Loving the dark and ugly parts

I am currently in the midst of a 21 day Sadhana focused on the Goddess Medusa.
No – I am not learning much about snakes.
I am learning a lot about the learning and journeying of stories, mythology and of loving the dark and ugly parts of myself…and the world I live in (because that is me too).

Sadhana is a Sanskrit term used to refer to a daily spiritual practice.
Something that is practiced with awareness, discipline and the intention of spiritual growth.

Goddess Sadhana is not a mental discipline delivered from the outside in.
It is an unfolding from deep within you, from within the world.
~ Chameli, Awakening Women Institute.

Medusa, well…
She takes a little more explanation.
Which I will not go into here.
Only to share with you some of what I have learned about her and what she is teaching me.

Loving the dark and ugly parts

Medusa is the queen of darkness, of death, of rebirth, of protection and LOVE.
She came from the depths of the ocean, was ravaged in the temple of Athena and grew powerful – so powerful she could turn a man to stone just by looking at him.
She grew powerful by stepping into this dark side, this otherness.

What Medusa is teaching me is about loving my dark and ugly parts.

Because we all have them right?
Those parts we don’t put on Facebook and Instagram.
Those parts we hide from society, our neighbours, our loved ones… ourselves?

But who said these parts were ugly?
What is it about them that makes them bad, wrong, unacceptable?

As I work on myself and with others in growing into – remembering – our true selves, we only ever hear our own voices.
We are the ones who denigrate, criticise, demean and disempower ourselves.
Yes – someone, somewhere, sometime may have said it first.
But…
We are the ones still playing that record, still referring to that text, still giving energy – power – to those words.

Stop!

Because parts of us are dark.
Parts of us are ugly.
But does this mean they should be cast out?
Abandoned?
Left discarded and alone?

No.
It does not.

Because those dark and ugly parts are us.
Part of the whole.
And to deny them, disempowers us.

Imagine!

Going to The Super Bowl to watch your favourite team and the coach only played the offensive team?
Imagine the coach totally denying the existence, capability and strength of the defensive team.
Would you be surprised when your team lost, to a more complete, well balanced and realistic side made up of both offense and defence?

Dark and light.
Full, empty.
Tide comes in, tide goes out.
Such is the nature of The Universe and all within it.

Medusa teaches us there is the same power and beauty in the yellowing, ageing, falling and composting leaves of Autumn, as there is in the bright green new leaves and exuberant and fragrant blossoms of Spring.
Why is it we all run for the cover of Spring in our lives?
What is it about the darkness of our Autumn and the ugliness of our Winter that makes us feel so uncomfortable?
What makes us feel our dark and ugly parts must be hidden away, never talked about, talked over, laughed through, shut down, dishonoured, ignored?

Play by the rules.
Work hard, save, buy that house.
Be a good girl.
Exercise and eat right.
And die.

Nothing saves us from death.
It is happening as you read this, as I write this.
Death and Medusa are present in every moment.

Because such is life, as Ned Kelly once said.

Life is all of it.
The dark and the light.
The ugly and the beauty.

We deny ourselves the power to BE our true selves
when
we deny the dark and ugly parts of ourselves.

What’s the worst that will happen?
If we allow ALL of our self to just BE.
Do we think we are really such a pivotal force in the world?
Will those around us, so intent on hiding their own dark and ugly, even notice when we BE our true selves?
Maybe we will for the first time experience true honesty?
True intimacy.

Let us stop denying who we really are.
Let us stop denying the dark and ugly parts of ourselves.
Maybe all the answers we are looking for are there?

LOVE
Rachel x
Your Life Changing Coach
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