Message on The Shadows

I was gifted with Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes's seminal work, Women Who Run With the Wolves as a birthday gift. The version I was given fits right into my purse and I have been walking around with it and reading it during the quiet spaces of my day. This is part of an active meditation that I have been in practice with whereby I collect information and use the "quiet" to sift through and decide what to keep. I use my morning meditation, oracle cards, numbers, what appear to be unrelated moments and anything else that strikes me as possible. I walk in a space of awareness | gratitude | power at all times, remembering my purpose and listening for the next steps.

In reading Estes's work on initiation and the space in which all women at some point are faced with the predator, I have been forced to look back a ways. According to Estes it is through facing the predator, that women are able to release themselves from the boxing in of expectation. The predator leads to the shadows. The shadows are the fears that we allow to dictate our lives. By looking on those things we close our eyes to, we begin to gain courage and kill that which in essence wants to kill us.

I had to ask myself if there were areas within my shadows that I was afraid to look upon. The answer, of course, came up "Yes." In asking the question, my shadows revealed themselves and in the revelation I am forced to see the thing that needs to be killed. My next phase depends upon this and so I am left no choice but to do battle. With each step, I uncover my inner child, the hopeful essence of myself that remains despite the earth-plane trauma. I see how the shadows have come to be and why they linger. I also understand that knowing them is not enough. They must be thoroughly dealt with in order to be truly exorcised.

The ritual that follows is something that I have been using to assist in my next cycle of lessons. I pray you find it useful. Read through the guidance until you are clear on what to do. This will ensure that your ritual is performed at the highest level of consciousness without interruption. Always have your sacred journal nearby to capture messages as they come.

• Turn of all electronics and find a quiet place.
• Next, decide first: air, fire, water or earth. Don't dwell, just pick an element to serve as your conduit.
• Once your element is selected, get a representation of that element and set it in front of you. It could be incense (air), a candle (fire), a cup of water, or rock (these are just suggestions)
• Activate you conduit (light it, swirl it, spin it, etc) and as it moves stare at it intently
• Ask your shadows to show themselves. Be as pragmatic or dramatic as you like when you evoke them, but in a clear voice command your shadows to appear.
• Take notes on what comes up immediately. Don't think, just write. Keep writing until the shadows have gone.
• Let your conduit sit, leave the sacred journal and walk away.
• Return no less than 24 hours to the space and review what you have written.

Once the shadows make themselves known, you are left with no choice but to plan an attack. You are no longer ignorant; can neither unsee what you have seen, nor unhear what you have heard. Just like you, the shadow has a job to do--fulfill its destiny. Now that you have shone your light onto them, the battle will begin. It will be a long war, for some, but in all cases a necessary one. You have begun, now it is time to act.

IA