Discovering the Divinity In Dragons: Shadow Work and Spirituality

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” -Rainer Maria Rilke

I’ve had a lot of dragons in my life: rage, envy, desire, and passion, to name a few.

These dragons, or what I like to think of as parts of myself, were parts I learned to carefully tuck away through the practice of yoga. I never judged this abandonment or thought twice about the actions I judged as right efforts on the spiritual path. It seemed quite logical. If I wanted peace, I couldn’t raise my voice, break objects, or verbally assault my loved ones. I could not express anger and simultaneously experience calm. The trade-off was clear, and the results were worth the intense tapas, or purification, I employed the first few years of yogic practice, which coincided with newfound sobriety and immersion in 12-step rooms.

There is a story I heard often in 12-step rooms that assisted me with this process of transformation: I was told to imagine sobriety and addiction as two wolves that lived inside of me. To ensure sobriety, I had to feed my sobriety. To safeguard against addiction, I had to starve my addiction. The message was simple, clear, and what I needed to internalize at that chapter of my life: there are two parts of myself, and for one to survive, the other must die.