Reflections of Shadow Work

I was struggling with the notion of integrating the darkness into the light. I could not understand how to bring the darkness into the light without becoming the darkness and then going back into the light. This of course was very exhausting and stressful. It created imbalance, fear, and pain. I believed I could not leave the dark parts of me alone and suffering. I believed that being in the light, separated myself from the parts of me that were lost in the darkness. However, while receiving some energy work, I saw an image in my mind that brought me clarity and showed me that my philosophy was actually increasing my darkness. I will do my best to explain what I saw.

Source. Source is Light and love in purest form. All life is a splinter of Source expressing itself a little differently, including all humanity. Because our origin is Source, our spirit is Light.

But then we have our shadow self... I couldn't understand how we could have a shadow side if we were Light. A shadow doesn't just appear, something has to obstruct the light in order to create the shadow. Darkness (in the sense of "evil") is not inherit, but a consequence of something getting in the way of light (in the sense of love). Being human is not being the shadow self, being human is just a physical manifestation of spirit. So what is it that obstructs the light within us that creates our shadow? What is the shadow's purpose?

After all of these thoughts drifted through my mind, I saw everything unfold. I saw a ball of light representing our purest light selves. The ball of light sat in a field of nothingness that represented everything. Then I watched as the ball of light created an idea of its identity. the idea took a physical form much like a peg. The peg of the lights identity fell into the field and a shadow stretched out from the peg, away from the light. The peg would then move about the field and the shadow would follow, always projecting away from the light. The peg would grow and so would its shadow. The closer the peg got to the light, the more apparent its shadow, but the smaller it would get. As the peg that represented a pseudo-identity moved farther away from the light representing the true self, the shadow would fade into the surrounding area that light could not reach until it was indistinguishable and lost. When the peg would move fully into the light where the identity and the true self are aligned, the shadow disappears, for there is nothing to get in the way of the lights rays.

I took this to mean that Light is our true nature. Love. When we attach ourselves to an identity that is not of our truest nature, we create an identity separate from our true self and this creates our shadow. The shadow is not evil, nor is it there to hurt us. Our shadow changes to match and reflect our identity that we hold on to. The larger the attachment to an identity, or the stronger we identify with something that is not of our purest self, the larger a shadow we create. Like a sundial, our shadow shows us exactly how far we are from light and what direction we are heading. We do not need to attack the darkness for that takes us further from light. But when we use our darkness as a reference point, we can navigate through ourselves to head towards our most loving spirit. As we approach the light and use the darkness as the south facing arrow on a compass, we integrate darkness naturally. When we identify with our highest self, there is no distortion and therefore no shadow to wrestle with. We create the darkness, we do not need to fight it nor fear it. We can never abandon it. Darkness is just a consequence of our distorted identity. It is not an identity to be had.

I'm still reflecting on these ideas and do not mean to say that this is truth. If it fits let it sit. If you have further thoughts, I'd like to hear them! Either way. Remember,

You are safe. You are powerful. You are loved.