Beauty and the Beast, Two
The shadow consists of
all those qualities which are inherent in the potential consciousness of the
individual yet, because of their apparent darkness or destructiveness are
excluded from consciousness in the course of development. The individual then
remains comfortably unaware that these qualities belong to him. We have seen
how each psychological type has his “inferior” side, and the components of the
inferior function of consciousness colour heavily the nature of the shadow. To
this are added other factors, which the individual would find intolerable as
components of his own makeup, repressed because of such sources as parental
influence and religious training. The shadow generally appears to human
consciousness first as a human figure, an image most commonly traceable in
those dreams where the dreamer is hunted or attacked by a mysterious and
malevolent enemy of his own sex.
As a rule the projection
of the shadow falls on one’s own sex, and one can gain great insight here by an
honest consideration of those qualities which we find abhorrent in others of
our own sex…Like the old Roman god Janus, we are all double-faced, and the
individual must acknowledge this if he is to have any conscious voice in the
matter of whether his dark side or his light is expressed to his fellow man.
Sometimes the shadow
projection falls on an institution, or a religion, rather than an individual. This
phenomenon is readily observable in fanatical ideological hatreds of all kinds.
Shadow and Ego put together make a whole, and wholeness, as we have seen
already, is not merely or necessarily perfect; it is however complete
All of our opinions,
when they carry a high emotional charge, are suspect.
When we find ourselves the victim of an emotional reaction
that is out of proportion to the situation, or where we have such a reaction in
regard to some situation that is not really within the range of our concern but
is strictly someone else’s business, we should suspect that we are reacting to
something of our own that we have not recognized as ours
The I and the Not I, M. Esther Harding
We have seen how each
type, and consequently each astrological element, carries a weakness in the
opposite function. When we see these qualities as evil, judge them, and force
them into the unconscious, they fester and become precisely as evil as we
believe them to be. It is our viewpoint towards the unconscious which produces
its apparent enmity.
The unconscious has an inimical or ruthless bearing towards the
conscious only when the latter adopts a false or pretentious attitude.
The I and Not I, M. Esther Harding
And one of the most
pretentious attitudes of which human beings are capable is the belief it is
always someone else’s fault.
Relating,
Liz Greene
