“The wound is the place where light enters you.” ~ Rumi
The reclamation of shadow is done through shadow hunting where we stalk, hunt and befriend our shadow rather than suppress it. When we acknowledge both parts of ourselves, the darkness and the light, they can live in communion as one. When we neglect our darkness it bleeds into every container of our life leaving nothing but harm in its path.
The most complex part of being a human it seems, is not the external forces that drive and define us, but the internal cosmos forever unfolding inside of us. There are many different aspects to being a human being, to wielding the soul’s power, to being more awake, more loving, more present, more whole in our state of being. Every day you rise up to the sun I invite you to ask yourself, “how do I want to show up in the world today?” As I write this piece of my heart to you in my journal… I am reminded of these words…
“This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind… let it be something good.”
Together we will hunt and stalk your shadow.
once it is disarmed, we will drag it into the light.
Shadow Huntress, Life & Intimacy Guide, Gabrielle Johnson has spent the past 10 years mastering the navigation of internal worlds. As a life-long teacher and student, she strives to accept, understand, and aid the healing of the human conditions that can cause suffering and inhibit joy. These are the internal voices we have each heard speak in different ways. Some voices are louder than others and say, “I’m unlovable,” “I’m not enough” and “I’m unworthy.”
Through recycling her own pain into fuel to uplift and move her forward she has gained a unique ability to guide others, revealing them to their innate power to truly transform; enabling new neural pathways, thought patterns and behaviors to emerge. She leverages a combination of tools and shamanic processes tailored to individual needs, intentions and goals that optimize the alchemy of what no longer serves us.
If everything is a reflection of you, then that which we project becomes a mirror of our internal state. One of the ways you can start to feel shadow is that insidious tap on the shoulder known as projection. When it comes, it causes self inflicted shame, thus throwing integrity out the window.
When we resist our shadow it comes back with a vengeance; projecting disempowering stories that pollute our state of being onto our relationships and the world around us. The afraid, ashamed and hurt parts of us become masters of distorting our internal and external reality.
These voices come from our deepest childhood wounds and societal conditioning. The core shadow that most of us bear is one that shape-shifts and whispers- “I am not lovable, I am not enough, I do not deserve love.”
The reclamation of shadow is done through shadow hunting where we stalk, hunt and befriend our shadow rather than suppress it. When we acknowledge both parts of ourselves, the darkness and the light, they can live in communion as one. When we neglect our darkness it bleeds into every container of our life leaving nothing but harm in its path.
Our shadow SELECTS the story that confirms our perceived reality. If we don’t select a “story” that confirms our point of view we begin to DISTORT our vantage point to make it fit where it actually doesn’t. It’s like trying to fit a box through a lead pipe; it just doesn’t work. When this isn’t successful, we PROVOKE the story to confirm it, no matter how evident it is of being fiction. We can have the most affirming and loving relationships proving our ability to be loved, and still fight the truth kicking and screaming the whole way home.
To alchemize the shadow we first STALK it, we track the stories, fears and projections and how they move within us. We notice them as shadows, by following the trail of muddied footprints. For example, “is this a recurring thought or behavior pattern? Is this feeling expanding or contracting in my body?” If it’s contracting it’s based in fear, which equals shadow.
Second, we HUNT the shadow once we familiarize ourselves with its rhythm and take a look at what wound the shadow was born in. We decide, “Is there evidence, which roots this thought pattern or behavior in objective truth? Is this thought or behavior serving my highest good?” Then we take a deep investigative dive into what birthed this shadow, to bring awareness into where we still need healing. Once we can acknowledge it’s falsehood, we decide to actively check ourselves when it comes knocking again and not feed into opening the door.
Lastly, we BEFRIEND the shadow. We hold it with compassion even when it feels infected by our internal demons. We observe ourselves without judgement, with love, and accept this part of us as a part of the human experience. We acknowledge it will come knocking again, and we allow ourselves to reveal it to heal it. We give ourselves permission to feel all of it, to truly let it go without making ourselves wrong or projecting it onto others.