Blog by Kahreela
Shadow work teaches you many things. Diving into the shadowy depths of my own consciousness has taught me more about myself than I could have ever imagined possible. Every ceremonial trip to my shadow has been an education in Me. It has also been a history lesson- one that spans across the collective memory! A history that is not formed from names and dates but rather scars, currents and survival mechanisms. A history lesson in the emotional contractions of the past -both remembered and forgotten in our recorded history. Contractions that have become part of our DNA…impulses of who, what, where and why we are. Shadow work teaches you to recreate, to evolve and to liberate. It teaches you many things. But possibly the most important thing Working with your Shadow teaches is Responsibility. The more I have worked with my own shadow the more willing to be Responsible I have become. I now perceive my life as a reflection of all that is conscious and unconscious within me and I am willing to face the unconscious parts, I am willing to meet them because when I do then I can choose to stop operating from them, to stop living those impulses as thoughts, as words, as vibrations, as choices, as actions and as reactions.
To me, shadow work is all about taking humble and fierce responsibility. Not just for our own lives but also for what we are seeing on the collective level. The big Issues of now - politically, environmentally and socially they are markers that point towards the human collective shadow. We are being shown what needs to be healed within us.When the last election result happened in the United Kingdom. I felt deeply distressed by the level of lying, corruption and manipulation that I was witnessing in politics. Because shadow work has taught me to be well -oiled at taking responsibility my response to that distress was to look at how I was responsible for what I was seeing. It was like a lightning bolt: “If I don’t want to live in a world where the leaders lie, manipulate and corrupt the truth then I have got to stop lying manipulating and corrupting the truth” A few years ago my response to a sentence like that would have been to simply say “But I don’t lie.” Which would have been the most damaging of lies -a lie to oneself - most of the lying I was doing was unconscious and habitual I very rarely deliberately lied so I could tell myself “I don’t lie.” The wisdom of shadow work is that” if you're seeing it you are it “ and the beautiful compassion of shadow work is that you don’t need to identify with being it. You can unconditionally, gracefully, expressively, fearlessly take responsibility by accepting it in order to change it. Rather than saying “I don’t lie” I looked at where I was lying… all the little broken commitments and promises, the times I sidestepped the truth to not hurt someone else’s feelings or exaggerated it to impress someone, the ways I sugar-coated, coaxed, manipulated my way in and out situations. The ways I ignored myself, told myself stories to palm off my own integrity, needs and desires. Wow- as I looked I saw how many of my words were excuses! Everything that I was so distressed at seeing on the Macro -Level was happening through me on a micro-level. Yes okay, my lying was subtle, most of it was “well-intentioned” - trying to stop my truth from rocking the boat or upsetting someone. If it wasn’t well-intentioned then it was lazy and habitual rather than deliberately manipulative. I could forgive myself for it but this was not about Justifying my own personal lying - politics justifies it’s lying. This was me recognising that if I want to live in a world where politics is clean then I can’t be someone who lies when it suits them, or worse lies unconsciously. If I want to see integrity then I need to be integrity. This lightening moment of responsibility got the ball rolling for me on what I believe is one of the most important ascension steps we will take in our collective evolutionary journey.
We have got to heal our relationship with Truth. My path shows me over and over again that Ascension is not something that happens outside of us as much as it is something that happens within us. The Piscean age was all about separation but maybe the deepest separation that happened was that we became separated from our own truth. Somehow human feeling/sensuality and human voice became severed from each other. Our nature is that the voice is an extension of sensuality - this severing is against nature herself. I believe that part of our ascension process is to Bring Our Sensuality ( sense of self) and Truth back together, from separation into oneness… From Piscean into Aquarian. My guides said to me recently “ Your Voice is one of your senses, your sexual energy and your truth are not two different energies, they are same energy” Our sexual-life-force energy is how we sense the world, it is our presence in every moment. The root meaning of the word Sensuality literally means “the way.” Our Sense of Self, the inner feels we have are The Way! The way of our paths, the way of our destiny, the way through….we will sense our way to where we are meant to be moment to moment. If our sensuality and truth are the same energy - one in an inward flow and one an outward flow - then every time we lie, deny, avoid, side-step, silence our truth we literally block the way.
Our truth is the way through, the way out, the way in, the way of our own evolution. “The Revolution will happen inside the temple of truth”
In these times, one of the greatest revolutions will be the return to integrity! Take a moment to think how much everything would change, if everyone spoke their truth all of the time. If everyone was true to themselves, everyone would be walking their path- living their potential -then what would all of these sacred beautiful paths co-create? It’s kind of wonderful to imagine and I believe that we are the ones that can bring it. That can enter the Temple of Truth within ourselves and our lives. It is not easy. I catch myself more than once a day shrinking, trying-my-luck-with-myself, avoiding and so on. This separation from truth is so habitually entrenched into everyday life that it is going to take time to change it. I have no doubt that personal shadow healing and the ceremonies I hold for the Starlight Temple will give me many deep-dive history lessons into how we ended up separating from our truth. Even in writing this I sense the collective memory impulses of persecution and suppression waiting for me to meet and release them on behalf of my ancestral time-lines. I know that my inner child was taught to lie, given permission to lie over and over again by my parent's baby boomer generation who were told (by a traumatised war generation) not to express, who were told to be quiet, who were told that the neighbours were more important than their integrity. I see it, I feel it, I understand it, I forgive it. I know that this is an epic pattern to break out of. I know that many of us in the coming years will be facing the Shadow roots memories and inner child wounds around truth - doing the shadow work - in order for it to heal in the collective DNA. I know that it make take a lifetime, or longer to master living our truths completely unfiltered, I know that it is hard to take responsibility and accept our part in the things we don’t like but see in the world. I know all of this. But I also know that we were made for these times, that we are already masters of change and that if we choose Truth, if we commit to living with more truth we will inevitably see what we need to change, heal, release in order to do so. I know this is just the beginning. But let’s begin. All energy flows through intention. If we want to enter the temple of truth that is our inner, outer, personal and collective revolution then let’s begin with intention. Let's take back responsibility for Truth!
Kahreela x