The concept of polarity, duality and the oscillation of certain energies is one that has permeated throughout the dawn of time. The yin and the yang, light and darkness, knowledge and ignorance, good and evil, up and down, left and right. Everything that exists only does so because everything else exists. A stick is only long because there are other sticks that are shorter. If there was only one stick, we could not say if it was long or short because there is nothing to compare it to.
We can only refer to the weather as “cold” because we know what its like to be “hot” and vice versa. We can only say that a room is dark because we know what it is like to be well lit.
From a spiritual perspective we all have aspects of dualities within us. There is the feminine and the masculine aspect.
From a Freudian psychological perspective we have the Ego and the Id. The ego is that which separates us from our higher self. The ego acts, usually subconsciously, to create detachment and comparison between ourselves and the rest of the universe. We compare ourselves to others, especially in this modern technological age, and by comparing we become separate from other people. This creates a sort of soul detachment. With this detachment and a feeling of being separate, neuroses can appear. We can become anxious, depressed, even suicidal. We can cultivate feelings of dread and hopelessness, or worse, arrogance and ignorance.
There is also the aspect of the shadow which is the emphasis of this article. The shadow is the dark side that all creatures possess, especially humans. It is the nasty little devil on the shoulder.
The urge to commit harm, or to steal from someone. The person walking ahead drops a twenty dollar bill. The shadow says that we should pick it up and claim it as our own without telling them. The scantily clad woman walks by, and we get mischievous thoughts, although they are safe within our own minds...or so we think.
We are taught to ignore the shadow and treat it with contempt. We are indoctrinated by society to muffle these impure thoughts, to hide them deep down inside, where they fester like an infection. We are programmed to put on a mask for the public to see, while the primal thoughts within grow, unchecked.
Famous psychiatrist Carl Jung wrote extensively on the shadow. One important aspect of this concept is that the brighter the light, the darker the shadow. What this means from a practical standpoint is that the higher the ambitions or goals in life, the higher the risk, the worse that the temptations that we all harbor inside become.
More money, more problems.
We also tend to oscillate from shadow to light, and there is a little bit of both in the other, as the Daoist yin yang symbol represents. Just like there is waking and sleeping, anger and love, happiness and despair, the temptations to do selfish things is something that we all need to address ourselves. There is no outside force or object that will solve our problems. It all must come from within. The door to the soul opens inwards.
One of the most fundamental problems with today’s society, at least in my eyes, is that we are not adequately equipped to integrate the shadow which can amount to a total mind / body transformation. Childhood traumas and repressed memories are all too common, and rarely addressed. Again, we are taught by mainstream society to bottle these things up, that we will be judged by those that we have been told are somehow “superior” to us. There is little question that this repressing of information and emotions is contributing greatly to the immense rise of depression and anxiety in western society.
Integrating the shadow does not mean eliminating human urges. It means shining a light on and accepting fully our mistakes and faults. Meditation is a great tool for this, as it allows us to focus a light on the darkness deep inside.
The metaphor of the phoenix is as old as time itself, but few give it the deliberation it deserves. These ancient mythologies did not become popular because of gimmicks. These are real ideas and archetypes that have been used for centuries by those that seek out the sacred and forbidden knowledge that has been hidden from the vast majority of civilizations.
The phoenix and the blazing fire that is usually accompanied with it symbolize much more than something or someone rising from the dead. The fire is a symbol of the integration of the shadow. In the Hindu religion and other eastern philosophies the goddess Shiva “the destroyer” is associated with the same ideas as the phoenix. Usually the word destroy is associated with extreme negativity, but this is merely a symbol.
To be reborn into a better version of yourself, the old version must be destroyed. Rising from the ashes of this destruction rises your newer, spiritually advanced self. This is the phoenix. The fire also serves to represent the integration of the shadow as the negative and positive polarities are consumed.
Integrating the shadow involves acknowledgement and acceptance of the darker sides that reside within each of us. When the inner eye of our minds is focused on the negative quality, it is exposed for what it really is which is an illusion. When the light of truth is shined onto the darkness of ignorance (literally ignoring truths) it is fairly easy to see that all of these things that we let get us into all sorts of knots are really just illusions. That is, they are all solely constructs that we have created, stories that we have told ourselves for years to the point that they become part of our mentality.
Integrating the shadow and transforming is certainly not an easy task and that is why so few people make an endeavor to do so. It is much easier to sit and complain and play the victim and otherwise justify our own shortcomings than to actually do something about it. Integration involves reliving what can be very traumatic experiences. When the light is shown on these inner thoughts we have to experience them again. Often these have been marinating deep inside for some time.
There are only three ways that an emotional experience can be handled. One way is to express it. We see this often when people act irrationally due to events that are for the most part completely out of their control. Political events come to mind. Also other propaganda specifically aimed at this emotional response from “news” organizations that thrive financially off of fear, hate and other emotional triggers.
Another way is to repress that emotion which fuels the shadow. Something happens to us or through us and we pretend to ignore it, and it becomes lodged deep down in the subconscious mind where it still affects our lives whether we are aware of it or not. This becomes part of the 95% subconscious behavior that rules most people’s waking lives.
The third and final way to experience an emotion is to release it. This simply means that we experience an event, fully immerse ourselves consciously in the feeling, quite literally bathe in it. Then, instead of repressing or expressing, we just...let it go. This is the Zen way. This is the way of the warrior. This is the way to avoid depression, anxiety and other mental attachments to the physical realm.
There is absolutely no proof whatsoever that our emotional states are out of our control. This is part of the matrix control system that I write extensively about. The mind prison.
Uncovering these demons and destructive behaviors deep down inside takes some serious contemplation and introspection. This is a particular problem in our current age where it is seen somewhat slovenly socially to not be constantly moving. Social media and the availability of incalculable distractions and mind-numbing entertainments makes this even more difficult, and sadly it seems that on the whole society is losing this battle as mental illnesses continue to soar; anxiety has never been higher. Mainstream news makes the world appear that it is coming apart at the seams.
Meditation is something that is gaining some popularity in western cultures as certain groups of people search for alternatives to the hellscape that is presented to them by authority figures across different industries. Certain types of meditation and therapy are crucial to integrating the shadow and growing into a more powerful and fearless version of yourself, who doesn’t constantly react to the world out of fear and hesitation.
One of the key aspects of this destructive and reconstructing process is accepting your faults and mistakes. Too often we drag around mistakes from the past of which there are a multitude and it causes nothing but trouble. We run the same programs and make the same mistakes over and over and it can seem basically hopeless at times. But beating ourselves up achieves absolutely nothing.
What this all comes down to realistically is a combination of not taking this life so seriously and not holding onto emotions and experiences but instead living in the moment and flowing and growing through life. Its like the story of the elephant stakes. The baby elephant is rope to a stake in the ground which it cannot escape. It becomes psychologically programmed to think that it cannot break away, even when it grows to a size where it could quite easily rip the stake right out of the ground!
One great meditation for this is to forgive yourself for mistakes that were made in the past and for unsure thoughts you may have had. Imagine replaying the episode mentally, visualize it and feel those emotions. Perhaps it is a grudge that has been held on against another person. Get the mental image in your mind, feel it as purely as you can, all the emotions, not judging yourself in the process. Feel the anger, sadness, jealousy, hatred, or embarrassment. Then, say to yourself mentally “I forgive you” and release the emotion. Literally imagine yourself dropping these emotional states like a lead weight. Feel your body get lighter, and your mind clearer as there is one less shadow pinging around inside of your subconscious.
We live in a society in the west where we are pitted against each other, programmed from a very young age and shamed into thinking that we have to put on an act in public to skate by. So many people are living fake lives, hiding their emotions while in secret the shadow is brewing. Lives of quiet desperation. We let fictional illusions like money and other people’s opinions hold us back. People are afraid to make big changes because of fear of the unknown. We are a docile, sheep-like herd for the most part. Every once in awhile someone escapes the matrix and the rest of society is trained to hate that person or think that they are some sort of special exception. The shadow inside is a great way to control a population. Keep people scared and internally confused. A depressed person who just squeaks by is a great cog to have in the matrix machine.
This is a journey that most people will not choose to take, the confronting and taming and integration of the shadow. It is the story of Hercules and the forked road, where he deliberately choose a path that is full of danger and conflict and misery but is ultimately the path to greatness. The other option, the easy road, the victim mentality, the pill to cover the symptoms, will only lead down the road to mediocrity and regret, and ultimately consumption by the shadow.
