The ‘Others’

Contending with the Shadow People

Carl Jung would advise not to run from the shadows, for that is us blocking ourselves from the light.

Some topics are challenging to come at directly. Moving towards a shadow, for example, without changing the light source, results in more or less shadow. In Context to Plato’s Cave, the only way to resolve the issue is to leave the cave. Leaving the cave doesn’t eliminate shadows. On the contrary, it provides a new light source, more objects to contend with, and more shadows. In essence, you have left one cave for another. This abstraction also assumes we’re not the source of the shadow. How should we contend with the darkness if humanity is the source of the shadow people?

The abstraction of light and dark is a metaphor we understand well, because we hurdle through light in dark, rotating in and out of sunlight and moon shadows. It becomes a whole other matter if this ‘light and dark’ is due to the waxing and waning of consciousness. Consciousness can be broad and open, like an easy summer day, or narrow and focused, like a flashlight beam. We fall in and out of consciousness, a cycle that matches the rhythm of the earth and moon. There are entities in the conscious and subconscious mind.