Aspire Magazine: Inspiration for a Woman's Soul.(TM) Jun/July 2019 Aspire Magazine FULL Issue | Page 59
Shadow is a real thing. Artwork without
shadows is very two-dimensional, as the
figures lose depth and substance, seeming
artificial in a way. Likewise, there will always
be things you don’t know about yourself,
which are your true shadow aspects. These
aspects are not always unwanted or “bad”
behaviours—they could also be aspects of
you that are maturing and ripening for your
discovery when the time is right.
Other people may be able to see things about
you before you do. For example, I had a client
who for years didn’t realize that he was gay
and when he eventually did, it took him a long
time to accept it. Once he was ready to reveal
his true self, he very hesitantly came out to
his friends and family. They shocked him with
their reaction: “We were waiting for you to
say this for years!” Can you relate to this with
something in yourself?
Isn’t it interesting that the opposite of shadow
is reflection? Reflections are what we and
other people see. However, when something
is in the shadow, we only get a sense that it
is there; when something is in the darkness,
we may not know that it is there at all. Only
when we bring the light of our awareness
into the shadow can we see it, and if the only
thing there is is the darkness itself, the light
dissolves that away.
Getting Clear
Before we start, I want to be clear about
where I am coming from for this work.
There are parts of us that we know about
and don’t like. I prefer to call these difficult
or unwanted behaviours rather than dark
aspects of us. There are also parts of
ourselves we don’t know about so we don’t
know if we like them or not: these are our
shadow aspects. Spiritual and personal
development teachers have developed a
spectrum that places shadow behaviours
There are many
facets to the
dark side of us,
just as there
are many to
the light side.
on one side and light on the other. This
arrangement insinuates that shadow
behaviours are bad ones, but they’re not.
They’re part of what makes us whole. There
are always going to be opposite ends to a
spectrum. Our concern is not about the
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to both of these forces from within. How
these forces manifest themselves within us
depends on our strength of character and
our determination to heal ourselves.
There are many facets to the dark side of us,
just as there are many to the light side. We
see some of these dark facets in people who
have overinflated egos, arrogance, pride,
selfishness, hunger for power, and greed.
When given free rein, that’s where true evil
resides. People who take pleasure in hurting
other people exist, and we would be fools
not to recognize this. Some of these people
are too far gone to return to centre.