Shining the Light on Your Shadows

 

 

Welcome to the Yule Tarot Blog Hop!!  

 

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Hermit card from Snowland Tarot by Ron and Janet Boyer

 



Welcome to the Yule Tarot Blog Hop!  I am but one stop on the beautifully lit journey.  You should have gotten here from Karen Sealey's blog.

Traditionally, since farming couldn’t be done in the winter months, the dark time of the year was a time of rest and introspection.  Although things have changed tremendously over the years, for many, including myself, we still use this time to go within ourselves and decide what has been working and what has not.  Like the Hermit here, we use that inner light to search our inner depths, getting to know our true selves.  

 

As we celebrate the rebirth of the sun this Yule, many people are preparing for the New Year, making plans, goals and resolutions so the next year will be the best that it can be.  Some resolutions are chosen to live life to the fullest, such as learning a new hobby or crossing some things off of our bucket list, while others are chosen to better ourselves, such as quitting smoking or losing weight.  The idea of the resolution can really be a fantastic thing because they come from a place of us wanting to change for the better.  Our desire is there, however, a majority of resolutions fail.  We have the best of intentions but our desire for that particular change fizzles out for one reason or another leaving another “failed” resolution.  The problem can be that we are putting a band aid on a wound that we think is something minor but actually goes a lot deeper.  Of course this is not the case with all resolutions, but it is with some.  To have success, we have to dig a little deeper and get to the root of the deeper issues.  In other words, we have to do some shadow work.   

 

For those that are unfamiliar with the term, the shadow is those parts of ourselves that we keep buried deep down inside refusing to acknowledge them until they come out at the most inopportune times, sometimes wreaking havoc in our lives.  Our behaviors can be erratic, seemingly irrational and we can have issues making changes to ourselves (thus the “failed” resolutions). 

 

In order to free ourselves from our shadows, we must bring them to the surface and learn to live with them rather than fight them. When we start making resolutions, these are our shadows starting to peak out, wanting to be acknowledged.  We get a glimpse of them by wanting to make those changes to ourselves, but when we do not follow through with those changes, the shadows go back into the deep, barely acknowledged and we make our shadows worse because we may think less of ourselves because we weren’t able to follow through with our resolutions. 

 

When we make a resolution, we want to bring the shadow of that resolution to the surface, shine a light on it and reveal it for what it is.  Here is a spread that will help get to the bottom of things.

 

Ray of Light Spread

 

                                      2

                              3

         1             4

                               5

                                         6 

 

1. Issue at hand/Shadow to work on
2. How the shadow holds me back
3. How does it help me
4. What can I learn from it
5. How can I heal it         
6. What gift will I receive after it is healed

By revealing and healing our shadows, we celebrate ourselves and the light within us while also becoming a beacon of light for others.  Celebrate the return of the sun by celebrating the light within you.

Next stop on your journey is Shari B. Yetto's blog.

 

Happy Yule and happy hopping!

 

Shine on everyone!!

 

 

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Resolution Detective

 

 

 

Now that the holidays are behind us and 2013 is fast approaching, most people are working on (if they haven’t already) their New Year’s Resolutions and/or their goals for the upcoming year.   Resolutions are usually about improving ourselves: losing weight, quitting smoking, exercising more, and reducing stress are a few of these resolutions but what many fail to work on are the shadows that are buried down deep that could possibly be keeping them from reaching their goals.
 

If you have made your list already, take a look and see if they are the same resolutions that you put on the list for 2012.  Did you put them on the 2013 list because you need to continue to work on the change this next year or did you go back to your old habits so you need to begin working on them again?  If it’s the latter, are there some items that are on your list every year because you give up on them for one reason or another?  If this is the case, there could be some underlying reasons why you aren’t able to make those changes.  These reasons could be an aspect of your shadow self.  Let’s face it, making changes can be extremely difficult.  Habits are hard to break and it takes perseverance and hard work to chip away at those habits in order to make new ones but sometimes the obstacles go deeper. 
 

If you find yourself constantly trying to make the same changes over and over again without any success, you may want to look at one of your shadows.  The answer could be something that you already know but didn’t really give it a lot of thought or it can be something that escapes you and you have to be your own detective and search for clues.  If, for example, your resolution is to make better food choices and you find yourself reaching for food that has in the past comforted you but is not necessarily healthy, you may need to analyze why you need to be comforted.  Are you eating out of loneliness or sadness?  Maybe you are stressed out?  Instead of eating more healthy options, maybe you reach for something quicker that is not as healthy.  Why are you reaching for the quicker option?  Is your life so hectic that you can’t take time to make better choices?  Why is your life as hectic as it is?  Can you make different choices to create more balance and achieve a more manageable schedule?  Do you thrive in the chaos or does it deplete your energy? These are only the first level of questions that you can ask yourself and those answers can reveal more layers.  These questions can be difficult to face, which is why they are shadows in the first place.  We don’t want to face them so we push them down so deep so that we don’t have to think about them but the problem is that they come out in other behaviors that we don’t expect them to, seemingly having to do with nothing until we start looking at them and peeling back the layers.  If you are not sure what shadow it could be or have no idea where to start looking, meditate on it, journal, or pull a tarot card to give you clues as to what the underlying problem could be. 
 

Does every failed resolution have an underlying shadow?  Of course not, but if a shadow is the cause, it can be like beating your head against a brick wall until you look the shadow in the face and tell it that you will not allow it to block your progress any longer.  You owe it to yourself to do the detective work and work on every aspect of yourself that you want to improve.  You deserve it.
 

I wish you all an abundant of blessings for 2013! 
 

Happy New Year!!