Shen I first heard about shadow work decades ago, I wondered what exactly it was. I always thought of deep abysses in the soul, traumas, taboos, secrets that you didn't share with anyone because it was too shameful to talk about them. I thought that shadows are what we hide from ourselves and from others. And there is probably something to this idea.
Now I've realized that the shadows first appear somewhere else. They are actually more the behavioral patterns that we flee into when we don't want to deal with something. For me, for example, it's the escape into academic reflection instead of dealing with something directly on an emotional level. This probably opens up the whole spectrum of what can be the subject of therapy in the Western tradition: Addiction, violence, distorted perception, unhealthy behavior patterns, anxiety, inability to bond, etc.... It is important to recognize these shadows that unconsciously guide our behaviour. It is important to see which patterns determine our thinking, our feelings and our actions. Perhaps a knot will then be untied.
But I am interested in how these shadows manifest in our subtle bodies. We have these different levels of our existence: body, life (breath), sexuality, emotion (heart), spirit (mind), spiritual consciousness, comprehensive consciousness. We can become more aware of these levels through meditation and various yogas. Detaching from the ego allows us to understand these levels as forms of our existence, each of which is part of a larger consciousness: Matter, Biology, Psyche, Soul, Spirit, Consciousness, Transcendence. These realities are not just my personal constitution, they are levels of reality in which I participate, which manifest themselves in me. This only becomes visible when we detach ourselves from our ego. And it is precisely in this entanglement with the ego that the shadows appear. We all have a biography and this is inscribed in our complex being. Our experiences leave traces in our body, our heart, in our memory, in our thinking.
I have the idea that there is a light in us that shines through the levels of our being, and our experiences, our biography, leave these traces in us. And when something builds up or becomes knotted, hardened or hidden, when something breaks or grows, when something is suppressed or takes on a life of its own, when something becomes self-perpetuating and unconscious patterns form, then it casts a shadow.
But I would like to take a closer look. So there is an inner light, there is something that casts a shadow, there is also an observer, an actor and a being. Our individual being manifests itself in this temple of the body. The path of spirituality leads to a point where this temple is fully illuminated and holds the entire cosmos within it. It is not so much about fixing or correcting things, about therapy (unless there is real suffering or conflict that needs to be resolved). It is much more about seeing clearly what is casting shadows so that it becomes permeable (transparent).
