Just some quotes that I found to be inspirational:



Session 767



Offer to yourself your own permission to be accepting of that which you view to
be the shadows of you, and allow yourself a new perception, a turning of your
perception, recognizing that you need not be discounting of yourself, you need
not be chastising of yourself or striving for perfection, but all that you
create within your reality is an expression of you. Those elements of your
reality that you view to be the inadequacies or the shortcomings or the mistakes
are in actuality perfect also, for they are the shadows that offer you depth.
For without the shadow you create a flatness and no depth.

~ Elias

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"One must have chaos in oneself in order to give birth to a dancing star." ~
Friedrich W. Nietzsche



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Carl Jung
1958

"Beneath the social mask we wear every day, we have a hidden shadow side: an
impulsive, wounded, sad, or isolated part that we generally try to ignore. The
Shadow can be a source of emotional richness and vitality, and acknowledging it
can be a pathway to healing and an authentic life. We meet our dark side, accept
it for what it is, and we learn to use its powerful energies in productive ways.
The Shadow knows why good people sometimes do "bad" things. Romancing the Shadow
and learning to read the messages it encodes in daily life can deepen your
consciousness, imagination, and soul."

from "Romancing the Shadow," by Connie Zwieg, PhD., and Steve Wolf, PhD.





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Jung's Theory of The Shadow

"The Shadow describes the part of the psyche that an individual would rather not
acknowledge. It contains the denied parts of the self. Since the self contains
these aspects, they surface in one way or another. Bringing Shadow material into
consciousness drains its dark power, and can even recover valuable resources
from it. The greatest power, however, comes from having accepted your shadow
parts and integrated them as components of your Self."

from John Elder



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WHAT WE DO NOT DARE LOOK AT, WITHIN OURSELVES, WE TEND TO PROJECT OUT ONTO
OTHERS...........

"Shadow wants to be heard, simply that. But if it isn't, it turns nasty. It
becomes a veritable demon, witch, or son-of-a-bitch, demanding its pound of
flesh....in very painful real time, not dreamtime.

Pay attention to your shadow. If you keep distancing yourself, saying "Heavens,
it's not my fault!"---then heaven help you. Hell won't."

Katya Walter

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Jung continued:

Everyone carries a Shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's
conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. At all counts, it forms an
unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions."

"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making
the darkness conscious."





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Who has not at one time or another felt a sourness, wrath, selfishness, envy and
pride, which he could not tell what to do with, or how to bear, rising up in him
without his consent, casting a blackness over all his thoughts, and then as
suddenly going off again, either by the cheerfulness of the sun or air, or some
agreeable accident, and again at times as suddenly returning upon him?
Sufficient indications are these to every man that there is a dark guest within
him, concealed under the cover of flesh and blood, often lulled asleep by
worldly light and amusements, yet such as will, in spite of everything, show
itself... It is exceeding good and beneficial to us to discover this dark,
disordered fire of our soul; because when rightly known and rightly dealt with,
it can as well be made the foundation of heaven as it is of hell."


- William Law, The Grounds and Reasons of Christian Regeneration (1739)



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More Quoteables

The range of what we think and do
is limited by what we fail to notice.
And because we fail to notice
that we fail to notice
there is little we can do
to change
until we notice
how failing to notice
shapes our thoughts and deeds.
--R.D. Laing





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Robert Green Ingalls said: "in nature there are neither rewards nor
punishments--there are consequences." We aren't being singled out for
punishment, we are merely experiencing the consequences of our own rigidity. If
we choose security over change, we have to suffer the consequences. As Gail
Sheehy summarizes succinctly: "If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't
grow, we are not really living. Growth demands a temporary surrender of
security."

We can learn how to recognize our own rigidity and how to correct it. It takes
honesty and courage, but the rewards are immense. First, the suffering stops.
This is the surest sign that we have chosen the right path again: the
unnecessary suffering stops. More importantly, new possibilities open up
everywhere in our life. Where everything seemed sterile and barren, and there
seemed no possible answers, now everything seems possible. The possibilities may
be scary, because each offers a path that we have never taken before, but it's a
good kind of fear, like the fear that a fine pianist experiences before a
concert.

from "Shadow Dancing" by Robin Robertson.



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[Jung] told me that he once met a distinguished man, a Quaker, who could not
imagine that he had ever done anything wrong in his life. "And do you know what
happened to his children?" Jung asked. "The son became a thief, and the daughter
a prostitute. Because the father would not take on his shadow, his share in the
imperfection of human nature, his children were compelled to live out the dark
side which he had ignored."

(A. I. Allenby describing a conversation with C. G. Jung.)



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"The secret is out: all of us, no exceptions, have qualities we won't let anyone
see, including ourselves---our Shadow. If we face up to our dark side, our life
can be energized. If not, there is the devil to pay. This is one of life's most
urgent projects."

Larry Dossey, M.D., Author of "Healing Wounds"





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"Each psychology is a confession, and the worth of psychology for
another person lies not in the places where he can identify with it
because it satisfies his psychic needs, but where it provokes him to
work out his own psychology in response".

James Hillman

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"He (Great Spirit) governs the flowing of all waters, and the ebbing, the
courses of all rivers and the replenishment of springs, the distilling of all
dews and rain in every land beneath the sky. In the deep places, He gives
thought to music great and terrible; and the echo of that music runs through all
the veins of the world in sorrow and in joy; for if joyful is the fountain that
rises in the sun, its springs are in the wells of sorrow unfathomed at the
foundations of the Earth."

J.R.R. Tolkein, "The Silmarillion"

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The Core of Shadow Work is this: To KNOW YOURSELF FULLY, from as many angles as
are required, in order that you might dare to let yourself go free. Being
neither judge, jury, prosecutor, nor defender---you give no explanations, nor do
you require any. You are AT HOME in your place between the sun and the moon.

~The Reconnections.



We know, as we have been saying for quite some time,
that things in your personal lives
and things in your collective reality, your society,
are beginning to become as many of you have observed,
very much more chaotic.
Many things are breaking down.
Many things are becoming much, much, much more magnified.
Many energies seem to be happening all at once.

And we remind you, once again,
as we have said before,
that the key to riding the wave of chaos
is not to resist it
but to allow yourself to know
you are a part of the energy of chaos.
To allow yourself to be chaos
and in becoming chaos
and allowing a new form of organization in,
rather than imposing your old system of organization upon it,
by letting this new idea in
and, as you say, riding it,
going with it,
not resisting it…
you will then, by becoming chaos,
allow the chaotic action
to show you through sychronicity,
what it is you really need to be aware of,
how it is that life will organize itself
using you as a guide post.

The more you allow yourself to become
who and what you are,
the more natural you become,
the more truthful to yourself you become,
the more representative you become
of the facet of the Infinite you were created to be…
Then the easier it will be for your reality
when it becomes more chaotic
to be able to reflect to you
those aspects of the chaos
that have to do with you
and are important to apply in your life
and those aspects of the chaos
that don't have to do with you
and which you can let go of.
These will reveal themselves.

You will see a new organization coming in,
a new organizing principle
that will let you know through synchronicity
which things you need to pay attention to,
which things you can let go of,
which things are no longer necessary in your life…
Things, that perhaps, in the past
you have been taught you need to hold on to…
you now can begin to really let go of
so that you can understand that the most important aspect
of being able to handle the new chaos,
the amplified and magnified chaos,
that is going on in your society
will be to streamline yourself…
let go of excess baggage.
It will seem as if you are becoming, in a sense,
supersonic
and that you must trim off anything
that doesn't belong to you
or you will not really be able to ride the wave smoothly.

It will be as if you are an airplane
with many appendages
that do not need to be there.
You must become more like a rocket, in that sense,
more streamlined,
so that the waves of chaos can slip past you more easily,
so that you can go through them
and in becoming more streamlined, in that sense,
you'll be able to pass through the "eye of the needle"
in which all chaos occurs
and toward which your society is rapidly heading.
And in that "eye of the needle"
there will be no room as we have said
for things that do not belong to you.
It will have no room to carry through
all of those definitions,
all of those experiences,
that hold you back,
that limit you,
that are defined as something other than yourself.
All of the excess baggage of beliefs
you have been brought up with,
taught to hold on to,
that you do not need,
that weigh you down.
You will have to let go of to pass through
that "eye of the needle".

As things get more chaotic
it will be more tumultuous
and it will be as if
you are being cast about in the wind,
you will not be able to find any kind
of sense of direction
if you don't let go of those things
that allow you not to experience…smoothness
and the streamlined motion that you need to have…
So we would recommend
More importantly than ever
you lighten up and let go.
Drop those things that have nothing to do with you...
You do not need them.
They only hold you back.
You must be able now to move more swiftly
because things are going to accelerate even more…
and more…
and more…
and more.
Especially in what you call your next couple of years.

So I would recommend
that you allow yourself now to recognize
you can move much faster,
much more smoothly.

And you can, in doing so,
give yourself the opportunity to be able to see
what's going on around you,
almost impartially,
as if you yourself are almost not involved.
As if ;you are like the eye of the storm
and everything is moving around you,
this is the nature of attached detachment.

As you become more involved
with "true" life
in some ways you seem to become less involved
with life around you…
paradoxically.
You will actually be able to become more active if you want to be
but only in those things that are truly representative
of who you are.
The more you insist and remain insisting
on becoming active in ;those things
that have nothing to do with you,
that are really not your truth,
the more difficult it will be for you
to maintain your course
towards that "eye of the needle",
that transition point,
that is coming up very much more strongly,
now than ever before.
Remember that what we are saying here is not metaphorical,
we're talking about real energy..
collective consciousness energy,
that are truly piling on a critical mass,
amplifying itself.

Allow yourselves the opportunity to trust
who you know yourselves to be.
To take a deep breath and sigh…
and in that sigh release those things you do not need,
those things that, perhaps, you have been holding on to
for long time,
maybe for all your life…
that you know you really want to let go of.

Now's the time to really understand
how to let them go,
to let it be all right
to surrender to yourself
and remember again, please,
we will constantly remind you of this
because it is one of the most important things, now,
at this critical time.

That surrendering is not the giving up of something,
true surrender is the total acceptance of yourself,
your true self,
you're not losing anything in the surrender,
the way your society usually means that word…
you are not giving up anything in the sense of loss.
Surrender means to open up,
open up to your total self,
to give in and let go
of the things you think you're supposed to be.
Just be who you are.
It will see you through…
it will see you through.

Allow yourself to let go
for the seas will only become choppier now
and only by being your essential self
will you be able to ride those waves in such a manner
that they will not feel like a storm to you
even though you may observe
that there is chaos of storm all around you.

This is what being in the center is all about.
This is the effect that you get in your life when you do that
guaranteed…
guaranteed…
in effect,
physically in effect,
guaranteed.
But you must let go
and the degree to which you still feel tumbled about
is the degree to which you may still
have ideas that you must let go of,
that are not you.
And so you can use that as a measuring device
to see how well you're doing
in letting go of who you are not
and in accepting who you are,
as you were originally made to be,
created to be:
an Infinite Creator with unlimited possibilities,
who knows that and acts like they know it…
a creative being,
a loving being.

That is all you have to be,
the rest takes care of itself…
because you are creating life through you,
you are experiencing who you are through you,
and as you become clear
and as you become centered
and as you become like unto the "eye of the needle",
then nothing that does not belong
will be capable of passing through you.
You will be your own best filter
and you will filter out that which is not you.

And on the other side of the "eye of the needle"
there will only be
that thin bright light
and thin bright edge,
that is unerringly…unmistakably,
just you…
just you…
your true essential self…
just you.
That will be all that is left
because that is all there is…
just you…
and this goes for every one of you

~ Bashar

[www.youtube.com]

"The best political, social, and spirtual work we can do
is to withdraw the projection of our shadow onto others.
-Carl Jung



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2009 03:21AM by riverhousebill.

The Shadow is not inerntly evil. If it is ignored or denied, it may become
monstrous to compensate. Only then is it likely to "demonically possess"
its owner, leading to compulsive, exaggerated, "evil"behavior.

"Whatever is rejected from the self, appears in th world as an event,"
said Carl Jung. If you disown a part of your personality, it'll materialize
as an unexpected detour.
Everyone who believes in the devil is the devil



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/2009 03:37AM by riverhousebill.

Good thread, guys! (Though my shadow probably would disagree.)

Sharrhan:


[www.facebook.com]

"There is no generally efective tecnique for assimilating the shadow. it
is more like diplomacy and is always an individual matter. First one has to
accept and take seriously the existence of the shadow. Second, one has to
become aware of its qualities and intentions. This happans through
consientiousw attenion to moods fantasiesw, and impules. Third, a
long process of negotiation is unavoidable." Daryl Sharp, Jung Lexicon:
A Primer of Terms ans concepts:



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/2009 03:08PM by riverhousebill.

Astrologer Steven Forrest has a different name for the shadow: stuff.
"Work on your stuff," he saysw,"or your stuff will work on you,"He maens
that it will sabotage you if you're not aggressive about identifying,
negotiating with, and transforming it.
,

Thanks for posting, flex4life.

My Scorpio shadow paces and growls for release, but out of concern for the unsuspecting world, I keep it caged. For now.

You're a gorgeous mystery with a wild heart and a lofty purpose.
But like all of us, your psyche also harbors a portion of the
sickness: a mess of repressed longings, enervating wounds, igno-
rant delusions and unripe powers. It has been know by many names,
including demon and devil. Psychologist Carl Jung called it the
shadow. He believed it was the lead that the authentic alchemists
of the middle ages sought to transute into gold.

hey cool tam ima scorpio too heh

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Jodi,

Ahhh, this explains why I like you so much! Not that I dislike anyone else here : )

hehe well it had to be something it couldnt be my funny face!

hehe i have alot of scorpions around me , must be some sort of unspoken thing its weird but i have probably more scorpio friends than any other

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

I think the biggest problem confronting the Shadow in
today's world is that so much of what people do, think,
and feel is considered "healthy"/appropriate/proper, etc;
when, in reality, that's not the case. In other words,
we don't know what's healthy and why; so we really don't
know when the Shadow is at work or not.

I won't even go into the details, because I've been on
(and off) this Board since nearly Day 1, and I can just
imagine some of the (Shadow's) insults that will likely
be hurled at me for even suggesting that many of the
commonly-accepted things people do, think, and feel
might be unhealthy/counterproductive/destructive (to
Self/relationships).

So the only thing I can suggest without bearing the
vicious brunt of people's wounds is to: Know Thyself.

Steve
[www.meetup.com]
[www.rawgosia.com]

Steve,

5 points for being cryptic : ) No disagreements with what you say from this corner. Unless, what I think mean and what you actually mean are at opposites. 5 points to me for being obtuse!