roar of a jungle cat.

Then the two tigers disappeared together into the forest.

This story highlights the problem where our nature,

Like that of the young tiger,

Is raised in a culture or family to think,

Feel,

See and behave like there is something other,

Like a goat.

When our authentic self is hidden beneath layers of conditioning we will never be fully ourselves until something or someone comes along to wake us up.

These shadow selves are not dark,

Evil or dangerous.

They are parts of us that were not welcomed in the reality we were growing up in and so we learnt to ditch them.

These parts fled deep into our unconscious minds where they continued to remain until something shifted that allowed them to reintegrate with a personality.

The shadow is a container for all the aspects we have rejected while growing up.

For instance we may have been raised to be a good boy or girl and encouraged to be nice and pleasing.

In such case any hint of being too outspoken or loud or rebellious may well have been punished.

At a certain point this pleasing element became a primary self and anything that run counter to this way of being was rejected and lost over time.

Another example would be if you were raised in a very pushy family or ambitious family where you were encouraged to achieve then being too laid back or chilled would have been labelled as lazy and therefore achieving became a primary way of being.

Perhaps you grew up in a critical family and you learnt to survive by being critical and judgemental back.

Being too caring or loving would not really have been that safe or welcomed in the family and would have been rejected and sent away as a shadow self.

Shadow selves are disowned because they are rejected.

They may be even considered dangerous.

We can grow up afraid of our perceived darkness,

Wildness or weirdness.

We can also grow up afraid of our light,

Our gifts,

Our radiance.

In my family proper and normal were the values pushed and anything weird was frowned upon.

I disowned my inner weirdness for many years and it caused great depression and unhappiness until I started liberating myself.

Religion has long created a deep and dark shadow in the psyche.

It's common in the developed world to disown selves containing anything too sexual or anything containing strong emotions such as anger.

Some contemporary spiritual systems encourage a banishing of ego parts where perhaps even the entire ego is deemed bad and working against our light.

Any spiritual system that demonizes the ego,

Our sexuality or strong emotions will tend to create shadow.

Any personality trait or impulse that elicited punishment or criticism would lead us to repress them.

Some cultures such as America or Britain encourage being nice and independent and achieving.

Other cultures such as the Middle Eastern country may not encourage independence,

Free thinking in the same way.

Rather they tend to encourage putting the family before everything else.

This is how culture shapes our personality and shadow selves.

Education also creates primary and shadow selves.

Any aspect that was encouraged and praised through school or university could tend to become a primary self.

It could become who we think we actually are.

In the Western world,

Primary selves would tend to include pleasing,

Achieving,

Perfectionism,

Critiquing,

Being overly responsible,

Overly logical and rational.

As adults,

We may be encouraged to disown our inner child,

Our inner adolescent,

Our rebel,

Our hippie,

Our dropout,

Our lounge lizard,

Our messy creative self,

The loud self,

And so on.

We may also disown certain gifts such as the imaginative self,

The intuitive self,

The visionary self,

The clairaudient self,

And so on.

It's hard to really generalize because everyone's different and everyone's circumstances are different and some individuals may become the lazy dropout,

The lounge lizard for sure.

As a general principle,

Anything we consider shameful,

Immoral,

Irrational,

Fearful,

Or taboo is tossed into the shadow.

The shadow contains our gifts and talents because they're not wanted or valued in the family.

There's one example of a young woman who grew up in a family that valued academic achievement.

They were very rational and heady.

The daughter was not naturally academic.

It was more heart-centered,

Emotional,

And creative.

This was not something the family encouraged or wanted.

When the young girl's art teacher came around saying that the daughter was exceptionally gifted in art,

The parents rejected this and then strongly pushed their daughter to choose a more left-brain academic path.

During this process,

Of course,

She lost touch with her creative self.

But later in life when she began to wake up spiritually,

She rejected the career path she was on and her process was then to reclaim this creative self.

And this is a path she's still on since the force of rejection in her family was very strong.

Shadow selves are banished until that time it feels safe for them to return.

And this can happen during any personal exploration,

Therapy method.

It can also happen when we begin to wake up spiritually.

Shadow work is any process that welcomes shadow selves back into the fold of the personality.

This is essentially the path to wholeness.

It's also one way to shift up and upgrade the ego.

We begin to make conscious that which has been only unconscious.

In this process,

Ego parts begin to cooperate rather than be at war with each other.

Shadow work is important because in order to change the world,

We must change ourselves first.

The more that individuals are called to look within,

The more others will be encouraged to do the same.

Many now are doing this work of inner transformation.

The solution I believe to all the problems in the world exists within the realm of consciousness.

Many conflicts will end as individuals embrace their own shadows instead of attacking the perceived enemy or darkness in the world.

As we shift who we are being and becoming in the world,

Then we begin to light a candle for important qualities such as love,

Truth,

Integrity.

As we do the work,

We help to shift all those we come into contact with to a higher consciousness.

Shadow work is not for the faint of heart.

It is for spiritual warriors.

The gifts of this work are many since along with the returning shadow parts comes many gifts and treasures.

Shadow work can also allow for a greater sense of vitality,

Wholeness and lost soul qualities.

The work allows for a greater flexibility and fluidity in the overall personality as the war between the good,

So called good and bad selves end.

This work requires a self-reflective mindset,

The ability to reflect and observe our thoughts,

Feelings and behaviours.

Self-honesty and integrity are important because we need to be willing to see aspects of ourselves that we have judged as bad or unpleasant or even dangerous.

Carl Jung once said,

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Signs of having shadow selves hiding out in the unconscious is judging others harshly.

In magical circles there is a saying that for every finger pointing in judgement at another three fingers point back at the self.

Similarly being angry with another person or another group,

Whether that group is wealthy,

Poor,

Powerful or group of victims or perhaps a certain sexual orientation or race,

The world is our mirror and where we are angry or judgemental or critical with anyone or anything external,

This reflects an internal force that will not allow this energy to arise in any shape or form within ourselves.

This same process is at work when we idolise another,

We are projecting our disowned brilliance onto them.

This is something that happens quite a bit with a celebrity scene for example.

Projection is a huge clue to the types of energies being repressed within a person.

So the easiest way to begin this work is to look into the mirror of your reality.

There in your reality are many reflections of both dark and light shadow.

And let's do two simple exercises that begin to reveal the shadow selves.

And this first exercise explores the dark shadow,

Whatever bothers you or makes you feel uncomfortable in another,

Which is likely to reflect a disowned part in yourself.

So just get comfortable,

Breathe and close your eyes for a moment.

Bring to mind someone you judge or a group of people you judge.

Perhaps being too aggressive or loud or dictatorial or messy or lazy.

Notice how strongly you hold this judgement.

This judgement reflects a judgement on a part of yourself.

A part you have banished into your unconscious.

Just breathe with that for a moment.

This judgement is a mirror for something happening in yourself,

An aspect of yourself that needs to be reclaimed,

Brought back to wholeness.

Begin embracing that part.

Every part has gifts.

Even the most chaotic or messy have gifts,

Great gifts.

Take a breath with that for a moment.

That is it.

Take a breath with that for a moment.

You The second exercise explores the light shadow.

Bring to mind someone or perhaps a group you totally idolize.

Within this personal group,

There are gifts and talents and abilities you totally admire or feel attracted to.

Looking beyond the form,

What is the essence of these gifts?

The person for example may be an actor,

An author,

A dancer,

A painter,

A singer.

It may be someone you know.

The form is not important.

The important thing is the qualities you see in them.

Perhaps they radiate the sense of creative self-expression or freedom or charismatic charm or masculinity or femininity or love or sexuality.

These are qualities that are repressed in yourself seeking acknowledgement,

Acceptance and conscious reintegration.

Just breathe with that for a moment.

There are untito like hanging solids orletterpins.

Two reflections,

One light shadow,

One dark shadow.

Both sides are seeking reintegration in the greater self.

Two reflections,

One light shadow,

One dark shadow.

Two reflections,

One light shadow,

One dark shadow.

Just ask your higher self for assistance and your guides and angels for assistance in this process.

To hold this energy,

To begin to clear and cleanse it if it wants to return.

To release anything that needs to go back to the light.

So that you can reintegrate the jewels and precious gems of these parts.

And this is an ongoing exploration.

There are layers and layers to the shadow.

Whatever we judge or overly admire tends to be a reflection of our dark and light shadow.

I do hope this brief offering is helpful in some way to you.

Much love.

Thank you.

Reviews

Beautiful & helpful information, thank you! The background music added nicely as well🥰

Excellent teacher, excellent topic. Thank you Steve.

I hadn't heard of the datk and light shadows compared that way before. It was very helpful to think of the two as parts to integrate.

Amazing. As an immensely spiritual person with a degree in Psychology and a deep love for Carl Jung’s work, I throughly enjoyed this talk.

Thank you for this! So helpful. Would be so grateful for a guided meditation to help us work on light and dark shadows. Love your work! 🎄♥️🌀

Really incredible share. Thank you for this wisdom at this potent time.

thank you Steve 🖤🤍🖤🤍🖤i loved the exercise. it has given me new perspectives 🤍🖤🤍🖤🤍

Thank you for the talk Steven it was an interesting take on shadow work and I will continue to intergrate my shadows - both light and dark.

Thank you so much for this effective talk on shadow, it was really insightful and easy to understand. The practice at the end was profound and for the first time I was able to reintegrate parts of my shadow from a long time ago. You are such a blessing. Much love to you 💗x

Very very interesting and helpful. Thank you Steve!

Thank you Steve for Your offerings and wisdom . It always give me reassurance that Im on right path and help in days when I'm doubt myself !!
Blessings 💓🙏☮️

I love this so much! Jung is the basis of Parts work - Richard Schwartz may or may not be aware. Thank you so much 😊

Thank you. I learned Aloy because your presentation was so graceful