The Moon archetype in the Tarot helps us to understand our individual and collective relationship with the Shadow: the Moon cues us into the location of our shadow material – where we can find it, and how it makes itself known. Much like the crayfish emerging from the water on the Moon card, the shadow is psychic material, rising from the pool of our subconscious to be integrated. The Moon archetype and the Devil archetype in the Tarot work together to paint a picture of the shadow: destructive, negative and limiting belief patterns and programming which rise up from the psychic pool of our subconscious, and which hold us in the illusion of separation from our Source and from the pure, positive creativity energy at our disposal, waiting to be purposefully directed.
It is important to understand that while we must take individual responsibility for how we express the shadow in our own lives, we don’t truly own shadow material. We do not and cannot really “own” anything that is alien to, and fundamentally at odds with the Source expressed within us and through us. We cannot “own” anything that is fundamentally at odds with our true nature as expressions and translators of Source energy. As counter-intuitive as it may sound, it is the understanding of the shadow as energetic programming that is not innate to the human that allows us to take greater responsibility, and not less responsibility for how we express it. Since “the shadow” is not innate, we are unable to fall back on logic which says that the shadow is how we are, and we are therefore powerless to do anything about it, or that we need someone or something to “save” us from it.
The shadow is reinforced negative energetic programming and misdirection of energy. The individual becomes a “channel” for negative programming present in the human collective psyche which needs to be healed. We must not, however, indict ourselves, or buy into programming which postulates that we are tainted, unworthy or “bad”. We do not own shadow material, but we must take “ownership” of how we interact with it.
Awakening
Those in the human collective who are rising in consciousness and making the choice, on a soul level, to embody more of their spiritual essence and multidimensional light in their physical lives will take on the task of bringing up these shadow aspects from their psychic, subconscious pools at a far more quickened rate. The awakening process often involves very rapid purging of shadow material, and the individual, in the pre-conscious stage of awakening, often behaves in very spiritually unconscious ways. (To read more about this, pick up my free e-guide, Hey I’m Awake).
We process shadow material through challenging relationships. We magnetize each other into our individual life streams in order to lift and release the specific ways in which we express our shadow. Transits of outer planets to personal planets in the astrological natal chart can signify where and how we are processing shadow material. Transits of Pluto to the natal Moon are especially significant. Pluto’s transits to the Moon will bring up old psychological patterns, and old negative instinctual responses which have become “entrenched” in our energetic field. These old instinctual responses are typically carried ‘forward’ from other timelines/lives to be resolved in the present context of planetary energetic shift.
The more mature we become as awakening and awakened beings – when we decide to consciously participate in our awakening – the more we are able to responsibly deal with the shadow material that is coming up to be integrated. Individuals who have, on a soul level, entered the planetary matrix to play their role in healing the collective are not exempt from this purging of shadow material, but tend to take on more opportunities to release shadow aspects.
How Shadow Material Shows Itself
Situations and events that elicit very primal, raw, and almost ‘irrational’ negative emotion are precisely the moments when shadow material makes itself known, and comes to the surface. Shadow material is often triggered to rise in an instant. Observe and pay attention to your feelings and emotions – your feelings will let you know that shadow material is coming up. Some of the feelings you may witness can include unworthiness, envy, competition and lack. Please know that these moments can feel “irrational” because you are not just dealing with the present as you understand it, but you are in essence dealing with a convergence of timelines. You are dealing with energetic patterns that are coming up in your present moment to be resolved, but do not strictly speaking, derive from your present moment. You are a multidimensional consciousness, and in the present, all aspects of your being are experiencing a healing through the present you that you understand to be you.
Understand that what you are experiencing is your energy attempting to be healed and resolved. You are not bad. You are processing, and you are integrating. Do not repress your shadow material, or pretend that it does not exist. Support the parts of yourself that are asking you to help them to heal. Interpret these moments as energetic requests for help from your other aspects. Always do the best that you can to love yourself in the moments that shadow material rises to the surface. Love the one who is envious. Love the one who feels unworthy. That is what your other aspects are asking you to do. They do not need your shame. They need the power of your unconditional love and acceptance.
The Shadow & the Collective
Individuals who have made a soul level choice to be more directly involved with the release of density and programming on the planet are acting on behalf of the human collective. As an individual integrates his or her own shadow aspects, the collective consciousness is healed. This is fundamentally individual work – we cannot heal another’s shadow, but can only take responsibility for our own shadow material.
An example of a collective expression of shadow material is race conflict and violence. Race conflict and violence are misdirections of energy, they are energetic programming, and they stem from deep wounds in the human psyche that involve relationships with our interdimensional stellar families. The shadow material expressed through race conflict and violence is not just about Earth humanity. We are collectively undertaking a healing which also impacts our dimensional families in the cosmos to whom we are genetically related. Integrating shadow material is a multidimensional, multi-layered healing process, affecting the lines of time “backward” and “forward”. The past and the future. We are healing our ancestral lines, not only in terms of individual familial bloodlines on Earth, but humanity’s broader cosmic ancestry. Their issues are our issues, and we are called upon to step up to greater levels of spiritual responsibility in order to understand that our choice to heal has implications far greater than what we immediately perceive.
When we move through the healings initiated by the Devil archetype, and the Moon, we arrive at the Judgement: the state of spiritual rebirth where we have released our shadow aspects, and we are liberated to express the truth of who we are. The truth of who we are has no shadow. The families depicted on the Judgement card subtly points us toward this powerful truth: to heal and resolve the shadow on an individual level is to heal the collective – the collective of Earth humanity, and the cosmic collective.
Peace,
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