When I created my business, I chose to work with Light. "Core Light" represents the inner wisdom, energy, and divinity we all carry. My name, Apollo, was chosen in part because of the association with the light of the Sun. But to heal and awaken on this planet, to support growth and transformation, light alone is insufficient. We also need to have the courage to step into the darkness of our own beings, and engage with the mysteries of Shadow.
Shadow is a mythic term. It's the primordial darkness, the things we cannot see. In Jungian psychology terms, it's all those parts of our self that we've disowned, and cut ourselves off from; but we still carry them, and sometimes they drive us. In the poet Robert Bly's treatment, shadow is "the long black bag we drag behind us". The things we've relegated to shadow are things we don't want to look at - things that are embarrassing, or don't match our idea of who we are. But if we don't engage with it, if we leave it unconscious, it pops up in our lives and personalities in unexpected ways. Also, there's gold lying in the darkness. Reconciling with those disowned parts of ourselves can bring us to a new level of wholeness, integration, and peace.
What's frustrating about working with shadow material is simply that we can't see it directly. (Everyone else may be able to see it...) By it's very nature it's something that's invisible to us. But there are ways to recognize shadow indirectly. Here are...
The Top Three Ways to Recognize Shadow in your Life
I'm Apollo Grace, a healer, transformational guide and workshop facilitator living on Maui. I'm here to open my heart and my mind to be of greatest service to your life and being. Thank you for connecting.
I live on the slopes of Haleakala, the primary mountain of Maui, in the town of Kula, at 2600 feet. Haleakala translates as "House of the Sun"; it's to the east of most of the populated areas of the island, so we see the sun rising over it each morning. House of the Sun is also a good name for my blog; my name, Apollo, is based on Apollo the Sun God, who drives the sun across the sky each day in a chariot. (Apollo is also the god of healing, and of dreams and intuitive revelation... more about that in a future post...)
My life's work at this point in my life - my mission and purpose - is to support healing and awakening in as many people as possible, with as much ease as possible. What I've seen in my own life is that transformation and growth doesn't have to be hard. It has hard moments in it - moments of doubt, of fear, of having to face terrible feelings or seemingly overwhelming challenges. It may have periods of time that are harder or darker than others. But the overall path, the formulas of transformation, are not fundamentally hard, and the life that results can be beautiful, meaningful, and largely easy.
