My Good friends have posted on thier blog - Honoring the Shadow: (link above)The following are my comments.
Dr. Carl Jung said it plainly: When you enter a spiritual path, the first thing that comes up is your shadow. Your shadow is all those unconscious parts acting out through you that you've never faced or integrated. I am fascinated with native american teachings. It is called "The Trickster" Indeed, the archetypal Trickster is closely associated with the Shadow, or Devil archetype. Trickster is also very humorous, and much of this humor stems from the fact that he/she so often does things that are apparently wrong or acts in obviously stupid or foolish ways.
Honoring the Shadow side of each of us provides with insightful information. We all have a dark & light side, as you point out it provides a balance in our personalities. We must remember that it is a necessary and wonderful part of our psychic makeup.
In imagery we speak give permission to speak to our darkside and ask what do I need to learn from you? It can manifest in illness, addiction or the problem we are facing. It has a reason to demand our attention. Real life is available here & now if we pay attention to it and look at it and we will see the truth and accept ourselves. Many of us were taught as a child not to express and certainly not to act out on our "dark" thoughts. This carries over to adulthood. "Shh don't speak of that, we are told. That by the very nature of expressing these thoughts we will become the evil we fear. Yet we are fascinated with the idea of the very thing we are not able to express. "What we resist- persists" The phantom of the opera was a great metaphor.
Who was that shape in the shadows? Whose is that face in the mask? Christine falls in love with the very person she perceives as evil."This haunted face holds no horror for me now. "It's in your soul that the true distortion lies"
I have a painting in my office of a lady holding a crying mask with the inscription: Do we become the masks we wear? Like the phantom & the painting are we afraid to reveal who we are? When we are truly evolved we can celebrate our authentic selves.Guided Imagery was the tool that got to the source and gave me permission to speak my truth. When I finally did I was liberated! "We are only as sick as our secrets" , instead of fighting the lion, we need to honor him for protecting us. And so it is with my clients I ask permission to talk to the "Lion" where the information lies. We all have a dark & light side, it provides a balance in our personalities. Linda Morrison
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