Shadow Alchemist

For much of my life, I feared spiders. They became placeholders for my darkness, my shadow, my fear in general. When my consciousness awoke, the fear dissolved at the exact point in time that I began my descent into my own psyche. When I no longer needed to cast my shadow outward, the spider became my ally, my teacher, not my enemy. 

Years later, during my work with Internal Family Systems (IFS), I experienced immense relief simply by allowing parts of my psyche to emerge, speaking with them, acknowledging them, and asking what they needed from me. What therapy calls “parts work” is something we do unconsciously when we project: we place our unclaimed fear or pain onto something outside of us, often an “other” that seems safer to demonize than to integrate. Projection is how we avoid seeing ourselves.

This piece is a talisman, an alchemization of those layers of fear. Infused with symbolic soul script, it invites your consciousness into hidden terrains of your psyche, to those parts simply waiting for an invitation from you to present themselves.

As you journey with this piece, fear not. Just as an energy healer might direct stagnant energy into a bowl of salt to be released, you can send your fears into this image and thank it for illuminating them for you. This is alchemy. The spider's wisdom is vast, may her teachings remind us that when we stop casting outward, we reclaim our web of power.