Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
Phoenix Rising: In The Garden of Shadow and Pain

Phoenix Rising: In The Garden of Shadow and Pain

Last updated on: June 1, 2020 at 4:46 pm by Robin Corak

Phoenix Rising: In The Garden of Shadow and Pain 2020-06-01T16:46:50+00:00 Robin Corak

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This is a time that defies description for me and for many others I know. It’s a frightening time as we continue to bear witness to injustices that seem to fall on deaf ears of many of those in positions of power. It’s a confusing time as we seek to find power yet we are too often surrounded by those – intentionally or not – striving to ensure that we are powerless.

It’s a time of grieving and heartbreak as we try to make sense of the senseless, mourn our losses, and try to heal wounds that just seem to continue to incessantly bleed. It feels like such an odd and liminal time. I walk through my garden on a daily basis, and witness the growth, the lush foliage of the forest and the beautiful flowers in blossom. Physically, it is a time of life and birth but given everything that is happening in our world I feel as though I am walking through a garden of darkness and pain. This is a time of shadows.

I feel as though I am walking through a garden of darkness and pain. Public domain photo via piqsels.

My blog posts don’t typically venture into the political arena even though my day job involves a great deal of social justice and anti-racism work. To be honest, this blog post is a bit outside of my comfort zone but the willingness to be vulnerable is necessary.

As a white woman, I have learned well over the past few years just how important it is to approach this work with humility and to take a step back in order to ensure that the voices of those most impacted are heard. I have also learned much about my own ignorance and how my well-intended actions may have sometimes caused harm despite my sincere desire to help. As a result, these days I don’t presume to tell people of color how they should think, feel, act, or do their own shadow work.

This blog post is really written for my fellow white pagan women who also feel like they are walking through a garden of shadow and pain. I don’t claim to have all of the answers nor do I feel that there is one right way to navigate these situations. Each of us has to do what we feel called to do and what we feel puts us in right relationship with our deities, our conscience, and our own values and guiding principles. What I can share with you is guidance that I have received that is helping me to navigate this garden with healing and purpose.

Persephone is a goddess who straddles both dark and light. It’s therefore not surprising that when I am experiencing the stark contrast of the physical “light” coinciding with the emotional dark I often turn to her for understanding and guidance. Persephone has been a close presence for most of my life, but in the past few years I have turned to her increasingly for help with my own shadow work.

Persephone is a goddess who straddles both dark and light. Public domain photo by Vivian Diaz via wallpaperflare.

I explore shadow work in depth in my recently released book entitled, “Persephone: Practicing the Art of Personal Power”. Last night, as I contemplated all the news that I have been seeing and reading recently (including the live coverage of riots in the town near where I live), I spent some time with Her, trying to look at things from the perspective of a deity who is both Goddess of the Spring and Queen of the Underworld.

What I heard most clearly was that this is a time to bring the darkness into the light and to shed a bright light on the dark. Bringing the darkness into the light is the first step, for we cannot shine a light on others if we haven’t explored our own shadows, implicit biases, wounds, fears, and impacts of our actions. It takes digging deep and being willing to see things about ourselves that we may not like and may be afraid to see. It also takes compassion and a commitment to loving ourselves no matter what we find in the darkness.

I strongly believe that for the most part our deities don’t condemn us for our past or our shadows but they do expect that we recognize the impacts of our actions and beliefs and learn from our mistakes. If we are going to in any way heal the collective shadow of this world that we live in, we must be willing to ask ourselves how we have contributed to this shadow not only by our actions but by our silence. This can be terrifying, painful work but I have found that it is necessary and ultimately empowering. It is also a journey that requires constant re-evaluation. I don’t believe that this work is ever done; rather, it continues throughout our lives.

Once we have committed to the work of bringing the darkness into the light, we can begin to shed light in the dark places. One of the shadow issues that I have continually explored since I was a child is a tendency to be a people pleaser. For a variety of reasons, throughout much of my childhood and adolescence I felt that being nice was my currency and I shied away from rocking the boat. This has taken a great deal of inner work to combat in part because of my own shadows and fears around this issue but also because when it comes to racism, our society as a whole has traditionally valued silence over conflict.

We cannot hide in the dark. Image by Mammiya via Pixabay.

Shedding a light on the darkness is frightening and it may result in alienation or judgement by some of those we care about. Yet we must do this. We cannot hide in the dark. In the absence of enough of us being willing to stand firm and hold the lantern up, the darkness will ultimately engulf all of us. ALL OF US.

So what does it mean to shed a light on injustice? It means actively taking a stance. Speaking up against racism and injustice even when there might be personal consequences for doing so. It means educating ourselves and being willing to step into the light by using our power and privilege to be an ally without displacing those most impacted, and with humility and wisdom to know the difference between being an ally and disempowering or silencing people of color. It requires courage to bring to light those individuals and actions that knowingly or unknowingly perpetuate injustice and/or try to hide behind the mantra of “I’m not racist”.

Persephone reminds me that death and birth are both separate and one. They are interdependent, which allows for the contradiction of navigating a landscape flush with life while at the same time feeling the loss and grief that comes with death. She tells me that we must do our own shadow work if we are to have any hope of healing the collective shadow wounds of the outside world that we live in. She reminds me that in a garden, one works with both death in the form of pulling the weeds that do not serve us and life in the form of planting seeds for the things that do.

The light forces us to see things that may cause us pain and confusion. Image by PublicCo via Pixabay.

Death happens in all sorts of small ways while we are alive. It is a letting go and it is scary as hell because we don’t have control over what happens next and we don’t always know what will fill the void. We can and do manifest a replacement; we birth things all the time. Yet, birth can also be hard because the light forces us to see things that may cause us pain and confusion. Emerging in the light is daunting at times. Just think of any baby who has ever resisted being birthed into the light because it is safer in the comforting dark of its mother’s womb. There’s a reason we typically come out kicking and screaming. Death and birth are necessary, and there is beauty and purpose to be found in both.

Persephone draws near and whispers in my ear that it is only through death and birth that change can occur. Change will happen one way or another – the question is what do we want that change to be? Are we willing to do the difficult and intimidating work necessary to manifest the future that we not only desire but that is necessary to ensure that well-being, justice and equity prevail? Persephone urges me to be the undertaker of that which no longer serves or has a place in our world. Be the midwife helping to birth that which is life affirming and necessary to our well-being and survival. Whatever you do, She says, do not sit stagnant on the sidelines.

*You can find more information about Pagan Portals “Persephone: Practicing the Art of Personal Power” here.

About Robin Corak

Robin Corak is the author of the forthcoming Moon Books Pagan Portals title “Persephone: Practicing the Art of Personal Power”. She has had her writing published in anthologies including “Goddess, When She Rules” and “Flower Face: A Devotional Anthology in Honor of Bloduewedd”. Robin is a skilled tarot reader and Reiki Master and teaches classes on a variety of metaphysical and Pagan topics at the local and national levels. Passionate about helping others achieve their full potential, Robin is also the CEO of a large, non-profit social services organization in Washington state. You can read more about the author here.

Previous Post

May 29, 2020

Cross and Crossroads: Hexing for Social Justice

Next Post

June 2, 2020 The Balancing Path: No Wrong Way to Grieve

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Lakeside Hearth Adventures in Wortcunning Alone In Her Presence Arts, Crafts & Cooking Birthing Hereditary Witchcraft Book of Blackbirds Book Reviews Born-Again Witch Cauldron, Sword, Spear, & Stone Cermony and Liturgy Columns Community Dandelion Seeds Dear Jasmine Druid Thoughts Editor's Picks Everyday Pagan Family & Household Practice Family Traditions Full Frontal Magic Gateway Goddess Guest Articles Happily Heathen Health and Wellness Hearth of Hellenism Heathen Woman Hills of the Horizon History Holidays Horse Goddesses Interfaith Interviews Irish-American Witchcraft Jewish Witch Lamp & Labyrinth Letters from Midgard Literature, Media, Film, Music Loop of Brighid Love, Sex & Relationships Magic or Magick Making Light Naturalistic Traditions Nature News Outside The Circle Pantheisticon Politics Prayers, Poems, Blessings & Stories Queer Femme Mystic Queer of Swords Recipes Ritual and Practice Science and Research Seekers and Guides Seeking the Grail Socially Responsible Magic Spear of Athena Star Made Witch Syncretic Electric Technology The Blooming Staff The Busy Witch The Cartomancer The Crow's Nest The Dance of Pagan Recovery The Hearth of Hellenism The Lady's Quill The Other Side of the Hedge The Path of She The Rantin' Raven The Witches Next Door The Zen Pagan Theology, Ethics, Philosophy Tree City Witch Urban Earthwitch Wayfaring Woman Witch on Fire Wyrd Words

Select a Month January 2026 March 2025 December 2024 June 2024 April 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 August 2023 July 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which chapter of Genesis recounts the genealogy from Adam to Noah?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Genesis 5 Genesis 10 Genesis 2 Genesis 7