One of the Faerie Challengers who bring us face to face with our fears, denials, delusions, traumas, confusions and misbehaviours. He is also known as the Out of the Blue Faerie.

There you are wandering along minding your business and then, splat, Gawtcha gets you from your blind side.

From my work with the Shadow Process, we often need that “smack upside the head” to wake us up to the consequences of our actions.

As many of you know, I do not subscribe to the generally accepted view of karma. Consequences are not the same thing as punishment, just an energetic alignment to the full energy of our intention.

That sounds very airy fairy so let me clarify what I mean, and this will also illustrate why we need work on and maintain our awareness and stay as centred, grounded and focussed as we can.

What we have been taught as karma, punishment of “bad” deeds etc is nothing more than the full impact of our manifestation. When you send out a manifestation or “Rocket of Desire” as Abraham calls it, you not only send out the conscious vision of your desire, but also the unconscious consequences you, at some level, deserve as part of manifesting that desire.

So, as an example, if you believe that money is the root of evil, not even consciously but even if it is a subconscious part of your agreement with reality, then when you do manifest the financial windfall you are hoping for, you also manifest the consequences you sub-consciously expect.

So, if you believe that when you have money, people demand stuff or expect stuff from you, then suddenly people will be asking for favours, or there will be an extraordinary number of charities and beggars in your space.  If you believe that rich people are selfish, mean and arrogant, you will start becoming selfish, mean and arrogant yourself.

This also highlights the damage that labels can cause.  Labels can be good in the beginning of your experience, when you are confused and looking for support or a place to “belong” etc. That label will also restrict your behaviour and the way you present yourself to the outside world in terms of what that label represents.

In my experience, when I embraced the “gay” label and looked around me, I saw that the gay people that were around me, or available as role models – not that many in the good old days lol – were effeminate, bitchy, screaming queens, often fearful, hidden and supressed etc. so I started unconsciously behaving differently to “fit” that label.

I grew my nails, changed the way I spoke, grew my hair long, (yes, I did have hair – a lot of it actually!!!), the way I acted etc. 

As I went through my life though, I realised that not all gay men are like that, and in fact I was being inauthentic to myself by projecting that image.

As I matured, and fully accepted my sexuality myself and what was important to me, I was able to see the label as an initial stepping stone in my process of self-acceptance, but that letting the label go and living my truth, instead of what people expected of me, I became a lot calmer, dropped my radical activist mask, and became more approachable, accepted and embraced, without even trying, it just happened.

Back to Gawtcha, the rude awakening can take many different forms and can be a “good” experience too. A realisation of a new vision of yourself and who you are after the shocks and stresses we have been discovering the last few weeks.

After the unexpected shock or “disaster”, we are always left with a shift in our awareness of ourselves, maybe need to let go of what we thought defined us, and embrace a new definition of ourselves.

An important thing to remember about Faerie is that, although they may hurt or harm us, they never intend harm, their job and focus, particularly Gawtcha’s, is for our expansion and growth.

See how he peeks through his fingers, the mischievous little hellion, he knows he has done something that is going to hurt, he has done it out of love but is still scared of our reaction to him as the instigator.