By Judy Harrow
I had trouble writing this essay. It seems overwhelmingly difficult to think or write about the Shadow, even in a theoretical mode. How much more difficult must it be, then, to actually encounter our own personal shadows, the challenges (or challengers) that await us at various points in our inner journeys?
Yet, if we do not engage with and resolve those challenges, we cannot progress. Consider Inanna, Who had to pass seven gates, and meet seven challenges, before She could confront Her own dark sister in the Underworld.
Our Shadows are terrifying aspects, yet integral part of us. We can make them disappear — temporarily — by staying out of the light, by immersing ourselves in shadow. This may be what happens when the autonomous, responsible individual disappears into a flock, finding some sense of righteousness in uncritical obedience to authority or adherence to group norms. At worst, such flocks turn into violent mobs: crusaders, jihadists, lynching parties.
What’s been said…