A Letter to You...

Image Becca Tapert

Happy New Moon

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Dear One,

You've done so much work. You've broken family patterns, wandered into the wild to find healing and returned with powerful medicine. You take this medicine into each of your relationships and into your work in the world.

Perhaps the idea of connecting with like minded women intrigues, excites and even scares you.

You wonder, what would it be like to be with other women and reveal my light and my darkness?

You want to bring magic into love and work. You are a creatrix! You long to feel alive and to express your gifts.

Part of you wants to evolve quietly, on you own or in individual therapy...

Another part of you knows community is the cauldron where magic is made.

Growing with and in front of others is worth the reward.

You are a living, breathing, beautiful paradox and you need a community that can hold that.

You want to share deeply what scares you...and also what makes you feel alive!

You want to be in community that holds space for depth of feeling..and also for insight and creative expression.

You want to talk about spirituality...and also about real life stuff - like sex and money.

You want resources tools and structure that help you to tangibly reach your goals.

Embracing the Shadow is an evolving, inspired and heart felt creation and this is it's goal: To meet your deep need to connect and inspire.

Embracing the Shadow is an invitation to let go of shame, embody our gifts and stand in our vulnerability in the company of fellow women.

Embracing the Shadow is part salon, mystery school, alchemical community and women's group.

Salon: a salon is a gathering of people held by an inspiring host. During the gathering they amuse one another and increase their knowledge through conversation. More on the rich feminist history of salon's later.

Mystery School: A group of initiates dedicated to deepening their understanding of the mystery teachings. The mystery teachings are the perspectives, techniques and practices that lead us to what Jung called the Unconscious mind and facilitate awakening, insight and healing.

Alchemical Community: A group of people dedicated to honoring wholeness and reducing shame. A group that encourages participants to express their whole selves and to take relational and creative risks to increase their access to spiritual awakening, wealth, self-love, joy and love.

Women's Group: A place where depth of feeling is welcomed and held. A place where the cycles of women's lives can be shared and and held with reverence and celebration.

Apply below and be the first to know when registration opens later this fall. Feel free to share this email with a friend.

Embracing the Shadow is evolving into...

A monthly program focussed on specific topics like...

Synchronicity

Money
Enchantment
Sex
Boundaries
and much more....

Each month we will be deep diving into a topic and exploring resources, practices and specific tools to guide your way.

We will be doing all this in community - meeting virtually twice a month and through a private forum.

Every month you will receive a PDF containing practices and resources tailored to that month's topic.

More details to come!

Let me know you are interested and join the list by applying below.

APPLY TO EMBRACING THE SHADOW WOMENS GROUP

Listen to Molly Sarle's, Kareoke Angel

Image Cristian Newman

Are You Psychic?

Happy Full Moon

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ARE YOU PSYCHIC?

Little rant: The idea of being psychic, like so many esoteric concepts has been ruined by mainstream culture. Aptitudes associated with the receptive (or feminine)...have been subject to a smear campaign which seeks to either trivialize and mock or demonize and fear. This has been going on for a few thousand years. For a clear historical exploration on what I am talking about see, Starhawk's book The Spiral Dance.

If we liberate ourselves from the idea that "being psychic" is what we were told it was - some kind of sensational phenomenon at best woo-woo or at worst demonic...

We might see that Yes, We are all as psychic as we want to be.

Psyche: the Greek word for soul or spirit and butterfly.

The very goal of therapy and inner work as I see it is to connect one's own inner guidance. Most important is developing the skill of being receptive to the unconscious. We want to yolk the conscious mind with the unconscious mind. This is Yoga.

Yoga: Word in Eastern spirituality meaning to yolk or join.

This joining makes us our own inner guide and keeps us developing the ability to be receptive to our own soul. Making this link is my definition of psychic.

When we have this kind of receptivity we become sensitive to how the inner world and the outer world are connected. Jung called the synchronicity.

Synchronicity: the meaningful coincidence of two events, one inner or psychic and one outer or physical.

Talk therapy is often the very important beginning to this process of marrying the inner and the outer worlds. We begin to bring our inner world out by sharing it deeply with another person. In depth therapy sometimes we have to spend a few years just talking. Imagine no one has ever really listened to us. We might need to spend a long time practicing sharing our inner world and trusting that another person will hear us and be receptive.

When we've learned to dialogue with another person we can better learn to dialogue with ourselves. As with all developmental abilities we experience them in relationship and then we internalize them and make them our own.

From there we can move on to other techniques. Art therapy, sand tray, the tarot and active imagination might at this point become potent tools for the process.

When we do a sand tray we are connecting the conscious mind with the unconscious mind...

We place the items in the tray and then through dialoging with what we see, deep truths we were holding inside but were as yet unconscious emerge into consciousness. Clients are so often blown away by how poignant and symbolic the items they choose are when they start to talk through what they have placed in the tray. The unconscious and the conscious mind are talking. We are doing yoga. We are connecting the polarities of inner and outer, conscious and unconscious, ego and soul.

This kind of exchange and sensitivity is "psychic" by my definition. It has to do with psyche and it is all about joining two halves like the wings of the butterfly. Also like the butterfly this process of joining the polarities transforms us just like the caterpillar transforms in the chrysalis.

The items in the sand tray reflect elements of the collective unconscious that we all relate to. I believe that tapping into the collective unconscious or inherited ancestral memory is also being "psychic." We call these images or items archetypes. An archetype is a form that is recognizable across time and culture. For instance a dragon, a pot of gold, a bridge, a well...We all have associations with these items that speak to us symbolically.

Collective Unconscious: Jung's word for ancestral memory or the deep part of the Unconscious mind that is inherited and contains information shared by all humankind across time and culture.

One of Jung's famous quotes reads, "we must make the unconscious conscious or it will rule our lives and we will call it fate." The dialogue between the conscious and the unconscious mind creates wisdom and helps us see clearly, another nice definition of psychic in my book.

I am interested in having an inner guide that points me towards finding meaning, connection, aliveness, wisdom and gratitude. I think when I am at my best as a therapist I am holding space for others to connect to this inner guide and am acting as ferrywoman to the inner depths. Making this connection myself and also supporting others in making this connection is my passion.

PS.

Heart felt and tender blessings to all our trees, animals and people affected by the fires and smoke.

By all accounts the astrological weather is stormy as we navigate these big conjunctions involving Mars and Saturn. I wish us all the resource and willingness to pause, connect within and relax before reacting or making rash moves.

I felt extra cooped up this last week and have been reminded again that caring for my body, mind and spirit is enough to focus on right now. Over and over again I get to let go of the idea that somehow there's a way to beat the game and be sitting on a distant island right now - the urge to escape is natural and it helps me to realize almost everyone is experiencing this to some degree.

Everywhere I go I will be invited to do the inner work and that's just the deal. We are in this together.

This Smith's album is also helping...

Listen to the Smith's Strangeways, Here We Come

Anima and Animus

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Happy New Moon

The concept of the anima and the animus is one of Jung‘s most fascinating and controversial topics. As Jung was creating his map of the psyche/soul he had many profound personal experiences. Jung's theories are grounded in his personal experience and in active imagination. Active imagination which is the process of self reflection through art making, guided meditation, journaling, personal reflection etc.

Through active imagination Jung connected with a part of his psych he identified as the eternal feminine. This eternal feminine actually initially "showed up" as one of his female clients in his mind eye.

Jung struggled his whole life feeling he had to be taken seriously by the scientists of the time and trying to survive in a world of materialism and sexism. In contacting this inner other he was able to delve deeply into the question of whether his model of psychology was science or art. The masculine part of himself answered science and his feminine inner counterpart answered decidedly art. Through dialogue with these parts of himself he was able to reconcile these opposites and come to a deep understanding that of course his psychology and in my opinion all good psychology is both.

Through a rich process of dialoguing with this inner feminine essence Jung was able to include more of himself in his psychological model and in his work with clients.

From his personal experience he posited that we each have an inner other. The concept of anima and animus was seen as highly gendered due to the cultural lens of the time. If we release our own limited gendered beliefs we can see the essence of his teaching as potent and applicable today.

If we we are to experience our self as whole beings we must acknowledge the polarities that exist within us. We have within us both masculine and feminine, scientist and artist, conscious and unconscious. Jung suggested that this inner other actually serves as our guide to an experience of the Self/Wholeness.

2 of Cups Morgan Greer Deck

Murray Stein in his wonderful book Jung’s Map Of The Soul defines the two terms:

ANIMA - the archetypal images eternal feminine in a man’s unconscious that forms a link between ego consciousness and the collective unconsciousness and potentially open the way to the Self.

ANIMUS - the archetypal images of the eternal masculine in a woman’s unconscious the forms a link between ego consciousness and the collective unconscious and potentially open the way to the Self.

Jung described the inner anima and animus as quite distinct beings. These distinct entities within the psyche he called archetypes.

Murray Stein defines archetype as an innate potential pattern of imagination thoughts or behaviors that can be found among human beings in all times and places.

It’s a controversial idea but basically Jung suggested that through the archetypes, culture reflects psyche and not the other way around. I like this as a psychotherapist because it means that if we want things to change we have to do the inner work. It suggests that inner work is also revolutionary. If we do the work within our own psyche to reconcile the opposites and accept and experience our Self as whole beings perhaps we then create a culture that invites others to do this and is more holistic and less fragmented; therefor more inclusive and life affirming to more people.

The anima and animus shed light on the concept of the soulmate which is popular in our culture. Especially during the half first half of life we often long for love and search for a complementary mate to complete us. This reflects our deep inner need to know our own Self fully and engage with our own inner anima or animus.

The Lovers Card Rider Waite:

We are so often attracted to partners that are well developed where we are less developed. This process of projecting our deep an intuitive longing to know ourselves out onto another is ancient. I think life is a rich and messy process of projecting aspects of our self out and then taking those projections back and metabolizing this process over and over again. I think that romantic love facilitates great inner awakening and wholeness when it can go beyond the infatuation stage. Mature love can be the springboard to experiencing what many Jungians call “alchemical marriage.” Alchemical marriage has to do with the marriage within: the union of opposites and the reconciliation of paradox within us that creates an experience of wholeness and of the Self. This is what Jung called individuation and is generally accepted as the “goal” of psychotherapy.

If we continually project this need to know ourselves and experience our own wholeness out we will continually look for a partner to complete us. At the far end of the spectrum this looks like sex or love addiction. Just like the alcoholic seeks to quench his spiritual thirst with spirits, the love addict seeks to experience wholeness by connecting with the beloved ~ becomes intensely focused on the other and misses the opportunity to connect with the self.

Active imagination, art making, poetry, the tarot and psychotherapy ~ these are ways we can enter into a dialogue with our inner anima or animus. For anyone interested in Jung’s personal experiences and how they informed his work you can read his autobiography Memories Dreams and Reflections or most wonderfully you can look at his Red Book which is a beautiful journey in image through Jung’s inner world.

From the Red Book

Better yet begin to connect with your own inner anima or animus through active imagination. Robert Johnson’s book Inner Work is a wonderful guide for safely and effectively exploring active imagination.

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"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious." Carl Jung

Leo and the Lion

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Happy August and Happy Leo Season.

This month we have the invitation for more playfulness and more shine. What does our ego fear will happen if we take up a bit more space? Can we risk being judged in order to grow and in order to be of service? There is immense power in admitting we are powerless over how other's see us.

Where could you playfully allow yourself to be seen?

To play with this theme I have accepted a challenge by one of my mentors to post on instagram daily during August. If you aren't following me already come on over! I will be posting lots about Jungian psychology, Shadow work, relationships, Tarot and more....

BADASS LEO SPOTIFY MIX

AUGUST TAROT READING VIDEO

CLICK IMAGE BELOW...

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"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious." Carl Jung

September's Embracing the Shadow group is full but please still apply here to be first on the list for the next one (date tbd.) Applying also lets me know that you are interested in Shadow work so that you are first to receive special Shadow content and hear about stuff you will probably be excited about....

SPOTIFY SHADOW MIX VOLUME 2

What is the Shadow?

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HAPPY NEW MOON IN CANCER

This is a feeling moon. What feelings are flowing in the undercurrents of life? Where do those feelings point you? Tune in to those currents as you set sail on this new cycle.

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"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious." Carl Jung

4 WEDNESDAYS IN SEPTEMBER @ 6pm
9/2, 9/9, 9/16, 9/23

This will be a small group to ensure that everyone has ample time for personal attention and group reflection. If you would like to participate please fill out this short application here as soon as possible to grab your spot.

Our last group will be 9/23 in honor of Mabon or the Autumn Equinox when light and dark, day and night are in perfect equilibrium. This time of pause and celebration marks the transition into longer nights and the earth's shadow time of Fall and Winter. If possible we will gather outside in nature for this last group. The group will be small enough to allow for social distancing.

WHAT IS THE SHADOW?

The Shadow is a place in us that holds the balance. It is the Yin to our Yang. It's a place where hidden strengths they waiting and a place where energy pools.

One of Jung's great contributions was to create a map of the psyche and this map is why I call the Shadow "a place." It exists in relation to other constellations in the map similar to the way the planets hold each other in orbit. Specifically, the Shadow polarizes with the Persona or what we commonly refer to as "ego." Strengths, liabilities and characteristics that don't serve the ego's goals of fitting in, getting ahead and pleasing others set up camp in the Shadow. It's a bit like the Burning Man of your psyche, where the wildness goes to play. These Shadow aspects of Self may threaten our fitting in with family or society now or when we were growing up. For a developing child fitting in feels like/ is life or death. Later in life we can risk integrating these parts of Self and it may even be necessary for our mental, emotional and spiritual health. Jung said the first half of life was about developing the ego and any risky material went back into the Shadow. He explained that if we embark on a journey of Self discovery the second part of life is all about excavating the Shadow and bringing these parts into the light.

This process of owning and exploring the Shadow can create balance, wholeness, sovereignty, awakening, better relationships and passionate living. It also helps us avert the dangers of not owning our Shadow namely - anxiety, resentment, feeling stifled, powerless and having troubled relationships. Shadow work helps us own our darkness. When darkness is conscious it nourishes and enlivens, when it is unconscious it can cause harm to Self or others.

Our creativity is the key to unlocking the Shadow. Creativity allows us to court the Unconscious which is where the Shadow resides. We don't go barging in to the unconscious demanding answers - we develop a practice of courting the Unconscious. Imagine arriving on the shores of ancient Avalon, you would be respectful, reverent and probably really excited. Shadow work is similar. Art, imagery, dreamwork, Tarot, Sandtray, metaphor, fairytale and poetry are how we court the Unconscious and are good at coaxing the Shadow into awareness.

LISTEN TO SHADOW MIX ON SPOTIFY