It is surely common knowledge that in Jungian psychology there is an idea of the shadow, defined either as parts of ourselves that the conscious isn't aware of, or else possibly the entirety of the subconscious.
We get hints of it when reflected by other people - the classic one is when someone tells you that you do something and it is complete news to you. I must probably stress caution here because of course the reflections we get from other people are influenced by their perception.
In one of my many previous jobs every year you were given feedback. This took the entire team being given the opportunity to say whatever they liked about you and it was then given to you completely unfiltered. I must say that as a tool for personal and professional development it was completely useless. If you have any self-awareness at all, there will be no surprises, and if you lack self awareness it will come as such a shock it will also be useless. The team lead in particular spent a fortnight crying in a corner.
A means of divination such as tarot can give us a privileged insight into what is going on for other people and also into stuff we ourselves may not be aware of. An exercise I like to do is go through the deck and see which cards either repulse me or that I find it difficult to connect with, and it's fairly likely my shadow will be in there somewhere. I'm delighted to announce that I seem to be making some progress because the cards I find difficult are not the same as they were some years ago. I do, however, have an ongoing problem with the 6 of cups, sometimes called the 4711 card because it brings up grandma's scent. My own upbringing means that I tend to interpret it in a twisted way.
I have recently come across a tarot writer who blew me away by saying that our perception is influenced by evolution and survival. I have never taken to the idea that everything is illusion but this is an idea I like a lot. I'm just not naming the writer now because he credits someone else with the idea and of course I can't find it in the book. He says that if we saw the whole of tarot we would die. Like the face of G*d although of course we witches say that that's just like seeing the face of the milkman.
Speaking of change and perception, the great occult secret I'm going to let out of the bag today is that progress in magical traditions is almost invariably accompanied by a load of shit happening to you. I mean, you only have to look back through this blog. The reason for that is that unfinished business from previous incarnations and this one gets corrected as you go on. Yes I know this is no comfort at all, I just put it out there to indicate that if anyone claims magic can get you three homes, four lovers and a string of cars, and never experience any problems, they really don't know what they're talking about. For those you need the prosperity gospel, not us, and the fact that we witches think every day should be a celebration and there is no need to make things difficult, doesn't stop Life happening!
I like this post a lot! I just finished a book by Leonard Mlodinow called Subliminal: How your unconscious mind rules your behavior. You might like it. It's not a very big book. There's many paths to the same place or endpoint. I will often let my subconscious tell me which one to take. Often times it leads me to someone in need of aid. A lost pet, a person in crisis. I think of myself as a "Goodwill Ninja." I show up, do my part and disappear again. I don't always want to do it, I have to do it, but I don't know why.
ReplyDeleteAh, I had a feeling you might do that sort of thing, Melanie!
DeleteThanks for the book recommendation, I've downloaded it. It looks great stuff.