ALL ABOUT
SHADOW WORK

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WORKING WITH THE SHADOW AND THE GOLDEN SHADOW:

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“The world will ask who you are, and if you do not know, the world will tell you.”
― C.G.Jung

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Within this consensual reality we are saying YES.

But which parts of us are saying yes, to what?

How could we be saying “yes” to all the pain and suffering we are experiencing? Does it have a function?

Whats the real point of my grief? Anger, Humiliation, Shame? Where is it taking me?


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Shadow Work is about working on Gaze, which is the threads of perception between our perceptions of self and other, and this I prefer to constellate within more regular talk-session praxis but it pops up in all sessions.

Shadow is everywhere there is light and dark.

Shadow Work unfolds within longer-term relationship, when we start to really mean something to eachother and become fixed in Images. The strongest healing, upgrades/in-grades and expansion in terms of shadow work comes from witnessing oneself through the mirrors of these relationships and making new conscious choices and setting in new algorithms.

Where images become “fixed” and then “hooked”, the empathic relational algorithm can expose ways of relating that avoid holding uncomfortable emotional content that is ours to hold. When we go through trauma, especially with complex trauma, the severity of the unbearable emotional trauma is likely overwhelming, disorganised (jumping back and forth - say, between disowning true feelings of anger or shame and grasping at cover ups like bravado or pride), and loaded out onto the world - (as if the world is our dust bin for everything we dont want to own).

This becomes a real issue when the balance tips and the disowned personal power starts to become constellated in real world events that severly impact our lives.

Making shadow work is not just about understanding that who we are coming in contact with is our mirror and what we see or how we see them is really our own attributes. That is way too reductive.

Making shadow work is about understanding that all of this is energy.
What we refuse to hold in our bodies, within our somatic state of presence, or within our attention, or what we dont have the capacity to hold in our bodies - which is capacity for depth and true power - is instead given to the world in some sort of “bargain”.  Figuring out the coded bargain and stopping it or re-routing it when the deal made becomes too cheap, is the point.
 

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ABOUT SHADOWS

WHEN DO WE MEET THE SHADOW ?

LEARNING BY DESTRUCTION AS OPPOSED TO LEARNING BY GRACE.


“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
- C.G.JUNG

We may have all heard that quote (way too many times) by now, but do and how can we live it? Is this awareness of inner and outer worlds being interconnected, alive within us? How?


Meeting Shadow is like meeting the growth edge of our unconscious, but “twisted”.

If we read it upside down, and inside out. It is a portal.

In the beginning if we are new to Shadow Work, it will likely be coming through a path way of ‘learning by destruction’. Ouch!

We want to ultimately learn through the other path way : of learning through allowance, seed of desire, grace, agency.

In order to get to there it takes some wading through the old karmic cycles that we are leaving behind, on the path of ‘learning through destruction’.

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On the path of awakening through destruction, which is usualy the first path that starts to wake us up, The Shadow makes themselves known through any dynamic, dramatic, emotionally activating, painful events we have in our waking life, or nightmarish dreaming lives.

The Shadow is not always connected to anything 100% ill-willed that is not shake-able. It is part of us, a part of what we have inherited (yes, ‘curses’), or a function of our gaze and relationship with energy. It is releated to how energy jumps in and out of inner spaces and worldy spaces.

It is related to what we are HOLDING, taking care of, and working with as known factors of our psyche, as opposed to what we are not holding and thus, DISOWNING from oursleves, self-abandoning, and rejecting and unknown factors of our psyche.

Learning through the Path of Grace would be about positive synchronicities and guidance. 
Considering what we are waking up to in this era - especially post internet - in terms of new connectivity and growth of the emotional and relational bodies, the path os destruction is kind of a placeholder for an INITIATION within a society that has lost it’s awareness about how important Initiation and Ceremony is in repsecting the Invisible.

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BLINDSPOTS

The Shadow exposes our “blindspots”.

Blindspots can be thought of as places were we have been left unprotected, vulnerable to be wounded. And they are often a dynamic meetimg places where a conjunction of intimate psychic intersections meet.

Blindspots are the important passageways because they are always connected to creative life force energy, especially if wrapped around a big archetypal relational psychic figure, image or association stonghold. ( like archetypal energy of ‘The Mother’ or ‘The Father’, ‘The Child’, ‘The Eternal Youth’, ‘The Witch’, ‘Creativity’, ‘Religion’, ‘Morals & Ethics’, ‘Right Vs Wrong’, ‘Crazy Vs Sane’, etc. )

Seeing our Shadow is a good thing because it is able to be integrated. Seeing our Shadow is also an everyday every-moment thing. We can go so deep in this that we become able to understand the natural limitations of our own Gaze.

The more blindspots we have, the more we are unaware of the energy/entities passing through us which are not as compassionate as they could be, or are operating for their own gain, and not for the good or highest benefit for all involved. Usually there is an underlying belief system of lack on that blindspot. And usually the blindspot is a really tricky cluster formed through trauma.

Trauma is anything that happened too intensly and too fast for the psychic energy to integrate it properly, and so it becomes like a clot, and sits on the mirrors of perception. It sits on how we see: GAZE.

New growth comes from dissolving the old belief systems which are stuck in the blindspots. For some of us, who are sitting on larger conjunction points, this will show up in our waking lives as physical destruction.

Meeting The Shadow is about meeting the messages of what is within the destruction path. Relationships that struggle or hit a breaking point always give us a chance to develop who we are. Our actions in relationship to the world show us who we are.
The Shadow, integrated, is about owning our own potential destructive power, as part of our processes in wholeness. We aim to reach neutrality, through paradox.

It is a constant process and your shadow area of the psyche does not stay fixed but evolves as you do. We learn how to care for the dynamics which are volatile, how to release judgements, and how to bvalance our inner energy.

With Shadow Work, We learn endless aspects of : WHOLENESS, SELF-HOOD, KINSIHP and HUMILITY.


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GAZE, THE SPIRIT OF MATTER & THE WORLD SOUL

But how is GAZE, something so immaterial, related to the world around us?
This comes down to our understanding of what matter is.

In the animist perspective we see each entity, even passing phenonema as having a Body and a Spirit, or Soul. And in syncronicity studies and Quantum Relations we see that matter holds awarenesss, or is enacted upon by awareness. It is too deep to describe here, but the negation of the Spirit of Matter is also a part of the split and abandonment of women’s or divine femine spirituality practices, which are decentralised, rooted, embodied, and about holding, not transcending or elevating into ‘higher consciousness’, but instead a praxis about depth.

Matter is Spirited and within this, we find the World Soul, and the Body of Reality. (Abstract Materialism)

That means that when difficult things keep happening to us in our lives, accidents, lossed, there is Spirit always entwined, that you are energetically in relationship to. Being in relationship with something means owning the connection anout why and how you are connected. We are not islands, disconnected from eachother and the world. We are ripples in pool, reverberating on and on and affecting eachother - intra-acting.



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WHAT IS THE GOLDEN SHADOW?

(Not belonging to C.G.Jung, but evolving later, out of his work) - the concept of the Golden Shadow operates on the same psychic function as The Shadow - but focuses on including all the wonderful, full of life aspects of ourselves that have been locked away [behind trauma].

The Golden Shadow is important for Internalising & High Functioning Individuals who are ‘coping’ but usually beating themselves up on the inside.

If we have not been able to be trully authentic or feel validated in our emotional realities - The Golden Shadow grows, full of truth, vulnerability and vitality. We canot see our own goodness.

Especially for Women, Gender Non Conforming Identities, Non-White identies, or any Body who differs from the centralised idea of ‘I’ in our current society, there are elements of the Golden Shadow that will be relevant for you.

We know from Divine Feminine Archetypal Psychology/Psychoanalysis for example from Marion Woodman or Marie Louise Von Franz, that the female-identified psyche has already internalised the Shadow voices of the Patriachial Critic Inside her own head - self-judgeing and policing her. For this one needs to integrate some of the Golden Shadow in order to not only survive but create an inner-buffer within psyche to thrive.

Also could be known as ‘To Get One’s Power Back’.

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OLD PROGRAMS

We can fall easily out of connection and into shadow contacts ie: attachments, competition, survival, lack matrix - based on old programming - which is coming from whole eras of conditioning.

When we feel guilty, ashamed or self-persecuted and are not consciously aware of it, like with the Shadow, we are not able to consciously address this in our relationships and we pass on the stressors, pressures, and same dynamics of the system unto those in our lives who we should be protecting. (Our children.)

Perhaps our inner authority, the clarity of our caring-anger, and our intuition is hanging out there somewhere in the Spirit Matter of the World? Time to rescue that!

Not being able to consciously address something within us, means we are not able to ask for cleaning from Spirit...
We are not able to pray, we are not able to do anything with it if its not concious.


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HIGHLY SENSING SOULS**: YOU ARE ALLOWED TRUE SUBJECTIVITY

If our emotional realities are not acknowledged, we perhaps are just picking up on nuances that others miss.
Perhaps we have special affinities to detail?
Perhaps we care very deeply and can feel witghihn our bodies certain things about our world?

Often this means we can be unconsciously “gaslit” by others, into getting the impression we are ‘wrong’.
The Golden Shadow is important to lead you back to your own truth in this instance.

You were not put on this earth to totally dissolve your Healthy Ego, we need you as you.
Golden Shadow Work helps us Self Define.


Especially for highly sensitive people or very empathic people (every human is empathic) -
anyone who has experienced trauma, especially from narcissistic/extractivist/unconsciously preoccupied
or traumatic family structures, or punitive systems as a child [which, a lot of us have]
- our SHADOW and GOLDEN SHADOWS are actually our power, goodness and our strength.

We alone have ownership over our own truth and subjectively.

Golden Shadow Work is about becoming a Steward of
The Identity (External Layer) & Essential Soul Identity (Internal Layers)
in context to any bias’ of The World & Society in which we live and it relates to Re-Routing Energy.

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*This is relevant also for in particular for all people who are self-classifying female, BIPOC, and LGBTQI+. within the broader world-body and collective shadows.

*This is relevant also for new masculinity in the age of post patriarchy.

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SHADOW AS PROCESS & THE COLLECTIVE SHADOW

Both Shadow and Golden Shadow are a process happening between Subjective and Objective Psyche.

Objective Psyche is totally transpersonal but can be reached towards only subjectively.

Ie: We are witnessing always from a subjective psyche, so it is always at a level of being tied to our perception of “who we are”.

It is a mind-bending topic sometimes to understand the personal and collective shadows which touch our lives.

That’s why it so important to give time to the process of reflection and discernment.

There is so much power to be found in the shadows for all of us, especially collectively right now. Most of what is coming up is Collective or Transpersonal Shadow Material - from generations of not having the resources to support exchanges between conscious and unconscious realms. It will always have a personal element and a Transpersonal Element.

Working with psyche in this way is an investment - for all aspects of our lives and an investment into the colletive on every level!

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NOODLE SOUPS & BEING TURNED INSIDE OUT

Shadow Realms are often called ‘Noodle Soup’ by people in the midst of Shadow Work as there is always an element of confusion around boundaries : where one thing ends and another begins.

Shadow Work does have the capacity to turn a psyche 'inside out' and there is an element of loosing the potency that is our individuality and our own life force, if the turning inside-out becomes too extreme.

We need the healthy ego as a container to differentiate ourselves from the world and to be able to move through it and enact a will.

Remember that YOU are the only one who decides who you are, but we want this to be coming from a neutral ballanced place, and not jump in and out with either arrogance & inflation (outside) or shame & self flagulation (inside). Our aim is neutrality,

The complexity of how complex shadows are is something outside of what our brains can even imagine in dimensions.

I feel that practices of holding entire dynamics and becoming aware of when they are activated within us and around us, is a key.

This takes going in slow life circles, experiencing these same conjunctions of energy within us, over time, again and again.
And with tools and resources, and with companionship we can look at the repeating dynamics within us, through the eyes of the intution. We start to understand their personal meaning in the cycles they take for us.

What is it connecting to or 're-affirming' inside of you?

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A CONSTELLATION PRAXIS

In a sacred moment, with candles lit and you in the flow to spend some time,
I encourage you to get a piece of paper and map the energy centres of shadowy relationships out.
What are each of these energy centres : needs, hopes, dreams, assumptions unto the other?

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WHICH SESSION ?

If you want to focus on Empowerment Shadow Work (Golden-Shadow Focused) this can be made through all sessions styles.
You decide the working style and I make sure to focus on the context/how.

Please bring in your dreams to these sessions.


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LENGTH OF CONTINUED SESSION WORK :

The length of continued session work is up to the analysand (you) to decide as they go. Due to shadow work being all about how an analysand 'sees worlds' and how these worlds are in turn 'seeing the analysand’ it is not up to me to designate a set time period for you.

Regularity is important and having a vessel to work, for holding new psyche.

Life events will unfold and the souls path will show the way as the shadow speaks through internal mirrors of life events.

Talk Sessions hold space for continued analysis, hold projections within witness, helping each client to discern the origin of the psychic content and to eleviate some of the extra suffering around each polarity while we call in for greater power integration.

Alternatively, for diving straight into certain issues and asking directly for healing to Spirits - We work on shadow integration in the Ritual Sessions. We go in and "clear out" / "dust off" the shadow [dream fog and mirrors of the mind] with somatic, sound, poetic ritual techniques.

For taking the journey yourself and facing content head first [navigating a dream] check out the Active Constellation Sessions.

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No matter which style you choose - techniques 100% specific for each human.

My main aim with this analysis work as regular talk sessions is that each individual learns to self regulate / self heal, making their own way through their shadow content.

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POSSIBLE SESSION PACKAGE:

Shadow and Golden Shadow - Trauma Sensitive Integration Work  / 101 Pack

4 Sessions [ 1 x 1,5 hr Talk, 1 x Constellation Excavation 3hr+, 1 x Witness talk drop-in, 1 x Ritual 2hr. ]

350 Euro [ 90 Euro discount ]

I’m offering this session pack because I would love it if we get deeper into shadow work as a trauma integration process with full body ritual and active journeys.

My suggestion is to book in the session with me once every two weeks to allow for digestion time with what comes up. 


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ON SOUL-LEVEL RELATIONSHIP WITH THE SUBCONSCIOUS :

“Whenever we speak of a "psychological relationship" we presuppose one that is conscious, for there is no such thing as a psychological relationship between two people who are in a state of unconsciousness. ...

.... The psychological relationship is limited in the degree to which that unconsciousness exists.

~CG Jung, Marriage as a Psychological Relationship, Anima and Animus. Para 325.


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ON LOVE RELATIONSHIP :

“Yet, after the inevitable projections unavoidably fall away, we are re-summoned in a relationship to the immensity of our own journey.

Romance may be replaced by something worth being called love, as a result of the humbling encounter with the challenges that our withdrawn projections bring home to us.

This is why love requires big persons, not kids. Kids fall in and out of love at the moment’s whim.

Big people can ride the shifting tides of life, range between intimacy and distance, defense and openness, and grow through their mutual toleration of ambivalence and ambiguity.

Love asks that we confer on the other the freedom to be who they most profoundly are, even as we wish the same for ourselves.”

~James Hollis, Excerpt From: Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life.

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