As culture developed further, what began as expediency evolved into morality, doing the right thing not because of external coercion, but because of an inner imperative. It became the goal of every religion to enforce this imperative as the voice of conscience. Now the dark side of our nature grew truly troublesome. We had given ourselves an ideal ... See more

The shadow defeats kings, princes and generals, men who have fought great wars and shown superhuman courage. These are all heroes who have vanquished the external enemy. But, to a man, they have been brought down by the enemy within. And for this battle, humankind is still in training.

Somewhere during the course of the development of human culture, we began to sense that the enemy was in fact within us. Perhaps this happened as we began to develop morality, a sense of right and wrong that we tried to live up to. It certainly occurred because as people began living in social units they had to suppress aspects of their nature in t... See more

This split within us has been expressed in myths, religions, literature and art. We project it as the battle between Good and Evil, Light and Dark, God and the Devil, on a cosmic scale. Or we try to understand it in terms of Original Sin, an inherent flaw in our nature.

This is exactly how the shadow gets us. We see our darkness reflected in external circumstances and believe what it dictates. Our shadow side casts a spell over our perception of reality, weaving illusions that mirror our most hidden desires, and we “see through a glass, darkly”. And so, like Macbeth, we sow the seeds of our own ruin.

The perception of threats to our physical organism plays a major role in the formation of our shadow.

Lady Macbeth would never have succeeded in corrupting her husband if he had not already had the propensity for evil in his own nature. Hidden even from his own awareness, the seed of overvaulting ambition was waiting to ambush Macbeth, as vividly manifested by the three witches in the opening scene.

All through literature we find this theme – beneath the everyday persona of civilized people there are all kinds of unconscious motivations that determine their fate. In spite of their best efforts, the characters in literature get tripped up – by their greed, their hunger for power, their jealousy, their murderous impulses, their insecurity. Look ... See more

Being so much a part of who we are, we are yet terrified of the shadow. We feel that it will pull us down back into our savage past, and our hard-won battle for the light of consciousness will have been for nothing. We make desperate attempts to deny the shadow, employing a whole range of ego-defenses for this purpose. Projection, splitting, ration... See more