You all ready for that love & light? Ha! Well, that definitely won’t be happening here, lol. I feel as though the love & light dynamic is spiritual bypassing in and of itself. I’m not knocking it, I have just come to learn that the work isn’t in that phrase. Love & light will not and does not get you through the lessons you are presented with from the Divine. Light & light won’t get the shadow work done.
When I first embarked on spiritual development, I was introduced to only love & light. Matter of fact, I was told that if there was anything bad or negative around me or out to get me, someone was scamming me. If I was having a low vibrational day, a tough day or something crappy happened, I was told to focus on the positive and be grateful for all the good stuff around you and that is happening, even if it seems minor. I did just that for a while, but eventually it didn’t feel like enough. It felt like I was being led to something more and something different. I went from getting readings to learning to do readings. I knew I had a gift, didn’t know what it was callled but I knew how to use it.
The readings I got were inspiring and informative, and I greatly appreciate those that helped me, but I wasn’t getting the tools and resources I needed to navigate through the challenges and issues in my life. I needed more and of course Spirit knew that and was already leading me to the next stop on my spiritual journey. I was introduced to more and new folks on social media, lots that I became internet friends with. Learning and reading all that they were sharing and teaching brought “shadow work” front and center. I knew what it was but didn’t know how to explain it and even now, I can’t explain it so you’re gonna have to look that up on your own, lol. What I can say about it is that I knew it was time for me to start working on my shit! At this point in my life, I was in front of a big wall with ropes and ladders in front of it to climb over it, but because I hadn’t learned about doing shadow work, I didn’t know how to use those there climbing tools. It was at this moment I learned and realized I had been spiritually bypassing life!
According to John Welwood in his book “Toward a Psychology of Awakening”, spiritual bypassing can be defined as a “tendency to use spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks.” Yup, you guessed it…that is how shadow work is avoided! So, I did my homework, researched and learned all about it so I could get my ass to work. And let me tell you, it was some hard damn work, but very well worth it. The hard times started to feel not so scary or heavy because I knew all I had to do was do the work to get through it. To this day, there hasn’t been anything I haven’t been able to work through, granted sometimes it’s really hard, lol.
Back to love & light…again, ain’t nothing wrong with it, but it just isn’t for me. I noticed the love & light crowd never really talks about getting into the muddy gross work, all I ever see is talk of shadow work, but that’s it…only talk. Believing love & light and positive thinking is all it takes to fix those low vibrational moments, the tough days, the days that are full of tears and pain, the moments where circumstance has its way with us, is just not honest or realistic. At least not for me. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely a place for all of that, because it matters, but it isn’t the answer to getting that shadow work done. Not at all. Don’t use hand picked aspects of spirituality to try and fix things that go wrong in life. There is shit we have to work on in order to grow, expand and evolve. There will always be unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks for us to work on and I assure you Spirit will ALWAYS bring it to our attention and let us know when it’s time and also when we are spiritually bypassing.
There will always be some sort of fucked up situation we experience and come from. There will always be space for us to resolve all of that, but in order to do so we have to be honest with ourselves about the fact that work needs to be done. Honest about our shadow work that is waiting for us to get knees deep in it. And on top of all of that, there is generational trauma all around us also needing to be addressed! But look, don’t get worried or overwhelmed. Everything will happen in due time and when Spirit says so. Divine timing is everything. Just remember, 1) love & light is great, but isn’t everything, 2) shadow work is part of life and will always need to be addressed and worked through, and 3) there are lessons in there for us to learn, but if we don’t learn them then the shadow won’t clear and we’ll have to keep doing the work over and over again.
To shadow work and all the magical tools Spirit gives us to work shit out!
With Love and Divine Feminine Strength.
Yours Truly,
Anna R.
