Written by Laura Matsue
Cover Art by Helena Arturaleza
Know your shadow.
Know its name.
See where it lives in your body.
Hear its story,
But don’t believe a word it says.
Just sit with it.
Feel it.
Stay with it.
And when it brandishes a sword
Ready to attack something “out there.”
Take that sword,
And cut its head off.
Feel it’s anger.
Feel it’s fear.
Feel it’s grief.
Let it know that you love it.
Without conditions.
Let it know that when it shows up in the night,
You won’t ignore it.
Thank it for delivering you an important message.
About your specific karmic situation.
For your shadow is your greatest spiritual teacher.
It is your friend.
It is your ally.
Your shadow knows you better than anyone else.
It knows your fears.
It sees your blind spots.
It knows exactly how to hurt you,
And it also knows exactly how to heal you.
Know your shadow.
It speaks your name.
It carries a gift.
The more you know this,
The less it will scare you.
The more you feel it,
The more it can heal you.
And as that shadow carries you into the darkest of nights,
Into the deepest of pain,
And as you hold its cries,
It will open your heart.
Which will burst into flames.
And set your soul on fire.
And then you will see,
That shadow
That you were so afraid of,
is actually
made of light.
–
(For a little backstory to this poem, I wrote it about 5 days into a 2-week silent meditation retreat. For the first few days of the retreat, I went through one of the deepest emotional purges of my life; facing my deepest fears, deep-seated feelings of distrust/paranoia, buried rage, and had to grieve everyone I had ever loved and then lost in the 3d realm.
This is the poem I wrote when I began to come out the other side of that process.)