By Jennifer Deisher, Blueprints For Butterflies, June 13, 2014, https://tinyurl.com/mlkf7ef
It is most important in this journey to come into balance with our shadow side, and learn to love this piece of ourselves that we may find unlikable, or even unlovable.
It’s actually quite sane and normal to fear this side of ourselves on some level, due to the decisions that we sometimes make from this shadowy place. The fact of the matter is that we are wired to be fearful of our shadow side.
This is why we need to be willing to be the distant observer of our fear, by learning to have a healthy respect for it and the reactions it can bring into our lives, and understanding the decisions we make in fear may not be the most rational or objective ones.
Honest, intimate, and loving connections can bring up emotional issues that are looking for healing or release. It is this light of Love that can shine on our darkest places, leaving us to face what we perceive as ugliness within ourselves.
The truth is these emotional expressions are a most beautiful form of art which tell us everything we need to know about our spiritual complexities.
The Serpent in The Deep
We all have a ‘snake or serpent’ – that which we perceive to be fear, insecurity, or weakness. Most people fear and hate this serpent just for being itself, and this in itself says so much about our ego-centered, fear-based or ‘reptilian’ brain, (depending on how you choose to look at it).
When one comes face to face with these fear-based emotional complexities, it takes great discipline to be the distant observer of our ‘fight or flight’ reactions, which happen automatically in these situations.
Sometimes, when the shock value is high enough, we don’t have the option to sit back and observe. We are then left to experience our own personal brand of fall-out, in what are actually very normal, earthy reactions.
The Light in the Shadows
[For example]:
When we feel desire, it tells us where we have longing in our lives.
When we feel angry, it typically comes on the heels of some form of pain, and lets us know where we feel threatened or ‘tread upon’ in some way.
When we feel lack, it is because we are working through a process of feeling there is something we once had, but has now gone missing.
When we feel resentment, it is because we feel violated in some way.
When we feel guilt or shame, it can point to a place of conscience, where Self can be more Accountable to Self.
When we feel jealous or insecure, it tells us we feel fear of losing something, or someone, that is important to us on some level.
When we feel alone and abandoned, it is in our solitude that we find out what we’re made of, as it’s only our perception that sees us ‘alone’ in the crowd.
The list goes on and on, but the gist is that our emotions tell us everything that our Spirit needs us to know about where we need energetic clearing or detoxification.
Where we get into trouble is in thinking that our emotions, and/or the unfiltered expression of those emotions, is ugly or wrong somehow. When we accept this limited belief, we begin to settle for less than what our True Self seeks to have in our life experience. It forces us to push away the emotional expression of our fear, the very thing which we are trying to express and shed in the first place.
Observing the Serpent
If we can find a way to truly be the distant observer of our ‘serpent’, we can begin to suck the ‘venom’ out of its actions and reactions. When we suck the venom out of our fear, we don’t have to be afraid of its reactions or its tendency to sabotage anything healthy that comes into our lives.
We learn to love our serpent just for being itself, and from here we can admit to ourselves when we’ve made subconscious, unhealthy decisions that negatively impact our lives and are the cause of regret.
Sometimes we need help or intervention with this. Many of our venomous ways were created in childhood, and we are very comfortable with the patterns of behavior that it created deep within us. But if we are unwilling or unable to recognize how our inner serpent reacts, we aren’t being true to Self and ultimately begin to settle [for less]— with Self and in our relationships.
The key to navigating our journey ‘into the deep’ is to remember that there is nothing wrong with what we perceive to be our negative emotions. Rather it’s our job to dive in, explore the depths, and experience these negative emotions, and in the process, to overcome this perception [of negativity] and learning to love every aspect of Self.
When we love our inner serpent that lurks in the deep, it becomes docile and only bites when its very clear boundaries are being violated. We can use the venom as medicine, [in order] to find positive aspects and strength, where we perceived negativity and weakness.
When we learn to recognize our fear, we can grow and branch out like the Tree of Life, instead of continuing to run round and round on the karmic wheel of venomous decisions designed by the ego to keep us from our best and truest Self and the fulfillment of our deeper Purpose.
When we go into the deep and learn to truly evaluate the choices and decisions we have available to us, we react from a healthier emotional space and rely less on impulsive decisions made from fear rather than those of Self-Love.
Always remember that we are beautiful souls who are all worthy of Unconditional Love on the most fundamental of levels — and that we all came here to experience just that!