The not-so-old parable reads like this:

What is Shadow Work, and How Does it Work?

 I’ve given up the over-priced conferences sponsored by some corrupt corporation and I’m no longer willing to sit through a lecture to learn the latest individualistic theory of change from Western psychology. For me, all of that is more often replaced by meditation, ritual, forests, and medicine circles full of drums and smoke and rattles.

And deep explorations into things like the nature of consciousness, our connection to the invisible field of energy all around us, the influence of our ancestors, and my own shadow work. My shadow work has become increasingly important as I start to witness the difference this work makes in my life, and I want to share a little about this with you at Ostara… this time of balance between the day and the night.

Our shadow is that part of us that we believe to be bad or wrong. In large part it is the aspect that we can hardly even see, or can’t stand to look at. It unintentionally hurts someone’s feelings; it judges and tells us we’re better or different than the other guy; it slips in a little comment to make us look good and the other look bad. Sometimes it bursts out of us in an unforeseen rage when we are already a little too tired, a little too stressed, and stretched a little too thin.

It’s the wolf we’re told not to feed in the parable. (Which, by the way, is inaccurately attributed to ‘the Cherokee’ but was actually written by evangelical minister Billy Graham from within his dualistic worldview.)

One of the most important shifts for me has been finally realizing that shadow work is not about getting rid of the shadow stuff! I mean, it can be if you insist on making it about that, but then you’ll get exactly nowhere with it because the simple truth is that shadow is here to stay. None of us are exempt. Not even the ‘love and light at all costs’ coaches and “gurus”. It isn’t a fight, and there is no “winner”. We need the night to balance the day, and many of us need a nasty cold or flu before we appreciate our day-to-day health. This balance of light and dark is embedded in every aspect of life.

And here’s the other thing. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather give that wolf some scraps and keep tabs on her, than try to go about my business with her lurking unseen and ravenous just outside my circle of firelight.

The difference is that when we accept our Shadow as a part of us, we feel more whole and we become more “shame-proof”.

By dropping the belief that I’m working on ridding myself of it, I no longer set myself up for deep disappointment when it shows up again. Instead, I think “yep, there it is, as expected” and I can respond without the weight of failure.

For me, getting to know my shadow has helped alert me to the areas where I need to proceed with more caution and practice being more humble. It has also helped to normalize experiences such as anger, so that I now express it rather than trying to stuff it back down and deny that it’s there (hello resentment and chronic illness). Finally, doing my own shadow work and accepting that the bad wolf is there means I am now so much less ashamed when I screw up. This has been huge for me. When I make an awful, hurtful, ignorant mistake (and I do) I can now beg forgiveness and earnestly learn from it without shriveling up inside at my terribleness or distracting and numbing to avoid the pain. And funny enough, this in turn means that I’m making fewer blunders in the first place. Whew.

Ostara, our Spring Equinox, is a wonderful time to acknowledge and honor this balance of light and dark, as the days are perfectly balanced with the nights. Ostara is the gateway from winter to summer: another harmonious and necessary balance of opposites. Take a moment this week to note where on your horizon the sun rises and sets… it will greet you in this same place at the autumn Equinox: Mabon. And the next time you rub up against a part of yourself that you can hardly stand to look at, take a moment to sit still in the discomfort of that. Breathe into it. Not to make it go away, but to give it a scrap and simply acknowledge that it’s there. Allow for pain. Then ask how you can best right the wrong; be curious about what you need to learn.

This is your shadow work. And it is so worth it.