I wrote this post mere hours before my teacher Robert Masters passed away on Saturday March 7th…
I am now recording this as a podcast to send out to my community (you can also read it via my Substack post)
Please be sure to see the links to his free Poetry PDFs (his last writing in 2025) and links to his books/audiobooks that you can purchase if you are interested in exploring his deep Shadow Work
I will be offering Astrology & Your Shadow again either end of this year or start of 2027.
~Harmony
My Beloved Shadow Work teacher Robert Augustus Masters is currently in transition out of this world and I felt inspired to write about his impact in my life and I will only post this after he has passed on and his Beloved wife and family have publicly shared about his exit from this world and his entrance into what lies beyond.
I found Robert through his book Spiritual Bypassing. I thought I had just randomly found it but Chani Nicholas (who was part of the yoga community I was in at the time) reminded me at the ISAR conference in 2014 that she is the one who first told me about this book a year or so previous. For those of you in the Astrology Community- you know who Chani is. So thank you Chani for introducing to me the most impactful teacher of my life.
Robert’s book on Spiritual Bypassing was deeply resonant. He talked about how in the Spiritual Community we could use spirituality (meditation, Love and Light) to bypass shadow, ignore where we are out of integrity, and not be fully embodied because we are living from the heart chakra up (this is my translation of his teachings- he said things in his own way with his own words). This was very timely as I was deeply immersed in several spiritual communities at the time- the yoga community, the priestess community, and the astrology community. And I saw spiritual bypassing happening A LOT. I also am Pisces Moon Rising with Neptune on the Midheaven so I knew how easy it is to go up and out- and Shadow Work is all about coming down and in. So his intro to this work in this book was eye and mind opening to say the least!
I moved on from the Spiritual Bypassing book to his book Transformation through Intimacy- a Journey of Awakened Monogamy. I was married at the time and we were dealing with a lot of issues. The deepest part of me wanted a partnership that could walk through the shadow together in ways that supported healing and wholeness. This book was amazing and it led me to want work with Robert. I asked my then husband if he would do Shadow Work with me and he was open to it so I booked a Couple’s Shadow Work retreat.
We met Robert and his Beloved wife Diane in Santa Barbara in January of 2016. I did a day and a half of personal work with them, then my husband did, and then we did 2 days of work together. It was very powerful work and I realized I found my teacher. I then went onto to participate in shadow work groups and trainings with Robert- Women’s Groups, Co-ed groups, Professional Trainings, and a Women’s Mentorship program. I found another passion of mine- it felt like my Soul was MADE to do Shadow Work (I have Pluto stationary direct the day I was born ;) For those who know their astrology Pluto rules Shadow Work)
I was teaching at yoga conferences during this time. I would teach Astrology and Goddess classes. One year I offered a Shadow Work class at Bhakti Fest. It was my MOST PACKED CLASS- I think maybe over 150 people came? They were pouring out of the tent and standing in the hot sun in the summer in the desert to listen to me speak. I had people standing in line to talk with me after- saying “Thank you for bringing this work to this community- it is very needed”.
Spiritual Communities tend to want to focus on the Light- but if we do this at the expense of the Shadow we will use the Light to Spiritually Bypass. And when we do this the shadow will fester and leak into our personal lives, our relationships, our teachings (if we are teachers), our health, our finances and more. The Epstein file revelations of late has shown us all that.
Robert was not someone who lived on a pedestal looking down at people telling them how to face the shadow from his place in the Light. He had his own very dark shadows when he was younger. At one point he had a cult and he caused harm. He wrote about it in one of his books. And then in true spiritual teacher fashion- he got kicked in the ass by the Universe. After taking DMT for what he thought would be a short trip he was stuck in a drug trip for months- on a rollercoaster of highs and lows, feeling like he was going to die or worse never die and stay stuck there in constant nervous system dysregulation for the rest of his life.
He had to walk through the valley of the shadow of death- a place most people collapse in and give up in OR they sell out and merge with the darkness (not the fertile void darkness but the evil darkness)- trading their Soul for fame, wealth, and power. But he had a Higher Purpose and he learned amazing tools as he crawled out of the Underworld and he came out of it changed. When I met him and began working with him I asked him about his past- and he transparently shared it with me, allowing me to ask all my questions. Not once did he get defensive- and instead he modeled someone owning their shit. He told me that he lives his life knowing he will always be asked to atone for what he did- he jokingly called it his “Karmuppance” (karma merged with comeuppance)
Robert was a wordsmith- he had a way with words and wrote amazing poetry and evocative stanzas about the Great Mystery, about True Love (dedicated to his Beloved Diane) and more. At the end of trainings and groups he would have us write poetry! I had some of the most amazing things come out of me- he had a way of evoking both the shadow that wanted to come into the Light, but also the purity of the Soul that was hiding underneath it all.
I remember in one group work session I had asked him point blank- “What is my biggest shadow?” And I sat there waiting with bated breath- thinking he was going to expose some dark, nasty trait I possessed that I forgot about or was unconscious of. He looked me square in the eyes and said “Your Full Power is in the Shadow”. I was like WHAT? This was not the answer I was expecting. But I realized over the many years later he was right. In truth all my work with him was about healing what blocked me from stepping into my Power and doing this from a place of an open heart (which is something I am still working on- it’s an evolution).
One of the most pivotal trainings I did with him was in February 2018. It was right before I finally separated from my now ex husband. We were on Oahu- the island I grew up on and had not been back to since my 10 year High School Reunion in 2006. 3 things happened at this training that were profoundly impactful and life altering for me.
1) A big part of my work with Robert was getting into my anger and rage in healthy ways. Robert helped me tap into this part of my psyche in a way that felt like a dormant Volcano coming to life. He actually would pull me into other people’s work when they were blocked with anger and rage because he knew I could help people tap into it simply by being in the container with them. In this one instance though it was about me getting more deeply into my anger and rage- going to the next layer in healing and integrative ways- and it was anger and rage at the masculine so he needed a man to come into the work to hold the space with me. He ended up going through 3 men in the group- one by one pulling people in and then sending them back out. None of them could hold my energy, I was freaking them out or overpowering them. So he brought in a final man into the space and this man could hold the energy. He stood still- like a Standing Stone- not shut down but fully open- and he withstood the power and force of my anger and rage that I was expressing. At one point I stepped closer to him as I was raging and instead of stepping backwards like most men do almost instinctively- he not only did not step backwards but he stepped towards me and yelled back “I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE” and at that point I collapsed into tears. I had never in my life had a man stay present when I was expressing anger and not only do that but step towards me and refuse to collapse, go into shame, go into aggression, shut down or shame me. This was profoundly healing for me.
2) There was another situation where a woman had done deep work and we were all reflecting on her work. One man in the group responded to her work with words that actually felt shaming- but they were couched with nicer words on top that kind of hid this other energy underneath. I was watching this happen and I fully expected other people in the group to call it out- but no one did. So when it was my turn I spoke up and said that I felt his comments were shaming, laced with an energy underneath it that was unkind and that it hurt my heart. Robert spoke up and said he did not sense that in what this man was saying- and then others chimed in as well saying they agreed with Robert. So I was in a position of it being me vs my teacher. The woman who did the work quietly spoke up and said she also felt the energy I was speaking of- I could see it on her face, she looked gutted and crestfallen. The man who said this to her had the perfect out. Everyone was saying the energy I saw/felt was not there- even our teacher. And then this man spoke up. He looked at me straight in the eyes and he said Harmony you are right. He went onto to say that the voice I heard was the voice of his father who shamed him his whole childhood. I just stared at him in shock and then I broke down sobbing. I had only one other time had a man own something like that (and it was on a much smaller scale and it was years before at a yoga retreat). I see things all the time- and most of the time I keep it to myself. But when I do speak up and share things that are hidden- unconsciously or purposefully- I often will get met with defensiveness or aggression OR the person will collapse into shame so then I shift into caretaking them emotionally. This is in part why I keep a lot of things to myself :-0 This man owned it- and he did it from the depths of his being, coming from such humility and deep presence. And then afterwards Robert commented to me and the group about how I was able to see something he did not. He did not shame me for it or make excuses for him not seeing it. He just acknowledge that I saw something and that I spoke up. He was not congratulating me- he was witnessing me and in doing so he helped me see myself more clearly. This was profoundly healing for me.
3) The final instance in this training was at the very end- when we were all saying thank you to Robert and Diane and sharing from our hearts. It was my turn and I swear something inside me took over- as what I said was not premeditated it just came out. I began by saying I want to thank Robert for this work and for holding this amazingly deep space for transformation. But then I said “I don’t believe everything Robert says” and I caught myself and was like WTF!? And everyone looked at me with their eyes wide open- like I was at Church saying I did not believe everything in the Bible. But then I looked at Robert and he had the BIGGEST grin on his face. His eyes were dancing and his face was lit up with a smile. In that moment I realized Robert was more interested in my growth and expansion than he was in always being right or being the teacher with all the answers or being put on a pedestal. Truly, he was lit up by me claiming my Truth and knowing when to trust myself above and beyond everyone else, even above and beyond him- my Beloved teacher.
Robert has been the one example of a true pillar of Divine Masculine/Divine Father energy that I have had in my life. I have had no others. Of course I met him when he worked through his stuff- if I had met him during his shadow cult days I may not be able to say this about him. And this, along with the death of my Twin Flame 3 years ago, has taught me something about timing. We meet people we have deep connections with and the timing is never off. Sometimes we are meant to meet someone we have the deepest Soul connection with early on in life- to activate each other- but not stay together, because neither of us are ready for the depth that is possible at that time. And then other times we meet someone when we are ready to do the work. Robert was that kind of timing for me.
Robert and Diane became the example for me of Divine Love and Union that is both Union in Spirit and at the same time also deeply human. I know I will find this one day- and I am grateful for Robert and Diane as they have modeled the archetype of Divine Partnership for me in a way that made it tangible, real and attainable. They both like to remind me that they met when they were older- when they both were worn by life, already had their children, and as such were actually ready to find one another. One of my favorite memes on FB states “Meet me in the middle of your story- when the Soul is worn but wise” (quote by Angie Weiland-Crosby). I trust that this will happen for me- all in Divine Timing.
Robert’s passing for me is the passing of a Great being who embodied the Divine Father archetype. He helped guide me to do deep healing work around the Divine Masculine. He helped me connect to my anger and rage and step more fully into my power (which is a work in progress- and I am A LOT further on this path because of his guidance and support). And then at a certain point he knew I had to leave- fly the nest- and continue on my path where my Inner Teacher stepped into the place he was holding- with my own Inner Masculine becoming my guide.
Robert- thank you for taking on this incarnation. Thank you for walking into the depths of the shadow so that you could find your own Light and then bring that back out and use your lived experience to help guide others. Thank you for modeling Transformation through Intimacy with your Beloved Diane- who I also deeply love. My life would not be the same if it were not for you and the work that I did with you. It was pivotal. It was Game changing.
I hope to carry on the torch of your work in the way it is meant to move through me. And I will be immensely grateful to have you as a Guide up in heaven with my Twin and with the Angels, Ascended Masters, Star Family and Ancestors that are all up there waiting to receive you with open arms.
I had a vision of Robert in the days leading up to his death floating in a boat like King Arthur in Avalon when he is being ferried back to the Sacred Isle. I also had a vision of Diane with her heart exploding open to reveal the most glorious Golden Light. I know Robert’s death will be a deep journey for Diane. But I also know that something profound awaits for Diane on the other side of this journey.
Please hold them both in the most expansive, radiant Love and Light. The work they did together has had an impact- and I have no doubt the impact will multiply a thousand fold in the years, decades, centuries, even millennia to come. As my fortune cookie said to me once “Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant”. Robert helped to plant so many seeds in each of us. I have this vision of all of us blooming together in the years and decades to come- a Garden of Love and Light that helps turn the Wasteland into the Fertile land of the Grail once again. He may not be here on Earth to see it happen- but his consciousness is there in all of the seeds.
I am Eternally grateful for you Robert.
And I look forward to seeing you in the next life :)
~Harmony
ROBERT’S LAST POETRY BOOKS FROM 2025- Robert sent these to me in September last year but I was on pilgrimage. He gave me permission to share them freely. You can download them from my Google Drive HERE
ROBERT’S BOOKS- If you are interested in Robert’s work his books and audio books are excellent
AUDIOBOOKS- His 4 books: Knowing your Shadow, Bringing your Shadow out of the Dark, Emotional Intimacy, and To be a Man- can all be purchased as audiobooks on Sounds True HERE
BOOKS- His books: Transformation through Intimacy & Spiritual Bypassing can be purchased in book format HERE
If you are interested in the Audiobook titles above but want them in book format you can find them on Amazon.
From the Women’s Mentorship group - Robert is in the back, his wife Diane is to the far right. Along with Edel, Melanie, Nabha, Me, Sianna, & Greta <3
