Allowing Fear to be Your Teacher: Crystal Healing for the Scorpio New Moon

We entered the Scorpio new moon phase last night at 11:39pm ET, and I had trouble sleeping.

Anxiety, fears, shadow aspects coming up.

Scorpio is all about the dark places, the hidden and unseen, our innermost motivations and desires. It’s intensity, death, lust, magick, psychism, power, deep emotions, and manifestation.

Scorpio moons tend to have a powerful effect on me, but especially the new moon which occurs here in the North during what’s considered the descent - the dark time of the year - before the reemergence of the sun’s power at the winter solstice.

It’s a time for introspection and preparation - but for what? For an inevitable healing and growth period.

If we follow the wheel of the year, we’ve spent the first three quarters working towards our goals and harvests, actual or symbolic. It’s an active time of doing, achieving, failing, succeeding, and continuing on. Sometimes we stay on track, sometimes we stray. And sometimes, we discover that what we’ve been working towards isn’t quite what’s working for us or making us happy.

This time of year forces us to pause, reflect, and take a good hard look at what’s in the darker parts of ourselves. Our fears, shames, insecurities, ignored intuitions, lack of attention, are all things that are part of what make us human, and also the building blocks for what holds us back.

We like to avoid these things, and yet, if we approach them as teachers, they are enormous healing allies.

Crystals that help you to face and converse with your fears isn’t as popular a topic as crystals that help you to diminish your feelings of anxiety, or protect your energy. Let’s be real: we like to avoid what feels like sh**.

That’s what makes this work badass territory: It takes guts to face your darkness, to engage with what’s holding you back, and to make the choices or do the work that will heal you.

But as all the old stories will tell you: if you’re willing to enter the darkness, you will inevitably reemerge into the light. Better, stronger, wiser.

As Neil Gaiman wrote in Coraline: “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

It is an initiation, and we face it in our lives and stories no matter our lineage, belief system, or culture.

It’s also essential, because as we look out into our world, Shadow is wreaking havoc everywhere.

It starts with us, with our own individual healing process. The more we reclaim our full selves, potential, and power, the more we lead healthy lives that are truly happy, abundant, and fulfilling, and that spiritual growth and evolution ripples outwards.

So, what’s your fear(s)?

I can tell you some of mine: that I’ll never succeed. That I’m not good enough. Not worthy of love. That I’ll be a broke joke in my old age. That I’ll never lose weight and therefore never find love. That I’ll end up like my father, or mother. That people don’t like me or will never accept me. Sharks. Serial killers. Zombies. And creepy-crawly things.

Some of the things on that list are legit. Some are bullsh**. Most are archetypal. All reside in my shadow.

I can assure you, from experience, that if you want to move forward on your spiritual path and flourish in your life, you will have to face your fears. Some call this the work of the initiate: it’s what separates the posers from the real deals.

I can try to ignore these fears, or carry on without working through them, but they’ll keep surfacing in one way or another - tripping me up, slowing me down, leading me to say NO where I should say YES (and vice versa), guiding me to make choices for the wrong reasons, etc.

And then I wonder why I’m not happy. Why things aren’t working. Where did I go wrong?

Oh. There.

Fear as medicine

Each fear carries a message and provides a healing opportunity. Never being able to succeed is one I faced down and worked through recently. I grew up badly and chronically bullied, and deep down I’ve felt like a loser most of my life.

Fine - I’m here now, what can I do about this?

I can look at all the places and ways this fear shows up in my life, and what it’s depriving me of as a result.

I can ask it why it keeps showing up. Answer: because at some point in time, as a result of the bullying, I came to believe that I had nothing to offer, that I was not worthy, and only worthy people succeed.

I can look at all the ways I am worthy, and how much I do have to offer, and I can see that this belief isn’t true.

I can work on reclaiming my worth by making choices that affirm it, and taking actions that allow me to share what I have to offer. When the fear comes up, I can see what it is, and I can see that this is an opportunity for me to make a healing choice. It’s a process.

And in time, I can thank my fear for this valuable lesson and medicine. And move on without it.

Crystals that can support you in this work:

Resistance can come up when you’re doing this work, usually in the form of denial, vagueness, self-doubt, or self-sabotage.

It’s also not work to be undertaken if you are feeling mentally or emotionally unwell or vulnerable.

Oftentimes we know it’s time to do this work because we simply can’t bear to stay the same, to go through the same patterns and cycles and stories and misery and pain and challenges. There comes a point where you have to throw the anchor down and take accountability and responsibility for your life, and demand change. And then it’s up to you to make it happen.

3 Crystals to bypass the resistance, enter the shadow, and face your fears:

Covellite

I call it the “dark night of the soul” stone, you can also call it your “come to Jesus” crystal. It helps you to get very real and very clear on what’s currently lurking in your shadow that needs to be healed, and supports you in facing it. Once you have, it then helps you to tap in to greater levels of psychic awareness, spiritual understanding, and personal power.

Black Obsidian

Helps bring to the surface of your awareness and consciousness what needs to be faced or healed. Helps to protect you energetically and psychically while you are facing your own fears, inner darkness, and shadow. Alleviates feelings of shame so that you can see past them to what needs to be healed.

Black Moonstone

As white moonstone is the light in the darkness, black moonstone brings the darkness to the light. Especially potent for people who fear what they might discover within themselves, and for those who have shunned the darkness to focus only on developing their radiance. It brings balance back to both halves.

3 Crystals for emotional support while you’re doing this work:

Moonstone

Moonstone is the light shining through the darkness. It’s nurturing, supportive, intuitive, and helps you to lovingly see the bigger picture. It helps to guide you on your spiritual path or journey.

Rose Quartz

Rose quartz is soothing and loving, and yet being part of the quartz family, its energy acts fast and is direct. Hold it to your heart and let the vibes flow whenever you need it.

Snowflake Obsidian

Snowflake obsidian helps to bring divine guidance and light into darker places. It grounds the spiritual on the physical plane, so that we find it easier to stay in alignment with our soul path and guidance.

Suggested healing ritual:

1. Light a candle to represent the light of Spirit. Call in any protective spirit guides or totems who are your allies. You can also do this work in the presence of a friend or (openminded) therapist or coach.

2. Hold your shadow crystal in your receptive hand, and your emotional support crystal in your dominant hand (or wear it over your heart chakra).

3. Take a few deep breaths to center yourself, and then connect with your fear. Allow yourself to feel it more and more strongly so that it’s present with you.

4. Ask it for its message, purpose, or what it has to show you. Be patient with this, allow it to flow up, and either write it down in a journal or speak it out without censoring.

5. Consider where or how it has shown up in your life, and how it was trying to help you.

6. See if you can meet it with love or compassion, as it was born of hurt, and only love can truly heal hurt.

7. Let that love spread through every part of your being, reintegrating that part of your shadow into your whole self.

8. Look for ways and opportunities that you can make new, loving choices or take empowered actions as you move forward. If/when the fear surfaces again, see it for what it is, learn from its message, and then make a loving choice.

A final note of guidance: take heart, and don’t fear your descent. In all resurrection and life/death/rebirth mythologies throughout time, it is after the descent that a person or deity comes into their true power, purpose, and potential. Trust that it will also be so for you.

Blessings ❤️🙏🏻

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