by Tao Oliveto, Carrboro, NC

I’m still thinking about that “bright night” I spent wandering around in Wilmington over the weekend and what it says about our time and culture. While the reality of safety in urban street areas comes into play, I can’t help but wonder just what underlying forces are at work when we so emphatically light up the night.

Afterall, our dark – or shadow – side, in Jungian terms is defined by the repressed aspects of the self, linked to more primitive instinct and represents all that we don’t want to acknowledge consciously. And, according to Jung, “Since the self contains these aspects, they surface in one way or another”, usually in the form of denial or projection.

However, Jung continues to tell us that, “Bringing Shadow material into consciousness drains its dark power, and can even recover valuable resources from it. The greatest power, however, comes from having accepted your shadow parts and integrated them as components of your Self.” (John Elder)

I believe our culture also has a Shadow side that is just now beginning to be exercised (exorcised?). The mere willingness to see and accept the excessive habits that have led to our environmental, social and personal destruction, has brought about the flood of creative ideas and solutions that can eventually restore harmony and balance to our world.

Although considered a holding place for our dark side, the shadow is also considered the “seat of creativity”. If we continue to ‘see the light’ by staying in the dark, I have no doubt that we can continue to create the change we need.

Tags: Jung, Shadow

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 at 2:25 pm and is filed under Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.