Excerpt by Lynne Namka, Ed. D.
The mystery and paradox of being human is that you hold both the dark and the light. Carl Jung describes how the human psyche is split into the persona, which is the aspect of the self of which you approve and with which you identify, and the Shadow, which consists of those dark, unbearable, hated characteristics. He describes the Shadow as those parts of the self that are cut off from the rest but are attached in the unconscious mind just as a real Shadow is attached to the body.
The Shadow parts are born of trauma. The original trauma is called the activating event – those overwhelming life experiences out of which the child forms his view of the world. Traumas and debilitating experiences in early life often have a profound effect on an individual’s personality and subsequent life decisions. A trauma is an event of such confusion and terror that the individual feels helplessness and can’t process its meaning to make sense out of it.
This Shadow content, which the ego tries to suppress and repress, reeks of terror and absolute dread. It is of your worst childhood fear. The fear is that when you look at that which you most secretly hate, you face the possibility of destroying yourself or others. The Shadow appears to be the bad and the ugly. It is dark and rank. It may even feel demonic. But it is much, much more than the negative that you perceive. The dark is a stepchild of chaos. It is the ferment of movement, of the swirling energy. It is certainly of power but one that takes you out of your True Self. T. S. Elliot understood the evolutional purpose of the Shadow when he said, “I said to my Soul, be still, and let the dark come upon you. Which shall be the darkness of God.”
Ignoring or attaching to these Shadow subparts by ignoring, denying or projecting them often gives rise to physical and mental symptoms. You stay attached to the darker fractions of who you are principally because of the horror with which you perceive them. In this fashion, attachments again become the source of isolation and separation from others; the parts may become autonomous, appearing to have a life of their own. In buying into the fear that you are bad, you unknowingly add to the disintegration of unity and consciousness. As Jung said, “Whenever we are still attached, we are possessed; and when we are possessed, there is one stronger than us who possesses us.”
Some spiritual people focus only on the light and the positive side of life. In doing so they ignore an essential part of themselves. They thrive on myth, beauty, visualizations and rituals which make them feel good. They say positive affirmations but never do the deeper work and then wonder why their negative emotions do not subside and why their lives do not improve. They are attached to the romanticism of spirituality and to rituals, techniques and workshops that make them feel good but are not transformative in nature. They can’t address the negative polar opposites of their personality and thus miss out on the deepening of the journey. This is “woo, woo” spirituality. This “sweetness and light” phase may be a part of the process when entering into a spiritual framework to life but don’t let yourself get too comfortable there. Getting stuck here in this fantasy land of your own mind keeps you from the depth of growing personally and spiritually.
As you move into the higher aspects of the spiritual path, you come to realize that the dark is part of being human. The dark is not empty, but rich and full. In accepting these disowned parts that you have kept hidden away, you allow them to become part of your healing resources. Integrating the Shadow parts and assimilating them into the totality of the Self is part of becoming whole. When you face the dark aspects of your nature in a different context than you faced them previously, and move in love and non-judgment, the energy of these dark aspects dissipates. You can own the deliciousness of being of the dark, and in doing so, claim the polarities. As you live in the dark and accept it, you come to realize that it is not evil but rich and full. Carl Jung said, “To confront a person with his own Shadow is to show him his own light.”
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