Traversing The Shadows
I’ve recently discovered what I think of as the sister to Human Design - the Gene Keys. Based upon the same ancient teachings and wisdom, I created my profile and was presented with an audio to listen to that was supposedly my life purpose.
I was sceptical but as I listened, I began to cry. I didn’t understand what was being said, but something in what I was listening to moved me at such a deep and profound level.
I was drawn in to explore more. I won’t go into the Gene Keys themselves in detail - you can find more about them here and create your own profile if you’re curious.
What I want to explore here is what it means to me to traverse the shadows.
It seems to me that before we come into this life, our soul chooses a life path, full of twists and turns and disruption and celebration and sadness and joy and celebrations - to take us on a journey of insight and remembering who and what we truly are through our life lessons.
Like being in the flow of a river, we then either have the experience of fighting and resisting the challenges that come to meet us on our journey, numbing ourselves so that we can turn our faces away from the pain, at least temporarily, or turn, open our arms and our hearts and take in these shadows with grace.
“All of you is welcome”, says one of my colleagues - this is what she means.
My ‘Life Purpose’ Gene Key is 13. So my journey is one from the shadow of discord to realise the gift of discernment and in its highest expression. empathy. The Gene Keys Path is an inner exploration of each Key through contemplation and as I have spent time with this one, I have come to see for me, it is in essence, a journey of learning how to listen.
Firstly to myself. The inner discord that is so familiar and so painful happens when I listen to my head rather than my heart. This leads to all kinds of discord being experienced in my outer world - after all, this can only ever be a reflection of the inner.
To traverse the shadow is firstly to notice it in every corner of our lives. It’s repetitive nature as it darkens our corners over and over and over again. It might appear in the form of a struggling teenager. An argument with a loved one. A long-standing feud. It might be the sound of traffic outside your window or a continued experience of failing achieve things in your life that you set out to do.
Internally is might be the feeling of an noisy, jarring repetitive though process, the pain of indecision, a feeling of being out of alignment with the world.
When you hear the word that’s attributed to your shadow - you’ll start to see it everywhere.
The next step is to notice how you turn away from it, numb it, avoid it, get coaching on it to make it go away, resist it, try to hide from it.
But these attempts can ‘work’ only temporarily - the outer world brings them right into our faces relentlessly for as long as we avoid them.
So eventually, when we are too tired, too bored or simply find ourselves with no other choice, we face them - these shadows of ours. We bring them in with gentleness and sit with them, in the way a mother might sit with a child who is suffering. We listen. We don’t attempt to fix or change or make it better. We hold the space. We allow it in. We feel it in our body. Something heals. And then it reappears again. And again. Forever. Offering itself up in the name of healing.
And maybe at some point, when we truly see this shadow is the doorway to our gift, the ‘again and again’ part stops being a problem and fills us with awe at the miracle it is. (I’ll let you know if that ever happens for me.)
As I notice this shadow of discord (and noticing itself is a shift in awareness), I find the ability to discern whether it is my head or heart speaking - that’s the gift of discernment that comes with this particular Gene Key.
How we interpret each Gene Key will be different for you than it might be for me, and it will be different for me over time. Hence the importance of going within to really listen to what’s true for you.
And our gifts are here to be shared - as we traverse the shadows - our frequency shifts to that of the gift and into our world are pulled people and opportunities for whom the gift of discernment is exactly what they are looking for (whether YOU, reading this right now, because you’ve been pulled here in this moment, know this consciously or not).
And finally, empathy results through pure listening. In the listening space - there is no you and no me. Just one. And that’s all any of us every truly want - to know ourselves as we truly are - as the oneness behind all of life.
