The Layers of Darkness: Beyond Shadow Work
I’ve been reflecting on the different levels of darkness — the different avenues of our shadows. I met a woman recently, seventy-three years young, who confided in me about a nightmare she had the night before we met.
Wemet on a walking path underneath glorious trees that swayed with the wind. She held a handful of dandelion leaves as I admired the medicine bag around her neck when she appeared from behind a tree. Beads adorned her ears as well as her wrists.
“The last time I had a nightmare was when I was sixteen years old,” she revealed within five minutes of our meeting.
We walked as the sun’s rays bathed us. As she spoke, I listened to her tell me her story and smiled as she sought validation after paragraphs of speaking. I had the feeling she was happy to speak to someone, especially someone she felt comfortable sharing such a vulnerable topic.
She then told me she was a healer and asked about my work.
“I bridge the gap between shadow work and shadow people,” I responded. She smiled as I explained that I often work in the darkest of shadows.
“So I guess it was meant to be that we met then, right?” she mused. I nodded.
The Different Levels of Darkness
A labyrinth of darkness has woven through my auric fields. In these last few weeks, layer after layer of darkness from different people from different cultures have washed over me. It’s been hard to breathe.
At one point, I felt like I was drowning.
I’ve met and assisted victims of black magic from one person, from one culture. But in these last few weeks, I’ve been a target of multiple spiritual practitioners from Mexico, the Middle East, and even from dark ancestral spirits rooted in native lands. To say it’s been a lot is to coddle the truth.
After speaking with the elderly healer, I realized she didn’t fully understand the distinction between shadow work and shadow people. As someone who has removed various forms of dark magic and also been targeted by such practices from different countries, I can say there is a stark difference between the two.
The nightmares she experienced in this life as a child were not from the shadows within her psyche, but were actually manifestations of a demonic being searching for her across parallel dimensions.
Her way of dealing with this darkness was to rebuke it in the name of Jesus, commanding it to leave her room the evening before we met. While this approach might work in many instances, what if it wasn’t just a one-time encounter but part of a millennia-old soul contract presenting itself in this lifetime?
In her case, they leave to trick you into believing they’re gone, but in fact, they’re just waiting for the right time to show up again.
Shadow Work vs. Shadow People
There is a significant difference between facing the shadows within ourselves and confronting external shadows, or “shadow people.” Shadow work is the process of delving into our psyche to confront and integrate hidden parts of ourselves — our fears, our traumas, our emotional wounds. It’s a journey of self-discovery and healing that allows us to transform our inner world and, ultimately, ascend to higher levels of consciousness.
But dealing with shadow people — dark entities, spirits, or energies that exist outside our personal consciousness — is an entirely different battle. These shadows don’t stem from our internal world but from the external, often crossing into our reality due to ancient pacts, unresolved karma, or ancestral connections. Unlike inner shadows, which require self-awareness and healing, these entities demand a different set of tools: spiritual protection, ritualistic practices, and sometimes, direct confrontation with forces beyond our understanding.
Different cultures perceive and handle dark magic in unique ways. In Mexico, practitioners might turn to curanderismo, blending indigenous traditions with Catholic practices to combat dark forces. They use prayers, herbal cleansings, and spiritual ceremonies to rid themselves of malevolent entities. In the Middle East, certain verses from the Quran are recited to ward off evil spirits, invoking divine protection to shield the individual from harm. In Native traditions, ancestral spirits are called upon, and smudging ceremonies are performed to cleanse and protect one’s space from dark energies.
Each cultural perspective adds a layer of complexity to the way we understand and interact with darkness. These practices reflect a deep-rooted awareness that darkness isn’t always a mere psychological construct but sometimes a very real, tangible presence that must be acknowledged and confronted in that reality.
In my own practice, I’ve come face to face with many forms of darkness. I’ve experienced the trauma stacks of my own psyche — those rooted in personal fears and unresolved wounds.
But for the last ten years, I’ve also encountered external shadows, like the entities that have crossed into my path from various cultural practices. These encounters have taught me that while shadow work can be challenging, confronting external shadows often requires more than just introspection. It requires a deep understanding of spiritual protection, the ability to navigate between worlds, and sometimes, the courage to face what we don’t fully understand.
Due to the type of work I do, I found myself under spiritual attack again from practitioners I had never met, from lands I had never traveled. In order to know the signs, one must know thyself.
Ideally, the nightmares and the persistent feeling of unease should be the first giveaways but as my physical world began showing signs of near-misses of accidents and dangerous situations, I knew I had to protect myself using all the spiritual tools I had learned and developed over the years.
The Role of Soul Contracts and Ancestral Darkness
Some encounters with darkness are not random but part of a larger, cosmic reason — soul contracts made long before we took our first breath in this lifetime. These contracts might involve ancient spirits, unresolved karma, or ancestral debts that manifest as darkness in our current lives. Understanding this can help us discern whether we are dealing with a new challenge or an old one resurfacing.
The elderly healer I met had faced many shadows, but I immediately sensed that the black mist she saw was more than a fleeting entity — it was connected to an unresolved contract that she was unaware of. As she spoke, I realized that her approach, while effective in the moment, might not suffice in confronting an entity bound to her by time and space.
Facing any form of darkness, whether internal or external, requires a multifaceted approach. It’s taken me some time to recalibrate my energy through honest and deep self-reflection. Not only did I lay my bare hands and feet on an energetic vortex that aligns with my soul, but I poured my heart onto my pages in my journal.
Then I sat in prayer, followed by meditation, to astral journey to the lands of the unknown, to trace the connection of the invisible threads that have woven the last three weeks to a month of my life together.
Due to the compounded layers of darkness, the unfolding must come undone in layers.
As I continue to walk this path, I am reminded that each of us has a unique relationship with darkness. Some days are harder than others because compounding darkness will do that to you, some days are incredible, but I do know that facing every day with courage allows me to walk with an open heart.