Self Locked
Twenty-One locs, seven gateways into the underworld, where you stand naked before certain destruction.
In August 2019 I cut off the locs I had worn for seven years as an initiation into shadow work. Twenty-One locs, seven gateways into the underworld, where you stand naked before certain destruction. This symbolic death not an end but a collapse, rebuilding, reintegration.
Shadow work has a long history and many incarnations dating back to Carl Jung and his conception of the human mind. Often it can take the shape of a “release of demons” whereas all that which is taboo or repressed is acted out. In trauma work it looks more like unearthing the unconscious so you can become whole again. To let all the emotions, memories, and beliefs that you locked away to protect yourself finally come to the surface. Which is exactly the journey I had been avoiding for a very long time.
So along with the help of my therapist I decided to dive right into it. To seal my decision in ritual transformation. But I couldn’t let go before I documented both the fear and the clinging to safety that proceeded the dive. Click on the gallery below to see the final photos of the Self Locked collection.
I won’t lie. It’s been difficult, bumpy, and un-glamorous work. There are many days I even question if I’m even doing the right thing or simply inflicting myself more pain in the name of healing. Is the way out through?
Beautiful and deep. Thank you for taking the risk in being so fiercely vulnerable.
Thank you 🙂