The Shadow is out of the Box

by Tanis Helliwell

“May you live in interesting times.” —A Chinese curse

The Bad News First

I believe that 2018 will be remembered as a chaotic year full of anxiety. Since the cold war between Russia and the US, there has never been so great a threat of a world war. It came close when North Korea and the US had a show down led by leaders acting like schoolyard bullies. Not to be left out, the UK accused Russia of poisoning a former Russian spy on its soil, which violates the sovereign right of a country to maintain its borders. It also appears, despite the denial of the US president, that Russia also interfered on his behalf in the presidential election.

In fact, we don’t need to look closely to see that borders are falling everywhere. Across Europe immense numbers refugees from the war-torn middle-east have been crossing by land and sea asking for asylum in the west. And this migration is not confined to Europe as Canada, the US and others have opened their doors to welcome some of these suffering millions. And not all countries are welcoming those less fortunate than themselves. Some countries turn refugees back to face certain death and others want to build a wall to keep the poor from partaking of the riches of their country.

On the environmental front the news is equally dire. Weather patterns across the globe have become increasingly erratic and, while scientists unite in calling out for action, they are stalled by government inaction or outright denial of the Earth’s plight.

And bad news is not only happening out there in the broader world, it is just as likely to be happening closer to home as children are threatened in the schoolyard by bullets and young people take to the streets to protest the betrayal of their parents’ generation in creating an unsafe world that they will inherit.

This summary reflects the glass half empty summary of 2018, but let’s not remain there. Why? As studies show, when we focus on the negative we lose energy, feel helpless and hopeless and have increased fear and anxiety. Negative thoughts create physical, mental and spiritual illness.

The Good News

With this litany of woes, you might think me a Pollyanna to be talking about the good news in the world but I will risk that happening. I strongly believe that our outmoded self-destructive ways of being are departing because they are out in the open now and we are seeing people, situations and ourselves more clearly than we did in the past. The first step in changing is to acknowledge that the old order will not work to create health and happiness in our world. I am not suggesting that you do this in denial of what you and I have witnessed to date, but that you do it in spite of it. This requires a leap of faith and a deep-seated belief that Spirit or, what you might prefer to call universal intelligence, loves us deeply and is working through us, consciously or unconsciously, to move us to a higher state of consciousness.

I have noticed repeatedly that people most often do not change until the pain of not changing becomes greater than the pain of changing. This time is now. Increasingly individuals are faced with their blind spots, as they witness the collapse of their assumed safety and trust in governments and religious leaders. When leaders are no longer trustworthy and are not an example of morality that we can aspire to, then there is no reason to allow them to lead us. We must discover and then follow the moral high ground in our own lives. In doing so, we rise, by example, to a deserved place of leadership for others. In doing it ourselves, we demonstrate for others that they too can do it. A new era of leadership, which subscribes to the higher principles of humanity—that of compassion, forgiveness, honesty, fearlessness, and will in service to universal intelligence—then becomes the order of the day.

As we become the change we want to see in the world, we rise to a higher frequency. Adhering to higher moral values no longer takes effort and will power as it still does in the lower frequencies. In higher realms these positive qualities are self-sustaining. As we no longer have to use strong will power to practice these positive qualities, as they become our norm, our energy and faith are boosted and we rise to even higher frequencies.

We are on our way presently to these higher frequencies, what is known in metaphysics as the astral realm or plane. The good news is that all humans will consciously inhabit this realm within the next 2000 years. However, to do so, each of us must transform our negative thoughts, emotions and actions into positive ones. Carl Jung referred to this dark side of our personality as our shadow and said that the more we suppress it, the more it expresses itself in addictive behaviors and projecting onto others. Our shadow is the parts of ourselves that we are ashamed of, that part that clings to jealousy, anger, pride, greed, lust, etc.

None of us really like the shadow part of ourselves. We are not proud of it and either try to hide it or accuse others of these vices to deflect the spotlight from us.  Now we must own it because each of us has created and sustained the collective shadow that has created the world’s problems. The sooner we do this with humility, the sooner we recover from our illness. Because leading a life controlled by our shadow is illness and by integrating these dark parts of ourselves into our personality and bringing them to the light we find our true power in being our essential Self.

Admitting we are wrong in our beliefs and actions to others and ourselves, loosens the hold of the shadow and creates a space where Spirit can enter. This may not happen in a minute, but it will happen. Until we do this we will live in chaos and witness the old reality, which is based on outmoded rules, fall apart. However, it we maintain deep faith and trust and surrender to Spirit, we will live in harmony with these higher frequencies and bring heaven to earth. This is my heartfelt wish for all of us this holiday season as we leave 2018 and bring in the new year of 2019.

Tanis Helliwell, a mystic in the modern world, has brought spiritual consciousness into the mainstream for over 30 years. Since childhood, she has seen and heard elementals, angels, and master teachers in higher dimensions. Tanis is the founder of the International Institute for Transformation (IIT), which offers programs to assist individuals to become conscious creators to work with the spiritual laws that govern our world.

Tanis is the author of The High Beings of Hawaii, Summer with the Leprechauns, Pilgrimage with the Leprechauns, Embraced by Love, Manifest Your Soul’s Purpose, Hybrids: So You Think You Are Human and Decoding Your Destiny.

For information on Tanis’ courses, click here.