Some years ago I was siting in a temazcal at the lovely “Il quinto Sole” outside Genova. As we were going through the different layers of release in the dark womb of the ritual the facilitator, Alessandra Comneno, said something that was seared into my being and that has become an anchor for me not only on my path but also in the sessions I hold for others and in my art. I will use my words:

“Conscious and unconscious have the same value. They are equal.”

I think so much of the power struggle we face as humans in our own personal lives and collectively hinges on a fundamnetal unbalance and ignorance around the above concept, that is so simple yet so ungraspably immense. Because if we lived by these words, there would be no conflict.

Said in other words also by a teacher I deeply admire and also deeply rooted in shamanic traditions:

“It is an act of profound elegance to not want or need to force the light upon the shadow.” Selene Calloni Williams, Kintsugi.

I know I have wanted to force awareness to some of my own unconscious processes and have suffered the pain of this. This kind of self-inflicted pain is nothing short of a form of abuse. This pain I could have spared myself. This is the truth. Even seekers with the highest intentions can weild a sharp blade upon themselves.

And this, ultimately, is not needed.