Hello, and welcome to the Sea Goddess Healing Arts monthly Soul Broadcast!
Our collective intention is to share with you topics and information relevant to current energies, the Healing Arts, tools and modalities, and whatever our Souls are wishing to share with you every month. This month's theme is The Light Side of Shadow Work. Also, new this month is a contribution by our newest team member, Jennifer Alvarado of The Jane Doe Project! We welcome Jennifer to this month's Soul Broadcast and to the Sea Goddess Healing Arts team!
We hope you love and find this monthly offering helpful, and a great resource in your own healing journey. Thank you for tuning into your hearts and our collective Soul space.
The Light Side of Shadow Work
by Mandee Elam
(Medicine Woman of the Soul/Co-Founder and GIC at Sea Goddess Healing Arts)
Shadow Work is a current buzzword, as well as an ancient practice. Many people are starting to hear the words, but aren't quite sure what it means. It sounds scary and can have its uncomfortable moments, but I assure you it's a service to your soul and the collective. Shadow work is a sacred invitation from your soul in order to elevate your consciousness. Honestly, in a nutshell, it's maturing emotionally and leveling up consciously in order to have more peace and purpose in your life.
There are many divine moments here in Earth School where we have an opportunity to face our shadows and practice embodying more of our light and higher self. Many people spend years, even lifetimes, avoiding shadow work because they're afraid of what they might find or what it might reveal. It comes down to a dance and a duel with our egos. Often, shadows are beliefs that our egos have created and we as humans can be stubborn in changing that. I've come to find that facing the shadow is actually just facing the light at the end of the tunnel. Every time you take a step towards it, more and more light is revealed. Eventually you find your way out and the shadow no longer exists.
Often shadows are ways of being, habits, and beliefs about ourselves that aren't serving us or our highest good any longer. Shadow work comes up in our lives when there's an opportunity to rewrite it for our higher healing. For instance, after lots of trauma and drama within one's life, many people often create negative self-talk, develop self-loathing habits, anxiety, depression, and more. A way to face that shadow is simply to become aware. Notice when you're talking poorly to yourself. It sounds simple, but if you notice that you call yourself a name like "stupid or ugly or fat or worthless", perhaps take a breath and then say thank you to yourself for noticing your self-talk. Then give yourself a few put ups, such as "actually you're amazing, smart, kind and beautiful, you are worthy of so much." Often, saying positive things to ourselves is uncomfortable because of the society in which we were raised. It's brave and it's considered shadow work to do this.
Within these few breaths and moments of you reading this, you expanded your consciousness and did shadow work. As we start showing up for ourselves from a heart-centered space, rewiring the way we talk to ourselves and the habits we've created, we start to create lasting change in our own timelines. Baby step after baby step, moment after moment, breath after breath, we develop more peace and purpose in our life. Anxiety, depression, and overwhelm begin to lift. More meaningful and present moments appear. This is considered the light side of shadow work. Where we shine a light on the shadow and actually allow ourselves to see it, honor it and heal it. Light can be purifying if we are open to receiving it.
Looking UP in Awe and Wonder
Eclipses and Shadow Work
by Ursula Duffy
(Co-Founder and GOO at Sea Goddess Healing Arts, Professional Astrologer and Certified Aromatherapist/Founder, Ursa Alchemy)
Twice a year, sometimes more, we all experience Eclipses collectively and individually. Eclipses are created by invisible points in the sky, or "shadow points", which are the intersection points of the orbits of the Sun and the Moon from our perspective; these points are called the Nodes of the Moon. There are two of them and they are always 180 degrees apart, or at an opposition. There's a North Node of the Moon, or Rahu, and a South Node of the Moon, or Ketu. There are very different meanings of the two depending on the branch of Astrology, but generally and for simplicity, the North Node of the Moon represents growth on a Soul level and the South Node of the Moon represents release of a behavior or pattern that is no longer serving our highest good. The work involved in Soul's growth and release is most definitely Shadow work.
The luminaries, or light sources, in our sky are the Sun and the Moon. During an Eclipse, part or all of the light is obscured, so the lights are dimmed or go out completely creating shadows that aren't always there. A Solar Eclipse occurs during a New Moon and a Lunar Eclipse occurs during a Full Moon. When the Eclipse is over, and the lights come back on, the experience can bring something different, a course correction and/or some kind of change, which involves Soul searching in the darkness. We refer to these experiences as Eclipse Seasons since the time period of the effects is usually longer than just the two weeks between the Eclipses, or the two weeks between a New Moon and a Full Moon. The "Season" occurs when the Sun is in proximity to either Node, and usually begins a couple of weeks before the first Eclipse and ends a couple of weeks after the final Eclipse. Generally, there are two Eclipses per "Season", but sometimes there can be more, and the energetic effects can last months or even years.
We recently experienced the first Eclipse Season of 2022 from April to May. There was a partial Solar Eclipse in Taurus on April 30th (Taurus New Moon) and a total Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio on May 16th (Scorpio Full Moon). This was also concurrent with the second Mercury Retrograde of 2022 (May 11th - June 2nd). It's good practice to reflect on that time and pay particular attention to what was happening, how you were feeling and anything that may have come up in your life pulling you into a time of change and/or release. This is the opportunity for doing the Shadow work and integrating the experience. We all have the choice to act upon whatever happened and move closer into alignment with what our Soul is calling us to do. Oftentimes, this can be the greatest and most challenging work of our lifetimes, and therein lies the opportunity to acknowledge our Shadow, and to create light out of the darkness. The work we're called, and sometimes even forced, to do during Eclipse Seasons is also known as Dragon work since the Nodes of the Moon are also known as the head (North Node/Rahu) and tail (South Node/Ketu) of a dragon. Our dragon guides can also come to us during Eclipses to help guide us along the way and through the experience. This happened to me in 2017!
The best way to work with Eclipse energy is to know where the Eclipses occurred in your natal chart. Where is the Taurus/Scorpio axis in your chart? Do you have any planets or natal placements near or at the degrees that the Eclipses occurred? What were the themes that arose for you? This information provides clues and a deeper understanding of the work. I started my own podcast during the recent Solar Eclipse; this Eclipse occurred in my first house/on my Ascendant and I've been feeling called to show up in the world and bring my Astrology work out in a new way. We recorded the last Taurus Rising episode all about the recent Eclipse Season (below).
If you want to learn more about how these energies are affecting you, visit my page and book with me here. The next Eclipse Season will occur in the Fall of this year.
From my Dragon work to yours,
~ Ursula
Blue Kyanite & Shadow Work
by Kendra Hammell, Higher Self Healing, LLC
When was a time you opened up in your life and felt rejected?
What are the first signs that your mental health is dipping?
What does happiness mean to me?
Have you ever wished you could apologize for something you did? What kept you from apologizing?
I recommend getting a journal and encourage you to do a shadow work journal. It is way easier to balance the constant energies that enter our life while keeping our mind open and putting pen to paper. Keeping it real with yourself and your higher power.
Do you need to slap yourself to not feel so numb? What do you chase to feel alive? We all get to that point and we all need to get honest and speak up when we are vibing low and hurting. I love when my head pokes out of my ass after a long time of licking wounds and hiding in my cave of shadows. I crawl out stronger in my faith each time. I receive deeper clarity and recover, and you will too.
Blue Kyanite is an awesome healer and assistant for shadow work. It offers Divine guidance and assists in speaking your truth. It helps when you're honest and doing shadow work; that’s the point, you gotta do the work. You're not fooling anyone, only yourself. If you're not ready it usually comes back again and again until you face it with honesty and acceptance. It raises your vibration and empowers you to create your own path. It cuts emotional ties and restores peace.
Take a piece of Blue Kyanite and keep it by your journal, program it to do what you need it to do while you start to clear out the shadows.
This stone is associated with the throat chakra; you can hold it over your throat while meditating and writing.
Once your side of the street is clean, once your heart chakra is full and you are full of warm yellow and white light, your shadow will fade.
We never get to lose it, it’s a part of us. We can only nurture a relationship and understanding with it.
Love your shadow self up, but keep it in check for more peace in your life. Our power is hidden in our pain; chins up goddesses!
xoxoxoxo
Kendra
Higher Self Healing, LLC
New Contributor and Team Member!
A Poem by Jennifer Alvarado
The Jane Doe Project
I'm crying inside... Slowly but surely dying inside... A heart that is empty and broken, at the same time... Taking its last short breaths, before it comes to its impending death... Wishing and hoping something will change... All I want is love and happiness... Yet I fear others in the world lack the same... I wrote this many many moons ago. During a really trying time. One of my "off" cycles of trying to find myself. Looking any and everywhere but the right place. So young and ignorant to so many things. Confused, scared, and bruised. At the time, I felt like I was dying inside. Lost, lonely, and afraid. Ready to throw my hands up... I did, throw my hands up but I didn't give up, I just gave myself to the Universe. Let go of the wheel and started to really find me. I became my own advocate. The love I was looking for in the world, started to come from me. Those broken pieces began finding their glue and mended themselves. I started to realize I was looking for me this whole time. Everything I wanted, was already inside me. I was too busy running and fighting to save the world when I just needed to save myself from myself. I have stored that small poem in my head. I go back to it from time to time but for healthy reasons. When my thoughts take me to a lower vibe, I think of what I was going through when I wrote that. I'm not there anymore. I am here. Beyond grateful, and proud of myself. Our yesterday's are but memories now. That's all. Moments in time that have already happened and can't be changed. Don't let memories get the best of you. Make them the reason you are the best you. Love & Light Jenny
Learn more about Jennifer and her work here.
We hope we've helped you shine some light on the concept and experience of Shadow Work!
Wishing you a beautiful remainder of June. We have many exciting upcoming/free community events and drum circles. Check out our Events page for details!
With Love, Light & Gratitude,
The Sea Goddess Healing Arts Team
