The Shadow: A Definition
by Rita Varley, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting,
from Testimony of Our Daily Lives

Have you ever found yourself doing things you wish you wouldn't do, feeling things that make you do such things as mess up a good conversation? Lose your temper and scream when you meant to be gentle, or squirm in fear and silence when you meant to scream?

I've found some terms I've encountered in reading to be helpful in describing this often confusing inner world. In Jungian psychology, one term is "the shadow." The shadow self is a self which rises up in us, a self which ought to be a functioning integrated piece, but which in fact has been cut off by our judgmental lack of love. We have somehow decided that it is bad, we want to be free of it, not to admit its existence. In retaliation, it turns evil and haunts us in an effort to force our conscious self-or even any other person outside ourselves-to give it love and acceptance. Its activities taint every relationship we have whether outwardly visible or not, and in extreme, it stands between ourselves and others, forcing us to sin its sin, to experience its life. If another person who lives this self visibly crosses our path or attacks us in any way, we find ourselves doubly vulnerable, being attacked from outside as well as inside and we are likely to battle violently against the outward manifestation of it.

How does this relate to hearing the Spirit? We are given the information we need. Then the Spirit frames us into revealing our sin, or failure to love fully. We are presented with people outside of us who illustrate our inward selves to help us comprehend-if we are willing to examine our feelings fully. God reaches to us through our dreams to nudge us toward consciousness of our condition. And when we grow in our understanding and love, God helps us to become strong in it by giving us work to do to help other people grow the same way. The Spirit is always reaching toward us from the inside and the outside simultaneously.

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