Everyone is talking about shadow work—but what is it really, and how do you know if you're ready for it?

In this episode, Kelle Sparta and Jules explore the true purpose of shadow work, why so many people try to skip essential preparation steps, and what can happen when you dive into deep healing before you're emotionally, energetically, and psychologically ready.

Kelle breaks down the stages of personal growth that create the foundation for successful shadow work, from emotional safety and nervous system regulation to boundaries, self-worth, sovereignty, and self-inquiry. You'll learn why shadow work isn't about suffering—it's about freeing yourself from old wounds, reactive behaviors, self-sabotage, and the patterns that keep you stuck.

If you've been curious about shadow work or wondering why your personal growth efforts feel stalled, this episode will help you understand what comes before transformation and how to prepare yourself for lasting change.

• What shadow work actually is
• Why most people aren't ready to begin deep shadow work
• The difference between healing and re-traumatizing yourself
• Emotional and energetic safety as a foundation for growth
• Why boundaries and self-worth matter before shadow work
• How sovereignty supports transformation
• The role of self-inquiry in personal development
• Signs you're ready for deeper transformational work
• How unresolved wounds affect relationships and daily life

References Mentioned

• Shadow Work
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
• The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
• Inner Child Healing
• Personal Growth and Transformation

Resources Mentioned

Are You Ready for Shadow Work? Take the Shadow Work Readiness Quiz to Find Out:

https://learn.kellesparta.com/shadowworkquiz

Website:

https://kellesparta.com

Discovery Call:

https://kellesparta.com/discovery-call

Tree Meditation:

https://youtu.be/Bp8zIPEDm7I

Legacy Program Notes

Inner Peace 101 referenced in this episode is now called Welcome to the Woo.

https://learn.kellesparta.com/welcometothewoo

Mastering Spiritual Evolution referenced in this episode is now called Woo Squared.

https://kellesparta.com/mastering-spiritual-evolution/

Y'all, I'm Jules. Welcome back to another episode of Spirit Sherpa, the show that helps encourages you on your journey to unlock your magic mojo. With me, as always, is the spirit doctor, Kelle Sparta. Hello, Kelle. Hello, Jewel. That was a tribute to Kathy.

Oh, we've been talking for a long time, you and I, and now we are just rolling, and you guys are in for it. So I hope that on this Christmas day, you are ready, because buckle up. So first- Santa's gonna be blushing.

So, uh, so first, let's just say that did you finish your, uh, jams and jellies? Yes. Yay. Yes, I made... Yes, I made strawberry satsuma bourbon marmalade. Ooh, baby. Did you do the ritual? Did you do the magic? I did. I did the magic. I did the magic, and it was really cool because, um, I bought... I have this wound- this wound set.

Wow, cute. That would be a witch's spoon set, wooden spoon set, right? So it's got the air, the fire, the earth, the water, and spirit was the fifth one. And so I said, "Ooh, which spoon do I want to use?" And for some reason I was like, the one at with water, you know, jumped out at me. I's like, "Okay." So, um, anytime I'm making the jellies now, it's like, "Oh, I have to go get my witchy poo spoon."

And so I went and got my witchy poo spoons, 'cause why? I'm doing kitchen witchery 'cause- That's it, baby ... that's what... Yeah. So I'm like, "Gotta have it." I lit some candles, you know. And so I went through, I did my ritual, and this was using strawberries, um, satsumas, which are like oranges, okay? And lemons, and sugar, and water, and then after it comes to a rolling boil and you put all of your ingredients together, um, well, there's one batch of strawberry stuff, then one ba- strawberry jelly, then there's one batch of satsuma jelly.

So what I do is I make a swirl when I put 'em in the jars, so I'm swirling all the goodness together, right? And then, um, and right at the end of it, of a rolling boil and all that, when you get it up to temp, you top it off and you add in the bourbon, and it just lightens everything up. So of course the, you know, alcohol, uh, content and all, you know, burns off.

And so and then, um, so I put 'em in the jars, and so I'm talking to 'em. I'm talking to ev- the whole time that this is cooking, I'm talking to 'em. I'm like, "Okay, you g- you know, whoever... The, the jar is gonna go to the person who it is needed to go to." 'Cause I don't know who's gonna get what jar. But whoever gets what jar, that's the jar that they're supposed to have, and it's gonna go- To h- for their higher purpose.

All of, you know, everything in white light and loving and, you know, they're gonna be comforted and just feel so warm and fuzzy on the inside, and it's gonna bring them joy and happiness and all that. And then, so then when I put them in the cooking thing to can them, you know, to seal them and everything, and I said, "And now all of this magic is sealed in, and it will be, you know, released, you know, as the jar is opened by said person.

You know, all love and light." You know, all that kind of stuff. And so I was like, "Ooh, I'm gonna do this to my other sealant. That's a good little thing." And I'm like, "So mote it be so it is." And then I did, "Dum, dum, dum." And I, s- with three, you know, I gotta clap three times. And, uh, so I did that. So that was way fun.

Yay. So I was excited. I was excited. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, you'll have to report, now that it's Christmas and everybody's getting their gifts, you'll have to report back how they, uh, how they liked it. We are pre-recording this at this moment, so it may be a little while before we get that check-in. Yeah.

Well, I d- I had a batch that was, uh, that I had already previously done, and it just so happens that in between the time we recorded the last one and this one, um, my ex-husband came by and, by the house. And w- it's a... We live r- right around, uh, the corner from his parents and everything. So, um, the satsuma tree is actually in his dad's pasture, and of course we have access to it, so that's, the satsumas is going to this.

Well, I had made a prior batch, so I gave him some of that to take home with him, right? So he texted me and he's like, "Hey, the jelly was awesome. Even my wife loved it." I'm like, "Well, that's awesome." I'm like, "Does she know that I made it?" You know? 'Cause that's just... 'Cause some people are funny like that, right?

You know, and he was like, "Yeah." He says, "I told her." He's like, "She was like, 'It's really good. I'm really enjoying it.'" So even with a weird, you know, situation, I had done some magic on that to again bring happiness and joy to those who consumed it, and so there you go. So if, if it can make a ex's, let's see, a ex's new wife smile, boom, there's your proof.

Boom, baby. Boom. So I was happy about that. That's awesome. I'm so happy to hear that. So that was way fun. Yes. That's amazing. Oh, so we are, we are talking about shadow work today, which is, you know, not a very funny topic, but we're gonna talk about it because, you know, it's Christmas Day and you're probably, if you're listening to this on Christmas Day, you are hiding from your parents right now, and it's probably 'cause you need some shadow work.

So we should probably talk about this. So, so if you

are- You see? If I had not done my shadow work, I could not give the magical jelly to my ex-husband- ... and he couldn't share it with the new wife, and then I wouldn't have had this awful, uh, awful- Awful ... awesome- Awesome, awesome story. Yes. Awesome story to share with you. So see? This Tea Time would not have been the same.

Yes. That's right. So, um, yeah, so for those of you hiding from your family right now. This is for you. And if you don't know who the crazy one is in your family, uh, that would be you.

That's okay. It's always been me Exactly. Some days it's me, and I'm like, "Yay, it's my turn today." It's always me. It's always me. Yeah. I, I come by it honestly. You know, we were just talking before the call. My... I, I met some people who knew my mother and father when we, when I was, like, little, little, like, before I was, like, five years old, and they said, "Oh, we just loved your mother.

She was a free spirit," which in Southern speak is crazy. So, and so I'm like, "Yeah, I come by it honestly." It's okay to be the crazy one. Trust me, I've been one forever. So- Yes, and there's different degrees of crazy too. There's, like, normal crazy, then there's like

And then there's dangerous crazy, and we don't, we don't want that dangerous crazy. That is, that is not ideal. So anyway, but coming back, I just wanna talk about shadow work for a minute, and, and... well, for the whole episode. But we're gonna oh, geez, it's, it is definitely one of those days. So we're gonna talk about, um, w- what it takes to be ready for shadow work, right?

Because everybody and their brother is like, "Oh, you've gotta do shadow work. Oh, you have to do shadow work." Shadow work is the thing, right? Everywhere you turn, you're getting r- run over with the topic of shadow work, and if you don't know what it is, I'm gonna define it for you right now. So shadow work, the definition of sh- shadow work is basically going into the dark places within yourself that you don't look at, that you stuff things away in, that you pretend don't exist inside of your own psyche, and cleaning them out and bringing light to them.

That's the definition of shadow work, right? And so, uh, you know, there, a lot of things go into that, and a lot of processes happen within that, but that is the basic concept of it. And so, but you know, if you think about it, not everybody's ready to look at those dark places, right? Because we shove things away in there for a reason.

"Mm, I didn't like that. Uh, that scared me. That traumatized me. That, that, I don't like that about myself. I don't, I don't wanna remember that." There's all sorts of reasons- Well, no, Kelle, because it'll be okay. It's gonna be okay. It's, it, that, that's a s- that... I don't know if that's a Southern thing, but Lord have mercy, I heard it my who- whole life.

"It, it's gonna be all right. It's gonna be all right. Just keep going. Keep going." You know, us overachievers, we're really good at that. Oh, yeah. Yeah, just, just stuff it away and don't pay attention. Keep moving forward. It's all good. Yes, and we'll deal with it on another day- Right, which never comes ... on Savannah.

Y- yeah, and it never comes. That's fine. There was this great line, I'm trying to remember the name of the movie, but there was this great line in this movie, uh, where, where she says, "Oh, you know me, I chew on all my problems until all the flavor's out of them, and then I just stick them in my hair." And that was such a great line from a movie.

I'm trying to remember- Was it from Fried Green Tomatoes? No, The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, that's where it's from. That's what it is And, and it's so true, right? It's this whole, you know, you chew on it, you chew on it, and you chew on it, but you don't actually do anything about it. You just stick it in your hair.

You never swallow it. You never deal with it. You never anything. You just stick it in your hair, and there you go, and you just keep moving with it. And, and it's such a vivid image, but it's, it's totally what we do, right? And there's this way in which we just, we're, we live in this abject terror of the things that hide in the shadows of our soul.

And you gotta be ready to do that work, and you're like, "Well, why the fuck would I wanna do that," right? It's like, if I'm terrified of it, why would you... Why? Why? Why? Why? Well, because, you know, ult- Yeah. I am m- I'm, I'm much better at fixing other people than I am myself. And, and I'm, I'm actually s- speaking from personal experience.

I kept bringing home projects because that was... And I didn't realize I was doing that and avoiding working on myself. You mean project people. Yeah, people to work on, yes. Yes, people to work on. Let me fix you. I'm the fixer. It's what I do. I'm really good at it, except myself. So w- why do I wanna do this shadow work stuff?

Well, because then you won't have to bring projects home anymore. You could actually have somebody healthy in your life, let's start with that, who might actually take care of you for a change, and not you having to work yourself to the bone and falling down exhausted at the end of the night because you didn't do the 50 things that you had on your list that never got done and meant you didn't do anything for yourself because you're always at the bottom of that priority list.

You know, that might change. And broke. Yes, right, and broke because you're giving away all your money and all your time and all your energy to somebody else. Um- All of my power. Gave, gave away my power too ... Oh, yeah, power too. Yep, yep. And because you won't be angry all the time. That would be really nice, right?

Yeah. I spent most of my, mm, first 30 years pissed as fuck. I was angry at everybody and everything, and I was trying to control things that I couldn't control, and that pissed me off. And I was trying to control people that I couldn't control, and that pissed me off, and I was setting expectations for others that they never lived up to, and that pissed me off.

And I was setting expectations for myself, which occasionally I would not meet, and that really pissed me off. And yeah, that just... I was... I spent a lot of time being really mad about a lot of shit. What, what about having like, everything's going great, then literally it's like a light switch, and, and all of a sudden it's like, poof You know, it's like, okay, the bitch is out the box with the shotgun And she cocked that fucker as she was flying out of the box, because by the time she hit the ground, she wanted to be ready to shoot.

God help you if you are in her sights, 'cause you're fucked. Yes. And then it's not just the one thing, 'cause I have hooked on 20, um, tr- cargo trains, and I have like a... Yeah, just ev- I'm shotgunning you. Yeah, everything you didn't say anything about for the last three months comes flying out. And this, and this, and this, and this.

I used to call it shredding people to within an inch of their lives. I'm just like, "I'm gonna rip you to the last shred. And if you're lucky, I might let you live. That's it. You know, that is all you're getting, because you've earned it." Not I held on to it, not I didn't speak my truth, not I let myself get beat up and trampled on because I never said I wasn't happy about it.

No, no, you earned it. That's right. I tried to be polite. I tried to do what mama told me to, and said, "Well, Southern ladies don't act like that. You need to be a lady. You need to take the high road." Bitch, sometimes I need to take the low road. Right. Just, or a middle. I'll take that. Can I at least have a middle?

Yeah. I'll take the high road right up until I take your ass out and bury you. Then we will be off the road for a while. Yeah. I'll take the high road so I can look down at you and then jump on top of your head- Yes ... until it goes squish. And then feel bad about it. That's the worst part, right? Is that you, you, you do it, you unload, and you're like, "Oh, it feels so good to unload," blah, blah, blah.

And then you're like, "Oh, oh, I really hurt their feelings. Oh, I suck. I'm a terrible person. Oh my God, I can't, I can't even... Argh, I'm a terrible person. I hate myself." And then you turn all that anger inwards, right? And, and you beat yourself up. So yeah, I don't know why we would wanna do shadow work and avoid all of that.

I don't know. So you did meet me before Inner Peace 101. Gotcha. I was you, baby. I was you. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So yeah, if all, any of this is sounding familiar- Yes, it- ... if you're wanting to strangle your family members right now, this might be you. Yes. I feel like we're doing- Pass the potatoes ... I know. I feel like we're doing an episode of You Might Be a Redneck If.

If.

You might need shadow work. Yes. Yeah. Pass the fucking gravy.

Do not touch my turkey before it's carved. I don't like fruitcake. You brought it because you know I don't like it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so now that we've identified I need some help with some shadow work up in here, the next thing is I'm gonna go to my family members, which would be a bad thing. That would be a bad thing.

Let's not do that. Let's, let's do some shadow work instead. Let's not do that. That would be lovely, yes. Yes. Let's not, let's not- Okay ... annoy the world. Yeah. So, um, yeah. So why would we do shadow work? Well, that's why. How do we do shadow work? Well, we're not gonna talk about that right now. We're, we're gonna talk about whether or not you're ready to do shadow work, because that's the question you have to ask.

Because you go from, "Okay, yes, that's me," to how, and that is not the right next question, okay? The right next question is not how, the right next question is am I ready? And if not, how do I get ready, right? Because that's the next question. Because if you go straight from, "Yeah, that's me," to, "How do I do shadow work?"

And you wanna skip the in between, well, what you're setting yourself up for is either failure or re-traumatizing yourself, okay? Because if you have good self-preservation skills, you will simply fail, because you'll try to do the deep stuff and your self-preservation will kick in and it will say, "Uh-uh," and you won't do it.

Or if, like most of us, you have shitty self-preservation skills, yay, right? Because we have learned that we don't matter in our own lives. We have trained ourselves, and we have been trained that we don't matter in our own lives, so we have shitty trust self-preservation skills. We will just re-traumatize ourselves, and yay, wouldn't that create even more shadow work to do?

Yes, yes it would. And it would make the n- future shadow work harder because you fucked yourself up doing it the first time, and you think, "Well, that's not gonna work." But it is the only thing that works, so kinda have to do it. But at least I wasn't selfish.

I don't even wanna go there. I don't even wanna go there. There, there... Yeah, we're not gonna talk about selfish, 'cause selfish is such a bullshit word, but I guess we're gonna go there. So selfish is such a bullshit word. It's, it's used by people who want to manipulate us into doing things that we don't wanna do.

They say, "Oh, you're being selfish," when you're simply b- having reasonable boundaries. Fuck that. Okay? If you are listening to this right now, I promise you, you are not selfish. You, in fact, give way too much to the point of emptiness, and then occasionally snap back and demand things from others because you're so fucking empty, you're, you're running on n- uh, somebody else's fumes because you got nothing left, and you just have to demand something of somebody, and that's when they say you're selfish.

And you're like, "Uh, no, I'm fucking empty. That's what I am." Right? There's a difference. I've given you everything. I am the giving tree, and you are sitting on my fucking stump, bitch. Right? That is what this is. And all I asked you for was a little cup of fucking water. Give me the fucking water, right?

That's where we are when we're, when we do that. That's, if you've been called selfish by somebody, it's because you're at that point. So don't let them tell you, okay? Just somebody right now needs to hear this on Christmas, because that shit's happening. Yeah. So anyway, back to shadow work, which is how we end up not being the stump of the tree, right?

Yes. Yeah. And I, I was linking that to the shadow work because when I'm saying being selfish, putting ourselves last, I, I'm, I'm... There's no way that... And for me, doing it was so healing, and it was, it was also where I learned it's okay to put myself first. So actually- Getting ready for the shadow work, when I, when I recognize, okay, I need to do some shadow work, and now what you're talking about getting ready for it, that's actually, uh, for me, an, uh, an act of love to myself.

Yeah. Because... And, and that's cool. Yeah, that's part of the process of, of learning how to step into shadow work, is learning how to value yourself, right? Learning how to care for yourself, right? And you're like, "Ah, self-care, whatever. Like, no, boo. I can't afford a massage today." It's like, it's not a fucking massage, okay

I'm not talking about a fucking... A, a massage, a night out, shopping therapy. All of this shit is you telling your inner child, "Here, I know you're sad, and tired, and frustrated, and having an emotional meltdown. If I give you this fucking lollipop in the form of a massage, or a night out, or shopping therapy, or whatever.

If I give this to you, will you shut up for five minutes so that I can go out and do exactly what I wanna do, which is gonna drain you even more?" That's what that shit is. That is not what I'm talking about, okay? And if you're confused, good. I'm gonna leave you there because that's where you need to be right now.

It creates cognitive dissonance, which is exactly what you need to fuel your change. When you're trying to make change, you need cognitive dissonance. It's the dissonance between what you... where you are and where you want to be. And when you have that, and it's got you riled up, that's when you have the energy to make a change.

So I'm gonna leave you with that. Okay, back to shadow work. Getting ready for shadow work. So, so there are stages, right? So if you're in the stage where there's constant anxiety, worry, dread... Actually, I'm gonna start earlier. Okay. If you're in the stage where you are sometimes non-functional I'm up, I'm down, I'm up, I'm down, I'm up, I'm down, and you're in this sort of damsel in distress space where you're waiting for somebody to pick you up, and you can't do it, and you're just flipping out, and you're falling down, and you just, you need other people to pick you up over and over and over again, that's when you need to go to therapy, okay?

You need a qualified therapist to help you find solid ground to stand on on a regular basis, okay? That's step one, okay? Now, if you are i- more in your knight in shining armor phase, where you're doing what you were talking about earlier, Jules, which is, "I'm gonna go out and save everyone. Here I come to save the day.

Don't look at my shit. I am dealing with your shit," right? That is what we're doing. I don't care if I'm not perfect. We're fixing you right now, right? That, that stage, if that's where you are, and it usually comes with fear, anxiety, worry, dread, self-doubt, inner and outer judgments, okay? If, if that's where you are, then that is the point where you need to start looking at creating some emotional and energetic safety for yourself.

And that is the s- that's how you create the bandwidth to be able to do your shadow work. Because so long as your brain is going, "Ah, ah, ah, this thing could go horribly wrong," or, "What about this, and what about that?" And, "Ugh, I said this wrong, and now I have to have the conversation over again in my head 50 times so I can figure out what I should've said instead and what I...

And then beat myself up for not having said it," right? All that shit, right? If all of that is taking up all your brain pan, there is no room to do any other work. And so you need to do that work, okay? And that work is the work that we do in the Inner Peace program. That's Inner Peace 101. We deal with all of that, and we can actually shift that entirely for you in four months, okay?

Now, if you are past that point, if you've gotten out and you've found that work, and you've done that work, maybe you did it with a therapist, and you did some cognitive behavioral therapy or dialectical behavioral therapy or whatever and, and you, you got through it, it all or most of it, then the next step is to step into, uh, this space of solidifying your sense of self, okay?

And so you know that you aren't solid in yourself if you fail this one test, okay? If you make a big promise to yourself And, and it, it's only about you. It's not about anybody else, right? I'm gonna, I'm gonna, you know, get a new job this year. I'm gonna move to another country this year. I'm gonna lose a bunch of weight this year.

I'm gonna get fit. I'm gonna, you know, change the way I eat, whatever. Something that's only about you. If you make a, a, if you wanna make a promise to yourself, and you have to build up energy, build up energy, build up energy, build up energy, and then pull the trigger immediately or else all the energy drains back out again Then you need to solidify your sense of self because that right there is an indicator of how solid your energetic container is, and your energetic container is what holds your identity.

And so mu- so many of us grew up as reflections of other people. We were the person that they wanted us to be, and we were, uh, expected to be X, Y, or Z, not who we were, right? And so we have no freaking clue who we are now, right? And if you have no freaking clue who you are, you cannot hold a container for yourself to do your own shadow work because you don't even know who you are.

And so that container is full of holes and tears, and you need to solidify that before you can do your shadow work. And so that's doing work around claiming your space, and setting your boundaries, and owning your power, and internalizing your sense of value, and learning how to love yourself. Those are the stages of doing that work, and there's other pieces and parts that go along with that, along with some energetic work that goes in there and things like that, and opening your heart, and a lot of other things.

You know, learning how to unstuff your emotions, right? So you, you have to learn how to reprocess your emotions so that when you go to do your shadow work and the emotions show up, you don't immediately stuff them again, which defeats the purpose of having pulled them out in the first place, right? So all of these things is what you have to learn how to do as you're solidifying your sense of identity, and that's the work that we do in Mastering Spiritual Evolution, right?

That's our year-long program that, that follows Inner Peace. And so now, how do you know, am I, am I ready to do shadow work yet? That's what I was gonna say. How do I know when I'm, I'm ready? So if I do that, and then, um, either at the Inner Peace 101 or the MSE, right? So now am I, am I ready? Not really. Not yet.

Oh, crap. You're closer. Okay, no family functions yet. All right. And to be fair, you are doing some shadow work along the way, okay? I wanna be fair. You are doing some shadow work along the way, right? But to do the deep dive stuff, there's another layer that you have to, to embrace, okay? And that layer is you have to learn how to be present in the moment.

You have to learn how to be focused and how to direct your focus. You have to learn how to be sovereign over yourself, and what that means is you have to be able to keep your word to yourself. And that means if you make a promise, you don't break it. So if I'm gonna quit smoking, by God, I'm gonna, I'ma be quitting smoking.

Exactly. So you don't make promises to yourself that you won't keep. You don't make promises to others that you won't keep, right? These are all things that are their integrity, their inner intri- integrity, but they allow you to make the commitment necessary in order to do your shadow work effectively, to transform yourself effectively.

And that way we can see the bigger picture down the road, and if we need to make changes or I'm, I'm just gonna say, like, I'm not gonna frivolously spend my money, right? Then I'm g- not gonna go out and buy things or live outside of my budget, whatever. I'm gonna make those sacrifices so I, so that when I dream in HD, the picture is crystal clear, and I'm achieving it 'cause it's a promise I made to myself.

Exactly, right? And, and so that's sovereignty is being able to do those pieces, right? And then you also have to have some understanding of what it takes, the self-inquiry work that is necessary in order to be able to do your shadow work, right? Because how do you find the dark corners- How do you pull the things out of the dark corners, right?

I happen to have Pluto in my 12th house, and what that means is that I see everything in reflection. I don't even get to see it directly. I only get to see it in reflection. So that makes my work harder because I have to see it reflected back to me before I can even begin to start to understand it. And so, you know, you're probably hopefully not in the same position as I am.

But, but you know, I mean, there's, there's... Everybody's chart is different. Everybody's life experience is different, you know, and there's literally hundreds of ways to do shadow work. And so, you know, what we do is we work with you to figure out the self-inquiry pieces and to teach you the skills that you need in order to be able to access those different shadow pieces.

Because sometimes in one corner you need this skill, and in a different corner you need that skill, and in this corn- corner of the back end of the basement down here you need like eight different skills because that shit is buried deep, right? And so when we look at, uh, shadow work, w- self-inquiry is required, right?

And included in that is, is the ability to manage your own energy, manage your own emotions, manage how you're responding rather than reacting to things, right? So you're, you're taking a breath before going, "Ugh," right? You know, these- Or I'm shooting people with fireballs. Yeah. Little details. Right? You know, rrr.

Um, yeah, it's like that. So all of this is part of the process, right? And so that's the work that we do with people who are ready to step into the shadow work container, uh, as we do work in the retreats and things that we do there. So this is shadow work, right? Um, ♪ This is shadow work, shadow work ♪ Sorry, I had to.

Um.

For some reason I'm like... I've been...

When the spirit moves, you just go with it, girl. Mm. Yeah. So- Yeah. So, uh, just to remind you, if you're hiding from your family right now, shadow work might be a good thing And, uh, uh, I will tell you that the pieces, the, the getting ready for the shadow work pieces as well as the shadow work itself, you know, we, we talk about this somewhat often on the podcast, but I, I wanna cover it again here because it is so important to recognize that there's so much crap in the market right now.

I mean, if you go out looking for solutions to these problems, I would, I would say probably 7 out of 10 solutions you find are from people who are great marketers who don't know what the hell they're talking about. And this is the biggest problem right now in trying to find solutions. And, you know, having been in this work since the '70s, I can tell you that the amount of hucksters has blown off the charts.

It's been the s- the saddest thing to see as this work has gone more mainstream. You know, in the '70s I was quite the, uh, hmm, hmm, hmm. My mother was a free spirit for sh- for exposing me to these things, right? You, you was not talked about in polite society, let me tell you. No, no. Mm-mm. But, but do you find now that, that everyone...

I, I say, uh, l- very loosely everyone, right? Mm-hmm. Um, w- but with those that, uh, that everybody wants, like, a quick fix. Gi- give, give me the, give me basically the pill, right? Right. Yeah. I mean, there- Give me the 30-minute fix, and let's go. Yeah. Well, and, and here's the thing is is that, you know, Western medicine has taught us to look for that.

You know, you go to the doctor, you get a prescription, you go home, and you take the pill, and you're done, right? The, the problem is is that our emotions are a little more complex than, than, you know, whatever's going on in our physical body on the average ba- day, right? So, and, I mean, not that the, uh, not that the physical body isn't complex, it's just that, you know, medicine has, you know, specifically targeted pills for things.

But... And even then it doesn't always work, and the side effects might kill you. So, you know, hey. But this work is less understood because, as I said, up until the last decade or so this stuff was considered fringe. And even now some of the work is considered fringe even though it's been practiced for thousands of years by different traditions, right?

So the, uh, w- fewer people know about it, and it's, it's more limited because it's been broken into silos, right? So, like, here's wellness over here, and meditation over there, and energy work over here, and magic over there, and, you know, personal growth and development over here, and transformation over here, and shamanic transformation over there.

And, you know, and, and never shall they cross, right? And because of that you're seeing a very small sliver of what is actually- Useful for fixing all that ails you, right? And so what I've done is I've spent the, well, 40, almost, oh, fuck, almost 50 years of study now. I started when I was five. I'm 53. So, yeah, almost 50 years of study, uh, and then 20-plus years of my own personal growth process, and I've taken it and condensed it down, and I've taken out all the empty space.

All the time that I spent trying to figure out, "Well, where does this come from, and what work do I need to do on this, and how do I find that work, and which work is gonna work for me?" And I don't know, right? I, uh, you know, 9/10 of the time, m- sometimes more than that, is spent just trying to figure out that stuff, and I've just taken out all the empty space, right?

And so I can take you through a process that would take the average person 15 years to go through in a year and a half, right? I can take you through five years' worth in four months, and the next in a year, right? The next 10 years in a year. And so this is the reason, is because I'm just taking out all the empty space.

And so, you know, I know you guys are speed demons. I know it. You gotta get everything done yesterday. Y'all want it done, you know? Get more done in a day than most people get done in a week, right? Because we're, we're speed demons, and we wanna skip steps and jump forward and all that stuff, but we don't wanna freak ourselves out, right?

We're terrified to freak ourselves out, right? We might lose control. Yeah, can't do that. No. But, you know, that's what I'm here for, make sure you don't blow up, right? Did you listen to the beginning of the podcast? The entire first year was how not to blow yourself up, right? The whole first year. Is how, how not to blow yourself up.

That was it. That was it. So much so that Joey actually said, "Hey, would you please give me something I can do?" So yeah, that's what I'm saying. So I'm here to help you not blow yourself up. But I want you to think about, you know, if you were walking by a house on fire, and you saw a child banging on that window, I'm pretty sure you'd run into that house and try and save that child.

Very much. But if I ask you to face your fears, you're like, "Oh, fuck that, I can't do that," right? I want you to think of your inner child being the one in the house on fire. What we do in shadow work is we teach you how to run into that house as a spiritual firefighter and save yourself. I've never heard it put like that, but I can s- I'm so visualizing that right now, and wow, that makes a lot of sense.

Yeah. So I hope you're enjoying your holidays. And if your inner child is in a building on fire right now, call us. I'm gonna put a link in the show notes. We're gonna set up a discovery call for you, and you'll get to talk to Heather. She's our enrollment specialist, and that's her job, and she'll help you figure out where you are in the shadow work process, and whether or not you're ready, or whether you need to do some of the work to get ready.

Happy Un-Holiday. Um, and I, I hope, I hope you are doing well. I wish you the best for the end of your year, and we will see you on the new year. Oh, my gosh, where did this year go? Oh, my God, I know, right? Oh, my God. It's crazy. Well, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, happy everything. Happy Un-Holiday. Everything. A very merry un-holiday to you.

To you.

So enjoy your holidays, be safe, enjoy some good food. I guess that'll be our, our Kelle Jewelism for today. That's it. All right, guys, we will see y'all next year because that is all the time that we have for this week. Tune in next year when Kelle adds another chapter into your Guide to Energy, Magic, and the Spirit World.

I'm Jules here with Kelle Sparta, and y'all have been listening to Spirit Sherpa. So long everyone. Bye.