Sometimes something needs to leave

Sometimes upon shamanic enquiry sometimes we can find parts within ourselves that in fact don’t belong to us. They came to us or were forced upon us.

This work could loosely be described as radical pragmatism or what Milton Erickson described as the “utilization principle”, applying broad but well established techniques to whatever is arising in the moment and not being blinded by dogma or fear. Shamanism is a methodology, a toolbox and not a religion or a belief system, which funnily enough sounds like true science.

So yes, we are talking about possession and it has always been ridiculed in western culture, society and especially western medicine but possession has a place in every culture and society throughout history. Much like psychedelics there is now a resurgence, a renaissance in this way of working. And even if it is not real, it is returning for the simple reason that it works so well and the results can be nothing short of miraculous.

So, much like in the waking ‘material world’ where things can get into us, such as objects, parasites, viruses, germs, radiation etc. In the non-physical realms this is no different, ‘as above so below’. Things can get into us, be they lost and/or benevolent, fallen spirits with bad intentions, other people's lost parts, thought forms, persistent negative words and feelings generated by ourselves or others.

And as we talked about already, we can also lose the most beautiful and innocent parts of ourselves through tragic or traumatic events. Frequently these events are the access point for ‘something’. Where something leaves, something else arrives to fill the space.

We can sometimes lose ourselves to these possessions, believe that they are us or at least a part of us. We will even defend them. These ‘dark ones’ can keep us traumatised, they keep us stuck in the fears of the past. The only reason that they can stay is because they are attached to something that we cannot look at and they persistently create negative emotional energy that is used to sustain themselves and keep us fearful and stuck. A dark photosynthesis.

But ‘they’ are not us.

On the bright side, they do however only have one trick up their sleeve, FEAR. Once we peel back this veil, we see that many of these energies are in fact lost and suffering terribly and it is ironically our duty to help them in any way that we can. They may pucker up and become huge and intimidating but like the Wizard of Oz, when we pull back the curtain there is nothing there, but tears and longing.

Unwittingly they force us into the work, into facing the shadow. Into the gnosis that our ability to stand in the light is equaled only by our ability to stand in the shadow. Every ‘dark night of the soul’ has one of these hiding in the gloom as unfortunately do many murders and suicides.

Encoded in the dark is the true nature of the light.