Extract from The Magical Writing Grimoire by Lisa Marie Basile, illustration by Ada Keesler, published by Fair Winds Press, RRP £114.99. The Magical Writing Grimoire is available in hardback at all good bookshops, and online.
The Ancient Egyptians believed in the power of names. In this ritual, you name your shadows and call them out by the name you give them. The shadow contains everything from ego and phobia to trauma and stagnation. It’s the dark mansion of what we do to ourselves and what’s been done to us. The shadow is not a bad thing. It’s a dark thing. There’s a difference.
When it comes to confessing our shadows, doing so in a ritualized setting makes our confession sacred. The religious concept of a confessional, as we know it today, is centuries old. Some form of confession occurs throughout many religions, though not all. For some, the idea of confession is freeing; for others, it’s rooted in ideas of shame and judgement. Confession may differ for each of us, but I think of it as (sometimes brutal) honesty with the self.
When we validate and honor our darkness, we can begin to heal it.
Maybe you want to confess being an unavailable friend or thinking bad thoughts about someone you barely know. These are the things that make us human. The things that come from trauma or pain or just straight-up feral cattiness.
In choosing to confess the stagnant, poisonous shit we hold inside of us, we call to a lineage of witches and accused witches who were forced to make true or untrue confessions, often to a fatal end. We have the opportunity to reclaim the confession.
Rather than confessing to a god because we are sinful and bad and requiring forgiveness, we are confessing our demons and shadows to ourselves. That said, if you’d like to call on a god, goddess, ancestor, angel, or deity of any kind in your practice, please do! This is an embracing of the shadow, and an exercise that opens up your ability to be more empathic and forgiving toward yourself and others.
Explorations
Are there shadow aspects that can transmorph or be used for good? Are there shadow aspects you must for-give? Are there shadow aspects that are sticking around, no matter how hard you work? Why are they stuck? What can you do to gently let them go? What accountability can you take? What can you do to be softer to yourself? In your journal, make a note on how to do the above. Simply by naming your shadows and medi-tating on them, you have taken that dark energy and transformed it into potential. This energy becomes one of change.
Materials
A shower, bath, or bowl of cleansing water
A single white candle used only for this confession
A large jar or box with a lid (decorative or otherwise)
Small strips of paper
Black yarn
Late at night, when the worries of the day are over and you can sit alone and in silence, take a purifying bath or shower (or wash your hands), and enter your sacred space. Turn off the lights and light a single white candle, allowing it to flicker and dance.
Gaze into the flame, speaking your confession out loud. You can call on or confess to a deity here or simply confess to yourself. You might speak something like:
I confess Judgement, the beast that hungers in the dark. I confess its name, my name. I confess it as a part of me, a part that I control.
In my naming you, you cannot have me.
Open your jar or box (and make sure you only use it for confessions). I have a floral, lidded pink glass jar I bought in Spain, but you may use whatever is right for you. Write the confession on a slip of paper, roll it into a scroll, tie the black yarn around the paper and slip it into your confession jar or box. Black, contrary to what some might say, is very luminous; it wards off negativity and protects us. It holds us in its strength.
The use of black yarn draws a boundary between you and the deeper pain that your confession may cause you. It allows you to control your shadows so that they don’t dim your entire life. The use of yarn gives your confession a physicality that can help pull your body’s energy into your spell work.
This container provides a space for your shadows and demons, honoring them as a part of you. In a society that values keeping secrets, even from ourselves, and burying our quirks, flaws, and weaknesses so that we present as neat and tidy, healing takes place when you show up to your truth, in a sacred setting, where you are in control.