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The shadow self is not of itself evil; it just allows us to do evil without recognizing it as evil! In fact, we often believe that we’re doing something good. That’s the power of the shadow. That is why Jesus criticizes hypocrisy more than anything else. Jesus is never upset with sinners, but only with people who pretend they are not sinners.

          Richard Rohr, quoted in Daily Meditations CAC 6/19/23

 

On a cultural level, shadow means what our group, our tribe, our religion, our political party deems negative, out of bounds, to be shunned, to be improved, or to be punished. Behind every social oppression lurks a piece of group shadow whose members are exporting it onto others who are not of their tribe. When the shadow part is not faced, it goes unconscious and lives there.

          Ann Ulanov (quoted in Daily Meditations 6/19/23)

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What lurks in the shadows of my soul?

It is an honest question.

 

I suspect things are hiding there that I do not know

I suspect things are hiding there that I do not want to know

 

And that is the problem

 

Because what lurks in the shadows is often revealed in the stark light of day

In my words and my behaviors

In my perceptions of others.

 

There are those things that shape and move me

And take me to places that are not kind or just

 

Those things unacknowledged

 

A need for power

The fear of irrelevance

Pride, and its close friend, arrogance

An undeserved certitude that demands that my opinion be accepted as fact

That my values be seen as superior

That my understanding is more profound

 

My own personal needs to be liked

Valued

Even loved

 

My shadow is made up of those ways in which I think too highly of myself

My shadow is made up of those places where I am needy

 

And when I deny the shadow

And allow it to dwell in my soul

Unnamed

Unclaimed

Untouched

 

I give it power

And it oozes out of me

A dark mist of bias

Of judgment, fear, desire

And so much more

 

And I project all the ills of my soul

Onto others

Controlling, demeaning, using, manipulating

Rejecting

 

Alas

I do what I condemn

I am shadow pretending to be light

Thinking I am light

 

Multiply me by a church

By a political party

By a nation

 

And it is a horror

 

May the light shine in the darkness

May I see, understand, name, and accept (as real) those things

hiding

May I allow the light to dispel the shadows

 

May I be so filled with Sacred

That slowly

Painfully

Partially

But surely

The dark corners of my soul are exposed

And healed

 

Only then can my true self emerge

Me, In the image of God