Integrate the Shadow, Master Your Path

The unconscious also takes everything very personally so anything you say about another, your

The ego casts the Shadow.

The extreme of the Shadow response is related to the level of denial not the extreme nature of what is being denied.

unconscious applies to itself.

The more rigid you are in that belief system, the more positional you are, the farther you are away from the balancing point, the bigger the expression of the Shadow has to be.

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead to a deeper understanding of ourselves.” –Carl Jung

Here’s the easiest way to think of the Shadow: the Shadow is the equal and opposite reaction to the personality. Ego is the sum total of your personality. The Shadow is the equal and opposite reaction to the personality.

When you have an imbalance in the anima-animus, the person can never be who they truly are to you because you see them through such an amazingly wonderful filter of unrealistic expectation.

Another aspect of the unconscious is that it will always seek out the path of least resistance.

The undiscriminating man will project his anima (those particular, distinctive, feminine potentialities that are significant components of his unconscious mind) onto women around him. And, because the characteristics of his anima are significant to him, they carry a significant emotional charge.