Integrating Shadow

“Unequivocalness is simplicity and leads to death. But ambiguity is the way of life.” – Carl Jung “You’re either with us or against us.” – George W. Bush One of the greatest life skills and signs of maturity is the ability to live peacefully with ambiguity and ambivalence. The immature ego, however, wants an unequivocal world, and would like to regularize reality into unambiguous categories. If the world were less ambiguous, it would also be less complex and interesting. <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong”>Pong </a> is a two dimensional world that is completely unambiguous but also not particularly interesting. Fundamentalists and absolutists of all kinds attempt to sterilize life of all its ambiguity. But at its most fundamental level, even at the quantum mechanical level, there is an uncollapsed wave function aspect of life, an irreducibly ambiguous aspect. Ambiguity is part of the mystery and beauty of life. Ambiguity keeps us on our toes. It can boost our awareness in the same way that when we can’t quite make out what someone is saying we start to pay closer attention. With less ambiguity there would be less need for free will, intelligence and discernment. The most potently ambiguous of all ambiguities we must [...]

Your ego may judge the light and dark threads of the tapestry as good or bad, but a non-dualistic view sees them as interrelated. John Toland’s biography of Hitler begins with a quote from a Graham Greene character: “The greatest saints have been men with a more than a normal capacity for evil, and the most vicious men have sometimes narrowly evaded sanctity.” The dark side of the force is implicit in the Babylon Matrix. We must accept it, but not allow ourselves to be ruled by it. Although history is largely about the dark side of the force, we must not fully externalize the dark side, but must first grapple with it from within. If you are not aware of the dark side of the force operating within yourself then you are in a state of dangerous blindness and the dark force is able to act as an autonomous complex within you. Many people are in a state of denial about this because “dark side of the force” sounds dramatic and exotic, something pertaining to serial killers and Nazis. Actually, it is more often mundane and may be ubiquitous in our thinking. Here’s a very mundane example of the [...]

“As a myth, the death-instinct is a counterpart to the Devil, the Devil, like the death-instinct, is the Spirit that continually negates. Both constructs point to something devoted to spoiling the quality of life. ” “…the human soul is divided against itself, as much, perhaps, in love with death as with life. Against all claims of reason, self-interest and morality stands the insidious lure of the death-instinct. Above and beyond politics and ideology, steeped in the hidden byways of our civilized way of life, is something else with which we have to reckon: the thanatos conspiracy. ” – — Michael Grosso, Philosopher, from his book The Final Choice This card is inspired by a dream I had earlier this morning. In the dream a person I know in the waking life, a person known to have many dark, neurotic qualities, is berating someone and attacking their sense of self-worth. I am in an upper story of the house where this is happening and I am filled with a desire to tell certain people about the sadistic behavior of this neurotic person. The urgency awakens me, but as my waking personality and awareness kick in I realize, in a figure-ground reversal [...]

“As a myth, the death-instinct is a counterpart to the Devil, the Devil, like the death-instinct, is the Spirit that continually negates. Both constructs point to something devoted to spoiling the quality of life. ” “…the human soul is divided against itself, as much, perhaps, in love with death as with life. Against all claims of reason, self-interest and morality stands the insidious lure of the death-instinct. Above and beyond politics and ideology, steeped in the hidden byways of our civilized way of life, is something else with which we have to reckon: the thanatos conspiracy. ” – — Michael Grosso, Philosopher, from his book The Final Choice This card is inspired by a dream I had earlier this morning. In the dream a person I know in the waking life, a person known to have many dark, neurotic qualities, is berating someone and attacking their sense of self-worth. I am in an upper story of the house where this is happening and I am filled with a desire to tell certain people about the sadistic behavior of this neurotic person. The urgency awakens me, but as my waking personality and awareness kick in I realize, in a figure-ground reversal [...]

“As a myth, the death-instinct is a counterpart to the Devil, the Devil, like the death-instinct, is the Spirit that continually negates. Both constructs point to something devoted to spoiling the quality of life. ” “…the human soul is divided against itself, as much, perhaps, in love with death as with life. Against all claims of reason, self-interest and morality stands the insidious lure of the death-instinct. Above and beyond politics and ideology, steeped in the hidden byways of our civilized way of life, is something else with which we have to reckon: the thanatos conspiracy. ” – — Michael Grosso, Philosopher, from his book The Final Choice This card is inspired by a dream I had earlier this morning. In the dream a person I know in the waking life, a person known to have many dark, neurotic qualities, is berating someone and attacking their sense of self-worth. I am in an upper story of the house where this is happening and I am filled with a desire to tell certain people about the sadistic behavior of this neurotic person. The urgency awakens me, but as my waking personality and awareness kick in I realize, in a figure-ground reversal [...]

I Stood Upon a High Place I stood upon a high place, And saw, below, many devils Running, leaping, and carousing in sin. One looked up, grinning, And said, “Comrade! Brother!” – Stephen Crane (1871-1900) The brighter the light, the darker the shadow. Everything has a shadow side. If you don’t see the shadow of a person, you don’t see the person and are blinded by idealization. If you don’t see your own shadow, you are in denial, and will project your shadow onto others. When I took this detail shot of the person in the photo I had not seen much of their shadow. Since they are a Gemini I knew that there was probably a hidden twin that I hadn’t met. When the darker twin came forward it was painfully apparent. A good rule of thumb is that if you don’t see a person’s shadow, you have not seen the whole person and should not relate to them as if you had. Many people begin romantic relationships from a place of idealization and are sometimes even foolish enough to make long term commitments based on that woefully incomplete comprehension of the other person. Similarly, if you are not [...]

Your ego may judge the light and dark threads of the tapestry as good or bad, but a non-dualistic view sees them as interrelated. John Toland’s biography of Hitler begins with a quote from a Graham Greene character: “The greatest saints have been men with a more than a normal capacity for evil, and the most vicious men have sometimes narrowly evaded sanctity.” The dark side of the force is implicit in the Babylon Matrix. We must accept it, but not allow ourselves to be ruled by it. Although history is largely about the dark side of the force, we must not fully externalize the dark side, but must first grapple with it from within. If you are not aware of the dark side of the force operating within yourself then you are in a state of dangerous blindness and the dark force is able to act as an autonomous complex within you. Many people are in a state of denial about this because “dark side of the force” sounds dramatic and exotic, something pertaining to serial killers and Nazis. Actually, it is more often mundane and may be ubiquitous in our thinking. Here’s a very mundane example of the [...]

I Stood Upon a High Place I stood upon a high place, And saw, below, many devils Running, leaping, and carousing in sin. One looked up, grinning, And said, “Comrade! Brother!” – Stephen Crane (1871-1900) There is no such thing in nature as an H-Bomb, that is all man’s doing. We are the great danger. The psyche is the great danger. – C.G. Jung Never underestimate the savage potential within and in humanity in general. The positive aspect is that this is a propitious time to work on understanding and integrating your savage aspects and those of others. Your savage potential can be an asset when properly integrated. Failure to witness, integrate and compensate for your savage aspects can lead you into a Lord of the Flies world. That’s the short version, for those willing to read more consider this brief meditation on “Grappling with the Dark Side of the Force:” The dark side of the force is implicit in the Babylon Matrix. We must accept it, but not allow ourselves to be ruled by it. Although history is largely about the dark side of the force, we must not fully externalize the dark side, but must first grapple with [...]

“I Stood Upon a High Place” I stood upon a high place, And saw, below, many devils Running, leaping, and carousing in sin. One looked up, grinning, And said, “Comrade! Brother!” – Stephen Crane (1871-1900) There is no such thing in nature as an H-Bomb, that is all man’s doing. We are the great danger. The psyche is the great danger. – C.G. Jung Be aware of the darker side of your self and of life and know what it is saying to you. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow. Everything has a shadow side. If you don’t see the shadow of a person, you don’t see the person and are blinded by idealization. If you don’t see your own shadow, you are in denial, and will project your shadow onto others. We all have a side of ourselves we consider dark. Our shadow may include appetites, lust for power, manipulative agendas, chaotic emotions and sub-personalities, addictions, and so forth. The more we deny the shadow, the more it weighs us down. But if we embrace its reality, learn how it works, and then integrate it into our awareness so that it cannot rule us, we become enlightened. [...]

“I Stood Upon a High Place” I stood upon a high place, And saw, below, many devils Running, leaping, and carousing in sin. One looked up, grinning, And said, “Comrade! Brother!” — Stephen Crane (1871-1900) There is no such thing in nature as an H-Bomb, that is all man’s doing. We are the great danger. The psyche is the great danger. — C.G. Jung Be aware of the darker side of your self and of life and know what it is saying to you. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow. Everything has a shadow side. If you don’t see the shadow of a person, you don’t see the person and are blinded by idealization. If you don’t see your own shadow, you are in denial, and will project your shadow onto others. We all have a side of ourselves we consider dark. Our shadow may include appetites, lust for power, manipulative agendas, chaotic emotions and sub-personalities, addictions, and so forth. The more we deny the shadow, the more it weighs us down. But if we embrace its reality, learn how it works, and then integrate it into our awareness so that it cannot rule us, we become enlightened. [...]