When I was 25, back when I was an admin assistant to a busy politician, I got the one and only tattoo I have … a yin/yang symbol.
Funny enough, I placed it over my right kidney.
When I donated that kidney a few years later, the surgeon chose to do a diagonal incision, to avoid slicing the tattoo in half.
He wasn’t going to tempt fate!
I marvel that my younger self was so attracted to that symbol, that she felt compelled to mark her body with it.
Flashforward another 25+ years and I bow to that prescience.
Somehow my subconscious knew that the yin/yang would be the symbol for this life (and perhaps many past ones) … and for my work to come.
Mapping the dance of the opposites – of the polarities. And how together they make a whole. Respect to both on the human and soul journey.
And how, if you go deep into one, you eventually shoot out into the other!
Meeting the Dark:
Meeting the Dark is, understandably, not something that most people clamor to do. In fact, we are usually conditioned to do everything BUT meet it. Our defense mechanisms contort us to avoid it.
However, in meeting the dark, it teaches us pivotal lessons about Life, Light and Consciousness.
A dear mentor, Anneke Lucas, is well schooled in the Dark AND the Light.
As a young girl, she had to meet these powerful polarities up close and personal. Thanks to a deeply disturbed mother who sold her into a pedophilic network.
She’s just published a remarkable biography called Quest for Love.
Anneke is a gifted writer, which is a blessing given the terrain.
Her adult expertise in power dynamics informs, educates, and guides the reader, as you travel in the traumatic footsteps of her younger self.
Anneke wrote her biography first, in order to pave the way for a book on her Unconditional Model. Teachings about perpetrator/victim dynamics and the privilege/trauma paradigm that our world currently operates by.
This Fall we’ll be developing an online course, and launching it in early 2023. A next step in communicating her hard-won knowledge and heart, at a time when the world so desperately needs it.
New Social Media Channels:
Being able to have a direct and mature conversation about Dark / Light is increasingly difficult in our polarized and censored world. In order to assist with my own integration, and to pave the way for the work I’ll be doing with Anneke, I’ve recently created Telegram and Rumble channels.
These channels are operating as a personal journal of sorts. A place for me to share info and personal reactions. Including vulnerably posting my own personal Visual Self Inquires – to model personal processing, non-dual principles, self-compassion and trauma work.
Request for Help – Subscribe Please:
These channels aren’t for everyone. They’ll be too edgy, intense and provocative for some. So please follow your own guidance about joining.
There’s already some content on Telegram (my third try at a channel there). Currently there is no content on Rumble, but some is quickly coming as I figure out how to video my own Self Inquiries.
I need at least 20 subscribers on Rumble to secure my personalized ShiftItCoach URL. Subscribing is free and anonymous (you don’t need to use your real name). If you feel called, please help me get the base numbers I need to get my URL. I appreciate your help!
In closing, in keeping with the theme of this issue, in the Visual Coaching section, you’ll see a beautiful example of Self Inquiry, where Holly Mae valiantly processes her Dark Night of the Soul.
Plus, Geri Briggs has graduated as a Certified Visual Coach! Geri compassionately serves vulnerable populations, including folks with disabilities and different abilities. Congrats Geri on your ‘retirement’!
Yours in Shifting It,
Christina Merkley,
Visual Coaching and Satsangs
www.shift-it-coach.com
