Shadow Self Introduction
“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious” – C.G. Jung
INTRODUCTION
Confronting and integrating the shadow is essential for personal growth, as it allows us to expand our self-concept. These transformative experiences often occur during midlife, but can occur at any point when we feel stuck and disconnected from the vibrancy of life.
In order to truly be authentic, genuine, and complete, it is necessary to embrace and integrate one’s shadow aspect. In order to achieve spiritual awakening and self-mastery, it is essential to transform one’s darkness. Prior to addressing the collective shadow that has been tormenting humanity, it is essential to confront and acknowledge one’s own individual shadow.
Individuation is the transformative process through which an individual strives to become whole and unique. It involves embracing both the light and dark aspects of oneself, allowing for a constructive relationship to develop between the ego and the self. This relationship symbolizes our personal sense of individual wholeness, where the integration of contrasting elements leads to a harmonious and balanced existence.
Through open and sincere communication as well as the analysis of dreams, we are able to confront the facade we present to the world and embrace our true selves in the therapeutic setting. Taking ownership of our less desirable traits is often facilitated and expedited by the support and guidance of a therapist or mentor.
The gradual awakening to the shadow is a fundamental aspect of this process, as eloquently depicted in the passage from Marie-Louise von Franz’s Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales:
If someone who knows nothing about psychology comes to an analytical hour and you try to explain that there are certain processes at the back of the mind of
which people are not aware, that is the shadow to them. So in the first stage of approach to the unconscious the shadow is simply a “mythological” name for all that within me of which I cannot directly know. Only when we start to dig into the shadow sphere of the personality and to investigate the different aspects, does there, after a time, appear in the dreams a personification of the unconscious, of the same sex as the dreamer.
As the consciousness of the shadow expands, the dream figures gain greater significance and their integration becomes increasingly important. Ultimately, establishing a connection between one’s personal shadow and the collective shadow of their culture becomes an inherent outcome.
Erich Neumann, the Israeli psychoanalyst, described the subsequent phase of shadow-work as the individuation process progresses:
The differentiation of “my” evil from the general evil is an essential item of self- knowledge from which no one who undertakes the journey of individuation is allowed to escape. But as the process of individuation unfolds, the ego’s former drive toward perfection simultaneously disintegrates. The inflationary exaltation of the ego has to be sacrificed, and it becomes necessary for the ego to enter into some kind of gentleman’s agreement with the shadow—a development which is diametrically opposed to the old ethic’s ideal of absolutism and perfection.
The individual who is willing to confront their foes, whether within or without, will always have a path to follow. Shadow-work is based on a confessional act that can sometimes be cathartic. According to Jung, this is the most crucial activity. “Modern man,” he asserted, “must rediscover a deeper source of his own spiritual life. To accomplish this, he must battle with evil, face his shadow, and merge with the devil. There is no other option.”
The individual Shadow is essentially our hidden dark side – the part of ourselves that we have neglected and pushed away. It holds our deepest secrets, suppressed emotions, and primal urges that we deem unacceptable or even evil.
Deep within your unconscious lies a concealed space where suppressed emotions like lust, fury, envy, loathing, greed, deceit, and self-interest dwell. Neglecting the individual Shadow can result in detrimental effects on our well-being, including addictions, low self-esteem, mental illness, chronic illnesses, and various neuroses.
The longer our Shadows are suppressed in the unconscious, the more likely they are to take control of our lives, leading to psychosis or extreme behaviors like cheating or violence. Intoxicants such as alcohol and drugs can also trigger the release of the Shadow.
Explore the section on shadow dragon consciousness to delve into the collective shadow that haunts humanity: https://theserpentsway.com/shadow-dragon-consciousness/.
“One thing that comes out in myths is that at the bottom of the abyss comes the voice of salvation. The black moment is the moment when the real message of transformation is going to come. At the darkest moment comes the light” – Joseph Campbell
WHAT IS SHADOW WORK?
Engaging in Shadow Work entails embarking on a profound exploration of your inner darkness or Shadow Self. It is a courageous endeavor to bring to light all that has been unconsciously concealed, disowned, and rejected within you, residing within the depths of your Shadow Self.
In my personal experience, I have found that a powerful way to engage in shadow work is by sitting in a dark room, surrounded by the gentle glow of candlelight. This practice, known as self-reflective meditation, allows you to delve into your past or present and explore any traumas you may have experienced or caused.
By immersing yourself in this introspective process, you can gain valuable insights and grow as an individual. By acknowledging and directing your attention towards your anger, lust, jealousy, or any manipulative games you may have played with others, you can uncover and confront these suppressed negative traits.
Within your unconscious mind lies the Shadow Self, containing all the thoughts and emotions that you are ashamed of, along with suppressed desires, fears, and perversions that have been locked away either consciously or unconsciously. This serves as a method to appear tame, likeable, and socially acceptable to others.
Suppressing your desires, fears, and perversions in order to gain acceptance from others or conform to societal norms is nothing but a facade. When you suppress certain aspects of yourself just to please others or seek society’s approval, you are essentially being inauthentic.
The key to achieving an awakened state lies in recognizing, embracing, and actively engaging with the shadow aspects of our own selves. None of these aspects are inherently negative or necessitate eradication.
The mistaken notion that awakening and enlightenment solely bring eternal happiness, brightness, and cheerfulness, while considering anything else as negative, only amplifies the shadow within individuals and society.
The depths of our being harbor a darkness, a clandestine reservoir of anger, grief, and untamed energy that we struggle to acknowledge or process. It is the collective interplay between our hidden selves and our conscious personas that shapes the world, giving birth to violence, conflicts, prejudice, inequality, and the unspoken guidelines that govern our behavior.
Through individual exploration of every aspect of ourselves, including the shadow, we gain a deeper understanding of our whole self and can transcend simplistic notions of good and evil, darkness and light.
Mary Mueller Shutan pointed out that within the lightworker community, there is a common tendency to focus on increasing one’s light without acknowledging the presence of darkness. The aspects labeled as “dark” or “shadow” are often overlooked and end up expanding in relation to the amount of light one possesses.
Ignoring the darker aspects and adhering to strict guidelines on awareness and consciousness is a common trait within these communities. However, failing to acknowledge our shadow self only hinders our spiritual growth and keeps us trapped in a state of immaturity.
It is common for individuals to become spiritual bypassers, continuously searching for spirituality outside of themselves and avoiding the raw and complex journey of truly awakening, which involves facing our own emotions, traumas, and the darker aspects of life.
Authentic awakening involves truly comprehending and showing compassion towards our shadow side. It entails fully embracing and exploring all of our emotions and facets. It requires reconciling and refraining from judging even our deepest impulses and emotions, regardless of how dark they may seem.
Through conscious awareness and acceptance of our shadow, we can attain a state of wholeness. Instead of dividing ourselves into opposing forces of light and shadow, good and bad, or spiritual and physical, we can embrace our messy, embodied existence. Our shadow is not something to overcome, but an essential aspect of our being.
Based on my personal experience, shadow work involves uncovering the hidden aspects within oneself and bringing them into the light. It is essential to engage in this process in order to achieve wholeness. Therefore, shadow work can be seen as a form of healing work. Until you heal, you cannot truly become whole.
It is crucial to embrace our shadow – to fully embrace both the destructive and joyful aspects of our being. This profound awakening is a thing of beauty, as we learn to love every part of ourselves.
Every individual capable of acknowledging their own shadow and embracing their darker side contributes to the gradual dissolution of the collective shadow. As we integrate these aspects of ourselves, our society as a whole becomes more enlightened and awakened.
“Wholeness for humans depends on the ability to own their own shadow” – C.G Jung
WHY DO SHADOW WORK
We engage in this work because unless we delve into the depths of our being, we will continue to carry the weight of unresolved issues such as persistent lust, anger, guilt, shame, fear, grief, and various challenges like addictions, relationship breakdowns, and even spiritual afflictions like existential depression or the Dark Night of the Soul.
Throughout the course of human history, Shadow Work has exerted a profound influence, enabling us to delve into the depths of our minds and uncover the fundamental origins of our individual and communal psychological disorders, physical discomforts, and even the heinous acts of criminal nature.
Shadow Work was traditionally practiced by Shamans, medicine people, priests, and priestesses in ancient times. Nowadays, it is more commonly associated with psychotherapy, where psychologists, psychiatrists, spiritual guides, and therapists lead the way.
Working with our shadows allows us to fully embrace our physical existence. As physical beings, we are meant to wholeheartedly experience a range of emotions such as anger, joy, bliss, love, and grief. Moreover, we should find immense pleasure in appreciating art, music, and our senses.
Our spirituality remains separate from ourselves when we neglect to clear and open the pathways of the physical body. By relying on external teachers and not acknowledging the unity of the spiritual, mental, and physical bodies, we create a spiritual divide within ourselves.
Our physical and spiritual natures are intertwined, eliminating the need for a separate journey to awaken. By fully embracing our physical selves, expressing our emotions, and finding harmony within ourselves and the world, we naturally awaken our spiritual essence.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF DENYING THE SHADOW
The ancient Greeks acknowledged the significance of respecting all elements of the psyche. They viewed these elements as individual deities. Disregarding a god or goddess meant inviting their wrath and potential destruction. When we disavow any aspect of ourselves, it eventually becomes our adversary. The personal shadow encompasses all these rejected fragments.
The fascinating thing about the Shadow Self is its inherent need to be acknowledged. It passionately desires to be understood, examined, and integrated. It fervently longs to be recognized and embraced in awareness. The longer the Shadow remains buried and confined within the depths of the unconscious, the more it will create chances to remind you of its presence.
The realms of religion and contemporary spirituality often gravitate towards highlighting the “love and light” aspects of spiritual growth, ultimately leading to their own downfall. This overemphasis on the ethereal, uplifting, and pleasurable elements of a spiritual awakening can result in a superficial understanding and a fear of anything that is too genuine, earthly, or dark.
Ignoring one’s inner darkness spiritually can lead to a variety of severe problems. Within the spiritual and religious community, prevalent Shadow issues include pedophilia in priests, financial exploitation by gurus, as well as megalomania, narcissism, and God complexes in spiritual leaders.
Denying our Shadow side can bring about other issues to contend with:
- Hypocrisy
- Lies and self-deceit
- Uncontrollable bursts of rage/anger
- Emotional and mental manipulation of others
- Greed and addictions
- Phobias and obsessive compulsions
- Racist, sexist, homophobic, and other offensive behavior
- Intense anxiety
- Chronic psychosomatic illness
- Depression (which can turn into suicidal tendencies)
- Sexual perversion
- Narcissistically inflated ego
- Chaotic relationships with others
- Self-loathing
- Self-absorption
- Self-sabotage
Failing to acknowledge the presence of the shadow can have detrimental effects on our relationships with our spouse, family, and friends. Moreover, it can significantly impact our professional relationships and hinder our leadership capabilities.
Ignorance of our own shadow propels us into an endless loop of self-deception. Ultimately, without integrating the shadow archetype, we become entangled in a psychological battle within.
“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing” – August Wilson
THE RELATIVITY OF OPPOSITES
The essence of Taoist philosophy is captured in stories that honor the useless, emphasizing the relativity of values and the principle of polarity. The traditional Chinese symbolism of yin and yang in Taoism serves as a portrayal of this concept. It symbolizes the shady and sunny sides of a mountain, and in a broader sense, encompasses all paired existence.
The harmonious balance of yin and yang, dark and light, useless and useful, showcases the inherent unity of nature, where these complementary aspects are forever intertwined, akin to two sides of a coin.
According to Chuang Tzu:
Those who would have right without its correlative, wrong; or good government without its correlative, misrule—they do not apprehend the great principles of the universe nor the condition to which all creation is subject. One might as well talk of the existence of heaven without that of earth, or of the negative
principle without the positive, which is clearly absurd. Such people, if they do not yield to argument, must be either fools or knaves.
Recognizing that no single concept or value could be deemed absolute or superior, the Taoists believed that being useful and being useless both have their benefits. The ease with which these opposites can interchange is demonstrated in a Taoist fable about a farmer whose horse escaped.
His neighbor commiserated only to be told, “Who knows what’s good or bad?” It was true. The next day the horse returned, bringing with it a drove of wild
horses it had befriended in its wanderings. The neighbor came over again, this time to congratulate the farmer on his windfall. He was met with the same observation: “Who knows what is good or bad?” True this time too; the next day the farmer’s son tried to mount one of the wild horses and fell off, breaking his leg. Back came the neighbor, this time with more commiserations, only to encounter for the third time the same response, “Who knows what is good or bad?” And once again the farmer’s point was well taken, for the following day soldiers came by commandeering for the army and because of his injury, the son was not
drafted.
Taoists believe that yang and yin, light and shadow, useful and useless are all various facets of the whole. By choosing one side over the other, we disrupt nature’s equilibrium. To be complete and in harmony with nature, we must embrace the opposites through a challenging process.
INTEGRATING THE SHADOW
Jung also discovered that the human psyche is made up of both light and dark elements, masculine and feminine qualities, and numerous other opposing forces that exist in a constant state of psychic tension. Similar to the Taoists, Jung cautioned against the danger of aligning oneself solely with one extreme (such as focusing solely on productivity).
He believed that placing excessive importance on any one aspect of the psyche could lead to detrimental consequences like physical illness, neurosis, and psychosis. Jung proposed a different approach, suggesting that we must face the contradictions within ourselves as an essential part of the individuation process.
By actively acknowledging and confronting our shadow, the darker aspects of our personality that hold the qualities and attributes we deny, we can effectively integrate our inner opposites.
Confronting and embracing these characteristics can be a challenging and uncomfortable journey, as the shadow often embodies our weaknesses – primitive, undeveloped, and clumsy traits that we have shunned because of ethical, aesthetic, and societal norms.
Despite being perceived as despicable, lowly, and worthless, the shadow aligns with the Taoist depictions of the gnarled tree and unattractive hunchback. Much like the shadow, these images are deemed to hold no value. This suggests that each individual may possess a gnarled tree or hunchback Shu within.
CONCLUSION
The shadow self and shadow work are incredibly expansive subjects, providing an abundance of material for numerous future articles on this blog. That was merely a quick glimpse into the subject matter.
The individual shadow is often overlooked on any spiritual path but is highly critical. All the subjects presented on this blog are equally important in awakening the kundalini. The inner serpent cannot be awakened if there are unresolved traumas and negative emotions that have not been brought to light.
It is impossible to transition the body to the astral planes while carrying unresolved inner turmoil. The risks of attracting negative entities are numerous. Let’s assume that not all visitors to this blog have the willpower or motivation to attain such a high level of self-discipline, but they can still benefit from applying certain advice to enhance their health or other areas of their life.
Shadow work is healing your self, it’s looking society in the face and saying this is who you want me to be but this is who I actually am. It’s integrating all aspects of yourself and living a true and whole authentic life. It involves integrating all elements of one’s being, enabling the pursuit of an authentic and fulfilling existence.
In the near future, we will be publishing articles that provide a more in-depth exploration of the shadow self and shadow work.
“Shadow work is the way to illumination. When we become aware of all that is buried within us, that which is lurking beneath the surface no longer has power over us” – Aletheia Luna
-SOURCES-
Meeting the Shadow – https://amzn.to/4dm7qHU
The Spiritual Awakening Guide: Kundalini, Psychic Abilities, and the Conditioned Layers of Reality – https://amzn.to/3QfTBR7
A Definitive Guide to Jungian Shadow Work: How to Integrate Your Dark Side – https://scottjeffrey.com/shadow-work/
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