Pagan Journeys > Pagan Chat
Starting Shadow Work?
Tinevisce:
--- Quote from: earthmuffin on February 07, 2016, 01:18:11 PM ---I think shadow work is more about knowing yourself fully-- bad parts as well as the good-- more so than just understanding or conquering fears.
You can understand what your fears are without facing or experiencing them. Understanding what they are and when they arise can be helpful in dealing with them. If a fear is irrational and recurring, you can replace the fear with positive messages you give yourself.
In my experience, when we put a lot of energy into a fear by repeatedly thinking about whatever it is that makes us fearful, it makes it more likely that the thing or event feared will come to pass-- so if we don't address the fear, we end up having to experience the feared situation and face the fear head on. This is how the universe works.
But like I said, you don't have to jump right into the big fears with shadow work. Start with an exercise in which you define what you know about yourself.... challenge yourself to go deeper with it-- eventually you will get to the fear stuff but you can ease into it.
And, T, you might want to wait on the dark mirror exercise until you do some of the other work first-- it can generate a lot of fear as it is rather spooky to see your face morph into different figures that may be difficult for you to understand what they signify.
--- End quote ---
Those are good points, EM! Don't worry, the moment I read about the exercise my mind went batshit nope-nope-nope crazy. :) I'm not doing anything remotely similar for a very long time.
Tinevisce:
--- Quote from: earthmuffin on January 30, 2016, 08:45:48 PM ---I always seem to start endeavors like this by reading. :rolleye: Two books I have liked along those lines are Dark Moon Mysteries by Timothy Roderick and In the Shadow of 13 Moons by Kimberly Sherman Cook. I also liked a shamanic exercise of gazing into a mirror in the dark to see the shadow self. I don't know if this is described anywhere but it was a technique I learned when I took a class on shamanism. I'll see if I can find reference to it online.
--- End quote ---
As always, thank you for the book recommends, EM! I'm going to get Dark Moon Mysteries once my credit card bill gets generated for this cycle (another 5 days for that) because it's about $10 cheaper than 13 Moons here.
Interestingly enough, my best friend from school has been on my case for a while now about taking up journalling as an exercise for self awareness at a very minute level. It occurs to me now that he was talking about shadow work with just slightly different vocab.
And- I apologise, geekwitch for hijacking your thread, hope you don't mind :)- I've also been looking into the shamanic practices of contacting power animals for support. In my head, I find that a little bit safer than reaching out directly for a spirit guide because I don't feel confident enough in my abilities to be able to accurately gauge the intentions of any spirits who might respond to those efforts- what if something unsavoury decided to trick me? :omg:
Would you say that's really jusified, EM, insofar as contacting/getting in touch with a power animal being any safer than trying to contact a spirit guide?
earthmuffin:
Hmmm, not sure, T. I would say contacting a power animal and contacting a spirit guide are the same thing except that a power animal is sure to be an animal. ;)
Tinevisce:
--- Quote from: earthmuffin on February 08, 2016, 08:52:37 AM ---Hmmm, not sure, T. I would say contacting a power animal and contacting a spirit guide are the same thing except that a power animal is sure to be an animal. ;)
--- End quote ---
Oh, wow, forgot I hadn't replied to this. I always thought that spirit guides were external entities whereas power animals were metaphorical manifestation of your higher consciousness, i.e a part of you. Maybe I got that bit wrong?
:confused:
An update on Dark Moon Mysteries, my copy came in a week back and so far it looks good. I had a question regarding the guided meditation exercises...the first exercise is about identifying a shadow mask; and what's got me confused is...am I supposed to be puppeting? That is to say, I have something of an idea of what my shadow mask is...am I supposed to be thinking of it consciously while doing the meditation...or do I just lay back and let the images come?
For example, while trying to do a guided meditation years ago to find...kinda sorta a power animal...I kept seeing a sparrow when I just let the images come, even though I have no conscious attachment/attraction to sparrows; like I do with dogs (say). I could visualise a dog quite clearly when I tried or wanted to, of course, but it kept turning to a sparrow when I wasn't paying attention- does that make sense?
Crystal Dragon:
T, spirit guides tend to stay with us long term (they are guides and mentors) where power animals can change and may only stay for a relatively short time. You'd asked specifically about contacting though, and the process for contacting either is the same. My guess is that's why EM responded the way she did. ;)
If you're being told that sparrow is a current power animal (and from what you've described I'd certainly say that sparrow is telling you he's there) then perhaps you should look into what sparrow represents and contemplate what that might mean for you.
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