The gnarly hand that reaches for us as night from the window. The tall thin man slowly creeps toward us on the dimly lit street. A ferocious beast, deep in a cave where only flashlights bring us light to find our way. Or a tree branch, the short older gentleman having his evening walk, and the lizard curled on a rock a little in front of you.
Shadows have long been the source of horror and mystery. We have this irrational fear of shadows that media and literary moguls have capitalized on. This usage has led us to equate the shadow with dangerous or malevolent forces. Much like how the Ego is the scapegoat for our unhealthy decisions, the Shadow gets the wrap of being our “evil” aspect. But again, evil does not exist within the context of the Spirit.
The Shadow is a vital aspect of our spiritual identity because it acts as our witness. The shadow is the easiest to access and communicate with because it has a physically perceivable form. All of your weaknesses and strengths are cataloged by the Shadow every single day. It does not use them against you though. It only holds the record. Every triumph you make and every failure you experience is recorded by the Shadow. In the concept of past lives and the Akashic Records, the Shadow is the part of yourself that is keeping notes on you. It is not grading or judging you, just chronicling the story of you.
The stories of the Shadow being an extraplanar being have gone back since ancient times across the globe. Where the idea of it being our “evil” self originated isn’t clear, but it can again be attributed to the rise of religion which sought to define good and evil at the spiritual level rather than at the personal level. And the Shadow along with Darkness were classified as Evil because they were “absent of light” while Light got the “good” classification.
If we examine a shadow, in the physical sense, we already see holes in that reasoning. A shadow is a byproduct of light, not darkness. Light exists within darkness which makes darkness the primordial force. Light does not exist to spite the darkness. But light does further create darkness. This fabricated darkness is the shadow.
A shadow is cast by something blocking a light. The angle, intensity, and distance of the object from the light source determine the shape of the shadow. Everything about a shadow from creation to the way it is perceived is determined from a source of light. Without light, there is darkness but not shadow. Shadows cannot exist without light. Going back to religious arguments about Light vs Darkness and Good vs. Evil, if Light is “good” and anything light creates is “good” then Shadow cannot be “evil” for it is created by Light. We have repeated this narrative of Shadow and Darkness as evil and Light as good for so long that we have forgotten to be rational and understanding. We are becoming blinded by the light figuratively. More on that in the next post when I talk about the Light aspect of your Spiritual Self.
When we are born we are greeted by Light. This means the moment we are born is also the moment our shadow is born. It begins to watch over us at that exact second. There are times when you find yourself in quasi-darkness, meaning it may be faint but there is still a light source, your shadow is still with you as an ever-faithful companion. The only way to erase the Shadow and hide from it is to lock yourself in a room or go deep underground where no light can penetrate. You will just be in total darkness. Even an astronaut in the vastness of space casts weak shadows because there are stars that can be visible. If Light is visible the Shadow persists.
I already said the Shadow acts as our Witness recording the events in our lives. This means that when we need guidance from our higher self on how to better ourselves it is the Shadow we end up communicating with. I once had the pleasure of hearing Marcus Buckingham, author of Now, Discover Your Strengths, speak live at a conference. He said something all those years ago that resonated so strongly with me. He said basically, “A weakness will be a weakness no matter how much work you put into it. Why not put that energy into developing your strengths instead?” It resonated because it was a puzzle piece I had been missing for years.
Why was I still falling for the traps of my weaknesses when I had done so much work to recognize them and overcome them? It was because I was focused on them. What we focus on directs our energy. I intended to overcome weaknesses and the universe responding by saying, “OK, if you want the challenges then here they are.” It was not until I heard Buckingham speak that I realized I had never paid attention to my strengths because I thought, “They’re there so why worry about them?” That moment changed my mindset to, “Oh! If I focus on my strengths then the universe will respond by giving me opportunities to use my strengths.” And since then I have worked in that way. It took time at first to uncover my strengths and get to know them. But the more I did that the more strengths I found that I hadn’t realized before. Then the next stage occurred, not only was I getting opportunities to use my strengths more than constantly walking on the coals of my weaknesses, my strengths were getting even stronger.
I began building myself up and finding confidence in what I was good at. This led to me accepting what I was great at and being able to turn away from things that would put me in a position of weakness. I learned about Humility as a Force of the Mind. We like to think being humble means always denying ourselves praise and just doing what we should for the sake of it. Humility is this deeper knowing of what you are good at and what you aren’t. Humility is the greatest lesson we can learn from true Shadow work. With Humility, we learn to say confidently, “Hey I am great at that and I’ll be glad to do it,” or, “You know…I am capable of that but not the greatest. If you cannot find someone else, I will try my best.” Humility is not the opposite of pride, it is pride’s regulator. It is ok to have pride in yourself and take pride in what you are capable of. Humility helps to keep you in integrity with what you should pride yourself on. It also protects you from venturing into hubris and taking on more than you should.
The lessons of the Shadow are:
What are you capable of?
What opportunities should you always jump on?
What impact can you have on the lives of those around you?
When should I take a step back?
What should I avoid?
Where can I triumph and still have growth?
Where will I fail and what can I learn from those failures?
What is the legacy I will leave behind?
That is the nature of healthy shadow work. Learning how to see each moment as an opportunity to write the story of your life that you can be proud of. The Shadow is your spiritual aspect that will help you to do that. Just like the Ego, we villainize the Shadow too much. In so doing, we are villainizing ourselves though. We just don’t want to consciously see ourselves as our main antagonist and it's the easy way out to shift the blame to something else.
That is why I take issue with a lot of the “Shadow Work” journals and books I have seen. They all say something about “overcoming your evil side” or “taking back control of your life.” And they all seem to have this connotation that to do this you have to come to a point of complete denial of yourself. That is not Shadow Work. That is not even healthy self-work. Anything that attempts to break you down into nothing and degrade your self-worth is not helping you. True Shadow Work will never make you feel less than. It will only ever make you feel more. More capable, more informed, more inspired, more resilient, and stronger. Meeting with and deepening your relationship with your Shadow should be rewarding not punishing.
Remember the Shadow is a by-product of the Light, but unlike the Light, it has very few if any pitfalls. The Shadow is like a scribe that always writes in ink. It observes and records. You can then read those records to make better judgments later on. The Light and the Darkness of self do have pitfalls though which we will explore in the next two posts.
You are not your mistakes, the Shadow does not hold those over your head. The Shadow is simply there to help you see the mistakes and why the mistakes were made. That way you don’t have to make the same mistakes again. Thank you for reading and I strongly hope that this has inspired you to relook at yourself with grace and confidence as you go forward on your discovery of self at the Spiritual level.
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