Confronting and Integrating Inner Darkness December 10, 2006
Posted by bodhidude in : Psychology, Spirituality , trackbackI’ve had a recurring dream for some time that involves being in a house and needing to go down into a dark basement for some reason that cannot be avoided. The feeling of going down there is terrifying and it feels like a dark so black that its all consuming. Once down in the basement I come upon a door that leads to a descending tunnel into some sort of a dark abyss. There is no way to describe in words how much fear is associated with thinking of going down there. Its as if I will have to confront the devil himself, or something of pure evil. Anyway, I had the dream again the other night and I came to a realization just after waking up from it that the only danger in going down there is if I bring fear. Fear is the only real weapon that can be used against you by any evil force, internal or external. If I go down there without fear and bring love light and compassion then there is no danger and I have the opportunity to illuminate whatever is down there and greet it openly with compassion. I think the process of illuminating it will help me integrate it which is the transformative step of confronting your inner darkness or shadow, those parts of yourself that have become dissociated from consciousness. That was really a revelation for me although I still need to put it into practice.
I see this process of confronting our shadow or owning and integrating our inner darkness as an important one for psychological and spiritual transformation as well as to precipitate transformation on a larger scale in our world. Whats happening in our world right now could be and has been described (see www.awakeninthedream.com) as shadow projection on a large scale. People becoming dissociated from their darker side and so projecting it externally onto others that they then proceed to try and destroy so as to symbolically destroy their own inner demons. Carl Jung actually describes demons as autonomous complexes or parts of our own psyche that have become dissociated to such a degree that they have taken on a semi-autonomous existence of their own. Resisting and fighting such processes only makes them stronger and cause great chaos and damage, rather they need to be reintegrated into consciousness by being openly confronted and illuminated. This cannot be done from a fear based mind state but only from one grounded in wisdom and compassion. I think if we can all acknowledge our inner darkness rather than deny or project it we can heal at a very deep level both ourselves and our world.
The greatest darkness holds the greatest potential for light. A shadow can only be cast if there is light nearby, the shadow then points to the very thing the light is illuminating, the very thing to be integrated.
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