Shadow Encounters
There are times in life when we meet our devils. Everything localises and turns grey, and the world shrinks. A ghostly depression falls over existence, and we wander like a shadow through a polar night.
I’ve been having more frequent shadow encounters in my dreams recently.
In Jungian psychology, the shadow is a repository for certain negative unconscious elements of one’s personality. The light of all our psyches casts a shadow. There is also a collective shadow; the negative hidden aspects of a society or group. The shadow is dangerous and disorderly. Extended encounters can often lead to misery. But integrating the shadow leads to greater self-awareness and personal growth. Bound up in the shadow’s negativity, there is incredible hidden potential.
I am on a boat, moving way out to sea. The glinting lights of the city on the coastline are fading. There is a terrible force pursuing me in the form of an enormous shark. There comes a point when I realise I must turn back and try for the shore. As I return, my boat begins to disintegrate. I am still being pursued, and by the end, my boat has collapsed to nothing but a ring of ice and an outboard motor. I clutch onto the ring until it melts away. The motor detaches and plummets into the depths beneath. And then the shark is there.
My shadow usually appears to me in the form of a powerful animal, like a tiger or a shark. Another shadow figure I encounter is a tribal man in the woods. He sometimes has a rifle. I hide behind a fallen log, observing him move. He is so quick, so capable with the rifle. In his pursuit of me, I do not stand a chance.
Carl Jung says that the shadow usually assumes the gender of the dreamer. The shadow is incredibly capable, well-trained, and intelligent; this is why it can be such a great source of value in one’s life if properly confronted and integrated.
One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, says Jung, but by making the darkness conscious.
I have been going on evening walks around Notting Hill recently with a close friend of mine. We have been trying to unpick the nature of the shadow and how one goes about confronting and integrating it. He gave me a book the other night. I opened it this morning. He’d written a note on the opening page.
Dear Pat,
I hope this book is of use to you as it has been for me. May it help in your pursuit of your shadow. Both understanding it and making it your friend.
Love,
J
What a lovely gesture!
...and Bonaventure would say, the greater the shadow, the greater the light (though much more elegantly than this poor paraphrase of mine!)