Shadow, Shadow, on the Wall

Shadow, shadow, on the wall, what is the most hidden of them all?

I love shadows.

I love watching the shadows of branches and leaves dancing in the wind and sun on the wall of my living room. And I love watching the rainbows all over my living room walls and ceiling cast from the crystals hanging in front of the windows. Granted, these are not shadows but rather projections, but so are shadows.

Visible shadows are the simple play of form on the screen of life. They are cast on the screen of a blank wall or an undulating, kaleidoscopic landscape showing, for example, the shapes of clouds in the sky.  But we can also see shadows as psychological/spiritual and symbolic.

The latter shadows contain hidden things. They can be scary. And our imagination can run wild with what might be jumping out from them.

Our shadow represents what lies hidden in the sub and unconscious mind. Shadows are like archetypes. Archetypes are patterns, images, or instincts of the collective unconscious. They are like a template or program that outlines the way we interact with the world, and they are a potential development.

The archetype is an outline, just like a shadow. There is no specific detail to it. For example, the archetype of mother is an outline or template but the details of that mother vary per person who develops that archetype. Likewise, the shadow is specific to an individual.

The shadow constitutes what we don’t like about ourselves, things we deny and repress, but also things unknown to us that need to come to the surface. So the shadow isn’t bad, although it can have a big negative influence and become vicious. It is really a potential. As with the spiritual journey to wholeness, the treasure lies in the dark, in the shadows. When we connect with and reclaim the shadow, we become whole, even though it can take blood, sweat and tears. We encounter this shadow on the spiritual journey, so the two are intertwined.

When things are hidden and rejected, they can take on scary proportions or characteristics. The more I deny something, the bigger and scarier it gets and the more it will pursue me. In this sense, the biggest and scariest part of me is my own divinity (or God, infinite awareness, pure consciousness, etc.). This can present itself as the most evil monster we have ever encountered.

I have many visions on my spiritual journey and one of them was entering a tunnel or black hole at the end of which was a singularity. The singularity presented itself as the toothed open maw of the biggest monster I had ever experienced. It looked like this probably because this is how my ego viewed it. The ego sees our divinity, or, rather, the vast emptiness of no-thingness, as very dangerous as it spells the end of its existence.

Let’s talk about the denial of the divine. I can be a religiously or spiritually devoted person of faith, but if I believe that I am a child of God, who is like a parent who can bestow good things on me, then I am still denying my divinity and the monster doesn’t let up. If I do believe in my divinity, coming closer to God is still scary as union with it requires a surrender of all of the entity I believe I am. And I will discover this divinity or God to be different than what I thought. Even all the devotion for divinity can fall away and the entire path associated with it. This is a profound adjustment that left me floundering and wondering what had happened. This is not for the faint of heart! This does spell the end of my existence in so far it pertains to my ego. Pretty scary stuff!

Why do I love shadows? I don’t know, but this is what I think. The shadow holds a rich potential, a promise, a promise of being whole, complete, at home. It touches on a longing to know that shadowy mystery, the majestic mystery as a friend calls it, a beautiful description that evokes such a sense of deep presence and being, filled with love and potential.

A shadow is a projection of what is real, and it has the potential to merge with that which projects it. The potential actualized. This is like the annihilation of particles of matter and anti-matter. Also, the projection is the created world and it is awe-fully beautiful. The creations and manifestations of our world of duality are stunning and astounding, both on the positive and negative side.

We can look at the entire cosmos as a massive shadow of the Divine. It is a projection, the created world being a shadow of the real world.

We evolve and so does the cosmos. The created world is full of possibility and potential. We are potential Buddhas and Christs. There is massive potentiality here as much is unknown and hidden in our cosmos; there is much to develop and evolve, one being the realization of what we are at heart.

Physicist Brian Greene suggests imagining our universe like a sphere. The surface of the sphere is the 2D world that projects the 3D world of the hologram in the center. Science now posits that our 3D reality is a hologram, which is a projection! It is at the 2D surface that light refracts to create our physical reality. Everything that happens in this 3D world is a reflection, something mirrored, of laws and processes taking place on the 2D surface. Reality takes place in the 2D world while our 3D world is merely a projection or shadow of the real world.

Shadow, indeed, filled with potential and treasure.

What casts a shadow? There is a source of light and an object in that light obstructing it casts a shadow. For example, a physical body or thing casts a shadow. The body or thing is impermanent as it is subject to death; it will disappear one day. In the subtle realm, it is the entity that thinks it is permanent and has experiences, memories, beliefs, thoughts, emotions and pain that cast a shadow. These are also impermanent, so they also cast a shadow.

We cast shadows at all levels of our being. The physical body casts a visible shadow. The mental body casts the shadow of concepts and thinking; the emotional body of emotions; and the spiritual body of its blueprint and beliefs.

In this sense, the shadow is a form of resistance, as is the ego, which is closely attached to the physical body and the separate entity it thinks it is. Creation happens through friction, through resistance, so that some thing can come forth from no thing. This is the process of evolution.

All this with a purpose. I think this purpose is multifold and drives the expansion of the universe and consciousness, but is encompassed in the purpose of recognizing the self. No, I am not this confused entity running around on the planet who will die and be no more. I am that which projects me and I am that projection at the same time. I am both at the same time, as well as everything else that exists.

I find that everything in life - when you begin to examine things - points to the story of creation and what we are at heart. All roads lead to Rome. Take any road and you will wind up in Rome. Look at any thing and you will find truth. Look at any shadow and you will find your true nature.

How is it even possible that we get so lost? That is the big joke that is shared when we experience our oneness with the Divine and everything that exists. Then it is clear there is no way to not be what we are.

But we do and there is.

This is the illusion. This is the illusion of our powerful minds that create, the magical dance of the created world. The illusion of physical things, thoughts, emotions, actions and beliefs, having created their own illusory world and entity. This doesn’t mean our physical world is an illusion, although this world can be completely dismantled and seen through. The illusion is how we perceive it through the mind, and thinking we are separate entities. This illusion can be very strong and the stronger it is, the harder it may be to wake up from the dream.

I know this from personal experience. I have been lost and I continue to get lost even though I have seen big glimpses of the truth, a truth that has changed me irrevocably. Unfortunately, knowing something is true, even when it comes from the Divine that we are, still doesn’t mean we live that. I can know it and still be lost. It has to be fully realized and lived.

What is gained with this process? Why would infinite awareness create a physical world and pour itself in finite vessels and forget about itself and get hopelessly lost to then find itself again (hopefully)? It is a wonderful and awesome play that can captivate us endlessly. But it can also be horrific as we get caught and stuck in this prison, which gives rise to deep suffering. This is actually where the desire to be free can begin to arise.

It is a wondrous play of recognizing itself through its emanations into duality. Of peering into the shadows to see what lies hidden there. Many clues are left for us as we enter physicality. We don’t enter this realm alone or are left to our own devices, although it can certainly feel that way. Our essence is with us in our own hearts. And it is everywhere around us. It is everything, a tree, a flower, a rock, the sky, the universe. All that is needed is to open to this. As mentioned, everything around us is the way home, if we but open to see it. The shadow is there to be illumined, that mirror that reflects our true face.

That’s the shadow’s potential. How awe-fully exciting!