Integration of the Shadows

The Conservative (masculine) Shadow

We once treated nature well. We've been terrible stewards since the industrial revolution        

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Jesus espoused mostly feminine values. He was also a SJW. Many recent civilizations torture, rape and kill the feminine, the wild, the untamed and those who resist.

Good christian compassion--taking care of savages

It's a bargain now, but it will cost your descendants much in guilt and therapy

The liberal (feminine) Shadow

Men use to have work that was engaging, challenging and useful to our families and communities.

Now, if we don't want to be racist or misogynist, we have boring, abstract, or not appreciated, or not always obviously useful work:

They think they're oppressed because they have less privilege than they used to (sarcasm)

It's no wonder we sometimes turn to violence:

Male privilege? 97% of those lynched were male

You're fired! For being inappropriate

Love, generosity, high ideals are not enough to create a thriving culture. Without boundaries, competition, proportional punishment and monitoring, the idealists are guillotined, sent to gulags, shot, parasitised or crucified.

Out of those arrested for homicides, men get executed 6 times more than women.

In the previous post I talked about two collective shadows, one from the Right (or more accurately the conservatives), and one from the Left (or more accurately the liberals). Right and Left are not just about policies but about value hierarchies and personality types (see Jonathan Haidt's work on the 6 values that differ between Right and Left), so it is not surprising that there should be two complexes of symbols and values (with some overlap) and collective memories that are distinctly obscure to these two different groups. It also seems to me that there is a correlation between the conservative personality type and masculinity, and the left and femininity, but it is very imprecise. There might also be a correlation with social class, but we won't discuss that here.  All these might be about left and right brain regions, or about the module in the brain that deals with opposites.

It is possible to do personal integration, but it is also possible to do collective integration. Both of these require facing the shadow, either in oneself, or in the other.

The following examples are supposed to illustrate how a personal shadow might form in the first place (and we can try generalizing about the genesis of collective traumas), through traumatic childhood experiences that are not fully processed. People not willing to look at information, or trying to suppress it is a shadow for me that was probably formed from some of those experiences I mention below. But it's also possible that it's a more general phenomenon that trauma is sometimes buried (perhaps during the process of dissociation) and turns into a shadow. My particular traumas make me especially sensitive to other people's shadows, since they are associated with other people trying to suppress information! 

I know when my shadow is being triggered when I get angry with someone for being a certain way and I start thinking of things that it reminds me of. For example, when someone refuses to look at certain data, whether from science or history, because they are convinced they know already, or because of their faith, I get angry. I think of Galileo trying to show the priests the rings of Saturn through the telescope, and their refusal because it can't possibly be true according to their church dogma (if I recall that story correctly), and their adding salt to injury by wanting to burn him. I especially get mad when people are smug and sure that they are right. Instead of getting mad and projecting my shadow unto them, I could try to delve deeper and face this shadow. First in myself, asking "when did something like this happen in my personal life, maybe during childhood"? I recall playing a board game when someone discounted something I did and would not want to listen to what I was saying and me feeling really hurt by it, like an injustice has been committed. Or the teenage boy who threatened to kill my father if I didn't tie his shoelaces (I was too young to know how to do it properly, but I tried) and then threatening to kill my father if I told anyone. Or my mother pretending (even to her own conscious mind) like the pot roast my grandmother left on the stove without a lid did not have flies in it, and mixing them all in to destroy the evidence so that she could feed it to her coworker for lunch. Or the judge who would not listen to how I was already paying child support in a much greater amount than was appropriate based on my and my ex-wife's income, and how I did not agree with my son being sent to private school, so of course I didn't want to pay extra for his schooling. Or not allowing as evidence that I was a better parent, the answering machine tape that had him begging for me to come get him after being kicked on the floor after refusing to do laundry just the way she wanted. Or not being able to listen to the girl playing guitar at the recital because I was in a laughing mood and causing her to leave the stage in tears because of my laughter. There is a cruelty in me in inflicting on others the same cruelty that has been inflicted on me by others. But instead of facing that cruelty in me, I denounce others when I see it in them. On the other hand, humor and laughter are attempts to integrate opposites, or maybe the two hemispheres. What has come to be known as internet memes also seem to engage both hemispheres and could be a tool for shadow integration.

Beyond the personal, there is collective trauma, such as the Holocaust, or black slavery, or Jim Crow, or the genocide of native people, or witch burnings that I can feel somehow, not just as an abstract intellectual thing. Maybe from a past life, or maybe because our brains are antennae that can pick up information stored in a morphic field (which could be yet unknown to science or a known field like spacetime that has memory storage properties yet unmeasured). There might be some memory in epigenetic changes to bio-molecules. Or maybe from reading history, reading literature and watching historical movies.

So the collective trauma can be addressed by me alone, or by engaging with others who seem to be repeating it, but instead of repeating it, I could try to do something different. But I must be able to engage with them rather than "agreeing to disagree".

Still, it seems that if someone refuses to look at something that they haven't seen before, it could be because they are afraid of unearthing a shadow. I have a similar experience when someone is trying to evangelize me and I refuse to look at their holy book, either because I've already read some of it, or because I've seen enough holy books in my life to know that a book is not going to make much of a difference to me, unless it has some radically new ideas.

I'd like to suggest that if you are feeling an emotional resistance to looking at a movie or reading a book or having a conversation with someone there might be a shadow involved, as opposed to simply not having time.

And who wants to confront his own death? That seems to be a big shadow for many people. What if our whole civilization is dying like all the ones before it? That might be a collective shadow shared by both right and left.

Humor and laughter seem to be integrative experiences, though sometimes they fall short and someone's shadow, instead of being integrated, is triggered.

To summarize, in order to integrate a shadow:
1. Confront it in yourself. Try to remember when it started. Dig deep and go for feelings in addition to insights. Realize that it is not just out there, but a part of you.
2. Confront it in others. Not in a belligerent way, but in a transparent, curious and empathetic way. The people who you are least likely to talk to are the ones that can teach you most about your shadow.
3. Make peace with it in whatever way works, whether through humor, boundary setting, punishment, reward, reading literature, poetry or looking at memes, but most of all understanding.
Most good comedy and poetry tries to integrate shadows. Here is a little poem that touches on some collective shadows:
Tell me again
When I’ve been to the river
And I’ve taken the edge off my thirst
Tell me again
We’re alone and I’m listening
I’m listening so hard that it hurts
Tell me again
When I’m clean and I’m sober
Tell me again
When I’ve seen through the horror
Tell me again
Tell me over and over
Tell me that you want me then

Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen

Tell me again
When the victims are singing
And the laws of remorse are restored
Tell me again
That you know what I’m thinking
But vengeance belongs to the Lord
Tell me again
When I’m clean and I’m sober
Tell me again
When I’ve seen through the horror
Tell me again
Tell me over and over
Tell me that you love me then

Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen

Tell me again
When the day has been ransomed
And the night has no right to begin
Try me again
When the angels are panting
And scratching at the door to come in
Tell me again
When I’m clean and I’m sober
Tell me again
When I’ve seen through the horror
Tell me again
Tell me over and over
Tell me that you need me then

Amen
Amen
Amen
Amen

Tell me again
When the filth of the butcher
Is washed in the blood of the lamb
Tell me again
When the rest of the culture
Has passed through the eye of the camp
Tell me again
When I’m clean and I’m sober
Tell me again
When I’ve seen through the horror
Tell me again
Tell me over and over
Tell me that you love me then

Jordan Peterson and the Collective Shadows of Western Civilization

A Jungian shadow is an unconsious blind spot that can have a will of its own, usually malevolent, or at least animalistic and wild, unconcerned with the needs of others. It can be shared by a whole culture, beyond individual unconsciousness.

The shadow of leftists has been unearthed by Jordan Peterson, although many right leaning people are also aware of it. It is the existence of malevolence, pleasure in domination, greed for power, betrayal, freeloading, relinquishing responsibility/blaming others for hardships and one's personal character inadequacies, objectifying, animalistic lust, in people who should be at the top of the "hierarchy of being oppressed". In everyone, in fact, including the leftists. There is a naivete in leftists who see the world in tribal terms, in good guys vs bad guys terms, or oppressors and oppressed, and are surprised when evil comes from within their own ranks or the ranks of the (previously) oppressed, without or prior to systemic support. They realize it too late, before the guillotine comes down, or as they're picking rocks in the gulag, or as they enter the gas chambers or facing the firing squad (when their liberal neighbors collaborated in their being sent there), or as their wife leaves them with most of their assets and children. JP has an exercise for his students, to have them imagine what it would be like to be a concentration camp guard. But it would be just as useful for them to imagine being a republican farmer, without labeling that person as racist and ignorant. To see what motivates that person that is not just fear or hatred. Or to imagine being the pedophile or the rapist. To see their humanity, their unmet needs for intimacy, for sex, for connection, and also for domination and power. There is an evasion of this latter in NVC (a very liberal invention), which says that real malevolence or domination is an epi-phenomenon, that it is really fear or some strategy for getting genuine benevolent needs met. The Jungian model on the other hand says that the malevolence comes from the shadow when it is not integrated into the individual or collective consciousness (I'll talk about what integration looks like in a future post), so one can be possessed by this force. It is still there when it is integrated, but under control. The malevolence and lust for power of the rapist is matched by the malevolence and lust for revenge of the lynch mob, as they both are possessed by this shadow.

One could say that the left has mostly masculine shadows, whereas the right has mostly feminine shadows. A part of masculine sexuality is dangerous when not integrated. It wants to fuck without concern for the experience of the other. It wants to express power, sometimes violence, through sex. When integrated it can be a source of pleasure for the other as well as oneself, creativity and productivity. Supposedly "the meek shall inherit the earth" can be translated also as "those with their swords sheathed shall inherit the earth". Note the phallic symbolism. The benevolent masculine (which is also obscure to the left) is about using intrinsic gifts in service to family and community, but this comes with a hint of danger, with an integrated animalistic shadow lurking underneath. Great suffering comes to those men who can't be of service and be appreciated for that. And the left is blind to this suffering, thinking that men are just like women and need safety and comfort and nurture to the exclusion of challenge and a matching of gifts to community needs. The left is also blind to the fact that hierarchies are not just about power and freeloading, but also about competence and skill and wisdom.

Just as the shadow of leftists is more conscious in rightists, the shadow of rightists is more conscious in leftists. They recall the witch (really healer women) burnings, the genocide of native peoples, the enslavement and oppression of black people, the disrespect for feminine intuition, nurture, body wisdom and deep connection in favor of impersonal reason, the domination of nature, the crucifixion of Jesus (not as a pre-ordained event, but as the oppression of a social revolutionary trying to evoke feminine values), the destruction of cottage and home-based industries (sometimes a domain of women), sex trade of women who lead miserable disempowered lives. The attempt at consciousness of these things, combined with the unconscious leftist shadow can lead to rage and a projection of that shadow unto men, or white people. It's not just the unconsciousness of historical events, but the unconsciousness of current events. The gnawing feeling that our Faustian civilization (to use Oswald Spengler's term) is destroying our soul, the feminine, nature and we are complicit by the work we choose, by the products we buy, by pieces of our mother earth we carve up to own and extract resources from (instead of receiving gifts from and stewarding), by how we see the world and live our lives.

Jordan Peterson shows hints of being aware of this shadow. He mentions how good he is at dancing (a collaborative enterprise with females). He mentions mystical experiences that can happen through music, sex (as a way to divine connection, not just as a gratification of a biological itch), prayer and dance. He is even aware of the mystical experiences that can be stimulated by Ayahuasca (DMT) and Psilocybin in his discussion with Ben Shapiro, who exemplifies the right. Ben Shapiro on the other hand is (almost) completely oblivious to feelings, mystical experiences and the possible awakening to the Feminine that drugs can induce, though he is aware of the mystical branch of Judaism (the Hassidim), but only in an intellectual way.

Also, JP is aware of collective guilt, which is another sign of a shadow operating. When one shines light on the shadow, the guilt evaporates, to be replaced by compassion for all involved, and a desire to make things better. SJWs on the other hand are using the collective white and male guilt/shadow as a weapon to silence whites and males.

These two shadows can oscillate back and forth into prevalence during the life of a culture, perhaps even as one culture embodying one shadow dies and another embodying the opposite shadow is born. Such might have been the case with the death of Tribal civilizations and the rise of the Judaeo-Christian culture. It almost was able to integrate feminine values with Jesus, but it didn't quite make it. Fear of collective cultural death due to an extreme in either of these shadows can itself be a shadow. What emerges when these shadows are integrated, with the collaboration of the left and the right could be a new culture. Like what happened in The Dark Crystal, when the Mystics and Skeksys were united. Integrating these shadows within ourselves is a prerequisite to integrating them as other people from the opposite side of the political spectrum.

And what happens to those who point to other people's collective shadows? They are usually killed. I'm thinking here of Jesus, Gandhi, MLK, Medgar Evers, Oscar Romero, and the historically nameless numerous female healers who perished by fire.

Here is what L. Cohen had to say about all this:

Give me back my broken night
My mirrored room, my secret life
It's lonely here,
There's no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
Over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby
That's an order

Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
And stuff it up the hole
In your culture
Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St. Paul
I've seen the future, brother
It is murder

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold
And it has overturned
The order of the soul
When they said (they said) repent (repent), repent (repent)
I wonder what they meant
When they said (they said) repent (repent), repent (repent)
I wonder what they meant
When they said (they said) repent (repent), repent (repent)
I wonder what they meant

You don't know me from the wind
You never will, you never did
I'm the little Jew
Who wrote the Bible
I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
But love's the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
To say it clear, to say it cold
It's over, it ain't going
Any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
You feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future
It is murder

There'll be the breaking of the ancient
Western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road
And the white man dancing
You'll see a woman
Hanging upside down
Her features covered by her fallen gown
And all the lousy little poets
Coming round
Tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
And the white man dancin'

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St. Paul
Give me Christ or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby
it is murder

and here is what JR Tolkien had to say (does Gandalf integrate Shadow, or merely slay it?):

Durin's Bane