The Shadow Mother
The Shadow Mother / MedicineDoll.com
The Shadow Mother
The Wise Shadow Mother knows that sometimes you have to go inward in order to go forward. The willingness to step into your shadow side and face what’s hard or painful is vital to our emotional, physical and spiritual health. Too often, this process is met with an unwilling resistance.
Stepping into the shadows is uncomfortable. It’s scary. Things have been hidden and might jump out at you. It might drag you into unfamiliar places that hold fear, pain, sadness, grief and even rage.
We resist from a nagging fear of stepping into a new, unknown reality. We mistake familiarity for safety.
But are we really safe inside that story?
The Shadow Mother can look frightening and intense when you see her, but once you make the choice to cross the threshold and step in, you discover that she has tremendous love and compassion. She wants you to face her so that she can transform you back into the light with the burden lifted and one more layer of inspiration and freedom uncovered.
She is not the scary, bad witch that eats little children like we were told in our childhood stories.
I think the only time she is really scary is when you are refusing to look at her and she wants to get your attention.
I am eternally grateful for the teacher that taught me years ago that acknowledging the shadow is equal to the light. Nature shows that wisdom every day with the cycle of day and night. Over and over. One is not more important or valuable to the other. We are out of balance when we turn away from the parts of us that lie in the shadows.
What might it look like if you accepted her invitation? What might happen if you surrendered to the path of letting go and allowed space to be held in faith and trust? Faith that you are safe and protected within your own container and trust that you will find your way back out into the light.
This is true empowerment. It’s an act of self-care and respect.
What do her adornments mean?
Can you see her face coming through the shadow? Drawing you in. Asking you to look deeper. She holds the symbol of Awen on her green dress of healing. Awens three rays of light create harmony in the opposites with a balance in between. Her crystals light the way, helping us to obtain clarity and wisdom through the journey.
Her bees nest energy offers great protection with a sharp sting for those that might wish us harm or ill will. The nest radiates this protection from our first three chakras as we ground into our tribal root foundation, move up to a strong sense of self and finally out into the world fully empowered.
I put a piece of snakeskin in her crown to assist the shedding of the old and to allow transformation to take place. Her hat reminds you that she is also The Hedgewitch, who lives in her natural habitat amongst the nature spirits. Her outer shell is fierce and wild with a beautiful balance of independent strength and self-compassion.
Jerri Shelton / MedicineDoll.com
I love working with women who seek personal empowerment and authenticity by incorporating a feminine, spiritual worldview that reflects and affirms embracing her true self.
Women need and long for a deeper spiritual connection to the Divine Mother Earth.
My work as a nature and spirit artist and communal workshop leader encourages women to step into a journey that will take her deeper into her herself to acknowledge, heal and transform those things that linger in the shadow and hold her back. She hears the call and knows when she is ready.