A mystery in the Carpathians. Me and the Shadow, 21.02 – 01.03

In the East they say: “Sow an action, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.”

There is an opinion that Light is better than the Shadow. That monsters lurk in the Shadow and it is better not to look in there, not to wake them. Not to provoke them. And, in general, that is how it is. But only in general, without the details. And in the details lie the essence, the individuality and the uniqueness of a human path. So if you want to live quietly, calmly and without adventures – stay at home. Any journey is dangerous, because it widens borders, and that means it destroys what exists. All the more so a journey in the inner world, all the more so into your SHADOW.

I like to call the “Me and the Shadow” mystery a psychic slalom. When the descent from the mountain of the Ego is swift and the result comes quickly.

It all begins long before the event – with the decision to come. With the fact that some people are held by the space of their lives with all its might, not letting them go. Others it pushes out, stimulates. The next important stage is forming a personal request. From the vague “something is wrong with me” to something entirely concrete like “I lack confidence”, or “I want to get married”.

Personally, I bow before the participants, because there are not so very many who can dare such an adventure.

Why are we here? For new selves. And that means that in the old selves there is something that has long since lost its effectiveness, like tools that have broken or gone blunt.
An important part is the format of silence in the mornings, which turns the participants’ attention inward and gives them the chance, out of the outer, familiar world of social rituals

The search for the SHADOW does not come easily to everyone. Especially if the request was vague, something like “there’s something wrong with me”. And what is wrong and off, and where to look for the resource – the whole group helps with that. After the two previous days a lot is already visible.

The resource is in the SHADOW, in the denied (but existing!) parts of the personality. Forgotten, condemned. Suppressed….

• – in the brave it is the inner Coward
• – in the careless – the inner Controller
• – in the boorish – the inner Flatterer. And so on… the list tends towards infinity.

How does it happen that some qualities (the shadow ones) are suppressed by a person?

The answer is simple: once upon a time someone said “bad” about them. And it was important, significant people who said it. Parents, for example. They condemned a little girl’s coquetry, or a little boy’s sensitivity. And since then the girl has been as if bewitched, her EGO is “dry and strict”, and the boy has been bewitched, his EGO is now “a real lad – tough and strong”. And all would be well, but it means walking all your life on one leg and looking with one eye!

What names can the SHADOW bear? Oh… the variety is impressive! Examples:

• – the Attentive Bore (if the ego is a cheerful slob);
• – the Merry Parrot (if the person is serious and obsessed with creativity);
• – the Iron Lady (if the ego is a wet blanket):
• – the Beloved Wife (if the request is about marriage):
• – the Sunbeam (if the participant resembles a sad hermit);
• There are names of a single word:
• – the Cheeky One (if the ego is too delicate and has had enough of it);
• – the Boss (if the aim is to make a career);
• – the Beauty (if a woman does not feel worthy of attention)…

  

And so on, there are as many variants as there are people

Who should not come to the SHADOW?

Anyone who wants to please the leaders and prove to themselves that they are cool. Anyone who has no inner readiness to throw themselves at the embrasure in the fight against their own fears.

What menu do the leaders offer? A very varied one…

1. – constellations
2. – art therapy
3. – symboldrama
4. – holotropic breathwork (rebirthing, vivation)
5. – Osho meditations
6. – Gestalt
7. – blind practices
8. – shamanic practices (a vision quest, a personal object of power, a talisman, an amulet, a staff, a wand…)
9. – dream yoga
10. – Tarot cards
11. – provocative therapy
12. – initiatory therapy

There are no chance people at a mystery. Just as in life there are no out-of-place people or events. Whatever is done, is done perfectly! Guests become participants, even if only for an hour, for 15 minutes! They play their role in the drama, or the comedy.

The mystery is a part of life, and you cannot throw a single nuance out of life, you cannot ignore a single trifle. This is a new approach, one that trains the participants’ attention. After the Shadow they become bigger, which means they must have more attention too

Coming out of the Shadow. Returning to the Big World, you try on your old clothes and understand that they are no good any more…. too small, too big, not your style… They don’t fit, in a word! Old roles pinch, old smiles slip off, and in their place something new and bright shines.

Where now, new being? Do you already know, or are you still thinking? Or, frozen, are you trying to catch a feeling? Perhaps you will draw a card? Or read the flight of a bird? Or the pattern of the clouds? In any case you will turn to yourself, not to the authorities who ruled you yesterday.

Wow, what a life! Wow, what a me! I didn’t expect it of myself…

“With all my ruthlessness”
– this is how the leader Natalia Valitskaya signs herself. To be ruthless is to respect your students, to see strength and potential in them!

Text – Yulia Holovkina.
Questions and Registration: +38(095)2097692

A little theory about the origin of the EGO and its function of a person’s REALISATION – The Ego begins to form back in childhood, and its aim is to satisfy the child’s basic needs, for love and safety. That is, the function of the Ego is to:

• 1. conform, in order to be accepted, and receive love
• 2. defend itself – be closed or justify itself; attack – criticise (be clever) in order to control safety

that is – the formed EGO dictates certain

strategies of behaviour – always the same ones. It gives rise to

the same situations – the same “favourite rakes”. An automatism forms.

Some personality qualities that are “valuable” from the EGO’s point of view wear out – burn out – and no longer develop us. Others, new and “unpacked”, that could develop us, atrophy. In this way a person cuts themselves off from their resources and hinders their own evolution.

For if growth and development happen, our best qualities one day become our worst :*) !!!!!!!!!

The Ego – an “artificial superstructure” makes a person “work not for themselves”, in order to live up to their own ideas of themselves and the world…. The Ego is the personality. The personality is created to ensure the safety and the conditions for the development of our individuality. And no more than that! The personality is not the individuality. The personality strives for stability… The individuality strives for fluidity and

evolution.

The EGO is the PERSONALITY. It is created to ensure the conditions for the development of our Individuality.

Natalia Valitskaya

Questions and Registration: +38(095)2097692 Yulia Holovkina.