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Seven

Mary’s Song

Sweet Tea and God’s Graces

Me and Britney

Taylor Swift - Seven / Mary’s Song / Sweet Tea and Gods Graces / Me and Britney

You know what I never understood about people? Their intense fear of death while autumn being their favourite season. Autumn literally shows us how natural death is and how beautiful it can be. Each leaf served a purpose and falls to lay to rest. Out of the decay forms new life.

“I get really angry at people who are mean to other people. Isn’t life hard enough without people making it worse for each other? I think the people who do, who set out to make others feel bad, feel bad and alone themselves and they don’t want to feel alone, so they make other people feel bad. So they’ll just feel bad but also maybe, not so alone.”

— Iain Thomas, How To Be Happy

Sound Off, Texas Witches!

I’m in the planning stages of a project and I’m gonna need some help!

If you are a witch, live in Texas, and work with your surrounding land, please like or reply to this post, or send me a message please!!

I look forward to hearing from you ^^

Shadow Work 101: Ruminating vs Reprocessing

I need to start this off with my usual disclaimer that I am not a therapist and really underline it here. I speaking on this based purely on my own experience and a little bit of reading I’ve done on the subject. It in no way constitutes a expert opinion. (Also it’s 3 in the morning here, so even if I was an expert, this would not exactly be optimal material here)

However, it’s important enough that I want to at least bring this part of shadow work up because I realized recently that I’ve not addressed it very explicitly.

When you’re working with difficult memories and even trauma in your shadow work, it is incredibly important to evaluate whether you’re reprocessing the memory when you bring it up to explore it and sit with it.

What I mean is usually in going through old memories there’s this discovery process, where you suddenly see your past experiences in a new light. But it’s important to then move to the next part which is reintegrating that memory in a way so that remembering it isn’t painful or causing dysfunction. There are a ton of ways to do that. Therapists have a ton of tools at their disposal to help with this so if you can see one, I highly recommend it. But tarot is also a good way to begin to reexamine and reintegrate these difficult memories. Spreads can help you see those memories in new lights and help balance out the intensity of our negative thinking.

However, there’s something I’ve seen with some folks where they’ll almost obsessively recall memories and do not reprocess them. Or they’ll bring up more memories than they can possibly do any sort of reintegration work at a time. This can be overwhelming and even damaging in my experience. It can lead to folks freezing and shutting down. It can wind up being used to justify poor behaviors that might have sparked the exploration in the first place, keeping the person locked in their dysfunctional patterns.

That sort of obsession without reprocessing is called rumination. Where you feel as if you can’t stop thinking about a difficult memory or that you have to in order to prevent something bad from happening again. Rumination can almost become a form of self harm depending on how it manifests in a person’s life. If when someone messes up they then recall a bunch of times they’ve messed up and they don’t follow that up with any sort of reframing, it’s essentially like yelling and humiliating yourself. Rumination, even in it’s milder forms, is highly correlated to depression and, at least in my experience, can totally stall the shadow integration/healing process.

So when trying to figure out if you’re ruminating or reprocessing a memory, here are some questions:

When you recall the memory, do you see it in a new more compassionate light (reprocessing) or do you feel as if that’s the end of line, there’s nothing more to do (rumination)?

Afterward, do you feel lighter and more relieved (reprocessing) or do you feel heavy and shameful (rumination)?

When you’re thinking about the memory, do you account for the complexity of the situation (reprocessing) or do you find yourself believing you or another person was all good or all bad (rumination)?

While these aren’t perfect in their wording, they’re at least a start. If you find yourself ruminating a lot, there are a host of strategies you can use to cut down on it. One option, is just not doing memory work until you’re better able to manage that rumination. Sometimes we push ourselves too far too fast and we just need a chance to recoup in order to get back to reprocessing. There’s plenty of other shadow work skills to work on in that time - keeping small daily promises, describing things neutrally, breathwork - that don’t require you to bring up memories in order to be helpful.

If you’re really in a rut, I recommend TMS journaling - stream of consciousness journaling for 20 minutes with the focus on writing down things we’re afraid to admit to other people and then deleting or destroying it - twice a day. It’s been incredibly helpful for me to break the habit of rumination. Another option is talking for 20 minutes into a camera if journaling that much is too difficult. My question and answer method I wrote about can also be helpful here.

But maybe you’re like some folks I’ve talked to and you’re realizing you don’t really know how to reprocess a memory. While I definitely recommend a therapist above all else, one way can be to select a card as a signifier for the memory, shuffle you deck, find the card, and the cards on either side will offer a different framing for how to think about it. You can also check out some of the spreads I’ve posted under shadow working in my free resources. Working with stuck points if you’re in a good enough place can also be one way to shift the needle forward.

So I just wanted to put this out there for folks who might not realize their shadow work is actually rumination heavy and as something to consider if you’re stalling out in your shadow work. I really hope you all are well and I’m looking forward to writing more about this in the future.

My embroideries - Instagram

Keiichi T

MARY’S SONG She said, I was seven and you were nine I looked at you like the stars that shine In the sky, the pretty lights And our daddies used to joke about the two of us Growing up and falling in love and our mamas smiled And rolled their eyes and said oh my my myTake me back to the house in the backyard tree Said you’d beat me up, you were bigger than me You never did, you never did Take me back when our world was one block wide I dared you to kiss me and ran when you tried Just two kids, you and I Oh my my my my SEVEN Please picture me In the trees I hit my peak at seven feet In the swing Over the creek I was too scared to jump in But I, I was high in the sky With Pennsylvania under me Are there still beautiful things? Sweet tea in the summer Cross your heart, won’t tell no other And though I can’t recall your face I still got love for you Your braids like a pattern Love you to the moon and to Saturn Passed down like folk songs The love lasts so long

Journal Prompts for Shadow Work #2

Here are some more journal prompts to help you get started on your Shadow Work Journey!

These were the next set of journaling prompts I personally used and these are the ones that also made me think about how I was raised, the people I used to surround myself by, and how much I have grown till now.

The first part is rejection, followed by embarrassment, I’m sure everyone has been rejected or embarrassed in some way or another in their life. This could come from our parents, guardians, siblings, cousins, neighbors, and even friends or strangers. This prompt isn’t asking you to write all of your rejections, however if you feel drawn to it to work through, then go for it!

Forgiveness is something I struggle with personally. The feelings of, I could have done this better, or I should of said this instead, or missing out on an opportunity, etc, is a familiar feeling. I started to forgive myself for whatever memory that came up during this time, it’s not an over night thing either. I am still learning on forgiving myself for past mistakes still!

These prompts made me realize something too, I have been focusing on everything else BUT myself. I had to sit down and think for quite a while to answer some of these and to reconnect to who I once was and what was holding me back, now I can move forward with my healing to work through the issues that have presented themselves to me.

Don’t feel bad about crying or getting angry during this process, trauma comes up while working through it, remembering to breathe, taking your time and to reach out to your support system will help.

I hope this prompt brings you much clarity in your journey.

*Reminder to use caution and to seek professional help if needed. I’m not a licensed therapist. However my inbox is open for support.