 arl
Jung referred to the "shadow self" as a dumping ground for all those characteristics
of personality that we disown. He believed that to honor and accept one's own
shadow is a profound spiritual discipline. Author and therapist Robert A. Johnson
called this acceptance "the most important experience of a lifetime" because it
makes us whole again. Some theorists refer to the shadow self as the lower, destructive
self, but the pejorative connotations of "lower" create a strong negative value
judgement that can prevent us from understanding what it really is.
In my own definition of the shadow self, I suggest that the attributes
assigned it are different for each person. For some people the
attributes are aggressive, violent and destructive desires.
For others, these attributes are sexual secrets and desires,
possibly ones such as incest, pedophilia, fetishism, or sadomasochistic
adventure. Some reserve this cabin of consciousness for their
masked cynicism, jealousies and mean streaks. For still others,
tenderness and loving exploration may be assigned to the shadow-self.
Often the shameful feelings associated with our shadow are erroneous
social concepts - prejudicial thinking or ugly stereotypes -
that were internalized before you understood their full meaning.
For instance, as children, we may have been told, indirectly
or directly, that all Christians go to heaven, and all non-Christians
go to hell. As adults, we recognize this thinking as biased,
prejudicial and erroneous, and we refuse to believe it. However
we might deny it on the surface, remnants of this erroneous
concept may still lurk in our deeper, unhealed unconscious,
and cause subtle feelings of shame. We may not be responsible
for the erroneous teaching of these shameful concepts, yet we
must take responsibility for their effects and work toward a
new self-understanding and self-forgiveness.
Awareness
& Transformation of the Shadow
Whatever one's shadow-self attributes may be, there appears to
be a powerful sexual force - or the denial thereof - central to the understanding
and discovery of this realm. It is a mythic, primal force. Only when we are willing
to pierce the membrane of shame and make contact with the felt senses of the body
that encase the shadow-self will our liberation process further unfold. Seen in
the light, without judgments, the shadow becomes alive, passionate and juicy,
creative, and precisely intuitive. Once freed and accepted, it can guide our lives
truly and richly.
I see the relationship between the shadow self and holism as follows:
The mask of composure that we present to the world was created by our ego defenses
in childhood to keep us safe and help us get through life. The shadow is the flip-side
of our mask of composure, an underbelly containing all the repressed opposites.
Sometimes these shadow elements seem extreme or very charged because of repression's
inherent defiance and the force that it builds. Though this is an oversimplification
-- a quick glance over our shoulder at our shadow -- it begins to illustrate the
importance of its integration.
When most of us came into the world as infants, we were whole.
As we encountered our world, we received messages that certain
expressions and needs were good or bad. As we learned to divide
our self-expression into good or bad, we began to create our
shadow self. We decided which of our characteristics were good,
God-given and acceptable to our society and which ones needed
to be hidden away. In cultures that are anchored in binary,
right-and-wrong thinking, this is the way good is separated
from evil. Unfortunately the characteristics that are considered
bad will never go away. They create their own domain in the
dark corners of our personality and they eventually take on
their own life. Because the shadow-self has enormous energy
potential, it can become a monster in the repressed regions
of our psyche when it is out of control
The shadow-self encases our soul, or spirit. The shadow-self is our undeveloped part which still contains negative emotions, thoughts and impulses such as fear, hate or cruelty. As we bring it to conscious awareness, as it becomes united with our adult self and our core essence or divinity, we become whole.
Larger Than Our Shadows
Since we were forced - as our culture dictated
- to create a shadow- self during childhood, we can devote our
recovering adulthood to restoring the wholeness of our personality.
Studying mythology from other cultures and their dark but celebrated
underworld creatures can be a real education when undertaken
in this light. Bears, dragons, minotaurs and ogres all possess
this subconscious power.
The effort to integrate our shadow-self is well
worth the struggle. In our maturity we can responsibly handle
the integration that we were ill-equipped to accomplish in childhood.
In doing so we enhance our mythic essence, or core energy, laying
the ground for our own spiritual experiences.
In the course of whole body healing we will come to embrace and integrate the shadow. We need to make ourselves larger, sometimes very large, to contain and accept these unconscious aspects of self -- primitive, contradictory, devouring, destructive, and weak -- along with those that better reflect how we like to think we are. We must make ourselves so very large that all our parts can exist together so that they may fill out our wholeness. We want to always remember that we can be--and in fact are--larger than our conditions.
|
 |
|
|
