Join Me: Transforming Your Shadow

I am about to make a promise.

Help me decide if I should make it.

I am taking a Shamanic Shadow Transformation Protocol Course with Christina Pratt from the Lask Mask Center.

As part of working with my shadow sides and appeasing Crazy Woman, the archetype we’ll be working during this multi week course, my personal journeying/trance work has lead me to understand that my own shadow transformation will be empowered by sharing the work we’ll be doing with others… (yes that’s you who is currently reading this!).

As I understand the denseness of the archetypal energies and their resulting impact on our plane, I never make promises to them (or anyone) lightly. Especially myself.

So, today, I’m curious to see how many of you would like to gain from reading about the Shadow Transformation Protocol and My Journey of Working with Crazy Woman?

If you would, then please heart this article. That will give me the nudge to know you’re out there, interested and listening.

So let’s start off with my first week of working with Crazy Woman after class #1.

Let’s Start with “Who is Crazy Woman”?

Directly from our teacher Christina Pratt:

She is a specialist in the dark nether reaches of the heart where we stuff our Shadow. She loves all that terrifies, disgusts, or humiliates you about yourself. She is that which destroys in the service of new life. She will kill you in an instant to give life to your Authentic Self. And she is exactly The Specialist that we need for this job, both the rescue and transformation of your Shadow Self.

You can follow this guide to come into right relationship with Crazy Woman. Let's start with this podcast in the downloads here.

Crazy Woman is an archetypal energy, in the sense that archetypes are coherent patterns of energy that exist in the universe, independent of humans. They flow throughout the universe and express themselves through living things. For example, True Mother energy is expressed in a diverse range of ways by different forms of life on earth.

She is the archetype that offers the wisdom and power that animates goddesses like Kali or Durga. However, she is not any one of goddesses and these goddesses are not she. She is all of them and more. As you encounter her, go without cultural expectations of how she will present to you.

As an archetype, she can function as a helping spirit does in shamanic work. She can join you in your journeys as a guide and teacher. However, you should not treat her as a typical compassionate helping spirit with blind acceptance and simplistic trust. (Frankly, you shouldn’t do that with any deity.) You can absolutely trust her to be herself. She is always teaching you to be your true and most authentic self. Everything should be interpreted from this perspective.

Crazy Woman is that which destroys in the service of new life. She lies at the heart of all things manifest. She is the forest fire and the earthquake, the tidal wave and the tornado in the four elements. She is the eye of any storm you can create, in your inner life or outer life. She stands in a fierce unyielding love for all life and all of your worst bits of self. And, she will kill you in an instant to give life to your Authentic Self.

Crazy Woman is blamed for the chaos in our lives. You need to understand that she is always there when your life is in chaos to assist you, not because she created it. You created it and as you fell apart, lost all your practices and your center, you called out for help. She answered. She is there to assist you, to help you to find the eye of your storm, to ground and center and begin to sort out what to do.

My Notes from My week after the class:

Well this has been one exciting start to the Crazy Woman relationship building!

She's been showing up everywhere for me, from the yoga flows I choose to the Ted Talks I've viewed.

So far I've realized that when I had my big C Experience (I had CNS Lymphoma - inoperable walnut sized tumor in my brain) in 2019, this was my dark night (and self death). I asked Crazy Woman where she had been during this time and in that instant, I revisited a few very traumatic "hallucinations" I had experienced after they did my brain biopsy (and were pumping me full of steroids').

There was a wild looking dark- souled (and to be honest) frightening woman who kept showing up while I was in the hospital. She looked like an Ancient Mayan Priestess and would dance around me and in front of me, snakes gliding around her body as she beckoned to me.

I had been terrified of her.

Well after our class as I sat before setting up her shrine, just being in the space from the class, I asked the question "Where were you crazy woman during my C experience?" and that is when I resaw the visions - and I realized she was the woman I had seen.

At this point I broke into tears. Feeling -- Amazed. Honored. (And slightly embarrassed that I had been so scared of her).

A new healing has started to take place in my life now. One I have been longing for since completing chemo in Oct 2019. I want to heal not just physically but emotionally, mentally and yes spiritually, from the C experience.

I had felt my innocence had been stolen from me, now I understand that it wasn't stolen but transformed into wisdom, strength and resilience. That after that experience I changed completely in a beautiful and empowering way.

(To anyone who has made it this far in reading my story... thank you!)

My shrine (which is part of our assignment for the week) isn't fancy… (you’ll see it below) she only demanded that I use the wig (which you'll see in the picture, it is pitch black with purple and pink throughout it) and she wanted colour added. The shot glass is shot of tequila.)

So what do you think? Should I formally give my promise to write about this every week until the course is done?

Yes? Then share the love by clicking the heart icon (you do have to be logged in but it can be a free account).

No? Then just forget about this article.

If you’re interested in learning more - email me with specific questions to [email protected] and if you’d like to see more on this topic or others like it, please share the love by giving a heart.

Interested in the actual course? View it here (I am in no way affiliated with them - except as a fan)

(Tips are truly inspiring, never assumed)