Hi everyone! Welcome to Witchcraft & Metaphysics! If you’re new here, please check out this About Page to find out more. Every month I release a themed, downloadable pack filled with activities, rituals, prompts and more, all to help us enhance our relationships with Magic. The theme for this this month’s pack is Transforming SHADOWS with MAGIC. The download is at the end of the post. Enjoy! My work depends entirely on subscribers, so please sign up. If you can afford to upgrade to paid, please do…this is my sole source of income and I want to keep creating for you. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to those already subscribed. Let’s keep building this amazing community of magic together!
I found the title of this month’s pack to be a bit tricky. It’s important to me that we don’t think of our shadows as “bad”, or as the parts of ourselves that need to be transformed. I don’t believe that our shadows are meant to be destroyed or transcended, because that implies that there is some part of ourselves that is inherently flawed. I think it’s time to move beyond this sort of harsh self-judgment. And so, this month isn’t about transforming our shadows into something else, but, rather, transforming our relationship with shadows by incorporating Magic.
What are these shadows anyway?
Simply put, our shadows are the parts of ourselves that we (often unconsciously) hide away, that we don’t want to see. It might be easy, then, to think our shadows are our “negative” traits, like the parts of us that are hateful or prone to destruction. In reality, though, our shadows can just as easily be our inborn talents or our unbridled joy. Sometimes our shadows are the intense parts of us that we struggle to be with, and sometimes our shadows are the parts of us that are timid and vulnerable, too frightened to come into the light of day.
Almost always, our shadows were created out of shame and judgment, out of a fear of not belonging. Tucking these aspects of ourselves into the darkness was a coping mechanism that, at some point, kept us safe. But when the circumstances are right, we can turn back towards them and include them into the fullness of who we are.
In fact, my favorite description of the shadow comes from Mat Auryn, author of Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick & Manifestation. He says:
“The shadow is an aspect of ourselves that is crying out for inclusion.”1
Because my ongoing message is all about our collective move towards a more relational way of living, I created this month’s pack to be a journey of coming into relationship with our shadows. We’re going to go through a process of getting to know them and then including them into ourselves. We’re going to acknowledge that there are times when when our shadows want to stay in the dark and that’s perfectly fine. We’ll go into the dark to visit them there.
This month’s pack is a little different from previous months. For one thing, there are not any additional weekly journal prompts. More importantly, though, I’ve framed this month as a full, month-long ritual. Each exercise/ritual builds on the next so that we take our time, diving deep with one shadow while we’re held in this ritual container.
This month-long ritual involves creating a poppet, or representation, of the shadow we’ve chosen to work with. I believe that, when we see our shadow, not as some part of ourselves that we’re ashamed of, but as a separate living being, we can more easily learn to relate with it without judgment. In fact, my personal experience with this ritual has been that I end up feeling a profound love for this part of myself that I’d previously hidden away. My hope is that each of you has that experience as well.
The general framework of the month is as follows:
Week one we‘ll meet our Shadow Guide, decide on the shadow we’ll be working with, and create our Shadow Poppet.
Week two we’ll journey into the darkness of the underworld and create our Shadow Altar. Here we’ll learn about the dark aspects of our relationship with this shadow.
Week three we’ll journey into the light and learn about the light aspects of our relationship with this shadow.
Week four we’ll come into a conscious relationship with this shadow and commit to including it into ourselves and our lives.
As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them below, send me a DM, or reply to this email. I can’t wait to explore Shadows and Magic with you! 🤗✨
(In case you’ve missed any, you can find all of the downloadable packs here.)
Auryn, M. (2018, April 23). Misconceptions about shadow work. For Puck’s Sake. https://www.patheos.com/blogs/matauryn/2018/04/23/misconceptions-about-shadow-work/
Jenna I love that you wrote that this is not "about transforming our shadows into something else, but, rather, transforming our relationship with shadows." And at the core, our shadow only wants inclusion. Again, relationship. I have found for myself that shadow work is not about going down some rabbit hole into identifying with it, but rather letting it teach me, show me what it needs. A conversation. A RELATIONSHIP!
And Jenna, thanks for your packs. A very generous and beautiful offering.
Jenna, I truly appreciated what you wrote here.
"Our shadow is crying out for our inclusion" - Matt Auryn's quote...This quote and your own "our shadow can just as easily be our inborn talents or our unbridled joy" This is so beautiful, so real, so expansive.
I too believe strongly that our shadow is not be be hurt or transmuted, rather it is to befriended and loved. It is the par of us that holds so much magic and empowerment. It is part of us...just a light is the day, and darkness is the night...it is part of us, and we can not live with one alone.
I also really like your idea of making a poppet. What a friendly way to embrace that once feared part of us.
Thank you, dear wise woman. xxx