Ever since I first heard of shadow work decades ago, I have wondered what exactly it is. I always thought of deep abysses in the soul, traumas, taboos, secrets one had shared with no one because it was too shameful to speak about them. I thought shadows were what we hide from ourselves and from others. And there is probably something to that idea.
But now I have noticed that the shadows first appear elsewhere. They are, in fact, more like the behavioral patterns into which we flee when we do not want to confront something. In my case, for example, it is the flight into academic reflection instead of direct emotional engagement. This is probably where the whole spectrum opens up of what, in the Western tradition, can become the object of therapy: addiction, violence, distorted perception, unhealthy behavioral patterns, fear, inability to bond, and so on. These shadows, which unconsciously guide our behavior, must be perceived. It is important to see which patterns determine our thinking, our feelings, our actions. Perhaps then a knot loosens.
But what interests me is how these shadows manifest in our subtle bodies. We have these different levels of our existence: body, life (breath), sexuality, feeling (heart), mind (intellect), spiritual consciousness, comprehensive consciousness. Through meditation and various yogas, we can become more conscious of these levels. Detaching from the ego allows us to grasp these levels as forms of our existence, each of which is part of a great consciousness: matter, biology, psyche, soul, spirit, consciousness, transcendence. These realities are not merely my personal constitution. They are levels of reality in which I participate, and which manifest themselves in me. This becomes visible only when we detach from our ego. And it is precisely in this entanglement with the ego that the shadows appear. We all have a biography, and it writes itself into our complex being. Our experiences leave traces in our body, our heart, our memory, our thinking.
I have the image that there is a light within us that shines through the levels of our being, and that our experiences, our biography, leave these traces in us. And when something there accumulates or knots itself, hardens or hides; when something breaks or grows; when something is suppressed or becomes independent; when something begins to run on its own and unconscious patterns form — then it casts shadows.
But I want to look a little more closely. So there is an inner light. There is something that casts a shadow. There is also an observer, an actor, and a being. In this temple of the body, our individual being manifests itself. The path of spirituality leads to a point at which this temple is completely illuminated and holds the whole cosmos within itself. It is not really a matter of putting things in order, correcting them, or treating them therapeutically, unless there is genuine distress or a conflict that needs to be resolved. Rather, it is about seeing clearly that which casts the shadows, so that it becomes permeable, transparent.
