Shadow

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

~ Carl Jung
Alchemical Studies, Vol 13, paragraph 335
(pg 265)

Do you remember when, as a child, shadows were play mates? I remember running from my shadow, making shadow puppets and using pencils to create shadow in drawings.

Shadow remains my playmate in that she teases out the unrealized aspects of my personality that are mirrored back at me from others, or more precisely, my emotional reactions to others. She shows me secrets of myself that lie dormant in the creases and folds of my humanness. Sometimes she shows up as the antagonist and pokes at every bit of soft tissue available and other times she slips in and allows me a glimpse at what it is I have the potential to embody, should I find the courage.

Shadow makes it self known when psychological growth is available to us. Yet that budding pushes our comfort zones and resistance is often the response. Our jealousies aroused rarely act as an immediate and open door, inviting greater self realization or actualization. Instead, our shadows often close doors and incite feelings of loneliness, shame and guilt and their contents are more than our egos are prepared to digest.

Too often we tuck away aspects of our selves in the back of a drawer, in the corners of our attics, among the cobwebs in our basements. We silence our unrealized potential, and all of the "little things" are put aside to deal with when the time is right. Somehow that drawer is eventually pulled open and the contents fall on the floor, the attic corner is revealed by a leak in the ceiling, or that basement shelf is rattled, demanding attention.

The material of Shadow asks us first to identify that the discomfort is not from an external source, but instead an unconscious part of ourselves seeking to awaken from slumber. Once awakened, Shadow asks us to "play", to engage in dialogue, without expectation or judgment. And finally, it asks us to digest the contents of that dialogue and to assimilate it into our dynamic and evolving understanding of our selves.

People have shadows. Families have shadows. Organizations and even countries have shadows.

When we take radical responsibility for our lives (no small order!) we must encounter our shadow, or our shadow will eventually eat us alive.

In our resistance toward Shadow we find many tricks to deny its existence.

Projection is a tool in everyone's tool box. It is readily available to cast blame or adoration!

I'll write more on that soon.

Wishing you all light,
Colleen