SHADOW TOTEMS

What darkness dwells in the mind of Man As leaden clouds drift across the midnight moon, Hasten the journey toward dark despair Inflicted by an Unseen hand Within the heart of the Ancient Forest Stand the Guardians of the Veil Shadowy secrets in liquid silence kept To the whispering of the soul’s misery Yet for He who dares to gaze Within To the center of the Night, Under Illumination’s reverent favor The dawning of consciousness unfurls Then as clouds slip away Spectral figures dispersing for distant haunts, Luna casts her silver light And the Truth stands beneath her gaze As are the shadows now beheld And the Caster of their form, Not joined in harmony . . . For are they not born of the Same?

Journeying beside us on our walk around the Sacred Hoop, the Animal Spirits (Totems) are our constant companions and allies.  As we have discovered through examining the preceding Roles (from Power through Messenger), each of these Totems are with us to teach us their Wisdom and instruct us in their powerful and unique Medicine.  With each of these Totems, there is also a specific goal, lesson or area of our Earthwalk that the Animal Spirits govern, yet of all the Totems, the role that is perhaps the most challenging and uncomfortable for we of the two-legged to face, is that of the Shadow Totem. The Shadow Totem is that Animal Spirit that embodies our alternate Self, or our Personality Center.  When the Shadow is not integrated, it is the repository of our fears, frustrations, temptations, impulsive/compulsive reactions and our anger and unresolved pain.  Perhaps because our modern society has denied the existence of the Shadow Self, or conversely has  exerted an over abundance of effort in nurturing it, we have also learned to fear this extension of our inner Self. By first recognizing that within each of us dwells a ~Shadow,~ a reflection of the Personality Center that exists at the core of the Subconscious Mind, we begin to acknowledge the wisdom and gifts that this Totem brings to us, and thereby take a step  closer toward the process of integration. The Shadow prowls the corridors of our Unconscious mind, yet it is not  the id itself, as the id is primarily the root of both our Psychic Energy, and the amalgamation of our instinctual drives and needs which the conscious mind represses.  While the Shadow is in part our repressed instinctual needs, it is also the very heart of the un-intigrated Personality Center.  Thus, while the Shadow Self operates mostly in unconscious reflex, it is not based upon instinctual desires alone, but is a sum total of many parts including fear, anger, repressed drives and needs, past pain that has not yet been healed, resolved and integrated, as well as our early childhood conditioning. As the Shadow Totem walks, flies or swims beside us, we may come to understand, and ultimately integrate, the darker reflection of our Personality. By understanding the Contrary Medicine that this Animal Spirit brings to us and absorbing the Lessons and Wisdom he/she has to impart, we transmute the Medicine from something to be feared or repressed, to an integrated and cohesive Center. When the pain of past traumas have been embraced, healed and resolved, then we may look upon our Shadow Totem in a new light, understanding that all along, he/she is merely a reflection cast from our own unresolved issues, lessons and pain.  With understanding, healing and integration, the Shadow is no longer a separate and dark entity that relentlessly pursues us, and we come to see that where our footsteps fall, no fractured Shadow is cast, for there is only the light of the Integrated Self.