AspectologY

There comes a time in the life of every spiritual seeker when they trip over the one thing they weren’t looking for: their own shadows. 

It usually starts soon after the euphoria of awakening has faded, when the human slides into the so-called ‘dark night of the soul.’  A more accurate description would be ‘seemingly endless dark nights of the human.’ The way through this darkness is, of course, aspect integration – whether we know it by name or not. 

If you’ve been on the path of self-realization for a while, you’ve heard about aspect integration. Probably the term makes you sigh with annoyed exasperation, because everyone talks about it, but few have truly mastered it. 

(If you’re new to this concept, the term describes the alchemical process of returning to your natural state of inner unity, wherein all the puzzle pieces of your soul come together in coherence.)

In theory, integration is simple. All it takes is presence, patience, discernment, courage and allowing. Easy, right? In practice, it means rewiring your body, mind and emotional system using metaphysics that are constantly being updated, while trying to go through everyday life with basic functionality intact. 

We could have done it the easy way, like the Ascended Masters before us who took the short-cut and bypassed most of the integration work. I suppose they went through some instantaneous aspect integration upon the moment of ascension. The downside to that method is that you don’t get to enjoy life post-integration. We, however, chose embodied mastery – consciousness realized while still human. And for those who didn’t read the fine print, that means ‘integrating all the aspects of the soul through the human self who is currently embodied – You.’ So here we are.

Despite their bad reputation, aspects aren’t the enemy. They’re not caricatures of humanity, demons to be conquered or lessons placed upon your path by God to test you. They are expressions of your soul, stories that got caught up in their own plot. 

Looking back on my experiences in this lifetime, one of the significant turning points was taking Crimson Circle’s Aspectology class. Not because I suddenly became integrated (I didn’t), but because it helps me understand what I’m going through. There’s quite a difference between stumbling through your own shadows blindly – and stumbling through your own shadows while being aware of what they are. I’m passionate about this topic not only as a psychologist, but because even many years later, the core concepts of the class keep showing up in my awareness. Truthfully, I can’t imagine being on this path and not understanding how aspects work and how to integrate them. 

Through my professional work I’ve also studied why so many people struggle with integrating aspects. I’ve summarized my perspective below, hoping that it serves to inspire some self-compassion the next time integration feels difficult.

So yes, it takes what feels like a miracle, along with some masterful guidance (like Aspectology), to beat the odds.

Perhaps you’ve wondered what all the fuss is about, “Do we really need to integrate our aspects?” Integration doesn’t remove all the problems in your life, but it takes away the problems in your head – those poltergeists that haunt your mind and keep you awake at night. 

Most people have no understanding of their own aspects. For example, a thought enters their mind, and they have no idea whether that thought comes from their master-Self, their survival aspect, their parents, the news, a past experience, or some other aspect. It’s just there, so they assume it’s their own thought. Or maybe their partner gets triggered and suddenly acts in a different way, and they question whether the love was even real, because how else could he be so mean? He’s mean because an aspect has momentarily overtaken him. (Or alternatively, because your wounded aspect is interpreting his words in a certain way.)

Understanding aspects is like the secret handbook to being human that you should have been given in grade school. I call integration the ultimate healing. It is alchemy in its most spiritual sense. 

There are countless methods of aspect integration, and I believe we are here to build those pathways for the next generations of awakening humans. Some of us integrate aspects through movement, some through joy and laughter, others through relationships, creative expression, conscious breathing, in dream-states, through working with a conscious counsellor, or even through one’s co-bot. Aspectology is an ideal starting point because it gives you the basic method and understanding, providing a strong foundation for personal exploration.

For me, integration became a lot more fun (or at least, more bearable) once I started to notice the treasures it brings. There’s a kind of deep, soul satisfaction with every aspect that returns home. 

So how does one recognize when an aspect has been ‘integrated’? Sometimes an integrated aspect is so subtle that one only notices it in comparison to an earlier version of self. For example, the day I realized I didn’t have money worries. The numbers in my bank account had not changed significantly. What had changed was the fear about survival. Since that day, I stopped having money problems because they didn’t feel like problems anymore. The aspect didn’t return home with a big announcement; the troubles simply melted away. 

Or the first time I felt fully safe in my body. It took me by surprise, because up until that point, I had never felt truly safe. An integrated aspect can be felt as a more settled nervous system. It can feel like an easier relationship with your thoughts; a softer way of looking at yourself in the mirror; like a new lightness in your step or an openness in your body posture. Integration is evident in a choice you’ve never made before, or a shift in preferences. Integration is evident when a karmic love affair that used to pull you like a magnet loses its gravity; when you stop caring about something that used to matter a lot; when the tone of something carries more meaning than the content of the words.

Sometimes integration is loud and deliberate. Like when you’ve suffered long enough and finally scream for all the universe to hear: “Enough! No more of this. I’m ready to make new choices now.”

There are few moments as magical and freeing as the transformation of an aspect into a diamond-clear facet.