Earley Light: Shedding Light on the Shadows of Self

Explore the shadow aspects of tarot cards to help you uncover your own personal shadows and incorporate techniques, such as exercises and affirmations, to begin your journey of healing.

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Celebrating with the 6 of Wands

 

The 6 of Wands from The Tarot of Delphi deck is depicted in the1885 artwork entitled The Triumph of Titus: The Flavians by Sir Lawrence Alma-Taderma.  Here, the heir to the Roman Empire, Titus, receives high honors and praise.  This image perfectly depicts the victory that is the 6 of Wands.

 

In the card, he is led by a parade as others follow him.  Did he receive help from those following him or are they simply admirers who want to get a glimpse of the man of the hour?  To determine how this card relates to you, we must first determine who you are in the card.  Are you Titus, accomplishing something that deserves some kind of recognition?  If so, how are you receiving the accolades?  Are you leading the parade, celebrating someone in your life that deserves it?  Are you a behind the scenes person who helped in the accomplishment?  Are you receiving the praise that you feel you deserve?  Or are you a follower, admiring someone for their accomplishments? 

 

Being the center of attention is difficult for some people.  They may not feel worthy or feel that what they accomplished is that big of a deal.  There is something to be said about humility.  It is a wonderful trait to have, but you have to ask yourself is it actually humility or low self esteem?  Some of us were taught that being humble was important, it was the deed that was done that is important, not the person doing it.  While that is true to an extent, for some people it depletes their self esteem, thinking they are not worthy and that is simply not true.  There has to be a balance between being humble and accepting responsibility for what was accomplished in a positive manner.  Having someone tell you that you did a great job and saying “it was nothing” takes value away from you and what you did.  Saying “thank you” and accepting the compliment allows you to take responsibility for your action and builds your self esteem which in turn builds your confidence.  When you are confident, it shines through and it’s welcomed by many, until it crosses the line to cockiness.  People who appear to be cocky are perceived as being too involved in themselves so they are blinded to the point where they can not see their own flaws and only the flaws in others.  They can’t see the wonderful things that others can contribute to life because they are so wrapped up in their own awesomeness.  They end up losing out on friendships and experiences because they are so self absorbed.  Do you fall on either side of this spectrum?  Do you have difficulty acknowledging your accomplishments or do you point out everything you do to everyone you know?

 

That brings us to celebrating others and giving credit where credit is due.  This is one way of letting others know that they are appreciated.  If you find it challenging to honor others who accomplish something should be celebrated, you have to ask yourself is it because you aren’t being celebrated when you believe that you should be.  It can be easy to feel bitter when someone is getting praise for something when we aren’t getting the praise that we feel that we deserve.  When this happens we should be celebrating ourselves and take responsibility for our own accomplishments.  While we are responsible for our own self esteem, we also have to recognize that it is important to receive those atta boys no matter who they come from so it’s important that we praise others for the accomplishments and efforts as well.  I know it seems a bit confusing for me to say that we are responsible for our own self esteem but we should praise others but it all boils down to treat people how you would want to be treated. You want to be celebrated when you have an accomplishment, so it’s pretty safe to assume that others do too.  It feels good to celebrate others and by doing so, eventually, others will begin to celebrate you.  Its one big circle. I’m sure we have all been in situations where we helped someone on a project and only one person received the praise while the helpers received no acknowledgement.  It’s not a good feeling to have so don’t hold back and share the love.  

 

Something to remember too, without criticism and praise, we don’t know how we are doing.  They are guidelines to let us know what needs to be improved upon or what we need to work on.  Without them, well, we can’t fix it if we don’t know that’s it broken, can we?  

 

Another shadow aspect is giving too much attention and too many accolades to someone who doesn’t necessarily deserve the credit or they do deserve it and you go on an on never giving them a moments rest.  If you are showering them with non stop attention, are they not acknowledging your efforts so you keep doing it until they do? Or are you possibly looking for something more than just being acknowledged?  There are several reasons why you could be in this pattern and this is the perfect area to use your journaling skills to help decipher the answer.  As previously discussed, journaling can really help you to determine the reasons for our behavior and sometimes you really need to dig deep in order to find the answers.

 

Ok, so what can we do to change the behaviors?  Simple.  Celebrate a victory that you had, no matter how big or how small it was.  Try doing it every day.  If your biggest victory was getting up right when the alarm went off and not hitting the snooze button 5 times, then go with it.  The trick is looking for the victories.  

 

Another way is to celebrate someone else’s victory, give them the praise that they deserve. Again, it could be something minor but pay attention to the people in your life and acknowledge their work.

 

If you repeatedly celebrate others victories just because you want to be acknowledged or validated, stop at one atta boy.  Be mindful of what you are doing and retrain your brain to congratulate someone just the one time and move on.  Just by doing that, you are celebrating a personal victory.

 

This months affirmations:

            I am worthy of acknowledgement

            I take the time to acknowledge others

 

Bright Blessings and Happy holidays!!!!!

Catch you next year!

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Reading the cards since 1999, Machelle enjoys using her empathy and intuition to assist others gain insight into their lives, helping them on their path of personal development and enlightenment.  Her specialty is working with shadows, where she helps others discover and heal the hidden shadows of self that have been tucked away for self preservation but have, in fact, limited each person’s ability to live to their fullest potential.  Also a Reiki Practitioner, she is committed to helping others heal through her business Ray of Light Tarot & Reiki.

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