Tarot Shadow Work- Hidden Treasures

I was supposed work on my treasure chest  this last week...and once again, I failed miserably so I have decided that the show must go on and I will be talking about the card I chose to "take back my shadow."  This is the part of me that I need to recover ownership of once and for all.

I put all the cards into a rather ratty and very undecorated shoe box and as I mixed them up, I wondered just which one would find it's way into my hot little hand. All the cards were important as far as taking them back....I finally grasped one and pulled it out and saw that it was the Tower. Hmmm, how appropriate I thought...the Tower seems to be a symbol of my adult years from at least the age of twenty (on up to today, I pessimistically thought.)

The Tower Shadow qualities are building up false securities around me...sabotaging possibilities of new growth by ridgidly holding onto ideas or attitudes (a whole lot of attitudes in my case)...releasing pent up energy in an angry or destructive way. Wow, how do these cards know me so well?! In my twenties and almost all the way through my thirties, I was nothing but attitude and repressed energy. In my family, showing anger or any other "negative" emotions was highly frowned upon so I pretty much learned to suck it up and walk it off. My mom called it  having "A stiff upper lip"

The problem of creating such a volitile Shadow was that I was missing out (for many years),  on the Shadow Gifts that the Tower had to offer. Looking back on "the lost years" I see that I could have been breaking down all the unhealthy beliefs I had learned living in an alcoholic home...exersizing my free choice...  finding my own inner strength and living my life the way I saw fit rather than choosing to go with what I thought others wanted from me.  I'm learning to be happy with who I am, I am strong...I am able to make wise choices based on a firmer grasp of what reality is instead of what I'd like it to be.

It's so easy to get lost on what is really important in life and the Tower should not be looked upon as   a terrible, cataclysmic event but the goddess putting us firmly back on track and  thus making it possible to live up to our highest potential.