It’s not all love and light…
Something that’s always irked me about the ‘conscious’ and spiritual world is this permeating stink of ‘love and light. I’ve always found it alienating at best - toxic at worst. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not some nihilistic curmudgeon dwelling in dark places (anymore). However, so much of the messaging I see seems to bypass the darker sides of ourselves, our world and our realities.
The thing is, we can’t ignore our shadows. Everything exists in duality - light and dark are two sides of the same coin. We can’t have one without the other.
In fact, we NEED the darkness, the shadow, the rejected parts of ourselves, the triggers, the traumas in order to better know ourselves and integrate them with the “good” sides of ourselves that we more readily love and accept. Carl Jung called this process individuation.
To this end, Jung famously said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” These neglected parts of ourselves have more influence on our actions than we realise and may rule much of our behaviour.
The good news is all that ‘stuff’ you dislike about yourself, all the pain, all the trauma, the anxieties, fears, anger, hatred, envy …all of this is the fertile manure you can use to spin into spiritual gold and soul growth.
What does this mean in practice though?
Shadow work requires expanding your awareness so that you can begin to notice what triggers strong feelings in you. (Meditation helps greatly with increasing your awareness around what’s going on in your internal world). When we begin to observe ourselves having deeper emotional reactions, it is likely triggering something in your own psyche.
Then, we can journal, bring it to a session with a therapist, coach or healer, work with tarot cards or do a ritual to acknowledge and integrate this shadowy part of ourselves.
The key here is not to reject or control our shadow, but to embrace it, love and be compassionate to it so we may integrate it. The more we do this, the more we welcome all parts of ourselves.
A lotus doesn’t grow without the mud, after all.
How well do you know your shadow?
