You know when someone – a lover, a friend, a co-worker or even a stranger – says something that somehow hits the nail on the head of an issue  you’ve been avoiding. You nod politely, but inside, you’re agitated, perhaps a bit pissed, and wondering who the hell is s/he to say a thing like that. For a while you ignore that person as if she’s the personification of that truth you did not want to face.

The online course Free Your Sacred Journey begins with H.C. Andersen’s fairytaleThe Red Shoes. It’s about a girl who gets obsessed with her red shoes. Red has a lot of meanings: sexuality, passion, power, danger, life, death, ceremony and sacrifice. In Free Your Sacred Journey we will touch on all of these meanings, and in particular, the symbolism of H.C. Andersen’s Red Shoes.

To me, the Red Shoes is a metaphor for our soul and the many ways we sell out our soul in our own lives. As you will find out, the story has a gruesome ending. It entails a sacrifice, which we all must make, when we choose truth over falsity, and begin to follow the deeper longings of our soul. The road to embodying one’s soul, to what a friend of mine calls en-soul-ment, it’s not always neat and nice.

Neat and nice never got us very far, right?

Now, as the first women have signed up and embarked upon their Sacred Journeys, I see that The Red Shoes metaphor is working its magic. It is a bit like that annoying person, who points out our sore spot or hits the nail on the situation we’re trying to avoid.

Listen to Trish, one of our Free Your Sacred Journey adventuresses:

It was hard to get started, I felt blocked inside, but then… something happened last weekend, and I began to write in my journal answering the questions from the “Setting the Stage” part.  I realized a lot of things through this process.  The Red Shoes story was haunting me, because as I listened to it, I felt so much of me and the “loss of me.”  I have my own “self-made red shoes” scattered all over my house, many works of art, poetry I’ve written, and sweaters I’ve knitted.  I used to create all the time, but over the last 16 months was just existing… all due to an un-nourishing relationship.

It has become crystal clear to me that the “other red shoes” were my last relationship (especially the sexual part of it) and how I became lost in it, set my own needs aside, abandoned and ignored some good friends for long enough that they are no longer in my life, and basically ran myself ragged for a few moments of bliss (or at least that’s what I thought it was) a few nights a week with this man. My business suffered as I was just maintaining and not working it, and my home got dirty and lonely feeling because I was just coming and going all the time. 

Now, my windows are clean, the beautiful sun shines in, the dust is being lifted, new gardening projects are starting, and my room once again feels like my castle boudoir!  I’m excited about life again, inspired, and happy to be searching my soul to give it freedom once again! Thank you for this opportunity!

Jean began her Sacred Journey, thinking, “yeah, yeah, what’s the begin deal,” and then she was caught by surprise:

I knew embarking on another journey with you (Lone) would be an adventure and would uncover or reaffirm things that I’ve discovered about myself through our interactions and my own life adventures. However, I did not expect it to hit me so quickly and so deeply right off the bat.

I listened half-heartedly to the Red Shoes fairytale at first. Somewhere along the story, something was triggered and I remembered our 2nd photo shoot, with MY red shoes. My 7” platform stilettos that to me, encompassed power, sexuality, sensuality and freedom from other people’s opinions. I began to think about other “redness” in my life and how the color itself made me feel. And then I realized that in the past couple of years, this power, this “redness” had faded from my life. I have been hiding behind the plainness, the safety, of drab, boring colors. Why? Perhaps it’s because I lost the desire to be powerful, I lost the desire for the attention, perhaps I may have even lost my strength. In thinking about this the past few days, I am beginning to realize that my power has shifted and that I need to readjust my thinking, my focus and my relationships.

Speaking of relationships, I have been trying to come to terms with my known power over men and my deep rooted “neediness”. The symbolism of the red shoes played into my thoughts in regards to this. I have my red shoes, my power, my sensuality/sexuality and I have used it in the past to some great advantage. Lately however, I’ve traded those red shoes for something sensible, safe, unassuming—boring. But WHY? Am I afraid that the men will be intimidated? Am I afraid of having this kind of power, responsibility? Am I secretly wishing that someone will just take care of me so that I can succumb to mediocrity? I hope to answer some of these questions and confront the many more that will inevitably come up with further exploration.

Trish and Jean’s revelations about how the red shoes play out in their lives and have diminished their souls and sovereignty had me in tears. This is the power of metaphor. This is the power of truth. We need those annoying people in our lives, who are brave enough, crazy enough, or care enough to hold up a mirror and challenge us when we are in a rut, afraid of honoring our souls, or supplant our power to “shiny objects” that holds us captured like prisoners in our lives.

We all know the feeling that something needs to change. We also know the apprehension, when we stand before a deep self-inquiry process or taking a big leap in life: You want to dive in, but you are hesitating, daunted by what you might discover, who you might become.

Once you’re called, there is no turning back. I say, leap, my friends, leap.

And thank those darn “Red Shoes” in your life, for sending you messages from your soul.

I’d love to hear about YOUR “Red Shoes” experiences, and how they are may be playing, directing, manipulating your life and diminishing your soul?

Please share below.

And if you need help to uncover and move beyond your “Red Shoes” come right in, take your Free Your Sacred Journey here >>>

email   lone@lonemorch.com
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