{"id":20244,"date":"2021-06-14T09:36:28","date_gmt":"2021-06-14T13:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20244"},"modified":"2021-06-14T10:25:11","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T14:25:11","slug":"embracing-shadow-and-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=20244","title":{"rendered":"Embracing Shadow and Light"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H-ggZd-SmSs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>\n\nWe all identify with our persona\/mask so\nstrongly when we are young that we become masters of denial and learn to\neliminate or hide anything that doesn\u2019t support it. <em>Neither our persona nor our shadow is evil in itself; they\u00a0just allow us to do evil and not recognize it as such. <\/em>Our shadowself makes us all into hypocrites on some level. <em>Hypocrite <\/em>is a Greek word that simply means\u201cactor,\u201d someone playing a role rather than being \u201creal.\u201d We are all in onekind of closet or another and are even encouraged by society to play such\u00a0roles. Usually everybody else can see our shadow, so it is crucial that we\u00a0learn what everybody else knows about us\u2014except us!\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nHoly or whole individuals, the ones we call\u00a0\u201csaints,\u201d are precisely the ones who have no \u201cI\u201d to protect or project. Their\u00a0\u201cI\u201d is in conscious union with the \u201cI AM\u201d of God, and that is more than enough. \u00a0Divine union overrides any need for self-hatred or self-adoration. Such people\u00a0do not need to be perfectly right, and they know they cannot be anyway, so they\njust try to be in <em>right\u00a0relationship. <\/em>In other words, they try to be loving\u2014above all else. \u00a0Love holds us tightly and safely and always. Such people have met the enemy and\u00a0know that the major enemy is \u201cme\u201d (to borrow from the comic strip character\u00a0Pogo). But they do not hate the \u201cme\u201d either, they just see through and beyond\u00a0\u201cme.\u201d Shadow work literally \u201csaves us from ourselves\u201d (our false selves), which\u00a0is the foundational meaning of salvation to begin with.\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nI am afraid that the closer we get to the\u00a0Light, the more of our shadow we see. Thus, truly holy people are <em>always<\/em> humble people.\u00a0Christians would have been done a great service if the shadow had been\ndistinguished from sin. Sin and shadow are not the same. We were so encouraged\u00a0to avoid sin that many of us instead avoided facing our shadow, and then we\u00a0ended up \u201csinning\u201d even worse\u2014while unaware besides! As Paul taught, \u201cThe\u00a0angels of darkness must disguise themselves as angels of light\u201d (2 Corinthians\u00a011:14). The persona does not choose to see evil in itself, so it always\u00a0disguises it as good. The shadow self invariably presents itself as something\u00a0like prudence, common sense, and justice. It says, \u201cI am doing this for your\u00a0good,\u201d when it is actually manifesting fear, control, manipulation, or even\u00a0vengeance. Isn\u2019t it fascinating that the name Lucifer literally means \u201clight\u00a0bearer\u201d? The evil one always makes darkness look like light\u2014and makes light\u00a0look like darkness.\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nThe gift of\u00a0shadowboxing is in the <em>seeing\u00a0<\/em>of the shadow and its games in ourselves, which takes away most of the shadow\u2019s\u00a0hidden power. No wonder that Teresa of \u00c1vila (1515\u20131582) said that the mansion\u00a0of true self-knowledge was the necessary first mansion on the spiritual\u00a0journey. Socrates said the same thing, \u201cKnow yourself!\u201d\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\n<strong>Unveiling the Shadow<\/strong>\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nThis week\u2019s meditations focus on unveiling the <em>shadow<\/em> self, an essential concept in my work that comes from Swiss psychotherapist Carl Gustav Jung (1875\u20131961). It always needs initial clarification and definition.\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nLet\u2019s begin with the personal shadow. During\nthe first half of our lives (and for many, into the chronological second half\nof life), we are building up our separate or false self. For the first months\nof life, human infants feel they are one with their caretaker, usually their\nmother. But soon the child grows into a sense of separateness, a split between <em>my self<\/em> and <em>your self <\/em>that understands\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m here and you\u2019re over there.\u201d We call this dualistic consciousness.To put it very simply, as children we learn\u00a0which behaviors cause approval and disapproval from our family, teachers, and\u00a0friends. If we want to have some sort of control over our lives and create\u00a0pleasant outcomes, we tend to develop those things which are acceptable and\u00a0repress those things which are not. Those things we repress or deny about\u00a0ourselves become our shadow. The qualities we \u201cplace\u201d in our shadow aren\u2019t\u00a0necessarily or only bad; they simply are the ones that are not rewarded by our\u00a0family system or culture.\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nThe more we have cultivated and protected a\u00a0chosen persona, the more shadow work we will need to do. Therefore, we need to\u00a0be especially careful of clinging to any idealized role or self-image, like\u00a0that of minister, mother, doctor, nice person, professor, moral believer, or\u00a0president of this or that. These are huge personas to live up to, and they trap\u00a0many people in lifelong delusion that the role is who they are or who they are\u00a0only allowed to be. The more we are attached to and unaware of such a protected\nself-image, the more shadow self we will likely have. This is especially\ndangerous for a \u201cspiritual leader\u201d or \u201cprofessional religious person\u201d because\u00a0it involves such an ego-inflating self-image. Whenever ministers, or any true\u00a0believers, are too anti anything, we can be pretty sure there is some shadow\u00a0material lurking somewhere nearby. Zealotry is a good revelation of one\u2019s\u00a0overly repressed shadow.\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nOur self-image is not substantial or lasting; it is simply created out of our own mind, desire, and choice\u2014and everybody else\u2019s preferences for us! It is not objective at all but entirely subjective (which does not mean that it does not have real influence). The movement to second-half-of-life wisdom has much to do with necessary shadow work and the emergence of healthy self-critical thinking, which alone allows us to see beyond our own shadow and disguise and to find who we are, \u201chidden with Christ in God,\u201d as Paul puts it (Colossians 3:3). The Zen masters call it \u201cthe face we had before we were born.\u201d This self cannot die, lives forever and is our True Self. Religion is always in some way about discovering our True Self, which is also to discover God, who is our deepest truth.\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\n________________________________________________________\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nIHAVE LOVED YOU\n\nwith an everlasting Love. Before time began, I knew you. For years you swam around in a sea of meaninglessness, searching for Love, hoping for hope. All that time I was pursuing you, aching to embrace you in My compassionate arms. When time was right, I revealed Myself to you. I lifted you out of that sea of despair and set you down on a firm foundation. Sometimes you felt naked\u2014exposed to the revealing Light of My Presence. I wrapped an ermine robe around you: My robe of righteousness. I sang you a Love song, whose beginning and end are veiled in eternity. I infused meaning into your mind and harmony into your heart. Join Me in singing My song. Together we will draw others out of darkness into My marvelous Light.\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nJEREMIAH 31:3;\nThe LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: &#8220;I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nISAIAH 61:10;\nI delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices. ( A) in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation. and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, ( B) as a bridegroom adorns his head\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\n1 PETER 2:9 NKJV;\n<strong>9<\/strong> But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous \u2026\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n\nYoung, Sarah. Jesus Calling Morning and Evening Devotional (Jesus Calling\u00ae) (p. 342). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.\n\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all identify with our persona\/mask so strongly when we are young that we become masters of denial and learn to eliminate or hide anything that doesn\u2019t support it. Neither our persona nor our shadow is evil in itself; they\u00a0just allow us to do evil and not recognize it as such. Our shadowself makes us [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20244"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20244"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20250,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20244\/revisions\/20250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}