Today I was interviewed for a magazine about SouLodge Fire Circle, my retreat in it’s first year on this land. It was revealing to revisit all of the paths I took to get here: to this land, to this place of being surrounded by many generous supporters and team members, to my queendom on the edge of civilization. This place is pure magic and the women who gather here know who they are and how to honor themselves in full light. They come here boldly, to celebrate life and their place in it, with gratitude. It’s a genuine blessing for the land, for me, and for them.
What comes up here often in conversation around the council fire is our role as safekeepers of the Earth and her resources, as well, of course, of her medicines. Medicine comes in so many forms, but plant, animal and stones are what SouLodge Earth Medicine School is all about. Really it’s all about relationships. As healers, which women naturally are designed to be, we are critical engineers of relationships. We go into nature and see what there is to see, then we bring that intelligence back home, and back to the cities where the people are hungry for healing of all kinds. We help mediate the relationships between the animals and the people, and the people and the animals. And we do the same for the plant realms and the under-earth stone beings. It’s our role to mediate.
As healers, we also mediate the realms of the living and the spirit world. What I found most intriguing in the Spring session of Earth Medicine School is our deepening need to know what exists in the world in the form of dark energy and how to handle it when it comes toward us. There are some situations which require us to be warriors of light more than we’ve been trained for, and this discussion was of great importance to those participating. I’m beginning to understand more and more that it’s reckless to help people open up to the spirit world and not educate them on what to do when unwanted forces come forth. For this reason, Earth Medicine School dedicates a seminar in the last module to something akin to Defense Against the Dark Arts. It’s the next step for SouLodge and a timely one.
Rather than stay closed in fear, I think it’s better to be open and well-armed. What say you?
Image by Stacy de la Rosa
This is a topic that is on my mind often – I love seeing you bring it up here. A perspective that I really appreciate (and that helps me not ‘close in fear’) comes from Bradford Keeney. He talks about standing in the crossroads – the crossroads between light and dark. He says that anything other than that (being either a warrior for the light or a practitioner of the dark arts :)) simply feeds the light/dark dynamic and just creates more of the same. Having been a part of a community where the light was really emphasized and yet seeing so much darkness (envy, mean-spiritedness, gossip, shunning) come through those most adamant warriors of light, my choice now is, to the best of my ability, to stand at the crossroads, holding both light and dark within my consciousness and (again, to the best of my ability) feeding neither. I’m very curious to see where this discussion goes!
I so agree and believe that we need to understand how to defend ourselves – and our world – against the dark and its practitioners. When do we start? I’m in!
It is a blessing to be connecting, even across the physical miles. Thank you for sharing your teachings and helping us prepare, for helping us learn to trust ourselves to handle whatever comes our way.
Teaching and learning about dark and negative sprits is a must and should go hand in hand with all other teachings. It very much exist – I know ! Those who are blind to it do not know what they are dealing with.
Yes I agree to help combat it we all must shine our light extremely brightly and stand together as one. As all light illuminates darkness so we can see more clearly.
This is something I feel very strongly and compassionate about ! So stand tall sisters in all our light !
Aho
There is an old saying ” A Witch that can not hex ..can not heal”
That’s what I live by….
Your ‘blue egg of light’ defense has been a regular (well used) tool for me ever since you brought it up in boundaries boot camp (at least, I think that’s where it was).
The earlier we learn how to protect ourselves from negative energy, the better. That way we can be more open and less fearful when exploring the spiritual realm.
Love you big for ALL your teachings.
I have been sitting with this and a similar questions a lot lately.
My thought is that many people underestimate the dramatic experiences that can take place when leading others. Even personally, I have been though some terrifying and traumatizing journeys. I wonder whether we as healers have a responsibility to train ourselves more…I don’t know, medically/psychologically…
How do we approach it if someone recovers a long repressed memory and can’t handle it? Certainly referrals, etc. are an important part of this work, but in that moment, other than sitting with them through it, I think this may be a bigger safety and ethical issue.
I agree.
It seems this topic comes up in spiritual communities right about year 4-5. My experience with it in the past was not good. People can find the darkness very intriguing and the battling or overcoming it very inflating to the ego. The whole subject can then take on a life of it’s own and radically alter the tone of group.
Externalizing “dark forces” and inviting “us and them” language within a group of soul seekers in varying degrees of mental health, with lives in various stages of groundedness and connectedness, can unleash a whole host of influences and attitudes that can undermine trust and community. It can lead to fear and paranoia, finger pointing, blaming, and accusations that can’t be validated or verified. It is a door that once opened in a spiritual community can wreak havoc and be difficult close and recover from.
Yes, sometimes non-physical energies try to undermine us. Yes, there are sometimes opposing forces along our journey. Often those forces are our own projections, pain bodies, and shadow. Yes, sometimes people get angry and throw that energy around. But, the moment we focus on that, we can begin to experience more of that. The moment we start talking about it and looking for it we give it energy and power and momentum.
In my experience, the best defense against “the dark forces” is to live a strong, focused and grounded life. When we feel the influence of less than benevolent energies, the best place to look for the solution is in the tightness of our own physical lives, the integrity of our daily practice, our own unfinished business and the fears and emotional attachments we may have that are providing an opening for these unwanted energies to come through.
I think unleashing this topic into a spiritual community at large can be a slippery slope.
Lissa, not to broach it is reckless and I’ve seen it in action. I agree, living a strong and grounded life is a very good way to begin. It’s interesting to me, because in the old traditions, it is shaman vs. shaman and village vs. village! Some literally believe that the illness that befalls is due to the hex or curse of another medicine authority. This isn’t what I’m talking about. What I’m concerned with is the moral neutrality of the spirit world and our tendency to expect all things that get called in to be benevolent. In a self-healing practice, we face our own shadows. As we open ourselves up to the environments inhabited by early peoples, and we dabble in those realms, it is entirely possible to pick up energies which are of that land and could quite likely not appreciate us there. So for the unseen forces, knowing how to deflect that energy is very important, at least to me it is. I have long heard “dark energy” as a reason to reject a person or drop a friendship and while I do not think it ethical to make a gossip circle around this, there is something to knowing how to protect oneself from the vagrant spiritual energies which are present in our world.
I will forever maintain that fear is the darkest and most prevalent negative energy of all, and can do damage. But there are other things, too. Until someone has had a direct experience with this kind of energy, it may not be important to address. It’s a slope I’m willing to slip down because I trust where I’m coming from.
You know I’m with you on this one. A tendency to only focus on the light and the “up” is a more dangerous starting place than the open-minded reality of both/and. There is much instinct injury in our relationship to dark and I trust we can find our light there as well, with care and ethics and awareness of what IS.
Aho sister
I totally agree
love and light