Carl Jung characterized the shadow self as the unknown dark side of the personality. According to Jung, the shadow self is both instinctive and irrational. The shadow side of ourselves becomes prone to psychological projection. A perceived personal inferiority is internally recognized as a moral deficiency, which leads to projections that insulate and harm individuals by acting as a constantly thickening veil of illusion between the ego and the real world.
Thought energy can be created out of anything we can imagine, dream, perceive, act out, or believe. When that energy emerges from an internally held darkness, the result can be dramatic. The struggle is to retain awareness of the shadow, but not identify with it. Non-identification demands a considerable moral effort that prevents a descent into darkness.
Jung concluded: “The conscious mind is liable to be submerged at any moment in the unconscious. Understanding acts like a life-saver, in that it integrates the unconscious and reincorporates the shadow into the personality, producing a stronger, wider consciousness than before. Assimilation of the shadow gives the human form and provides a launching pad for further individuation.” Let’s get a whisper on the subject of the shadow side:
Emotions feed a system of energy channels. From that system, movement is created in every cell of the body that is enhanced by dreams, visions, thoughts, experiences, beliefs, expressions, and actions. The true personality of an individual can become masked by an identity constructed out of a mechanism receiving impulses created out of ego and fed by the shadow.
Each person holds an emotional intelligence that forms the construct best suited for responding to the perceived threats encountered by the individual. Circular thought patterns move through the shadow self to pick up emotional debris that supports projecting the internally held perception. Harsh relationships, harsh images, and harsh experiences can attach a person to a false identity out of perceived danger and an ego response that becomes repetitive. The ego will support repeating the response, regardless of effectiveness, rationale, or appropriateness.
The shadow self gives each person an emotion held in the energy, a momentum used to push away from the darkness and toward the light as a way to dismantle the ego through conscious awareness. Identification of misperceptions leads to understanding any part of the personality that has been corrupted by non-truths and serves to help lift a person from the illusion of separation. Getting closer to the Source of love brings balance to emotional energies to create wellness of the body, mind, and spirit.
Any contrast created by ego and the shadow self can stimulate creative energy that needs to be expressed. Through various forms of creative expression, awareness heightens to become enlightenment, consciousness expands to become presence, and human energy vibrates with a higher vibration or with less density. By looking at the shadow self, one can identify the truth to allow for a peaceful existence found in the balance between light and dark. Face whatever lives in your darkness as a way to positively affect the perception of your existence.
Bring joy, ease suffering and create beauty, then dance like you mean it!
Blessings, Russell
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.”
― C.G. Jung
