Me and My Shadow
I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, where Groundhog Day, February 2nd, is a major celebration and Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog seer of seers, is a much-loved celebrity. Punxsutawney, a mere 90 minutes from Pittsburgh, is home to – wait for it – The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, established in 1887.
Groundhog Day is based on a Pennsylvania Dutch superstition, and the story goes that if Phil emerges from his cozy burrow and sees his shadow due to clear weather, back he goes into hiding and winter will persist for six more weeks – if he does not see his shadow because of cloudiness, spring will arrive early. The message here is that Phil does NOT want to see his shadow.
Carl Jung, who coined the term ‘Shadow Self’ in his groundbreaking psychological work, would disagree.
“How can I be substantial if I do not cast a shadow?
I must have a dark side also if I am to be whole”. – Carl Jung
I recently hosted Jungian Analyst and the co-creator of the popular podcast, This Jungian Life, Joseph R Lee, on my podcast, The Edge of Everyday to discuss ‘The Edge’ (aka Shadow work) through the lens of Jungian perspective.
Listen/watch here
In our conversation Joseph shared, (18:50) “In Jungian concept, the shadow is everything we don’t want to be…but have a really strong reaction to. So, we’re all coming into the world as whole little beings and as we’re enculturated in our families of origins, in our school systems, our friend groups, our religious and educational institutions, we learn through these complicated feedback loops what parts of ourselves are to be rewarded and what pats of ourselves are going to create problems. As a survival technique, without even realizing it, we begin to parse out the things that are not okay and instinctually store them, we kind of banish them.”
Turns out nobody wants to see their Shadow.
And yet…the path to wholeness, and the capability of living a life that feels more real and true, less anxiety driven and more fulfilling, lies in our willingness to become curious not only about our ‘light’, those parts of ourselves that we “like”, or are deemed acceptable, but also about our Shadow. Jung himself said that the Shadow is the doorway to the real. Curiosity helps us to discover we are not alone with our shadows. In turn, curiosity cultivates courage, that we can set down our judgements about these hidden parts of ourselves and work to acknowledge, listen to and learn from these important internal aspects.
On Groundhog Day, I hope Phil sees his Shadow. I hope you do, too. Celebrate your Shadow. That’s a good start.
For more information on Shadow work from a Jungian perspective, visit: www.ThisJungianLife.com
Find me at www.SandraBargman.com
