January 2, 2013
Walk into the shadow
“The shadow is the seat of creativity.” – Carl Jung
I am captivated by this image — Approaching Shadow by Fan Ho (1956-2012)
A woman basking in the sun, the shadow beckoning.
Each of us has a shadow self.
An unconscious piece of ourselves.
Some traits are negative, others positive.
We mostly try to avoid it.
But we can’t.
Because the shadow is us.
Ignore your shadow, and it will engulf you.
Walk into and understand it, and you’ll find yourself
back in the sun.
This is great, Whitney! I am a big fan of Jung! His work on the shadow, “The Dark Side,” is extremely profound. I think one of the biggest problems people have is denying their dark side, because the dark side is very insistent. If you deny the shadow it will come back with great ferocity!
Whatever you resist in life, rather than fighting it, see what happens if you side with it instead. Experiment.
TERRIFIC POST & ARTWORK! Whitney!
“In Jungian psychology, the shadow or “shadow aspect” is a part of the unconscious mind consisting of repressed weaknesses, shortcomings, and instincts. It is one of the three most recognizable archetypes, the others being the anima and animus and the persona. “Everyone carries a shadow,” Jung wrote, “and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.”[1] It may be (in part) one’s link to more primitive animal instincts.
Beautiful, uplifting post, Whitney. Thanks for being part of the reason the Internet is important.
Amazing image.
My experience is that paying regular visits to the “tough stuff” reduces the amount of it lurking in the shadows. Clues as to what stuff is the thickest and goopy-ist is how defensive I get when certain topics/comments come up. Feeling the need to defend implies I have a vulnerability in a particular area. Exploring that weakness, its origins and effects often resolves it – leaving me more open in the end. Sound so easy, right? ;0
Learning to Die Well (and Transform for the Better) - January 28, 2013
[...] dying is itself a change ending in a new form of life. We practice this by engaging the present shadows in our psyches—fear of change, fear of vulnerability, fear of not being what we thought we [...]
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