Post by robincragin on Nov 5, 2015 11:09:30 GMT -5
Since the theme of Yule focuses on the return of the sun, light, joy, and life, Witches use this tide to engage in practices aimed at dispelling darkness, in the form of shadows, from their lives. In the Witch’s world, shadows refer to aspects of your life experience that you have not fully explored or that you might even overtly deny. These denied and fragmented parts of your total life experience take on a powerful, even uncontrollable force. There is no shame in having shadows—we all have them to varying degrees. It is simply a part of being human.
*** A Word to the Wise: In spiritual terms, darkness is only one of a variety of natural human states. To judge darkness as bad or wrong is akin to judging whether up is better than down, or whether blue is better than red. Judgment of your natural emotional states hinders your spiritual progress and your psychological health. It incites guilt and does not belong at all in Witches’ magical practices. ***
But from where do shadows come? Shadows emerge from every corner of our lives. We unwittingly fashion our own shadows out of taboos, both personal and cultural. They are our unexercised emotional burdens, our unexamined sadness, fear, anger, and other dark (but purely natural) emotional states. We also make up shadows when we suppress natural feelings that arise from traumatic experiences such as a death in the family, a brush with danger, or a frightening ordeal. These unexamined emotional states fester over time and result in dark and often disturbing behaviors.
Shadows also emerge from our cultural standards or rules that regulate behavior by social agreement on what is acceptable and unacceptable. Cultural standards can create rigid behaviors and strong emotional reactions—especially when you observe someone within your culture abandoning the agreed-upon rules. For example, imagine that in your culture, the word “please” should politely precede a request. If someone does not respect the rule that you have learned (and to which you are accustomed), then you may experience feelings of frustration, offense, or confusion. In reality, this was only a rule that a social group agreed was real. The rules we learn from culture are often those reinforced in our families and they are strong enough to create illusory emotional states. In other words, we can experience joy or sorrow simply because of made-up rules, but these rules are so powerful and pervasive that they can dissolve relationships, cause stress, and even push us toward self-destruction.
At the time of Yule, certain Witchcraft practices involve encounters with shadow, penetrating its reality and seeing it for what it is (which is nothing substantive at all). Our magical work over the next several days will introduce you to your shadows so that you can further your own work with these energies.
Practice: Knowing the Rules
* Make a list of at least ten socially enforced rules that you have learned from living in your culture of origin. For example, your culture may tell you that men are supposed to be the main financial supporters to a family. Or it may tell you that it is shameful to have sex outside of marriage. After you have compiled your list of cultural rules, take time to journal about how each one has affected you both positively and negatively.
* Make a similar list of 5-10 rules that you are supposed to follow as a member of your gender. When you have your list, take time to journal about how these rules have affected you.
* Now make a list of rules that you are supposed to follow as a member of your family. Then journal about how these rules have affected you.
*** A Word to the Wise: In spiritual terms, darkness is only one of a variety of natural human states. To judge darkness as bad or wrong is akin to judging whether up is better than down, or whether blue is better than red. Judgment of your natural emotional states hinders your spiritual progress and your psychological health. It incites guilt and does not belong at all in Witches’ magical practices. ***
But from where do shadows come? Shadows emerge from every corner of our lives. We unwittingly fashion our own shadows out of taboos, both personal and cultural. They are our unexercised emotional burdens, our unexamined sadness, fear, anger, and other dark (but purely natural) emotional states. We also make up shadows when we suppress natural feelings that arise from traumatic experiences such as a death in the family, a brush with danger, or a frightening ordeal. These unexamined emotional states fester over time and result in dark and often disturbing behaviors.
Shadows also emerge from our cultural standards or rules that regulate behavior by social agreement on what is acceptable and unacceptable. Cultural standards can create rigid behaviors and strong emotional reactions—especially when you observe someone within your culture abandoning the agreed-upon rules. For example, imagine that in your culture, the word “please” should politely precede a request. If someone does not respect the rule that you have learned (and to which you are accustomed), then you may experience feelings of frustration, offense, or confusion. In reality, this was only a rule that a social group agreed was real. The rules we learn from culture are often those reinforced in our families and they are strong enough to create illusory emotional states. In other words, we can experience joy or sorrow simply because of made-up rules, but these rules are so powerful and pervasive that they can dissolve relationships, cause stress, and even push us toward self-destruction.
At the time of Yule, certain Witchcraft practices involve encounters with shadow, penetrating its reality and seeing it for what it is (which is nothing substantive at all). Our magical work over the next several days will introduce you to your shadows so that you can further your own work with these energies.
Practice: Knowing the Rules
* Make a list of at least ten socially enforced rules that you have learned from living in your culture of origin. For example, your culture may tell you that men are supposed to be the main financial supporters to a family. Or it may tell you that it is shameful to have sex outside of marriage. After you have compiled your list of cultural rules, take time to journal about how each one has affected you both positively and negatively.
* Make a similar list of 5-10 rules that you are supposed to follow as a member of your gender. When you have your list, take time to journal about how these rules have affected you.
* Now make a list of rules that you are supposed to follow as a member of your family. Then journal about how these rules have affected you.