The Shadow: Exploring our Dark Side (part 1 of 2)
How we can embrace our dark side and use it in magical work
Part of the Great Work is self examination, and this includes looking unflinchingly at the parts of us that are secret, repressed, taboo, dark, shameful, embarrassing, painful. Carl Jung called these uncomfortable aspects of our selves "the shadow". Everyone has some shadow aspect to their personality. It is part of being human in this Malkuthian existence in Assiah. You could even say that exploring our shadow side, coming to terms with our darkness, is why we are here. It is one way that we grow into more fully integrated individuals.
I swear to explore the nature and powers of my being. You may have come across these words at some point in your journey. Certainly, the dark side of ourselves is part of that nature. The shadow can be encountered in our own thoughts, in our behavior, in our relationships, at work, and in society at large. As initiates, we use techniques that help us look honestly at ourselves. We can shine light on our relationships and expose the shadows that exist there. By doing so, we are in fact also exploring the powers of our being. The Great Work unifies all opposites, light and dark, the seen and the hidden, and thereby we gain access to personal power.
What is the shadow?
What are we talking about when we say ‘the shadow’? What do people mean when they talk about doing ‘shadow work’? One very general definition of the shadow is those hidden parts of our personality, parts of ourselves that we may not even be aware of or acknowledge. When we actively increase our awareness of the presence of that shadow in our life, that is the basic nature of shadow work.
Poet Robert Bly calls the shadow “the long bag that we drag behind us.” This bag is where we put all the negative feedback about ourselves that we received from parents, siblings, and peers as we grew up. He says “We spend our life until we’re twenty deciding what parts of ourself to put into the bag, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them out again.” He notes that as time goes on, having been sealed up for years, the things inside the bag can get mean.
Carl Jung saw the shadow as largely unconscious parts of the personality which we are not aware of in our waking life. These are often undesirable qualities that our conscious self has rejected.
Shadow is naturally created when light is blocked and unable to pass through solid objects. If we extrapolate from there using a psycho-spiritual model and the Tree of Life for reference to our individual psyche, we could say that the spiritual Light coming down from Neshamah is being blocked at different points on the Tree by issues we have in the Nephesh, or by imbalances in our Ruach. These blocks cause psychological and emotional shadows to form. The implication of the symbolism here is worthy of meditation.
The shadow can manifest as repressed thoughts, feelings, or desires -- aspects of our selves which we hide out of fear or embarrassment. The shadow can be a source of shame. It can be taboo. It can surface as a habit or an addiction. The shadow can be a source of great pain and personal suffering.
But when we choose to work with our shadow and build a right relationship to it, a great gift can be bestowed. Benefits of shadow work can be:
A deeper and more complete knowledge of self
Freedom from guilt and negative emotions
The ability to heal relationships through self examination and direct communication
Bursts of creativity that come by connecting to the unconscious via dreams, art, rituals
Examples of the shadow
The Shadow in us
Identifying the shadow can be difficult, especially when it is your own. Like a dim star in the night sky, shadow material is nearly invisible when you try to look at it directly, but viewed with peripheral vision, it can be seen more clearly.
One shadow that many people share surrounds sexuality. These could be shame-based ideas about sex, gender, and gender roles. Men may reject or suppress their feminine side, and women may do the same with their male qualities.
Other examples are sex addictions, drug or gambling habits, obsessions with porn, negative self-talk, negative body-image, pursuit of unhealthy relationships, and compulsive or extreme behaviors.
These examples are NOT the source or cause of the shadows, but rather they are the visible outer manifestations or symptoms that surround the issue.
The Shadow in Others
Projections are a classic form of the shadow. We unconsciously project our own feelings about things that bother us on to other people. This often surfaces when we become upset or annoyed at traits we see in others, or when their behavior causes us to get angry or react with strong emotion. They are often traits or behaviors that we dislike about ourselves, and it makes us feel better to point it out in others.
There are traits in others that we wish we had, or that we find attractive. This is another type of shadow that is called the Golden Shadow. It often manifests in our relationships, especially romantic ones. We may see our partner as a perfect fit for us, someone without flaws. This Golden Shadow can pertain to those we look up to or who we respect without question, our heroes and celebrities.
The Shadow at Work
In the workplace, we can see the shadow operating when there is an inflated drive to succeed, or in the unspoken pressure we may feel to move up in position, get that promotion, climb the corporate ladder. When we see co-workers kissing ass or seeking the approval of the boss or their peers, the feelings we have in those moments are part of the workplace shadow. Expectations around sacrificing home life for success and approval is another example of the shadow in the workplace.
The Shadow in Society
Robert Bly talks about different kinds of “bags that we drag behind us.” The personal ones, the community ones, and the national ones.
As individuals, we react to others in ways that reveal the projections we place on them. We do the same thing in groups as part of the larger social and cultural scene. The media and social networks are constantly broadcasting potential shadow material that outrages, stimulates, and horrifies, and people tend to react to social media with a mob mentality that works like a group projection. Sexualization, radicalization, polarized politics, hot-button issues, and discrimination are just a few of the shadow triggers out there.
When one group of people blame the ills of society on another group of people, that is where we see the shadow working at the herd level. Blind nationalism is another example of the shadow at work in society. Herd behavior in society is often driven by the fear and uncertainty that comes with triggered shadow material.
Working with the shadow
The ancient Greeks believed that daimons were guiding spirits which embodied natural functions like sex, eros, anger, rage, the craving for power. These daimons were not specifically good or evil, creative or destructive, but they could be either one depending on how a person related to them. Daimons had the potential of taking over the personality when things went awry. This total control over the individual will was sometimes referred to as daimonic possession.
There was generally understood to be a balance of both positive and negative aspects to these daimons. Later on, during the Christian era, there was a push to reject the negative in favor of the positive, and nowadays we see very polarized “all or nothing” ideas of what constitutes good and evil.
Thelema acknowledges and embraces the existence of the shadow, seeing what some would call evil and light as two parts of the same phenomenon. Common Christian symbols of evil, like the Beast 666, Babylon, and the Mother of Abominations of the Book of Revelations, the Devil, and Death have even been turned inside out in Thelemic iconography. There is a certain authenticity to a view that accepts the darkness as well as the light. Thelema sees them as two sides of a coin or as two curving coils of a snake.
Carl Jung wrote about the nature of evil, saying this:
“We must beware of thinking of good and evil as absolute opposites. The criterion of ethical action can no longer consist in the simple view that good has the force of a categorical imperative, while so-called evil can resolutely be shunned. Recognition of the reality of evil necessarily relativizes the good, and the evil likewise, converting both in to halves of a paradoxical whole.
Therefore the individual…has need, first and foremost, of self-knowledge, that is, the utmost possible knowledge of his own wholeness. He must know relentlessly how much good he can do, and what crimes he is capable of, and must beware of regarding the one as real and the other as illusion. Both are elements within his nature, and both are bound to come to light in him, should he wish — as he ought — to live without self-deception or self-delusion.”
When we set out as initiates on the path of darkness, we are bound to meet the shadowy parts of ourselves. It goes with the territory. Spiritual work is like taking a stick and stirring up all the mud on the bottom of a clear pond until you can’t see anything. When this happens, some may go to great lengths to ignore the cloudy water. They pretend it isn’t cloudy, thinking, “If I do nothing, maybe it will go away,” and interestingly, they are usually right. In waiting for the mud to settle down, the water becomes clear again. Everything is back to normal until the next time we get stirred up.
But the shadow material we stir up can be of great value if handled correctly. We can in effect work with the bits of mud floating in the pond. We can make close examination and accept the shadows for what they are. Of course, we may still dislike a particular aspect of ourselves, and we still want to improve, but by facing the issue head on without rejection, embracing it even, there becomes a contextual ground upon which to place our shadow. We can take conscious steps to bring the shadow issues to light with self-love and acceptance. Ultimately we can integrate our shadows into a broader framework of how we see ourselves, one that includes both darkness as well as light.
This integration is one way in which we transform ourselves on this path of darkness. Shadow work like this is a difficult part of the Great Work. But it can also reap big rewards. It takes a lot of energy to constantly keep our secrets under wraps. By opening ourselves up in this way, we free up and release the energy that was being used maintaining shadows, so that it can be used for other purposes. The stirred-up pond becomes clear, and it remains so. In alchemical terms, we have taken the lead within ourselves and turned it into gold.