posted October 20, 2016 12:06 AM              

"Week 3 of the Shadow Work Challenge was about delving into relationship perspectives a little bit and exploring the revelations that may come from pondering these perspectives.

All Shadow Work is essentially focused on relationships....most importantly, our relationship with ourselves. When relationship questions surface in Shadow Work, the most common response is to develop self blame. People who suddenly recognize behavior or thought patterns that have not been serving them can become angry with themselves for "causing" themselves unwanted circumstances.

Self Blame is NOT the aim of Shadow Work. Shadow Work is supposed to act like constructive criticism. It's supposed to help you to look at your own roles, constructs, narratives, and patterns from a higher perspective. If everything is about soul growth, you cannot blame yourself for making "mistakes". Beings do not learn anything from perfection...they learn from mistakes.

I personally think of Shadow Work as a unification process, as opposed to this process of purging yourself of everything that you perceive to be negative. Shadow work is about accepting that wholeness is made up of both positive and negative aspects and that one needs to experience contrasting perspectives in order to make up a "whole"

The goal in Shadow Work then becomes simple acknowledgment of those aspects of the self that have been suppressed, and then embracing those aspects as part of a human experience"

posted October 20, 2016 12:14 AM              

This week's questions:

For this week's work, I chose the Wheel of the Year Tarot Deck.

September 30th- What have I been avoiding facing about myself and my life? Card: Nine of Pentacles

The Nine of Pentacles is my second favourite card in the deck, after The Empress. To me it represents a person who has achieved a level of self-sufficiency, self-worth, and an appreciation of the value of solitude.

In terms of what I have been avoiding facing, it would be those qualities. That state of being is something that I crave and aspire to, but my past patterns reveal that up until now, I have not been allowing myself the opportunity to experience that.

Not allowing yourself the opportunity to have a specific experience is not the same thing as being "bad" at something. I can't say that I am bad at self-worth, or at self-sufficiency if I haven't even tried to immerse myself in those experiences. It goes back to that old addage, "you don't know what you like until you try it"! That's like making the decision that you have zero aptitude for art before you've even picked up a pencil.

posted October 20, 2016 12:16 AM              

1. Try incorporating drawing or art into your shadow work. Sometimes I sit with my sketchpad and I draw little images or symbols that relate to the message of what the card is about. Sometimes you may have intuitive symbols come through that enhance the message.

2. Bounce your ideas off of other people who are open to listening. Once again, it is an exercise in new perspectives.

posted October 20, 2016 12:25 AM              

I want to be able to see the messages in tarot like this Empress, Queen of Cups Tarot.

posted October 23, 2016 04:20 PM            

I like Growing. I've taken part in Shadow Work (3 month group/individual program) when I was younger. In the 1970s/80s, "Growth Groups" were popular.

I like looking into my own shadow work... It IS valuable.

Because I had been through it, I became sensitized to the 'types' of shadow workers, and their effects. Some are great, and you can relax into knowing that these people are good people. Then.... there are *the others* and some of these 'say' they're doing it for your own good, but they approach it from a genuinely very-mean spirit. I think sadistic people (who are not very professional) are attracted to these kinds of fields of work?

What I say is that you have to Care very MUCH for your OWN self and wellbeing before you embark on that kind of work. If you find yourself getting overly depressed and terribly self-deprecating and even employing forms of self harm or overly needing to indulge in escape-behaviors, then it's TIME to give it a break. Back away until you regain your Balance. Maybe even look for a different Advisor/Treatment/Coach, because the one you're using is not right 'for you'... Might be for others, but, YOU have to find YOUR 'fit'...

It's just generally good to take some years (or, just general time-off) to Integrate and digest what all you've learned too.

Give Yourself a Loving Break! {{ }}, AND use Digging In to Enhance 'who' you are, rather than deprecate self and develop habit of only seeing 'what's wrong', can help relieve things psychologically...

I think of an example about a physician with a knife.... Or, a prep-nurse shaving a patient before a procedure. (This really happened to my rm, and I was there to witness this.) The prep-nurse had a bias against heavy (corpulent) people. Her frustration and anger at her not being able to shave him as easily because of fat-folds he had, was VERY evident.... She not only shaved his hair from the spot, she took off layers of his skin. ... Barbaric.

Decades ago, I was in a hair salon, and the operator was angry that she was being made to stay late and work on other people than her own clients. She was mid-fight angry, and when she shaved a little from the nape of my neck, she caused the razor to have gone more DEEPLY than she should have--- because if you have 'rage' inside you, it is hard to control a knife in a delicate way.

I said that to draw a parallel to people who do shadow work on others.... If these people hold biases against certain people, or hold inordinate anger within themselves, it will come out TOXICALLY onto you, emotionally AND vibrationally..... Pay attention to what's happening with you. Take Great Caution with who you choose to trust your Precious Trusting Soul and your Emotions to. Not everyone deserves the Privilege to witness your 'opening' up and being in a Vulnerable state.

Guard yourself, as you would guard your small child.... because you've got one, Inwardly. No Abuse.

posted October 29, 2016 05:44 AM              

Long time...

I read your comment some days ago. Wow, your questions and comments caused me to think! and I discovered a few interesting things!

First, I am so excited to have stumbled upon the conversation about the shadow. Some may disagree, but my experience is Sufi shaikhs are shadow workers! Though most of them are likely unfamiliar with the term. Their work with their students is all about working with the Nafs; grief, fear, desires, etc.. For me, calling the nafs the shadow is like picking something up and turning it on its side, showing a whole different angle of the same thing. I love hearing things in different "languages" and with different methods of approach.

Using tarot (a weekly spread), journaling, reading (Jung..), and exploring ideas about shadow work (ill share links to what I find here), will be a great way for me to work actively with my own intuition. I'll work with my deck for a few weeks before I start any shadow exercises.

Don't you worry about shadow working teachers taking advantage of me. With Saturn on my NN, Urano in 4, and Moon in 10, I'm a free, wandering goat. I have never made a good student, or follower. I don't get tarot readings because I'm afraid of being disrespectful. My mother's teacher gives me every advice saying, but of course you don't have to listen to me...he knows how I am...

I need to read your comment again, Mirage. I might have more to add. I've just been meditating on all this and had a moment to share a few of my thoughts.

posted October 29, 2016 04:38 PM              

How are you Mirage? Im so exhausted, but I just need to be insane and a workaholic for a while. I think I'll be crazy for 2 more months and then ill settle down and really dive into some spiritual exploration and actual travel with the children.

In the little down time I have I'm hanging with the children and learning more about Energy healing, shadow work, healing crystals and tarot

Im kind of setting myself up for some real excitement once I calm down on the work front..

posted November 22, 2016 11:28 PM              

Week 1:

- What present aspect of myself or my life do I need to release?

- How does this aspect hold me back from progress in my life?

- How can I best release this energy?

- *Think of your deepest wound* How does this unresolved energy affect my present relationships?

- What lesson remains hidden in this unresolved energy?

- How can I transform or use this energy to benefit my present life?

- What piece of information will benefit me most at this time?

posted November 23, 2016 10:37 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by venus2tinkerbell:
Ok, from Ms. McBride at tarottoska.com

Week 1:

- What present aspect of myself or my life do I need to release?

- How does this aspect hold me back from progress in my life?

- How can I best release this energy?

- *Think of your deepest wound* How does this unresolved energy affect my present relationships?

- What lesson remains hidden in this unresolved energy?

- How can I transform or use this energy to benefit my present life?

- What piece of information will benefit me most at this time?

So there is a question for every day of the week. I'm not sure if I will draw just one card or a spread. I am sure that I will take longer than a week to consider these questions. My ♉ Moon would like to take a whole week on a single question- think it over, look for signs in nature..

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posted December 01, 2016 09:04 AM              

quote:

---

Originally posted by venus2tinkerbell:
Ok, from Ms. McBride at tarottoska.com

Week 1:

- What present aspect of myself or my life do I need to release?

---

Alright, so I drew the Queen of Wands. Lol, The Leo in me wants to assume this must be a mistake (moostake as my son likes to say)- maybe I wasn't completely focused...Not a mistake. She jumped twice. So my plan is to sit with this, meditate, ruminate, free write, and share some if what I come up with. I'm already COMPLETELY obsessed with tarot. And I can see how this might tie into a spread I did for myself last night, that had me weeping out of love and appreciation

posted December 03, 2016 10:08 AM              

quote:

---

Originally posted by venus2tinkerbell:
Ok, from Ms. McBride at tarottoska.com

Week 1:

- What present aspect of myself or my life do I need to release?

---

Queen of Wands

(in my case and in this context) The power of love vs the purity of love

I can release the need to be right and the need to know.

That's what I got

There's a lot more but it's not appropriate to just dump it on ya

posted December 03, 2016 10:15 AM              

quote:

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Originally posted by teasel:
I started this six years ago, and never got back to it, because I had the book out of the library. That was early 2010.

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