Shadow Alchemy
Shadow Alchemy: Loving What Was Never Met with Love
Embracing the Solstice as a Portal of Deep Healing
Dancing with the Shadow
I used to think that healing meant being more “love and light.” More peaceful. More positive. More perfect. But in reality my healing was quietly violent. In 2018 I found myself in the depths of a dark night of the soul. In the deepest pit of darkness the parts of Self that I had hidden away, the parts that never felt like they belonged or could fit in began clawing themselves to the surface. My relationships became challenged, deep sorrows would rise and old anxieties and feelings of shame begged to be witnessed and felt in their wholeness.
During this time I experienced the deep wallowing pains of my past over and over again. The anger I inherited but wasn’t allowed to feel, the shame I carried from my youth like a second skin and the grief that had gone ignored for years. All of the pieces of me that felt unworthy, unlovable or too much had me surrounded in a dark alley and made certain I couldn’t leave until I heard them out.
It wasn’t until I sat with these parts, really sat with them, that I understood:
Healing isn’t about becoming someone else.
It’s about returning to the parts of you that got left behind.
It’s about shadow alchemy and transmuting pain into power, not by force, but by presence.
Shadow work became my medicine. Not to fix me. But to help me feel. And connecting to the raw, messy and wild parts of myself became my portal to self love.
Understanding the Shadow – What We Hide and Why
The "shadow" is not evil. It’s not something to get rid of. It is simply the part of you that you’ve learned isn’t safe to show.
In Jungian psychology, the shadow represents our unconscious; the emotions, traits, desires, and memories we’ve rejected or suppressed. These parts often formed in childhood through shame, trauma, or learned patterns of self-abandonment. We’re taught to fear our shadow and turn towards the light, but what if it’s actually the guardian of our wholeness?
When we ignore our shadow, it acts out through sabotage, projection, people-pleasing, perfectionism, or burnout. When we embrace it, we reclaim parts of our truth that were never meant to be hidden. When we embrace the shadow, we are not just facing our fears, we are remembering the forgotten. We reclaim the wild child who was told to be quiet. The fierce protector who was labeled “too much.” The tender heart that learned to numb to survive. These parts; the angry, the ashamed, the insecure, the jealous, the grieving, they are not signs of failure. They are proof that we have lived, felt deeply, and adapted in the best way we knew how.
And when we turn toward them with breath and love, something profound happens:
We begin to hear their wisdom.
We see that what we called “ugly” was actually powerful.
That what we deemed “unworthy” was just unheard.
That the truth we’ve buried beneath layers of coping and conditioning was never meant to be hidden, it was meant to be held.
To embrace the shadow is not to glorify the pain. It is to retrieve the lost treasures buried beneath it. To mine the gold that resides inside of you and reclaim: Your boundaries.
Your voice. Your magic. Your wholeness.
The solstice, a turning point between light and dark, mirrors this inner work. It asks us to stand fully in the light and turn within to witness your shadow.
To see it not as an enemy, but as a sacred part of our human experience.
Breath and Shadow Work
The breath is the bridge between your conscious and unconscious self. When we breathe intentionally, we invite suppressed parts of our psyche to surface; safely, gently and in a container of compassion. Here are a few practices to support your own shadow alchemy:
Breathing into the Void
Create a safe, cozy space to lie down and fully relax.
Set the intention: “I am safe to feel what I’ve hidden.” “I want to connect with the parts of self that feel unworthy, unloved or left in the dark.”
Using a conscious connected breath pattern or soft belly breathing, begin drawing your awareness inward towards your heart space. Breathe like this for 15 to 30 minutes and just simply allow whatever arises to come to the light within you and be witnessed — emotions, memories, sensations — and allow them to move through you without judgment. Complete this practice with a deep grounding practice and by asking your guides, ancestors and angels to help you transmute this energy into divine love and light for your highest good and clear anything residual that no longer serves your soul path.
Journaling Prompts
What parts of myself do I still feel I must hide to be accepted?
Whose voice told me these parts weren’t lovable?
What would it look like to bring compassion to this shadow?
What wisdom does this part of me hold?
Solstice Ritual
Light a candle at dusk on solstice night. Write a letter to a shadow part of yourself, maybe a part of self that you recognize as being linked to current challenges or patterns that are present in your life. Write this letter not to banish it, but to warmly welcome it home. When you have finished read the letter aloud. If it feels right you my wish to write a response from the Shadow part within. Honor and offer your tenderness.
Affirmations for Integration
I am safe to feel it all.
My shadow is sacred.
I welcome all parts of me with love.
Wholeness is my birthright.
Even my darkness is holy.
You are not broken. You are becoming.
Blessed Solstice Sweet Ones.
