"What men call the shadow of the body is not the shadow of the body, but is the body of the soul."
Oscar Wilde This is going to be a very esoteric and highly eccentric post. This is going to cross into territory that may be strange for some. I apologize if there is any confusion or that this might cause fear. My direct intent is to banish such fears. However, it is sometimes hard for me to translate concepts in a way that all people can understand due to some religious superstitions that people refuse to let go of for reasons I cannot understand. I trust that this will find it's way to the people who need it. I also want to say that I am writing these posts to combat the fear mongers. There are many out there who are breeding fear in others. These people see the Satanic in everything from the way houses are built to almost every music video out there. The sad thing is what they call Satanic is actually the Universal Unconscious that Jung talks about and they attribute Satanic meaning to Universal Archetypes. That, in a way, is self condemnation and promotes the idea that we must all be an army of clones instead of humans. I will not stand silent in the face of so many of these people claiming the internet. Someone has to claim this territory for the light and truth so I will do it. Peter Pan I cannot think of the shadow people without thinking of the introduction to the movie, "Peter Pan," by Disney. Pan flies in through the window because he's trying to capture his shadow. Peter is already the boy who never grows up and through some kind of magic has a shadow that has a mind of it's own. Wendy, thoughtfully, stitches the shadow back where it belongs as she explains that she must grow up and the Journey to Never Never Land begins. In The Twilight In the Twilight between wake and sleeping I've experienced some interesting things. There have been numerous 'things' that I have seen. This does not seem to be a singular occurrence but is known in the Medical Industry as Sleep Paralysis. In the medical industry the cure is to take sleeping pills or some other remedy. The idea is that the mind is dreaming but there is a faulty 'circuit' somewhere in the brain preventing true sleep. So, even with eyes wide open, the body is paralyzed as though it were asleep and the mind is dreaming. I am not a medical doctor and I cannot claim any authority over this particular idea. However, I disagree with this analysis. I think there is more to the story. I don't have fear when I experience The Twilight because I don't fear death but I find the experiences interesting. However, others report a very disturbing experience in this state of Twilight. There are numerous reports of seeing "shadow people." These creatures terrify the individual and there is one notorious baddy called "The Hat Man". A woman named Heidi Hollis wrote a book cataloging the many tales surrounding the Hat Man and other shadow creatures. The sheer number of people who have reported seeing this entity awake or in the Twilight are staggering. Strangely, I disbelieved in these reports until I too saw one (I have also seen Faery's in this state but I won't go into that here). However, the image did not terrify me. I knew that it was not coming for me and even more sadly, the creature seemed frightened of me. The creature appeared to be a young boy and I was reminded of Peter Pan's cantankerous shadow. The entity was more interested in sneaking past my sight but it was spurred on for some reason into the room. I had the sense that it was drawn to sleeping mortals because it cannot dream or conceive of anything outside of itself. I might avoid this subject if it wasn't for the fact these creatures are terrifying people. I do not believe them to be evil. Instead, I think they are something else entirely. I know that this might be a stretch of logic for some, to say that there is such a thing as shadow people, but I want to explain that I think this is part of the psychological experience of every human being. The Shadow According To Carl Jung Carl Yung described the part of the psyche that is disowned as being 'The Shadow.' This Shadow is all of the unwanted psychological parts of the being. Within the shadow goes all of the fear, the pain and all of the unpleasant feelings that a person does not want. The parts of that person that was rejected by their parents, was abused, or felt unloved go into the shadow. An important part of coming to terms with any issues regarding identity is to own all of those parts that we have disowned. First, we must name the aspect that we have repressed or denied. Once the problem is named we can then embrace that part of ourselves. We no longer require the shadow to take on these parts of ourselves that we have cast off. Embracing our shadow is an incredibly important part of reclaiming our soul identity. The darkness is not something to be feared nor is it something to be conquered. As long as we cast out these parts of ourselves and remain afraid of them they will continue to haunt us. The Shadow Entity What I propose might sound strange, but I believe that we start building these entities when we are a child. This is something we all do, from the time we are small because we cannot accept the unfairness that is life when we remember the love of God so easily. Then when we are adults people become so fearful of their Shadow Selves that they run to addictions like drugs, smoking or alcohol. These shadow entities serve as mirrors embodying all that a person fears most because they are the unclaimed aspects of the person. Sometimes, just contemplating those unnamed fears can make them terrifying. Even worse because people give power to these fears by placing their mind upon the subject the entities can become stronger. Much like an addiction the more a person pays attention to the problem and feeds it the stronger these entities become. I do think they are almost sentient on some other dimension but they are entirely dependent upon their human component for their existence. Name Your Fear To transmute these shadows into the light is a big part of any recovery process for a human being. First, before we can overcome any type of fear we have to name it. This is tantamount to 'naming our demons.' Once we give voice to that which we fear most it loses it's power over us. Standing Naked Before God This is a concept that I have held onto for a long time. I thought that it came from a Psalm in the bible but I have not been able to find the source. The idea is that one can be made pure enough to stand before God. So often, we are told that we are never going to be pure enough to stand before God, that we are unrighteous, that we are sinners from the day we are born, that we cannot even think of approaching the throne of God and so on. However, we can choose to name our fears and explore our own psychological map uprooting the fear. Once we replace shame and fear with love for ourselves we can stand in the righteous presence of God. This takes a lot of work and I'm not sure that it is achieved in just one life. I think all of us should strive to embrace those aspects of ourselves that we are not proud of so that we can, metaphorically, stand before God. Once we are not ashamed of our own nature it can be very cleansing psychologically. The Shadow As Our Soul Somewhere in the depth of those unwanted aspects of ourselves is also our connection to our Higher Selves. The Shadow becomes the inner child once our fears our named, cleansed and accepted. Our child self that began building that shadow aspect of our psyche is always there waiting to be allowed back in. There has been a lot of work about the inner child so I don't feel the need to cover that topic in this particular post. However, it is that inner child, that we cast out as the shadow portion of our psyche that still holds the divine light of our connection to our Higher Self. Until we can recover that inner child, the one that truly believes in a Higher Power, we are resigned to being carbon copy humans churned out by the mainstream populace's idea of perfection. We can never know our Higher Self until we accept the shadow portion and turn it into the inner child. Conclusion The Shadow People that have been see by many people in the Twilight of sleep are the unwanted aspects of a human incarnation. In some place, between the mind falling asleep and the waking state these creatures lurk. They are not waiting to drive nightmares into people but are waiting to be reclaimed as the inner child. They are simply misunderstood. An important part of becoming a self-actualized individual is to work with these parts of our psyche. We must accept all of those parts, all of those deeds, and all of those memories of abuse or unfair circumstances that we do not want to own. Edgar Cacye said that, "Thoughts are so real they can poke you in the eye," and I think that's important to remember in the case of Shadow People. The concept of Peter Pan clearly illustrates not only the Inner Child (Pan) but the shadow self (his cantankerous shadow) that the child-self begins to build as a companion in this material world. We only need to reclaim that shadow, turning it into the inner child that it has always been and re-establish our connection to the Higher Self. Music Video's I'm going to include five music videos. The first is Stars Align and the second is Shadows both by Lindsay Stirling. Second, there is a very well done video about and with the lyirc's of Tool's Forty-Six and 2. Finally, I am posting David Bowie's Black Star and Lazarus videos. I believe, as Joseph Campbell stated, that artists are Shaman's and plug into the Universal Unconscious (Over Soul) and thus the archetypes that capture concepts of the human experience. They are the translators of the voice of God more or less. In Stars Align, the Lindsay that descends in white is the pure soul descending into matter. The Lindsey playing the violin to the Crystal Ball is the Higher Self, playing her song to her incarnate self, hoping that the incarnated self will awaken. To me the first video shows how even in the darkest night our shadow holds the connection to our Higher Self. The light is being passed around by the shadows when the human self is the most fearful. I also want to address the concept of the eclipse seen- it shows the different selves aligning and in particular the male and female. Then, of course, the Higher Self and incarnate working in unison. (For those who want to delve deeper into this topic take a look at John Van Auken's interpretation of the book Revelation from the bible). The other video, Shadows, actually shows the cantankerous nature of our shadow selves (our inner child). The video of Forty Six & 2 made by ShaunLiving has some pretty spot on explanations and diagrams shown in the video. My experience with the band (Tool) is a very interesting one. I almost threw up at their concert, I'm not sure if it was because of of the energy that they were channeling or all of the pot smokers but it was just way too much for me. I admit that I am unsure of the statement about chromosomes and only aboriginal tribes in africa having the 46 & 2 chromosomes. I haven't looked into that one on any level but it is a fascinating idea none the less and if that's what's happening to me on some level it's an interesting experience. Finally, David Bowie's song Black Star has some really heady symbolism. I'm including just the trailer link because it show's enough (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_t-xOGksOQ). I could and might have an entire blog dedicated to the symbolism in that video. He depicts both his body self (the white guy), his shadow (the black guy) and his Higher Self (the woman) in this video and they are in the pyramid shaped room because they are in the inner sanctuary of his mind. I could go deeper into that awesome video but that pretty much covers what I wanted to in this post. I am also including Lazarus because it shows Bowie owning his shadow (that pops out of the closet where a child hides all of their fears) and also his higher self (the girl from the first video) hiding underneath his death bed.
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Brave Soul! May Your Journey On The Path Of The Seeker Bring You Joy and Peace! I'm currently posting every Saturday. With a new addition the family I have pre-scheduled most posts through December 2022. Full Moon Posts will contain up-to-date content when I can get to them. Thank you so much for your support and understanding! This is a place where you can encounter new spiritual ideas that have helped me develop as an Individual On The Path of the Seeker. Take or Leave this information as you see fit. Archives
April 2024
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