• grounded in the earth, in her body
• conceives, births, and sustains life
• gives birth and lets go of whom/what she births – doesn’t try to control
• willing to give compassionate death
• encourages and empowers creativity
• psychically attuned to her child's needs
• can separate with grace, without abandoning
• caregiver rather than a caretaker
• gives without attachment, manipulation or expectation
• encourages independence and individuation
• will sacrifice her own needs when necessary for the life of her child, yet is not a martyr 
• treats her significant other as a full partner & co-parent, not as another child
• intuitively knows in her bodybeing the cycles/seasons of birth, life, & death

~

Bright Amazon

• knows how to accomplish things in the world, make money, keep accounts, etc.
  • serves Truth not ego, no matter what the cost to her ego
  • faces her fears directly and embraces her shadow, is committed to her inner work, growth
  • faces others’ shadow  & negativity with courage,  heart & skillful means
  • establishes and maintains boundaries and limits with compassion and clarity
  • can say “No” and “Yes” appropriately & clearly
  • keeps agreements and commitments with self and others ,  is faithful, reliable & on time
  • stands up for and protects her inner child
  • can plan, strategize, make decisions & take right action that serves highest Truth not ego
  • willing to surrender her egoic will to Divine Will
  • knows when to take action, when to be still & do nothing – moves when moved
  • not a victim – owns responsibility & actions

   

  Shadow Mother
  • her own mother-wound is unhealed
  • has not individuated/separated from her own mother
  • merged with her mother’s negativity/toxicity
  • does not know how to bond emotionally with her kids
  • does not allow her child to have his/her own experience (‘I am cold, so put your sweater on – I don’t care if you’re not cold.’)
  • clinging, controlling, manipulative toward her kids
  • devours her child’s light, life, & energy
  • lives life through her children, denies her own life
  • threatened by child’s individuality & independence
  • gets her main identity from being a mother
  • suffers loss of  identity when kids leave home
  • self-centered, narcissistic, sees child as extension of herself
  • denies her child’s uniqueness
  • invested in her image of what her child ‘should’ be
  • lives vicariously through her children
  • cannot accept child’s limitations 
  • destroys life out of unconsciousness
  • clings to what is dying/decaying, doesn’t let go
  • cannot  nurture life due to her own wounds
  • cuts off emotionally instead of separating in a healthy way

  ~

  Shadow Amazon

  • lives & acts from fear rather than love
  • serves ego/power/destruction/aggression
  • invades/dishonors/denies or doesn’t know how to set/sustain appropriate boundaries
  • unfaithful, disloyal – serves chaos not Truth
  • overly controlled, rigid, defensive, abusive
  • victimizes others and/or self
  • sees herself as a victim, cannot stand up for her own inner child or her own heart
  • can be sadistic & mean 
  • can be masochistic & self-effacing
  • cannot defend herself or sense danger
  • passive & non-assertive
  •  aggressive – abusive – pushy - disrespectful
  • unable to plan, decide, carry action through to completion – gives up/collapses
  • avoids confrontation
  • cultivates confrontation, provocative
  • patriarchal values often run her life
  • denies or denigrates the feminine
  • can’t manage money, get bills paid on time, take care of business

  ~

   Bright Lover 

  • loves to love, merge, connect, relate - seeks relatedness, inter-dependence, real contact
  • spontaneous, playful, childlike 
  • enjoys & cares for her body
  • sensual, sexual, erotic, embodied, shame-less
  • values and enjoys emotion
  •  loves & creates dance, art, music, poetry  
  • lover and creatrix of beauty, clothes, home, gardens, ambience – lives life as art
  • seeks communion with all of life
  • high bliss tolerance
  • enjoys animals, nature, life
  • able to both give & receive
  • devotional, reverent, romantic, ecstatic
  • deep longing for the divine Beloved, mystical experience & ecstasy
  • heartful, forgiving, empathetic, caring, compassionate, relational
  • has fun adorning herself with special clothes, jewelry, makeup – has a’style’
    

  ~
  Shadow Lover

  • not embodied, doesn’t care for body/health
  • unhealthy boundaries with people, food, substances
  • addictions – compulsive behaviors (shopping, eating, smoking, gambling, exercising, etc.)
  • feels a lot of shame, guilt, self-hate
  • cut off sexually, sensually - puritanical
  • promiscuous, sexually kinky – uses sex to replace love or fill emptiness
  • unable to love or be vulnerable – cold or hostile
  • dependent and/or co-dependent – counter-dependent
  • denies needs, wants, feelings, intimacy, contact
  • idealizes others & denigrates self, feels unworthy
  • fears abandonment, loss of love
  • self-sacrificing, self-depriving, self-denying 
  • shut down or cut off emotionally or physically, numb
  • poor boundaries, cannot filter experiences, overwhelmed by others’ emotions
  • low bliss tolerance – doesn’t have much fun or play
  • giving or receiving are difficult if not impossible
  • full of negative emotions – feels like a victim of life
  • asks for little in relationships
  • feels affirmed when others are like her, is threatened when the ‘other’ is different
  • unfaithful to self and to others
  • creativity may be blocked or denied
  • lives from fear

  ~

  Bright Mystic/Medial  
  • loves the Unknown, willing to not know, willing to be guided by Source, willing to be willing
  • midwifes ideas, images, information, guidance from other dimensions
  •  imaginative, loves knowledge & is strongly intuitive
  • walks the border between the physical manifest reality and other dimensions of reality - she moves between dimensions
  • spiritual teacher, priestess, healer, ritual maker, shamaness, teacher, poet, dreamer, artist, crone, scientist, alchemist, witch, psychotherapist
  • seeks and values knowledge, education, wisdom
  • has found her own internal spiritual authority
  • grounded, embodied, earth-connected
  • transformer, transmuter, midwife of the magical
  • lives in service & surrender to the Sacred
  • knows spiritual power comes through her, isn’t hers, and uses it non-egoically with integrity, consciousness, & surrender
  • seeks power, healing and knowledge for the good of her community, not for self-aggrandizement

  ~

  Shadow Medial/Mystic

  • denies or doesn’t trust her own intuition
  • doesn’t listen to the guidance that comes to her
  • misuses spiritual power, lacks integrity, serves power & ego rather than community or the highest good
  • unconscious of her power & abilities and therefore causes harm to others with her unconsciousness
  • fears or refuses to answer the call to serve or use spiritual gifts to serve others – may become mentally or physically ill as a result
  • lives up in the ethers, denies body & embodiment
  • ungrounded, spacey, psychotic, borderline, chaotic
  • detached, cold, uncaring, calculating
  • intuits and reads people for self-serving purposes
  • invades the boundaries of others with her psychic abilities – doesn’t ask permission - intrusive
  • does not do her own inner work, lives unconsciously
  • denies or feels no connection to any spiritual life or higher presence
  • acts like she ‘knows’ others better than they know themselves, or knows more than she really does
  • evokes or instills fear in others

  © Sheila Foster 2008