Embracing Our Shadows & Letting Go

Welcome to the season of shadows, letting go, restoration and deep inner wisdom.

Welcome to Winter. 

In wisdom traditions around the world winter has long been revered as a time to honour the importance of darkness, of letting go and slowing down in order to live a balanced life.

Our culture tends to shy away from the dark and shadows, fearing them, rejecting them, avoiding them or labelling them as bad or evil. 

But it wasn’t always like this. 

Many ancient traditions revered the dark phase and understood the role of death or letting go as necessary for the cycle of rebirth. They honoured the great power of the underworld within us all that is the source of wisdom and creation. 

In Greek mythology it is the phase of entering the underworld to be reborn as Persephone did.  In the Native American medicine wheel as well as the Druid directions of time, Winter is the time of death and eldership and characterised by wisdom.

In the natural world the dark moist soil is where we plant seeds to grow. In that soil resides worms, fungi and bacteria that break down old matter so it can become rich nutrients for new life.

We are all endlessly cycling through death and rebirth, this is the cycle of life.  

The question is not if, but how we will move through these cycles. 

Buddhist teaching tells us that suffering is resisting a change that needs to be made, and that all things change. 

We can either resist the changes of life and suffer… or we can honour the cycle and allow ourselves to let go with grace, acceptance and reverence for what we've learned.