There are a few stages of awakening.
The first stage goes a little like…
Oh! I’ve discovered that I’m a little more than just what I think.
Maybe I’m not just this corporeal being that is destined to experience hell on earth? There is potentially more to existence than what I’m told!
This stage is associated with a lot of light, with a lot of self-discovery and realisation that brings joy because there is a lot of power that you can reclaim for yourself. There are practices you can begin to incorporate into your life: meditation, energy, and bodywork being some examples. You can begin to see magical shifts in this stage of awakening.
Once you’ve been at this stage for a while and have seen some promising results, you inevitably arrive at the next stage: shadow integration.
When we allow our systems to bring in more energy, this dislodges and loosens the density we may have been holding (sometimes for a long time!). Things that have been long-held tensions within our bodies begin to rise to the surface.
This is not bad! It is a very natural process and helps to holistically integrate and look at these parts of ourselves we’ve previously rejected or sealed off. But this point in the journey is also where people give up:
“Oh, this whole spirituality exploration, it just doesn’t work. I’m just experiencing all these negative things. And therefore, in a linear sense, I must be going backwards. I must be doing something wrong!”
And without proper guidance or a container of support to scaffold out what is actually going on, people will give up. But unfortunately, when they do give up at this point, they miss the next phase, which is a beautiful stage of deep integration and union within the body and energetic field of a human which involves a really beautiful marriage of the light and the dark.
The Shadow, The Void, The Dark Night of The Soul
The void is something that you can experience at any point in your spiritual journey, but it can and does happen often after you’ve made a quantum leap or you’ve made any big decision in the direction of your highest potential.
Important disclaimer: This is really not advice for anybody experiencing any acute trauma, acute post-traumatic stress or depression, or indeed diagnosed anxiety. I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist, and I really hope that if you’re experiencing these things you are getting professional help along those lines. This is meant to be a guideline, some guard rails for those who are experiencing the void right now, or who may experience it in the future so that you can come back to this and hopefully feel some reassurance of what that actually is, and what you can do when you find yourself in the void.
This is for the people who are yelling out: “Help! I’m stuck in the void, and it feels like crap. How do I get out? Get me out of here. This is horrendous!”
You may be feeling like people around you don’t understand you anymore, or you’ve outgrown your peer group, or you’re ready for the next level of client to step into your work, and there’s no one that seems to be taking up your offers, or there’s a next step that you know that needs to arrive, but you just can’t make yourself get there.
Now, first of all, I want you to know that the void is a deeply potent and fertile place.
And I know that saying this does not make it feel better, but the space that you’re in right now is weaving some of the most potent medicine for you within you and your energetic field that you will ever be able to experience.
And this is only something you can truly and deeply understand when you’re through it.
What You Definitely Don’t Want To Do:
Do not begin to punish yourself and think that you’ve slid back down a giant hill you’ve climbed. Or that the universe is punishing you and you better examine every single way that you potentially have angered the gods and are now being punished as such.
Because when you are in this kind of place, your belief and the certainty around yourself having done something wrong will make you feel worse and will prolong the stage of this void.
Your soul is going to essentially make you stay here until you lighten up a little around the self-punishment and self-flagellation that you’re doing.
And believe me, when I say your belief and certainty in something is extremely strong, it has such a huge influence on whether you really step up in this next phase, or if you’re going to just stay in a place of inertia for longer.
So it’s time to drop any and all self-criticism. What is occurring right now is in deep service of what’s to come. And oftentimes in this void, we are initiated into the next level of service that we’re here to guide people through or that we’re here to integrate and be able to serve humanity and the world.
You’re Experiencing A Time Warp
What is also occurring during this time is a bit of a time warp situation, and there is a lot going on within your whole body vehicle system from moment to moment. There’s a lot of light being woven into your energetic field that you’re not necessarily aware of, and this is where you need to exercise your energetic ninja skills: at the same time as you can feel the authentic emotions moving through you from moment to moment, allow yourself to zoom out and see yourself from above, see yourself from outside your body or deep within your heart, in the infinite cosmic space within your body.
Suspended in this quantum place beyond right and wrong, good and bad, allow yourself to see that everything is working out for your highest good – that it’s all adding up to your ultimate brilliance.
Because these gnarly in-between stages are where you weave more wisdom about your sole purpose than you can possibly fathom.
And of course, I have been there too many times.
In fact, I feel as though as I continue to explore extensive edges of energetics and the spiritual realm and really go there with my mysticism exploration, I find these moments in time where the void greets me occur relatively regularly, but they’re quick. So I experience them, but they don’t hang around for very long.
Now that doesn’t mean that I go into some kind of weird bypass mode and actually clamber myself out of the fertile ground within which I find myself. Because that, dearest, is one of the worst things we can do! Pushing away from where we’re at and not accept the place we find ourselves in.
Actually allowing yourself to accept you’re in the void, as easy as it sounds, is possibly the hardest part.
We all have a tendency to not actually accept where we’re at when it feels like we’ve failed. But truly accepting (and even welcoming!) that we’re here is a powerful process in and of itself as it shines so much light onto the situation and also helps it to move through quickly. It is important that we allow ourselves to be here in this place, in this time. This is not something that just occurs to people who’ve been naughty or bad spiritual people. This is very perfectly normal.
So allow yourself to be in it. And once you do this, the next phase opens up – exploration and mining for the riches that are being presented to you in this spac! They may not appear straight away because there can be a little pause that our system puts on while things settle before things arise and allow us to take the gold from this situation to really see what the gifts are in this.
And a really helpful question to ask ourselves at this point in time is: if everything was always working out for me, what is this void helping me to see and helping me to integrate?
Really let yourself steep in and explore this question.
Spend some time in nature as you consider this question. Allow yourself to immerse in the wisdom of Gaia while you consider why you might be in a void.
And hopefully, you’ll also hear some whisperings from Gaia herself who experiences the void with regularity. Seasonally, there is a void that is necessary. It’s called winter. And there is always so much growth to come following any winter.
Once you’ve allowed yourself to do this kind of exploring, some really critical deep knowings need to land for you. And that is the strength of the certainty that what you are aiming for and who you are at this next level is locked in and certain, that it’s done.
And the certainty of your next level can be there when you decide that it’s available.
That when you are present with yourself, and you allow yourself to steep in the wisdom currently wending its way through, when you decide that where you’re headed is amazing, is epic, then it’s done.
And there’s no questioning or doubting whether it’s possible.
Or hoping and praying and trying to believe, trying to convince yourself.
When you begin to immerse more in the certainty of who you are (and who you’re going to be) you’ll likely start to feel that you have momentum in the direction towards inner peace and a capacity to really work with the energy that’s building. You’ll then begin to find that the void and dark night of the soul experience becomes shorter any time you revisit it. Still potent! But shorter.
And I hope that amongst this, you can see that this time is indeed not something to be feared or pushed against or avoided at all costs.
That it truly does reveal some of our most epic wisdom and really important medicine for us to take into the next phase of our own awakening journeys, our businesses, our creative pursuits, and who we are as divine humans.
And I hope that if you’re experiencing this sensation, this space, this void right now that you can know and supercharge that belief of yours into certainty that all of this is serving your highest good. That there are so many gems and shed tons of gold that you are currently mining and accessing in allowing yourself to accept that you are in this space.
And really allow for that part of you who is already through this, (and yes, there is a part of you that is already through this void!) to remind you that you’ve got this.
Energetically connect to all the people who are currently going through the same thing all over the world, or who have done, at some point. We’re all in this together.
Please know that you are loved, know that you are taken care of and that the world better watch out for this epic human that is about to re-emerge in exalted victory!
I am sending you all my love!
PS. Is it time to gift the world with your sharpest focus and most ecstatically juicy, light-filled self? (Yes, it is!)
Your new energised quantum soul business and life is here, waiting for you to claim it.
Click here now to learn more and apply to work with me in my super energy rich and exclusive 3-month 1:1 Illuminate Private Mentoring Program!
In this episode of the Lead With Your Light Podcast:
- The first stage of awakening: discovering that you are more than just a meat suit [1:51]
- The second stage: meeting your shadow and encountering the void [3:35]
- What the void feels like [7:30]
- Why the void isn’t something to fear [10:22]
- What not to do when you find yourself in the void [11:10]
- The services that you can provide to your community, family, and friends through integration of all you’re learning [14:14]
- The problem with pushing away or ‘trying to escape’ from where we are [17:40]
- How to mine the gold within your void space [20:28]
- Making the most of the wisdom flowing towards you during this time [21:26]
- A key question to ask yourself to truly experience the gold of ‘the space in between’ [22:00]
- A golden nugget you’ll want to really pay attention to! [24:53]
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