Integrating Our Dark Sides
There’s an emerging conversation echoing from deep within the vast realm of the human psyche. Humans are evolving and awakening into our destiny of becoming truly self-realised beings. This monumental process, though, requires us to undergo a thorough self-examination and complete the task of integrating the opposing light and dark parts of our personality.
As I continue to hear talk of shadow work, I’m listening for a stream of ideas that coherently maps the way forward. We need to define the task, design the tools, and map the processes that will help us accomplish this job. It is the early days in this conversation, but I feel a growing excitement and inspiration to embrace all that remains disintegrated within me, so that I may continue accessing my untapped potential.
What is Shadow Work exactly?
Shadow work is the recognition that behind your perfect public persona, you are hiding a “monster”. Shadow work is the mythological hero’s journey of taming the dragon within. It’s the often-avoided work of facing our inner demons and taking responsibility for their mayhem. It’s the alchemical process of accessing the hidden power of your unconscious mind.
The monster in you, hiding behind your social mask, is responsible for the many ways you make a mess of your life and the lives of others. Shadow integration is about cleaning up the mess you are making.
My Personal Journey
During the last four years, on my personal quest for shadow integration, I’ve discovered some subjective truths. It’s become apparent to me that my inner monster, or shadow, is an object of my own creation. As I grew and developed as a child, I made decisions about what I am and what I am not. All the things that I said I was, formed my ego, or persona. And all the things I said I was not, formed my shadow.
And so, my shadow is everything about me that I hide, deny, suppress, or reject. It’s all the traits and qualities that I find repulsive and thus disown within myself. It includes the negative judgements that I project onto others, as well as the positive qualities that I dismiss in myself. This interplay between what’s light and dark in me sets up an ongoing conflict, or cognitive dissonance. Much cognitive bandwidth and emotional energy has been expended in attempting to orient myself within the polarising story that I am either good or bad. Recently, I have adopted a more sane and powerful approach; rather than asking myself whether I’m light or dark, I can hold two opposing positions as simultaneously true for me. That is, I am both angel and monster.
The Collective Monster
The monster is an archetype (original pattern), in the collective unconscious of mankind. Many of our stories have a hero, a villain, an ordeal and a triumph. The villain is often portrayed as a monster. Do you recall being afraid of the monster under your bed as a child? The monster is a product of the human imagination. It’s a fictitious model or image that is neither human, nor animal. The archetype of the monster was created to inform us that we are capable of monstrous behaviour.
History is full of examples of humans behaving like monsters. There are many monstrous acts currently being perpetrated against humanity by people pitifully unawares of the monsters within them.
It’s my firm position that shadow integration work is the most important and pressing work of our times. We owe a debt to the father of depth psychology, Carl Jung and his brilliant mind, for informing us of this most dire emergency.
Join the growing number of brave souls willing to take responsibility for the monster they created within them. Become a fully integrated being, by embracing and taming your dark side.
