The summer solstice day, usually around June 21 or 22, has the longest period of daylight and we are at a mid-point in our year.  Traditionally the summer solstice is a time to celebrate the light of consciousness within ourselves and others.

Our ancestors – the Druids, Egyptians, Mayans, Incans, Romans and others aligned many of their sacred sites with the location of the Sun during the Summer Solstice and conducted ceremonies honoring a return to wholeness, the triumph of light over darkness.

As I privately celebrated the solstice, I did not directly feel moved to celebrate the light of my internal and eternal being.  I was drawn to thinking of the long shadows that a summer solstice sun would create and then drawn into reveling in the beauty of my shadows rather than the divine light.

As I look back on the work I have done to embrace and love the shadow, darker parts of me; I am in awe at how much that turning and facing my shadows has helped me step into the light.

“To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light.”  Carl Jung 

Most of everything that keeps us from stepping into our light is created by a shadow part of us.  When we keep our shadows in the darkness we hold that energy and it keeps us stuck.  In the Shamanic teachings of the Inka Medicine Path, we call on the courage of the Jaguar archetype to turn around and face our shadows.  And when we do —- Surprise!

It turns out our shadows aren’t really scary.   Turning around to face our shadows releases the hold that it has on us – turns them from the “scary boogey man” to the inner child that needs love.  We can see our shadows for what they really are, embrace them, dance and play with them and bring them into the light.

How exactly can you stop playing hide and go seek with your shadows?  One of the easiest ways to recognize your shadows is to take a look at someone in your life who really rubs you the wrong way.  We usually project our shadows onto other people and they reflect them back to us.  You may react irrationally or blow something out of proportion to one of your shadows when you see it in someone else.  Who are those people that you say – “Gosh, I don’t know why but that bugs me so much when ….. ?”

Or what about the behaviors you keep repeating even when you keep trying not to?  There is a shadow that lurks there.

Once you see that shadow peeking out, coax it into the light by speaking to it as if it were a child.  What is it afraid of?  What needs are not being met?  What does it need from your higher self?

So while we are still in this powerful, magical solstice time take a moment to turn around to see what shadows stalk you.  Bring them into the light of the Solstice and dance with them into the darkness of the night.