The words dark and shadow are not synonymous, in fact when they are used interchangeably all manners of unintentional shaming, oppression and labelling falls upon women, the Divine Feminine and all persons born with skin darker than lily white.

 

When I was ordained as a Priestess, my Priestess sisters and I were instructed to write a Priestess statement which we read to a community of support souls who had come to hold space and celebrate our ordination, in this statement we were to declare the energies that we were aligning with as well as what practical services we were offering our community through our Priestess practice. My service was the use of my words, spoken and written the power of our words has been in my awareness ever since I was a fierce young maiden, speaking and sometimes screaming my truth in the face of a patriarchal brute who ruled the roost of our home. Even in the face of ridicule, bullying, humiliation and force I would not silent my voice or my truth.

 

As I've walked this spiral path of the Priestess I have learnt the power of holding my tongue and the presence that silence offers for truth to be felt rather than spoken with the limited English language, I have also learnt how to speak my truth simply, boldly, firmly, gently, I have learnt the freedom of radical honesty and the loving gift that receiving truth offers another. This Priestess path and my dedication to the expressed word of truth has made me hyper aware, often to other people's annoyance, of the words that we choose to use, and it is with this laser beam focus of awareness that the usage of the word 'dark' and 'darkness' first began to irk me, over time that sense of being irked has transformed into a full body repulsion to it's use when it is being declared to be evil, wrong, low vibration, something to overcome or bring to light.

 

We are given contradictory messages in regards to the dark, in circles that honour and practice honouring what is termed the Divine Feminine we are taught that the feminine is receptive, cool, and dark (I actually exchanged the term feminine for lunar, but that is a whole other article) and the Masculine are described as extending, hot and light, we are taught that both the Feminine and the Masculine is holy and needed in this 3rd dimensional reality. We are also taught that the feminine experience of the dark is one of being the grand void, the space that holds all of the universe and her potential for life, the dark is the womb space, it is the mystery, it is the magnetic receptive nature of the All. 

 

When we then turn around and condemn challenging energies, situations and even evil itself as a darkness which needs to be illuminated and turned light, we are perpetuating the sexist and racist patriarchy that we are endeavouring to dissolve through our embracement of the Divine Feminine mysteries. 

 

Challenging energies, 'negative' emotions and situations which are completely cut off (temporarily) from the Source of All and expressing itself as evil in this realm is not a part of the darkness, it is a part of the shadow, the hidden and unacknowledged and unprocessed consciousness of the collective. When we begin to claim these lower expressions as shadow and begin to honour the darkness as holy and desirable we feed the feminine and all people whose skin is not fair and light messages that we are holy and desirable as we are.

 

What happens when we change sentences such as:

"Sigh, journeying through the dark and waiting to get to the other side and re-enter the light again soon," to "Sigh, journeying through the shadow and waiting to get to the other side and re-enter the mysterious dark or the light of knowing soon." 

Or, "He was not good for me, he was shrouded in darkness and I couldn't even see it," to "He was not good for me, he was lost in his shadow and I couldn't even see it."

Or, "That is a dark thought, you have to bring it to the light." to "That is a shadow thought, you have to bring it into the mystery of the dark or the illumination of the light."

What happens when we embrace the dark and celebrate being in the mystery, opening as the void and revelling in our magnetic powers, akin to the power of the dark universe? 

 

When I began to change my language and differentiate shadow from dark my own lunar essence felt honoured and allowed, the parts of me that others define as feminine felt strong and validated, my dark Spanish skin felt owned as desirable, my dark aspects, my lunar self, the parts of me that have been labelled as feminine by the majority, and my dark skin, hair and eyes felt accepted, powerful and seen, who I am as a whole was seen and claimed when I stopped labelling the undesirable aspects of life as a part of the dark and began to embrace the dark as the holy space that it is.

 

As we sit in the light of tonight's Full Moon, ruled by Scorpio, the astrological sign that rules the mysteries of the dark I am reclaiming the dark as beautiful and sacred and committing to changing my language in all aspects of my experience, shadow and dark will not be interchangeable in my reality, and if this resonates with you as well, perhaps it won't for you either.

 

Grace Be With You,

Priestess of Grace,

Candise Soaring Butterfly 

 

image taken from: https://reclaimingla.wordpress.com/2016/02/16/realms-of-the-dark-goddess-workshop/