Website is no longer available. Medusa can be reached at shadowcraftcult@outlook.com

A quick note on labelling our thoughts.

Thoughts are a predominant part of our reality and sometimes take a higher precedence than the reality we’re truly experiencing. Sliding into the truth of who we are and creating space around our thoughts are important steps to not being dragged down under the heavy flow of thoughts when they take us over. It takes a bit of practice, but once you’re aware of how circular and often pointless your thoughts are you can begin to take back the energy you waste on continual thinking.

For our questions this week-

What do I find myself thinking about the most?

Am I able to change or manage my thinking when it gets on certain topics?

Does my mood or emotions change when I think about certain things?

What topics of thinking cause me the greatest emotional changes?

For our shadow practice we look at the act of labelling our thoughts to create more awareness, and then our grounding exercise involves creating bubbles around our thoughts and letting them float away.

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Website is no longer available. Medusa can be reached at shadowcraftcult@outlook.com

A quick note on Acceptance-

The most important thing to remember about acceptance is that you don’t have to accept everything, you only have to accept this moment.

For our journal questions this week we ask ourselves-

What is one thing I will never accept?

What do I feel like I don’t deserve that happens to me?

How do I feel when I think something that is happening shouldn’t happen?

Does thinking something shouldn’t happen cause me stress?

For our shadow practice we are using accepting statements and seeing how this feels in our body, and for our grounding exercise we use EFT with similar statements. Here is more on EFT:

https://jessicadimas.com/using-eft-tapping-to-heal-your-mind-body-life/

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/326434#research

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Website is no longer available. Medusa can be reached at shadowcraftcult@outlook.com

A quick note on the Ancestral Wound-

Ancestral or collective wounds can be handed down by many types of group. Sometimes it’s beliefs that come from our immediate family, sometimes our extended family, or even ethnic or cultural groups that you connect with. Often these wounds aren’t blindingly apparent until we confront why we do the things we do as a group, and we scrutizine our subconscious beliefs around what will happen if we alter our course away from the group.

We investigate this topic, creating awareness with these questions-

Are there beliefs that have been passed down to you through your family?

What kind of things are expected of you as part of your family?

What happens to people who don’t follow the expectations of your family?

Do you carry fear around family beliefs and expectations?

For our shadow practice we set up a ritual space to allow us to connect to our ancestral energies.

And for our grounding exercise we use water to allow any trapped, stagnant energy to be washed away.

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Website is no longer available. Medusa can be reached at shadowcraftcult@outlook.com

A quick note on the Mother Wound-

When we grow up without a person to teach us about our feminine energy, we miss out on all the things this feminine energy is needed for in every day life. This energy is fundamental in our ability to connect and feel part of the world around us. Counter-intuitively, sometimes this lack of awareness of our connection can lead us to having poor boundaries with the people around us in order to try to create that connection we feel like we’re lacking. And it’s important to remember the need for awareness of our feminine energy extends to all people, male-identifying, female-identifying, and non-binery. Feminine and masculine energy are fundamental in all living things.

We start with our journal questions-

What role did your mother play in your life?

What role do you wish she had played?

How would your life be different if she had been this way?

Are there any characteristics of your mother in you?

Do you feel positively or negatively towards these characteristics?

For our shadow practice we use positive affirmations to start playing the mother role in our own lives and to create a more loving connection with ourselves.

Our grounding exercises involves feeling our connection to all things in through meditation.

If you’re looking for more information on the Mother Wound Bethany Webster has lots of useful information here- https://www.bethanywebster.com/about-the-mother-wound/

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Website is no longer available. Medusa can be reached at shadowcraftcult@outlook.com

A quick note on Venus-

Venus is most often associated with the feminine aspect, which is not to say it only exists as women, although it can often represent them in a chart. But on a deeper level Venus represents the feminine energy that exists in all people and behaves as a counter balance to our masculine energy. On the surface Venus represents things like money, love, and beauty, but deeper down in our psychs it becomes the energy or drive to connect to the world around us. For whatever reason masculine energy has become the dominant energy in society today. We take pride in separating ourselves out from the pack and getting ahead, as the masculine energy inspires us to. But we crave that feminine connection energy on a deeper level. In fact, many people who are more weighted towards their masculine energy speak of feelings of loneliness, a common side effect of not experiencing our feminine connective energy as fully as we would like to.

Today we look at Venus through the chart to see how we connect with other people and the world around us, for better or for worse.

I’ve included time stamps if you wish to skip ahead to your sign, and if you’re not sure which sign your Venus is in watch the Introduction video of the Astrology and Shadow Work series to find out how to look up your chart.

Time stamps:

Aries- 10:30

Taurus- 16:19

Gemini- 21:27

Cancer- 26:19

Leo- 31:13

Virgo- 37:25

Libra- 43:30

Scorpio- 49:24

Sagittarius- 54:47

Capricorn- 59:29

Aquarius- 1:05:05

Pisces- 1:11:54

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Website is no longer available. Medusa can be reached at shadowcraftcult@outlook.com

A quick note on the Father Wound-

The wounding we receive from our fathers is usually associated with neglect, abuse, or sometimes a simple lack of effort, but the father wound is actually something far deeper and yet simpler than that. Our father wound is our lack of access to the masculine energy we all carry, and our ability to use it. While the term masculine has become highly polarized by over 2000 years of patriarchy, masculine energy itself is simply the drive to move up and out, and to set ourselves apart from where we are now. In our lives that can play into the desire to achieve goals, look after our needs, or transform ourselves into who we think we truly are. When we carry a father wound we lack access to that energy and can suffer from feelings of worthlessness and a belief that we don’t deserve to be happy. Of course none of these things are true, but it can be difficult programming to overcome if we don’t even know its there.

These week in shadow practice we ask ourselves-

What role has your father played in your life?

What role do you wish he had played?

How would your life be different if he had been this way?

Are there any characteristics of your father in you?

Do you feel positively or negatively towards these characteristics?

For our shadow practice we use a “talking to a chair” practice similar to this one- https://www.soulshepherding.org/father-wounds-and-longings/ although in my recording I do not go into the more religion specific aspects.

For our grounding exercise we do a five count breath to bring our focus back to the breath.

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Website is no longer available. Medusa can be reached at shadowcraftcult@outlook.com

A quick note on Exploring Self- There are many levels of self- spiritual, intellectual, physical, emotional, as well as variations on these too subtle to be defined. But underneath it all there is a true self. They say “The truth is what exists whether you believe in it or not.” and the true self is very much like that, it is not something the mind can comprehend because it is greater than mind. It is very common for our minds to try to deny this part of ourselves (as it likes to hide and deny many things), but when we practice things like meditation and sitting in awareness we allow ourselves to sit in our true self where things like judgements and criticisms have little sway. It’s a powerful place to exist from.

In today’s journal section we ask questions to help us become aware of our true self-

Who am I?

How would I describe me?

If any of these things changed or ceased to exist would I no longer be me?

Am I the same person I was when I was born? or 10 years ago? 1 year ago? 1 week ago?

Does the opinion of others change who I am?

For our shadow practice we look at separating out ourselves from our story and then we end our practice by physically grounding in something that we can experience strongly such as dirt, sand, or water (grass would work too!) to come back to ourselves.

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Website is no longer available. Medusa can be reached at shadowcraftcult@outlook.com

A quick note on Setting Boundaries- the most important thing to remember is that boundaries are not for other people- They are for yourself. Boundaries teach us where other people stop and where we begin. They teach us that we deserve kindness, consideration, and happiness. It’s tempting to use boundaries to try to get what we want from other people. We often think if we just tell people to treat us a certain way they will respect us and love us how we deserve to be loved. But sometimes all a boundary can do is teach us when it’s time to walk away for the sake of ourselves and show ourselves what treatment we are worthy of. Don’t worry if you boundaries feel greedy, needy, or demanding at first. That’s just our conditioning trying to slow down our evolution. Boundaries will give you more time and energy to do what you need for yourself moving forward.

This week we journal with the questions-

What do people do that makes you feel taken advantage of?

What do people do that makes you feel violated?

What am I afraid will happen if I tell them to stop?

Was I allowed to have boundaries as a child?

For our shadow practice we write boundary contracts for ourselves to practice defining our own limits, and then for our grounding exercise we meditate on feeling both solid and borderless to become aware of our existence on a physical level.

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