Namaste.
What is the white shadow?
And how can it be a key to an authentic,
Spiritual life?
The shadow is a beautiful aspect of ourselves and reveals the hidden nature of our consciousness.
I explore the shadow throughout all of my courses and material,
Because the shadow has taught me so much about myself.
However,
I had always thought the shadow to be one-sided.
Visually,
Our shadow is behind us.
As the sun bathes us in light,
It is a shadow cast behind.
Yet the shadow can also be seen as what is projected forward.
This projection forward of a glorified self-image may be known as the white shadow,
And it can be especially prevalent when we embark upon the spiritual path.
The white shadow is the projection of our ideal nature out into the world.
It is essentially how we wish to be seen,
And by nature,
We wish to be seen as someone who is good,
Perhaps pure,
Perhaps perfect,
In whatever that may mean for us.
So let me give you an example,
As always using myself as the example.
When I first began my spiritual path,
I had many ideas of what it meant to be spiritual.
Collectively we have been conditioned with the concept of the saint,
The priest and priestess,
The holy ones,
The shaman,
The list goes on,
The ones who sacrifice what the rest of us desire.
They seem to embody the best and highest attributes,
And consequently it is no surprise we have a very idealised version of what it means to be spiritual.
I looked upon those who spiritually taught,
I envisioned them in my mind living picturesque lives of spiritual embodiment,
And I yearned to emulate it.
It seemed so beautiful,
So why wouldn't I want that?
The white shadow is the persona we present to the world,
Eclipsing who we actually are.
This of course sends many statements out to the universe.
On the one hand it doesn't allow ourselves to be authentic,
Because of course we are presenting a major mask outwardly.
This makes it incredibly difficult to maintain,
And ultimately of course we are putting out the statement that we do not like who we truly are.
Let us take this a step deeper.
Within the spiritual movement in our desire to be more spiritual,
We each decide what that means.
For many of us it may mean being humble,
Self-sacrificing,
Being agreeable,
Being positive.
This seemingly certainly doesn't mean doing anything that may create conflict,
Perhaps doing things for ourselves.
We may create an idea that if we present any notion that we are doing something for selfish needs,
That it is unspiritual.
I remember when I first began to hold workshops and retreats,
Feeling extremely guilty for wanting the money earned for myself.
I had to convince myself and others that I was doing it as a service for everyone else only,
And so I decided that I was going to give any funds that I earned to charity.
That was my intention at the beginning,
And the universe certainly met my needs.
I never made a profit.
I worked in this way for years,
Not understanding why I wasn't earning.
I had to borrow,
Lean on others,
And I'd always just break even.
It was in hindsight that I realised I had a deeper shame of feeling unspiritual,
By wanting the money for myself,
To live,
Eat,
Pay bills,
All the normal things.
And I use money often as an example,
Because traditionally it has been placed as the nemesis of the spiritual path.
Essentially,
It isn't really about money,
It is about what the money represents.
The material plane,
The physical plane,
Our humanity.
Today I'm much more comfortable with wanting to earn from what I love to do.
It is a win-win.
I get to serve,
With my message,
And look after my family and myself.
The white shadow has a real issue with presenting anything that may even slightly reveal that we have an ego.
The result,
Paradoxically,
Is that it puts our ego into the driving seat.
By pretending to play it small,
We are actually operating from the egoic nature.
Because we are pretending.
And we are denying the natural desires of our soul.
To experience.
To want more.
Be more.
Be seen more.
Referring back to my time,
Early on as a healer and spiritual guide,
I try to embody this persona of being humble,
And presenting what I believe to be a spiritual image.
This was initially an unconscious act,
However over time I realised I had become an inauthentic version of myself.
As difficult as it is,
This is the golden gateway to living a more authentic life.
To share what I am sharing now would have petrified me back then,
Because it would threaten the image I was presenting.
However the universe helped me with many identity crises,
Which has led to many of the revelations I have today,
And I am immensely grateful.
I am still on a journey,
Yet now I recognise that I am on a journey of still learning what it means to be authentic.
In a way,
Yes,
The white shadow is the ego.
It is egoic in nature because it is trying to protect the self with illusions,
Here forward facing in a way presenting a glorified image of oneself.
The white shadow can only work if we have a split in our ideas of what it means to be good,
Which involves bypassing our human emotions such as anger,
Resentment,
Jealousy,
Envy,
And all the ones that make us feel ashamed to admit to others and ourselves that we have.
The white shadow is the projection of the ideal spiritual persona in this case,
Creating an inauthentic personality to interact with.
With the white shadow becomes increasingly difficult to hold any form of real connection or relationship because it is impossible to maintain this pretence long term.
So we may refrain from intimacy,
Or engage in deeper conversations that may threaten our personas.
Again,
This isn't something to judge if we see it in ourselves or in others.
It is always,
Always about compassion leading the way,
To understand why we do this and how we may remedy this.
Our desire to be spiritual is perhaps the first thing to look at.
To even hold an idea that we are not spiritual is an illusion.
This categorisation of being spiritual and unspiritual leads us to judge and categorise others for being spiritual and unspiritual.
You may wish to refer to my other session entitled Alternative vs Mainstream where I explore this on a deeper level.
I would say the first step is to let go of what it even means to be spiritual.
This is a difficult yet incredibly rewarding practice in itself.
It is difficult because it asks us to let go of defining what it means to be spiritual,
Which then threatens our own identity of being spiritual.
So what is our solution to the white shadow?
There is a beautiful frequency that supports us on this particular journey,
And many other journeys,
One that I have mentioned already.
And it is authenticity.
It is honesty.
It is thinking without the pressures of what we should think,
Or should be.
It is free from societal and our own conditioning.
If we use authenticity as our guide,
Then it will guide us out of the masks and personas and towards the real version of ourselves that we have been possibly running away from our entire lives.
This real version of ourselves has no glory to claim,
No status to pride itself in,
No goal to complete.
It has nothing to prove,
To anyone,
About anything,
At any time.
Feel how liberating that is.
It is simply you,
As you are,
In this moment.
And when we finally meet this particularly,
Perhaps unimportant individual,
It isn't to say we are worthless because of it.
The opposite.
We are incredibly unique with our normality.
Our unique personality,
Our insecurities,
Flaws,
Strengths,
Mishaps.
We are a combination of our experiences and a mess of our emotions and ideas.
Yet we make up the unique person that we are.
And here we access something that may have been elusive,
Joy and freedom.
Finding the joy in life by being a messy human on a journey of discovering the childlike wonder of their connection to spirit.
Once we meet this individual,
And this,
Of course,
Is a lifelong journey in itself,
We begin to remove the heavy shackles of needing to please,
Needing to present an image to the world,
Needing to present ourselves as something more,
Or something less,
Needing to be anyone else than who we are.
The universe works effortlessly to meet the authentic version of who we are,
Magnetising in the incredible miracles,
Synchronicity and so-called magic.
With the white shadow,
It first needs our loving compassion,
As we recognise it is a part that is trying to be accepted,
Yet it doesn't realise that being who we are is what will truly be accepted by the one person it is seeking it from,
Ourself.
Blessings on your journey.
Namaste.
