Naming the Shadow
The Sage speaks:
See there—up in the heavens she wanes! The crone moon removes her mask of light. She reveals her mysteries for all.
What is your mask? Did you know that you wear one, my beloved? And what is it that lies beneath? In my time, I have worn a great many masks: large and small, ornate and stark. Each mask revealed as much as it concealed. I learned well that there are times when masks should and should not be worn.
It is easy to become bound by the illusion of the masks we wear when we live in the belief that there is nothing beneath the mask. It is then that we treasure it beyond its worth.
It is natural to wear a mask. It is when you think you do not wear one that the masquerade becomes a dangerous exercise. The masks you will sense the least are those of your darkness. This is because you are taught by your elders and by those of the village to shun the presence of these masks.What’s more, the village folk say to you, “do not point to the dark masks of others.” So you sleep and forget and lose the wisdom and power of these masks.
What madness this is. We see each other’s masks of darkness as clearly as though they were our own. We learn not to tell the emperor that he is naked, and in the process we pretend we are fully clothed as well.
I now say to you: know your masks well, my wise one, see them in detail and name them, each one.
Introduction to Shadow Work
When the moon begins to wane, the darkness that you see cast across her face is a shadow. This moon-shadow is a potent symbol for the darkness that manifests on the personal, spiritual level. Shadow is an element of human consciousness that is made up of significant fears, memories, emotions, and experiences that, over the course of your life, you have rejected in some way or held back from flooding into your full waking consciousness. For example, when you have an emotional response to something, but decide to ignore that emotion, it gets stuffed into a dark corner of your consciousness where it becomes a part of your shadow.21
Let’s say you go strolling down the sidewalk, when suddenly from twenty yards behind you you hear the sound of squealing car brakes and then a prodigious crash!You turn to see an automobile wrapped around a telephone pole. From where you are standing, you can see the driver slumped over the steering wheel. You feel frozen; your heart is the only thing that moves and you can feel it pounding in your throat. Within seconds, other people are on the scene helping the driver out of the car. An ambulance arrives and takes the injured party away. Someone on the sidewalk notices the drawn expression on your face, approaches you and says, “Are you all right?” You put on the best smile that you can and say, “Sure, I’m fine:’ You may feel like crying. You may feel shock or horror. But you hold it in, for whatever reason. That held-in experience has been stuffed away and will soon became a part of your shadow.
The shadow is the emotional part of you that you either don’t want to look at or cannot look at. When you are forced into confronting it you feel uncomfortable, yet it is an essential part of human makeup.
You wouldn’t be human without a shadow. But in our culture there exists an unspoken agreement among us all not to look at it. You don’t look at my shadow, I won’t look at yours, and nobody should ever look at their own! This kind of collusion perpetuates an un healthy (and absolutely unnecessary) fear of darkness.22
This fear is reinforced everywhere: in mainstream religions, in the media, in our families, on the streets, in schools.23 This pervasive inculcation keeps every one of us in a reactive mode and keeps shadow at arms-length at all times. It keeps us taking the long route around the dark forest, rather than the short one that goes directly through to the desired destination.
Contemporary earth-centered spiritual paths go against the grain of mainstream fear of darkness. The mystics on these paths-neopagans, as they are called-do not promulgate the notion that humans are born inherently wrong, bad, or evil simply because they have a shadow. That idea is left to the contemporary monotheistic religions and their followers. Neopagans feel the shadow is a natural part of the human psyche and spirit that, if allowed to unfold, becomes a great teacher and a source of power. It may feel like a momentous task to override cultural inculcation. But in order to experience a change in consciousness, the first assignment of the neo pagan, shaman, or Witch is to become aware of and eventually create a sense of personal detachment from such social strictures. This will be your task as well, as you follow along this course of study. Over time you will see that the social codes governing behavior and belief are simply masks that can be easily worn or discarded at will. But before that can happen, it always feels as though the masks are a liv ing part of the face, or presentation to the world. It feels like there is nothing underneath. It feels as though the mask is all there is.
Once you begin to pry loose the cultural masks you wear, you can see your true face shining beneath the culturally constructed one. That fresh face will always include those dark, shadow-self aspects. The thought of exploring in such a way may send some readers into a panic. They may set this book on their shelves and dread ever seeing its pages again.
Confronting the shadow, contemplating its meaning, and assimilating its power is an initiatory journey into the earth-life of your spirit well worth taking. It is the shadow that calls for resolution so that your spirit can evolve. Each of us is called to master our old lessons so that we can effectively handle new ones. Working with the shadow in Western cultures is an acquired skill. We need to adapt to darkness just as we would·to a new environment.
The shadow demands from you change, growth, and develop ment.24 What makes most people uncomfortable about facing a time of change is the fact that it involves a death and a rebirth—death of an old way of being, behaving, and perceiving, and the rebirth of a new way. Death and rebirth are the two core motifs of spiritual initiation rites in cultures all over the globe. Indeed, your exploration of the shadow is a journey into self-initiation. It is an initiation into the power of being fully human.
Through this shadow initiation, you face a type of death because you begin to remove yourself from the cycle of personal illusion. By this I mean that once you accept those dark, shadowy parts of your being, you can no longer live your life wearing only the masks the culture expects you to wear. Embracing the shadow is the work of embracing your truth, accepting your life for what it really is-a mix of joy and pain, light and dark. It is also the work of accepting yourself for who you really are, and honoring those parts that you think are good, as well as those parts you think are less than honorable. When you reject the path of shadow, you reject a part of yourself; you censor and deny that which could bring you into your full human power. The final outcome of this journey toward assimilating the shadow is a rebirth to wholeness, internal balance, and natural perfection.
Shadows can be either a blessing or a curse, and you control which they will be. Once you assimilate them into your psyche, shadows no longer feel threatening; you become more magically powerful and you begin to feel spiritual liberation. Shadows are blessings because they stretch you in new directions; they stimulate growth and self-awareness. A vast amount of blocked psychic energy rushes through you once shadows are looked at, accepted, and named for what they are25-aspects of a continuum of light. I fleft unattended, they are a curse, for they can ultimately drain you of energy, life, and wisdom.
The Spectrum of Shadow
Shadow has a spectrum, just as does light. The shadow spectrum is divided into two main categories: upper and lower shadow, or as I call them, the shadow mask and subshadow. Again, as with the spectrum oflight, the shadow mask and subshadow are melded together. Sometimes it is difficult to know where one ends and the other begins. The shadow mask is any dark behavior or action. Into this category fall those behaviors that are visibly detrimental and injuri ous to yourself or to others. The shadow mask is a behavior that could be recorded if you were followed by a video camera. It is a manifestation of some unresolved, blocked, past emotional event. The blocked part of your spirit that continues to go unresolved is called the subshadow. The subshadow is like a mood that fuels the shadowy behavior.
Most of us have more than one visible shadow mask, but some shadows are more prominent than others. Sometimes you mistakenly feel you are concealing these masks from the gaze of others. More often you are merely concealing them from yourself. Whether or not you are conscious of wearing your shadow masks, undoubtedly you have a sense of just how ugly they can be. This usually prompts people to try to hide their shadows in earnest. However, hiding a part of you that calls for attention is not easy. In fact, attempting to hide your shadow masks causes them to emerge in an inflated way, so that no one can ignore them.26 Trying to hide the shadow mask is like trying to submerge an inflated basketball in a pool of water. It just won’t stay down.
The surest way you reveal your shadows to the world is to cast a longshadow. The longshadow is your own shadow lengthened and cast on to another person.27 In other words, you ascribe your dark traits to another person.
A look into the crone and sage’s cosmic mirror reveals the stark truth that darkness resides within each of us, a reality too painful for some to bear. When this darkness becomes too uncomfortable, some may try to externalize their shadow masks. Once the locus of the shadow mask is “out there:’ then others are viewed as bad, wrong, threatening, or in some other way shadowy.
Not only can an individual cast a longshadow, but so can groups.
For example, think of the numerous religious groups that espouse a belief of love, yet hate is all that their members demonstrate. These religious groups may cast the longshadow by vilifying other belief systems. Another example is a group that may advocate peace, but which will use violent measures to keep its idea of peace in order. The members cast a longshadow when they impose the responsibility of their actions onto others who they claim provoke a violent response. These are the manifestations of the shadow mask unresolved.
The shadow mask is an aspect of your outer presentation to the rest of the world, and the good news is that like all masks, it is removable. That is to say, your behaviors can change.
Remember, a shadow mask is composed of visibly detrimental or injurious behaviors that come from unresolved emotions.28 As an example, let us call one of your masks “argumentativeness.” It is identifiable as a mask because it is a behavior, a visible part of your personality. However, argumentativeness does not have to be present in order for your personality, spirit, or power to be complete. It is not the only trait that defines you. It is simply one of the tools you may use in communication.
Because argumentativeness is a tool, you can manipulate it; you can make decisions on when to use it or not. Knowing this is vital, because it illustrates what power and versatility you have with your masks. You can decide whether or not to wear them. Once you mas ter your masks, your presentation in life is like that of an actor in an ancient Greek play-you can “become” whatever you would like to be through the careful selection of masks.
The second shading of personal darkness, subshadow, points to a more challenging aspect. Subshadows are the roots of your shadow masks; they are your shadows’ place of origin. Exploring this origin point of your shadow masks can be a threatening experience. It may be a memory; it may be an unconsciously recorded trauma from infancy. Whatever the specific cause, typically the subshadow’s point of emergence is the past. Somewhere in the past you inherited your shadow mask-your dark behavior. No one wears masks when born. From birth, each of us acts out of pure spontaneity. But over time, it is family, friends, and the culture into which we are born that hand us the shadow masks we wear in later life.
What makes this difficult is knowing that you cannot change the past (at least not on the mundane level). The past must be accepted as a fait accompli. That does not mean that you are fated to merely accept and wear the masks given to you as a “done deal:’ Though you may be handed masks, you ultimately decide whether or not to wear them and bring them to life. Working with the subshadow is the work of freeing up the energy held captive by the past, which is the life spring that keeps your various shadow masks alive.
When you recognize your shadowy behaviors, a window of opportunity opens for you to move into your inward life and become aware of any connected emotional responses that might have been stuffed out of sight. This is not an easy task, especially since many of us have had a lot of practice ignoring our emotions. After years of ignoring this very real part of your self-expression, you can get to the point where emotions might feel insignificant, too subtle or unimportant to deal with. The effect of this is like tightly tying a tourniquet on your arm. After a while the arm starts to lose sensation, turn blue, and die off.
The process of confronting subshadow is like taking the tourniquet off your emotions. A part of your spirit, just like the tied arm, begins to tingle, wake up, and come back to life. It is restored to the rest of your spirit so that you become whole and balanced. You begin to take off the tourniquet when you tune into your emotional responses.
When you experience an unusually strong emotional response to a person or situation, it is usually an indication that subshadow is attached. This subshadow may actually be born from an encounter with an entirely different person or situation than the one currently setting off the dark emotional response, but the current situation resembles the original experience in some aspect, so your subshadow comes forward in an effort to find resolution to the original incident.
Working with the subshadow is a long, gradual process that requires patience and practice. It is subtle but powerful dark moon work. Along the way there can be moments of psychic release from the past, but the pace that may have led to these moments can feel like that of a snail on a steep, uphill grade. In this work, it is important to keep in mind that any resolution achieved, no matter how large or small, should be attended to as though it were new root growth-tender, fragile, and in need of stimulation and nurturing. Once you have a few victories under your belt, you may discover a noticeable shift in your personal power. You will feel spiritually stronger and freer than before.
Your journey into the dark will begin with the discovery or naming of the shadow mask. The tales within this book illustrate the points that will follow. Here, then, is your entry way to the gated path of darkness, your first tale of shadow.
Tom Tit-Tot
Once there was a woman and her daughter who lived in a far off kingdom. Although the daughter was intelligent, fair, and charm ing, her mother worried that she might never marry. One day, when the girl was sixteen, her mother sat spinning a skein of yarn. As she span29 she grumbled to herself, worrying about her daughter’s plight. The king happened to be roaming through the village and passing by the cottage of the grumbling woman. The king, hearing the grumbling, wanted to know what weighed so heav ily on the old woman’s mind. The woman, embarrassed that the king might know her secret fear, told him that she was not actu ally grumbling, but telling herself how proud she was of her clever daughter who had spun five skeins of wool that very day.
Upon hearing this, the king told the mother to send her daughter to the palace where she would have everything she wanted for eleven months of a year. For repayment, in the twelfth month her daughter was expected to spin five skeins of yarn every day. If she were to do this, he would marry her.
The mother, so relieved that her daughter had married and married well, packed her bags and sent her off to live in the palace with the king. So off to the palace went the daughter, where she lived like royalty for eleven months. She had everything she could ever want during that time. On the first morning of the twelfth month, she was taken to a dark dungeon of the palace that only contained a spinning wheel and a mound of flax. Before she was locked into the dungeon, the king told her that she was to spin five skeins by nightfall or she would be beheaded.
The poor girl, left alone, wept bitterly at her plight. Just then, a small dark elf popped up through the window. He laughed and said that not only did he understand the girl’s situation, but that he would help her. “I’ll take the flax each morning and return with five skeins each night,” he said.
Skeptical of his offer, the girl asked, “What’s your pay?”
‘’I’ll give you three guesses each night to guess my name. If you haven’t guessed it by the last night, you’ll be mine forever!” Since the girl really had no other choice, she reluctantly agreed and before she knew it, the tiny thing grabbed the flax and went flying out the window.
She waited and worried all day that he might not return, but that night, he came back as promised with the five skeins. “Have you guessed my name yet?” asked the imp.
The girl had been thinking of names, and she put them to the test. “Is it Jacob? How about Ned? Is it Mark?”
“No, no, and no!” screeched the elf and then he flew out the window.
Every day the tiny, dark elf would take the flax and return each night with five skeins. All day long the poor girl would try thinking of names, but she never hit the right one. Finally, on the day before the last in the month, the king came down to the basement for a visit. Since he knew that she would hold to her end of the bargain, he softened and thought to cheer her with an amusing story. “Today I had the oddest experience:’said the king. “I was on a hunt when all of a sudden I heard some hum ming sound. I followed the noise to a great chalk pit where I saw the oddest creature. He was a tiny, dark elf who was spinning flax like mad and singing to himself: “Nimmy nimmy not, my name’s Tom Tit-Tot!”’ When the girl heard this she was extremely excited, but did not say a word.
On the last evening, the tiny dark elf returned with the final five skeins. He had a malicious look in his eye. “Have you guessed my name yet?” he asked.
“Is it Sammie?” she asked.
“No” he said coming closer to her. “Is it Zebedee?” she asked.
“No” he said coming even closer. “Take time woman, next guess and you’re mine!”
The girl backed up a step or two, pointed and said, “Nimmy nimmy not, your name’s Tom Tit-Tot!” With that, the imp let out a horrible shriek and flew into the dark, and she never saw it anymore.30
There is an old magical saying that if you know the name of something you will have power over it. This axiom is especially true when working with shadow. To be specific, once you know the name of your shadow mask, then you will have greater control of it. It won’t have the ability to easily sneak up on you and play out its antics.
In practical terms this means that once you know what your shadow mask is, then you can recognize the times when you are wearing it. Once you have been made aware of the form of your shadow mask, you cannot erase the heightened consciousness achieved from that awareness. What this does is center you in your own self-knowledge. Once you know what your shadow mask is, you will know what it does. You will be able to anticipate its tricks and make conscious choices about whether or not the shadow mask is serving you and whether or not you need to wear it at any given time.
In the process of knowing the name of the shadow mask, you cre ate magic because you have directed a change in consciousness. The shadow mask is born from an emotional entity-the subshadow. Emotions, particularly the shadowy ones, are fluid and almost vaporous in nature. When you take note of your mask, it opens the way for you to notice your emotions, or in essence, shine the light of conscious awareness on them. When this happens, they either evaporate completely or shape-shift into something entirely different.31
Noticing the shadow mask falls into a category of magical work that I call naming. Naming means specifically identifying something. Through this process of specifically identifying the shadow mask, you generate a force-field of magic.
But this isn’t magic of any garden variety. The magic connected with naming the shadow mask is always transformational and life changing. When you know the name of the shadow mask, its power over you greatly decreases, and you immediately feel the effects of its loosened grip. It may be subtle at first, but over time the effects will be an increase in your individual magical potency, as well as growth in your non-magical life. Awareness of the shadow mask frees up great quantities of magical energy that a Witch, shaman, and Priest or Priestess of the Old Ways can utilize for more positive ends.
Application of “Tom Tit-Tot”
In the story of Tom Tit-Tot we see a vivid example of the naming process between a young woman and her shadow mask. The girl is brought to the palace and is told to complete a task that she cannot do. She begins to worry and cry. At that moment, her shadow mask appears in the form of the tiny dark elf. Her shadow mask in that instance could be named fear.
Her fear was of failure—failure to meet another’s expectations. The tale insinuates that her shadow mask was one initially given to her by her mother, who taught her how to worry. The mother’s worrying was the mask that initiated the trouble of the tale, placing her daughter into a difficult situation. The daughter’s first fear was that she wouldn’t meet her mother’s expectations. She then extended her fears to include the king’s expectations and finally the tiny black elf’s expectations.
But the story reveals a truth about shadow. It wants to show you the process of assimilating this part of yourself. The young girl held the power to assimilate this dark aspect from the start of the tale, and the dark elf even says so himself. He points to his own undoing-to the magic word with the ability to lift the spell. He says that as long as she does not know his name, she will be his. The converse of his state ment could then be true: “When you do know my name, I will be yours.” This shadow mask was calling out to the girl, wanting to be brought into the light.32 In the story, the girl gained control of her fear by looking it in the eye and naming it for what it was. Once she knew the name of the shadow mask, it went shrieking into the dark ness from which it came, never to return.
Splitting
How many times have you heard that a focus on negativity will get you nowhere? When I did the work of owning my shadows, I got messages from other people like, “Stop being negative:’ “You’re so gloomy;’ or “Why are you being moody?” I saw that those who said these things were typically people who disowned the dark aspects of their spirit. These were people who were attempting to split it off from themselves. Now I’ll give you a new message: a purposeful focus on negativity will get you everywhere.
The universe yearns for wholeness and unity. Since you are made of the substance of the universe, unity is hard-wired into your body and soul. Just like the universe, your individual spirit yearns for wholeness, and it naturally attempts to reclaim that disowned part of itself.33
When you purposely deny this unity, you are doing what I call splitting.
Splitting is a denial of the existence of your shadow mask, but this denial can have tragic results. What would happen if you broke your arm, but consciously attempted to keep the bones from mending? You would render your arm ineffective. Similarly, you are spiritually crippled when you split with your own shadow masks.
No matter how diligently you try to hide them, they will find ways to reveal themselves. They do so because, just like Tom Tit-Tot, they want to be undone. If you bring your shadows into the light and honor them, you have begun naming, the initial stage of the journey toward assimilation.
The Shadow Mask Exercises
The following sequence of exercises is designed to assist in the naming process of the shadow mask. The techniques are simple: guided imagery and sacred artistry. These will be the keys to finding your shadow masks.
Guided imagery takes you out of the critical mind, the analytical part of us all that judges, analyzes, and edits. Guided imagery is like having a dream that someone else creates for you. The images used in the coming exercises are based on the symbols of myth.
The unconscious speaks in symbols, archetypes, and imagery. It does not comprehend words, but the meanings of words and the meaning behind words are clear to the unconscious. The words of the following guided imagery hold meaning that carries great potency because they are based on the archetypes found in mythology. The words are just the starting point; they propel you into the world of the unconscious.
To get the most out of the exercises, try having the words prerecorded, or have a friend read them to you. Start by either lying down or finding a comfortable sitting position and closing your eyes. Your body should be relaxed and its movement kept to a minimum.
The next step within our sequence of exercises will be sacred artistry. The images that you see in the meditation will form the basis for your art. Creating art in this way is important to your magical process because its effects are similar to the guided imagery. Art is another non-linear way of exploring your spiritual self. When the sacred artist within you is allowed to run free, you are finding a way to tap into your unconscious, dark material. Once it is brought into conscious light, it can be named.34
Shadow Play: The Chamber of Masks
You may have more than one shadow mask, but there is only one that is your primary mask. This is the one you will work with for this exercise. Other aspects or masks of your shadow can be named as well, but be sure to work on only one aspect at a time.
Also keep in mind that focused concentration on shadow work for too long a period of time can lead to a psychic imbalance. Remember, just as the moon waxes and wanes, there are times to explore the dark and times to live in the light If the work of shadow becomes too uncom fortable, take time to do mundane work. When you refocus your con sciousness in this way,you will find that you are once again grounded.
Meditation: The Chamber of Masks
Close your eyes and imagine that a soft white glow is forming at your feet. It begins to swirl upward and it forms a protective shell around you. It lifts you up and takes you on a journey to the core of your being.
The misty glow sets you down and dissipates to reveal a marble staircase that spirals downward. The light is very dim along the walls of the staircase and you can’t see all the way to the bottom, but you know that this is a place into which you must venture.
You begin down the staircase and you notice that it spirals in a counterclockwise direction. The light in the staircase comes from candles flickering in small carved niches along the walls. The staircase walls are made of smooth, cold marble that you occasionally touch as you continue to journey downward.
As you work your way down the stairs, notice on the walls that there are occasionally sigils, magical symbols formed out of metal and embedded into the stone walls. These are the symbols of your shadow masks. Take note of whichever one is most prominent. This is the symbol for your primary shadow mask.
Reach up and touch the symbol of your primary shadow mask and you’ll find that it comes loose from the wall. As you hold it in your hands, you can feel the cold weight of the metal symbol and you can see it from all sides. Hold on to this symbol as you continue down the stairs.
When you reach the bottom, you find before you a great golden door. You try the door, but it is locked. Look at the keyhole and you will find that it is oddly shaped. Slip the metal symbol you hold into the keyhole and you’ll find that it unlocks the door. Open the door and enter the chamber.
The room is cold and quite dark, except for a single point of illumination that emanates from the far side of the room. The light comes from a mask that hangs on the far wall. Go over to it and look at it. You notice that it is well within reach, so you take it down and examine it thoroughly. On the inside of the mask is its name. Take note of it.
After you’ve examined the mask, place it on your face and ask: “How do I resolve this shadow mask?” Listen carefully to the answer.
Once you’ve heard the message, ask this: “What do I have to learn from this shadow mask?” Once you’ve received your message, ask one more question: “What does this shadow mask keep me from doing?” After you’ve queried the mask, take it off and place it back on the wall. Exit the chamber and lock the door with the metal symbol you retained. As you climb the stairs, you can place the symbol anywhere along the wall and it will set itself within the marble. Continue to head to the top of the stairs, this time moving much more quickly than before.
Once you have reached the top, the white glow enfolds you once again, lifts you up, and brings you back to your body.
When you have arrived back fully, take a moment to contemplate your experience, using the journaling space below.
Journaling
Use the space below to draw the symbol of the primary shadow mask. Next, use the following space to draw your shadow mask. This will help you in the mask-making exercises to follow.
What is the name of your shadow mask?
What part do you play in keeping this shadow mask alive?
What are the effects of this shadow mask on your life?
What does this shadow mask keep you from accomplishing?
What action must you take in order to resolve your primary shadow mask?
What have you to learn from this shadow mask?
The Elemental Naming of Shadow
All shamanic paths look to nature for spiritual inspiration. The trees, the sun, the moon, the earth herself and all her seasons are a metaphorical framework upon which traditional magical people hang their spiritual philosophy. One dear example of this metaphoric or symbolic thinking is found in what Witches and shamans call the elements. Basically, the idea of the elements is that all life as we under stand it is composed of four basic qualities: air, fire, water, and earth.
You need air to breathe; fire is your life spark, your energy; your bodies are made mostly of water; and you are solid, made up of earth materials.
These elements are also symbolic. They not only sustain your phys ical life, but support your spiritual life as well. Air symbolizes your ideas, thoughts, communication, and all beginnings or initiations. Fire symbolizes your passions, your drives, your ability to take outward action, and your ability to will or direct energy consciously. Water is the symbol for your emotions.It speaks of your love, sadness, joy, and even your fears, which cycle in and out of your life, rising and abating just like the tides. Spiritually, water symbolizes your powers of intuition and the ability to dare, or muster the courage you need to step beyond the places that are brightly lit or well known. Earth is the symbol for manifestation, solidity, and growth. When you are able to make something happen, or when you build, create, or complete you are working with earth as a symbol, as an energy.
Each of these elements has both light and shadowy attributes. The light attributes emanate from the “deosil” (clockwise) spiral, which focuses your spiritual attention on beneficial self-aspects. The shad owy attributes emanate from the widdershins spiral, which focuses your spiritual attention on detrimental or harmful self-aspects. Below is a listing of some shadowy attributes for each of the elements. Decide which element best suits the energy of your shadow mask.
Air
• Direction: east.
• Color: yellow or clear.
• Tools: wand/staff.
• Rules: the mind, mental processes, knowledge, communication.
• Time: dawn.
• Season: spring.
• Jewel: opal.
• Incense: frankincense.
• Animals: birds and all flying creatures.
• Aromas: bergamot, caraway, dill, lemon balm, pine, sweet pea.
• Shadowy Traits: forgetful, incommunicative, overly talkative, unintelligent, overly analytical, non-creative, air-headed, blindly optimistic, changeable, fickle, unreliable, restless, inconsistent, two-faced, frivolous, superficial, a gossip, gullible, only able to understand that which appeals to the intellect.
Fire
• Direction: south.
• Color: red.
• Tools: athame/sword.
• Rules: energy, life spark, flames, assertiveness, passion.
• Time: midday.
• Season: summer.
• Jewel: ruby.
• Incense: sandalwood, dragon’s blood, copal.
• Animals: lizards, snakes, dragons, and reptiles of all sorts.
• Aromas: basil, bay, juniper, nutmeg, rosemary, rue, woodruff.
• Shadowy Traits: angry, furious, rageful, combative, overly aggressive, extreme, overly driven, overly passionate, overly sexed, anxious, tactless, irresponsible, selfish, unsubtle, self-centered, impulsive, quick tempered, bish, intolerant, opinionated, patronizing, power hungry, conceited, exaggerating, only able to relate to that which is extreme.
Water
• Direction: west.
• Color: blue.
• Tools: cup/cauldron.
• Rules: feelings, emotions, tides, intuition, the unconscious.
• Time: dusk.
• Season: fall.
• Jewel: aquamarine.
• Incense: amber, lotus, myrrh.
• Animals: whales, dolphins, porpoises, fish and most swimming creatures.
• Aromas: chamomile, gardenia, jasmine, myrrh, rose, lily.
• Shadowy Traits: overly emotional, weepy, depressed, sad, uncontrollable, lacking energy, non-assertive, indecisive,”weak willed,” too dreamy, easily confused, dishonest, hypersensitive, touchy, moody, self-pitying, unforgiving, jealous, resentful, secretive, overly suspicious, vague, careless, only able to understand emotional content.
Earth
• Direction: north.
• Color: green.
• Tools: pentacle.
• Rules: the body, growth, material matters, money, stability, structure, death and birth.
• Time: midnight.
• Season: winter.
• Jewel: quartz crystal.
• Incense: pine, patchouli.
• Animals: four-legged mammals.
• Aromas: cypress, patchouli, tulip, vetivert, oak moss.
• Shadowy Traits: dense, overly practical, worrier, lacking fore sight, controlling, dependent, overly critical, mean, non-spiritual, too grounded, possessive, lazy, self-indulgent, static, inflexible, greedy, stubborn, resentful, overly routine, fussy, hyper-critical, pessimistic, conventional, only able to understand what is perceived through the senses.
Exercise: Mask Making
Making a physical representation of your shadow mask can be liberating. You can feel empowered, because you have better control of the shadow when you can see it before you. Once you externalize the shadow mask, you know what it is made of. You drain it of any power it holds over you because you no longer hide from it. You then gain magical power because you have changed your consciousness and now know when the mask is worn and when it is not.
Below are some methods for making your own shadow masks. Be sure to do the work during the time of the waning or dark moon to maximize the effect of “externalizing’’ the shadow mask. The waning moon is a symbol for depletion, dissipation, dispelling, or diminishing because the moon appears to “lose” its light. Symbolically, the tide of the waning moon is the time for diminishing or destroying the effects of something. In the case of working with the shadow mask, the wan ing moon cycle is a magical current that helps to decrease its effects.
MAKING A MASK BASe
Items Needed:
• Mixing bowl
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup white glue
• 20-30 pieces of newspaper (or paper towels) cut into 1” x 6”strips
• Plastic wrap
Directions:
In a mixing bowl, pour 1 cup of water. Add flour in cup increments. As you add each cup of the flour, stir it well, using your fingers to break up any clots. Once the flour and water are completely combined, it should have the consistency of plaster-thick and muddy. Add 1/4 cup of white glue to the mixture and again, stir well with your fingers.
Cut paper into strips. Have your partner lay down in either a sunny spot or lay some towels or newspaper down so excess mixture won’t set into the carpet or flooring. As your partner lays down, place the plastic wrap on her or his face.
IMPORTANT: Create breathing holes in the plastic at the site of your partners nostrils and mouth.
Dowse paper strips with plaster mixture-one piece at a time. Shake off excess mixture from paper strip and even smooth either side of the strip to take off more of the mixture. The less excess mixture there is on the paper strip, the less time it will take for it to dry on your partner’s face.
Begin to lay strips along the outer rim of your partner’s face: along the brow, the temples, the jaw and the chin. Be sure to overlap and interconnect all of the paper strips as you lay them out. Smooth each strip into the others with your fingers. Next, lace strips across the nose and connect those strips to those along the rim at the cheek bone area. Once that section is laid, you can begin to fill in the empty spaces on your partner’s face around the cheeks and forehead.
IMPORTANT: Be sure to repeat this entire process a second time to create a stronger mask base.
Drying time can vary depending on the heat levels at the time of application. To speed this up, try using a hand-held blow-dryer to help “set” the mask.
Once the mask base is dry enough to withstand being taken off your partner’s face, set it in a place that gets plenty of warmth. It will take about 24 hours before your mask is fully set and ready to be decorated.
BUYiNG A MASK BASe
Many people purchase a “mask base” from an arts and crafts store. A mask base is an all-white face-form usually made out of thin plastic. Occasionally you might find one formed from wood, rag pulp, or plas ter. The preferable choices for this exercise are the wood or rag pulp bases because they are biodegradable. This is important because you will need to later destroy the mask in the upcoming purging ceremony.35
Mask Decoration
Once you have purchased a mask base, you will want to decorate it so that it closely resembles your internal shadow mask. In some cases, however, this may be a near impossibility. In those cases, instead of working directly from the mask image revealed in the guided imagery, try going to an outdoor setting to gather twigs, pebbles, grasses, leaves, and other natural decorating items that can be incor porated into the mask.
Use the image of the shadow mask found in the mask chamber to guide you in your decoration process. If you would like to add more symbolic value to the mask, try using the elemental listings on the pre vious pages to help guide your inspiration. Use your imagination and create what seems to resonate most dearly with your shadow mask.
After Completion
When you have completed the shadow mask, set it in a place of prominence. Some people like to create personal altars where they can place sacred objects. The personal altar can be in any room as long as it can go relatively undisturbed. You should be the only one to handle the objects that lay on your altar, for they carry your power.
After the mask is in a place of prominence, spend time each day looking at it. Wonder about it. Ask it questions. Ask yourself questions about it. Live with the shadow mask for some time and become comfortable with the fact that it represents a reality that you once hid. Let that reality be known and accepted consciously before moving into the next chapter.
21. C. G. Tung, R.F.C. Hull (trans.), Joseph Campbell (ed.), ThePortable]ung, New York: Viking Press, 1971, p. 145.
22. JeffreyS. Victor, The Satanic Panic, Chicago: Open Court Books, 1993, pp. 202-205.
23. See, e.g., JeffreyS. Victor, The Satanic Panic, Chicago: Open Court Books, 1993.
24. Mario Jacoby, Verena Kast, and Ingrid Riedel, Witches, Ogres and the Devil’s Daughter, Boston:Shambhala, 1992, p. 24.
25. Jacqueline Small, Awakening In Time, New York: Bantam Books, 1991, p. 46.
26. Henri F. Ellenberger, The Discovery of the Unconscious, New York: Basic Books, 1970, p. 707.
27. C. G. Jung, R.F.C. Hull (trans.), Joseph Campbell (ed.), ThePortable]ung, NewYork:VikingPress, 1971,pp.146-147.
28. Jacqueline Small, Awakening In Time, New York: Bantam Books, 1991, p. 51.
29. This is an archaic term used to mean the past tense of”spin.” See, e.g. Jean L. McKechnie (ed.), Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary, (2nd ed.), New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979, p.1737.
30. My retelling is based on the tale “Tom Tit-Tot” retold by Joseph Jacobs, English Folk and Fairy Tales, (3rd edition, revised), New York: G. P. Put nam’s Sons, (n.d.) pp. 1-9
31. Jacqueline Small, Awakening In Time, New York: Bantam Books, 1991, pp. 51-52.
32. See, for example, how psychoanalyst Verena Kast interprets the tale of “The Black Woman,” a similar shadow mask to that found in the tale of Tom Tit-Tot. Verena Kast, “How Fairy Tales Deal With Evil,” in M. Jacoby, V. Kast, and I. Riedel, Witches, Ogres and the Devil’s Daughter, Boston:Shambhala Press, 1992, pp. 27-30.
33. This is a theory promulgated in transpersonal psychology. See, e.g., Jacqueline Small, Awakening In Time, New York: Bantam Books, 1991, pp. 41-45; see, e.g., John Wellwood (ed.), “Befriending Emotion,” in Awakening the Heart, Boston:Shambhala Press, 1985, pp. 79-90.
34. See, e.g., Gabriele Lusser Rico, Writing the Natural Way, New York; J.P. Tarcher, Inc., 1983, pp. 96-97.
35. However, if only plastic mask bases are available, use them and alter the purging ceremony so that you do not leave plastic out in a natural setting.