"Your will decides what you make important. Your will decides what you do. That's yours. That is your sacred free choice." This episode explores shadow work, elemental energies, desire, and the cultural conditioning that teaches us to associate darkness and the raw natural world with danger. Mellissa looks at what happens when fear of the primal, earthy, instinctive parts of nature gets turned inward toward our own desires, ego, shadow, and wants. She also gets into free will and spiritual discernment, including why hearing from spirit guides, ancestors, or elemental beings doesn't mean handing over your decision-making. From the Devil card to fire beings to the things we were taught might be lurking under the bed, this is a conversation about becoming less afraid of what is natural without letting every impulse run the game. In This Episode, Mellissa Talks About: • How Western cultural conditioning taught many of us to associate elemental beings, darkness, witchcraft, and the raw natural world with danger • The connection between rejecting primal nature and suppressing our own shadow, desires, wants, and kinks • Why spirit guides, ancestors, elemental guardians, and other forms of guidance are perspectives, not authorities over your free will • What fire can teach us about passion without making passion the only thing directing our choices • How Mellissa's tarot teacher reframed the Devil card as an invitation to notice denied desires and ego • Why teaching fear of the Devil can interfere with our own ability to discern what feels loving, harmful, real, or mean Timestamps • 00:01 How we learned to fear elemental beings, darkness, and the raw natural world • 01:24 What rejecting nature has to do with suppressing our shadows, desires, wants, and kinks • 01:53 Spirit guides, elemental guardians, free will, and who gets to make the final decision • 02:56 Reclaiming the Devil card and acknowledging suppressed ego and desire • 03:39 Fear of the Devil and the idea that what is natural must be bad • 04:14 Teaching children fear of the Devil versus helping them recognize what feels loving or harmful Free Resources: Take the Soul Gift Quiz: https://www.soulgiftquiz.com Join the FREE Explore Your Gifts Circle: https://academy.channelyourgenius.com/explore Connect with Mellissa Website: https://www.channelyourgenius.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MellissaSea YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@channelyourgenius Substack: mellissaseaman.substack.com Keywords shadow work, shadow self, Devil tarot card meaning, the Devil tarot card, reclaiming desire, repressed desires, ego and desire, spiritual discernment, intuition and free will, spirit guides, elemental beings, elemental spirituality, elemental energy, spiritual guidance, working with spirit guides, ancestors and spirit guides, natural spirituality, darkness and spirituality, primal nature, shadow integration, tarot and shadow work, fear of the Devil, somatic awareness, spiritual intuition, intuitive development