the shadow of Carl

I think Carl Jung’s theory of The Shadow archetype is fascinating. Jung based his archetypal theories on “observation of differing but repeating patterns of thought and action that re-appear time and again across people, countries and continents.”

In other words, we all have a shadow-side.

The Shadow is that part of ourselves that lurks a bit deeper, underneath the surface or behind the back of the self we present to the world. It is that part of ourselves that we would rather deny...a wild part that we keep tamed by ignoring and despising in turns, more often projecting it out onto others - the people we can’t stand embody our own shadows - than facing it for what it can offer us. We project it outside ourselves and call it “enemy” but what if we looked for it within...would we call it friend?

What needs to be emphasised very strongly here is that the shadow contains all sorts of qualities, capacities and potential, which if not recognised and owned, maintain a state of impoverishment in the personality and deprive the person of sources of energy and bridges of connectedness with others. For example, a person might believe that to be assertive is to be selfish; so he goes through life being pushed around by others and deep down seething with resentment, which in turn makes him feel guilty. In this case, his potential for assertiveness and his resentment both form part of his shadow. Analysis might challenge his value system, track it back to its origins, help him to become more embodied and thereby more in touch with his needs, and open up areas of choice, which would probably lead to his resentment diminishing.
--Christopher Perry, The Shadow, on The Society of Analtyical Psychology

If you’re interested in exploring the shadows, here’s a link to a website offering a guided meditation for meeting your shadow.

Or if you’d prefer to watch others wade into the murky waters, the deep wood, the damp basement...here’s a movie clip and a book tip.

First, the movie is “Shadowlands” starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger, based on the true story of British theologian C.S. Lewis falling in love with Joy, an American force of nature who blows into his stuffy life opening the doors and windows to his heart only to die too young and too early from cancer. This is a scene where the light of love and shadow of loss mix and mingle in the rain.

And now for the book. It’s called “Wild, An Elemental Journey” by Jay Griffiths. It’s about her voyages into places on the earth that embody the essential elements like the rain forest of the Amazon and the Arctic ice. But it’s really about her journey into wildness itself. It is one big trip down deep into the shadows - hunting trips, ayahuasca trips, trips down rivers, in oceans, through jungles and into the collective memories of indigenous peoples around the world who have been savagely “civilized.”  

The shadow “embodies chaos and wildness of character. The shadow thus tends not to obey rules, and in doing so may discover new lands or plunge things into chaos and battle. It has a sense of the exotic and can be disturbingly fascinating.” This book is a disturbingly fascinating guide to the shadows of our modern, Western collective unconscious.

Here's a review.