Shadow Work with Smoky Quartz

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Shadow Work with Smoky Quartz

I’ve seen in the news lately that there’s a phrase ‘Toxic Positivity’, which got me thinking about Shadow work. The concept of working with your shadow side has been around a long time. I remember discussing it with my shamanic elder Hollis Littlecreek in Sedona back in 1996. We talked about crystals and their healing qualities, and I said that I worked with Smoky Quartz for Shadow work. 

Smoky Quartz is dark, deep and mysterious. It has excellent power and energy and very useful for dealing with dark, deep emotions and deep-rooted adverse mental health problems – alcoholism, guilt, drugs, destructive tendencies, nightmares and even phobias. Smoky Quartz is a tireless workhorse of a crystal. It works particularly well on the Emotional Body and the Mental Body. (See footnote) 

Toxic Positivity is a term used when positivity is forced to mask or conceal complicated emotional feelings like grief, pain, worry etc.; when we are told to smile, be happy, the insinuation is that we are not happy and by not smiling and being happy we make others unhappy. Or be a good girl/boy. Again the implication is that you are not good. When someone says or ‘cheer up’  or ‘smile’, are they implicating that you generally don’t? Every day some situations cause emotions to rise, and we have been conditioned to mask them and stay positive. 

In striving for abundance and busily cosmic ordering the perfect life, we have been told to think positive – be positive. We are constantly fed the self-help benefits in the Power of Positive Thinking. In the last thirty years, many authors have bullied and brainwashed us into thinking that if we’re not successfully living a wealthy, happy and healthy life, it’s because we do not believe we deserve it and we are doing it all wrong.  

We as humans need to share authentic feelings when going through trauma and challenging times. Feeling ashamed or dismissed as a negative personality type when experiencing shadow feelings can be very harmful. The Power of Positive Thinking, in my opinion, works; however, it needs to be in balance with the acceptance of ones shadow side. 

It’s about accepting our Shadow-side, striving to lead a positive life and yet still being authentic so we’re not faking it, that eventually will bring balance.  If we could stop pushing our emotions aside and instead use that energy productively, we might start being authentic to who we are. 

A lot of the negative things like frustration and anger, for example, are coming from an authentically positive place in the first instance – say your anger is coming from a place of being fearful for your small children who are going to run out in front of a car or maybe someone is threatening their safety. That’s self-defence or survival instinct kicking in. And, that’s a good instinct to have. That is a classic example of the use of shadow strength. 

When you’re` frustrated, it’s often because you have a passion or drive, which are both positive emotions, so it’s about understanding where your anger, frustrations or your negative emotions are coming from. Simply by doing that, you can begin to handle them a lot better. My experience is that many people who have some negative traits like anger, rage, short temper,  frustrations or are bitter are sometimes the ones who are working the hardest on themselves. All these emotions are a call to action, a personal call to action. You need to ask yourself why is this happening and why am I feeling this way? I’ve got to problem solve this! 

And that’s precisely the attitude that you need to address these feelings. 

The feelings of your emotions are the manifestation of not recognising your emotional intelligence, and so we call these darker feelings in your emotions your shadow side. All these feelings are triggers or buttons that are your call to action buttons. 

We are all aware today of advertising, websites and social media. You are shown something enticing through the media channel with the result you click through to their goal conversion. These click-through buttons are their Call-to-action (CTA). If you start to think of your outbursts of frustration as CTA buttons, you can use this flush of energy in the right relationship to your highest good and utilise this powerful energy to achieve your ultimate goals, ambition or dreams. 

Think of these CTA buttons as colour-coded traffic lights. A green button is frustration, anxiety, nervous tension, stress. It indicates that you are feeling uncomfortable or unhappy with a situation. So one suggestion would be to take a minute to tumble a few Smoky Quartz crystals in your hands and slow your breathing. Use this burst of energy that you felt rising to problem solve. You may find you simply need to say ‘No’ to something that is causing you stress. 

An orange CTA button would be rising anger, verbal frustrations, externalising physical frustrations through mild destructive and disruptive behaviour. This situation is much stronger, and you’re using your shadow side negatively. Switch this around by acknowledging your emotions and feelings and use this constructively. These emotions and feelings are a powerful source of energy, and channelled correctly can push you through any situation that you need to deal with. 

Use a Smoky Quartz point or Elestial Smoky multi-pointed crystal piece to help centre yourself. Crystal points are good to help direct energy where it needs to go. Hold the crystal with the crystal tip pointing away from you. Stroke the crystal whilst visualising all the frustrations you feel streaming through your hands into the crystal. The crystal will transmute that energy and release it out through the tip and into the ether. When all the internal stress is released, wash/cleanse your crystal and spend a little time alone with it. Look into the crystal structure and allow your thoughts to wander around the interior of the crystal. Smoky Quartz soothes the mind and brings clarity. Ask the Quartz to show you the root of your emotional turmoil and ways to calm the situation. 

A red CTA button is a full meltdown, anger, bad verbal language, violence, aggression, tears, tantrums, complete physical loss of control. This situation needs a full-blown intervention. The first thing to do is take yourself away from the situation. Find a quiet private place where you will not be interrupted and give yourself time to de-escalate. Breathe deeply. Breath,  allow tears or anger a chance to release. Usually, at times like these, the mind is rushing through all the injustices that have ever happen to you, and it isn’t easy to regain control. However, if you were to tell yourself that this is potential your most powerful experience of your Shadow-side, think how much energy you are generating and how best to use it. This energy in an emergency could seriously lift a bus, so use it constructively to sort out your problems. 

This is where  Smoky Quartz is can be a lifesaver. Hold your Smoky Quartz point, pyramid or Elestial Smoky on your forehead. Lie down if this makes it easier and you are able. Allow your mind to permeate the interior of the Quartz. With your eyes closed, you will see and feel inside the Smoky Quartz chambers of the crystal. Your stress and anger will cool, and you will find that your forehead feels colder and your mind detached. 

Sometimes these bursts of frustrations erupt into a full-blown explosion or a string of CTA buttons; this is when your feelings are totally overwhelmed. Your body, your emotional intelligence is telling you that your expectations or goals today are just not practical; it’s simply too much. And, if we listened to our emotional intelligence, we would realise that things aren’t working and find another way to flow. Identifying that this is all coming from a positive place, you were overly optimistic, ambitious and trying to achieve something that is just not happening today. Desire and ambition are all good things, but in the process, you’re becoming overwhelmed, and that says that you are not in balance. 

What you need to do is look objectively at the problem and try and solve it. Realising it isn’t going to happen or going your way, that you can’t do miracles, and you need to make it more achievable. This way, you won’t get angry, throw a hissy fit and shout at the family, friends, or loved ones, have a meltdown or send your blood pressure soaring and damage your DNA. Instead, breathe,  channel that energy into problem-solving and move through it. 

Shadow shame, guilt, feeling inadequate or low self-esteem resulting in temper outbursts or suppressed anger. You shouted or were mean, so you end up feeling bad. Accepting your temperament and boundaries and knowing your limitations are crucial to controlling your emotions. We are all different, and if we suppress these emotions, all we’re doing is damaging ourselves. So you have to find a way to release that energy, whether it’s talking it through and problem solve it, shouting at a tree or transmuting that energy in whatever way suits that character personality type. If you don’t, that’s when it manifests into other mental or physical health issues. 

Using a Smoky Quartz Crystal is a really beautiful way of learning about shadow work and excepting that our darker side is just as beautiful as our light side. Smoky Quartz is dark, deep and strong. It was created as Quartz Crystal and, with time and global events, changed into a gorgeous golden brown hue. It’s still strong and beautiful with all the qualities of Clear Quartz but now has the added dimension of the shadow side. 

Blessing Marianna 

Emotional Body

The Emotional body is just a few inches away from the physical body and changes colour depending on your emotions. Anger, arguments, frustrations, anxieties, stress, as well as excitement, happiness, pleasure and love to name but a few of our emotions all, have colours. The goal is to learn control over the emotions. 

Mental Body

The Mental body is further away from the physical body and the emotional body. It floats around the physical body somewhere between 6-9 inches away approx. Here all thoughts and analytical processes are stored. This is where all past life memories and your imagination is contained. Part of it’s job is to stimulate the physical memory and flood the emotional body with intuition and feelings.