I have a very dear friend who sends me interesting podcasts and YouTube videos to listen to and watch. Yesterday I watched part of one where two women were discussing ‘Them, They, The Cabal’ and something inside of me went on alert. Who the hell are they talking about? The conversation was also very dualistic They/Them were Dark and Evil and the speakers put themselves into the Light and Good basket. Naming themselves ‘Light-workers’ but in a manner that seemed to dismiss the darker elements within us all.
With so many conspiracy theories running rampant currently, it made me think about the ‘Evil’ in the world and what action we can take to change it. Most of us can see that there is something fundamentally wrong with the road humanity is taking and that something drastically needs to change, but what?
When humans are uncertain or scared we tend to project. I believe that this pandemic is asking of us to look at our Shadows as a race, culture and as individuals. Projecting the Shadow may look like blame- ‘It’s Bill Gates and his vaccinations that is out to get us, it’s 5G, the virus was made on purpose in a lab, they want to control us, take away our freedoms’, etc. This is our shadow fears trying to put an externalised face onto what is happening internally, it also doesn’t mean that this isn’t happening but what is problematic is the concept that ‘They’ are ‘Bad’ and others are ‘Good’ and how this kind of thinking is very disempowering and stops us looking inside. Because there’s these untouchable gang of ‘Bad Guys’.
In the Archetype work that I do nothing is all good or bad. It’s like the Yin-Yang Symbol, the dark and light are intertwined, there is a bit of each in both and they are in balance. We can get a good idea of our personal ‘Shadow’ from the things that we avoid, are scared of, even hate in others. These are good signs that perhaps something lurks in our psyche that may need to be brought out into the light.
Shadow-work comes from the practice of the esteemed psychologist Carl Jung and refers to the unacceptable aspects of ourselves rejected by family and society in childhood that we disown, deny or suppress. When we are young our psyche divides some things into the subconscious unaware aspects of ourselves. The shadow may also contain some positive elements of self that may be rejected as children to fit in with the structures of our family and those around us. Feelings of rejection and shame can come up during shadow-work it is very confronting and dangerous for the psychological self and hence it may be very challenging or difficult as the fractured elements of our self are confronted so as we can become psychologically whole again.
If our Shadow is denied it tends to play itself out without own control or knowledge…’ They are trying to control us”. It manifests as unhelpful behaviours that appear to come from nowhere. If the shadow is rejected ….’ it’s that person or things fault’ we know what it is but as we don’t acknowledge it as part of us we push it away and blame. I feel that now is an important time to do our shadow dance where we can embrace the darker more hidden and unwanted aspects of ourselves. The parts that have been put away for fear of shame or ridicule or not been accepted, they do not fit with the picture of how we see ourselves or wish to be seen by others. The parts the ego finds difficult to accept.
We can’t change ‘They, Them, The Cabal’ but we can work on ourselves. We can use this time to go inward and explore our inner worlds, to take a more honest and accepting view of ourselves, the good, the bad and the ugly, the dark and the light, because we all have all within us. We can feel empowered again instead of disempowered by ‘Them’.
Covid-19, as I see it, is an opportunity. It is giving some of us time to slow down and not only see the world we are creating with clearer eyes(I want to write clearer skies) but to come home to ourselves. To clear out our closets, metaphorically and find the hidden skeletons and to hold them and dance them into the light of day.
If you are fearful of being controlled perhaps you could ask your self –‘Where do I give away my power?’ Scared of being poisoned by vaccines or 5G – “What toxic ideas, beliefs, thoughts or habits do I engage with or generate? What do I need to detox from? Ie Social Media. Feel like ‘They are out to get me/us?’ What part of your Shadow psyche is asking to be acknowledged? What darker aspect of yourself needs your conscious attention and integration? What if ‘They’ are the hidden, repressed and denied aspects of yourself and what would happen if you faced, accepted and integrated these aspects? Oh, what then?
What if the conspiracy theories that are so prevalent during this pandemic are elements of our own individual psyches projected as shadows into the world, fed and shared but the work, the change we can make is actually at home, within ourselves?
If this is a journey you are interested in engaging with speak to My Way Therapy for support.
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