Evil Persona, Shadow and the Transformation of Community
Abstract
In Part IV-B I examine what Sri
Aurobindo referred to as the humankind’s double nature consisting of its animal
nature of instincts impulses desires and automatisms and its higher,
self-reflective, mental, aesthetic, ethical and spiritual nature. I particulary
study humankind in terms of modern western individuals, with their damned-up
repressed instincts. I then study the Evil Persona as defined by Sri Aurobindo,
suggesting that it be understood in light of the persona as presented by CG
Jung. Sri Aurobindo defined it as a being that is attached to the sadhaks who
creates wrong conditions. The persona is the ideal image and mask that one
wears to present oneself to the world, either professionally or otherwise.
Although the persona serves the purpose of greasing the wheels of life, one is
enjoined not to identify with its false wrappings. The Evil Persona, in fact,
seems to be a product of both the workings of the persona, and also the shadow.
The brighter and more virtuous the persona, then the darker is the shadow, the
repressed other side of the coin. If the falseness of the Evil Persona can be
relegated to the field of the Asura of Falsehood, then the darkness of the
shadow is the realm of the Asura of Ignorance. I then examine the nature of
first the personal shadow and then the archetypal shadow, or the shadow side of
the God-image. The personal shadow is not evil per se, but awkward and
ill-adapted aspects of the psyche that need to be integrated into
consciousness, often to the advantage of gaining a greater range of life and
instinctual connectedness. At the archetypal level, the goal is for to suffer
the opposites of good and evil, to allow them to come together in the Self as a
vessel filled with divine conflict. I end the essay by studying the shadow as
positive value and source of vitality, and then indicate how the
spiritualization and assimilation of the animal shadow at an individual level
enhances the transformation of community.
This bodily appearance is not all;
The form deceives, the person is a
mask;
Hid deep in man celestial powers
can dwell.
(Sri Aurobindo, Savitri, p. 23)
It is amazing, amazing—this power
of self-deception, the mind’s skill in finding an admirable justification for
any ignorance, any stupidity whatsoever.
(The Mother, 2004, p. 225)
The spirit of evil is fear,
negation, the adversary who opposes life... he is the spirit of regression, who
threatens us with bondage... dissolution and extinction in the unconscious.
(CG Jung, 1974a, p. 354)
O Mother, give to our life and mind
the Asura’s strength, the Asura’s energy and to our hearts and intelligence a
God’s character and a God’s knowledge. (Sri Aurobindo, as reported in Nolini
Kanta Gupta, 1977, p. 21n)
Together the patient and I address
ourselves to the 2,000,000 year old man that is in all of us. In the last
analysis, most of our difficulties come from losing contact with our instincts,
with the age-old unforgotten wisdom stored up in us.
(CG Jung, as reported in William
McGuire and R. F. C.
An important goal of the opus is
realization of the fourfold quaternity of the mental, vital and physical planes
of being organized around the psychic being. This requires coming to terms with
the persona and the shadow.
Preamble on the Condition of the Collective Psyche
This essay is on the nature of the
persona and the shadow, two complementary aspects of human nature, especially
with respect to building a new world and the transformation of community.
Understanding and coming to terms with these two psychological factors and how
they play themselves out in both individuals and the community are, in my
opinion, highly significant for this realization. The Mother said on this
subject that it is of “capital importance,” while lamenting that it is very
little discussed. [1] Not only is the subject matter itself intrinsically
interesting, studying it broadens one’s understanding of life in general and,
at least for some people, it opens up potential for a fuller, more vital life.
It is a subject that is
particularly relevant for the Westerner and European, who come with their
monumental saurian tail that is forgotten or denied to everybody’s peril. It
not only includes a long history of colonialism and suppression of indigenous
people and their culture, but a trail of ongoing devastation and world
conflicts, all in the name of cultural superiority and outright arrogance. From
the point of view of world culture, the curious fact that the Western world,
thanks to its interpretation of Christianity, split good and evil into two
irreconcilable opposites is incomprehensible in the light of
depth-psychological understanding of human nature. Christian dogma that
attributes all good to God and all evil to man—omne bonum a Deo, omne malum ab homine, has had repercussions on
Westerners that have the effect of exaggerating moralistic tendencies and the
projection of cultural and spiritual inferiority onto other people. This contrasts with the Hindu tradition,
where humans are sanctified as God or the Divine Mother, a much saner
understanding. Moreover evil, in the Hindu tradition, has been typically
understood as ignorance and the dark face of God, whereas, in its privatio boni doctrine, Christianity
concluded that evil is only a deprivation of good and insubstantial in its own
right, thereby underestimating the destructive role of evil and the
unassimilated shadow and their impact on life. CG Jung found both these
doctrinal propositions of Christianity psychologically untenable and the reason
for much of the psycho-spiritual imbalance in the Western mind. [2] Especially
for people with a European background, but others as well, there is a
compelling need to understand the nature of good and evil and their place in
the psychological economy of life both collectively and, most importantly,
individually.
For much of the twentieth century
Europe was split by an iron curtain dividing
Contemporary Complications
The situation described above is
complicated by two principal facts. The first is that in
The other principal complicating
factor is that, despite the contemporary dominance and apparent successes of
the right wing global economic enterprise, a growing faction of people in the
West are deeply dissatisfied with the Western experience and are seeking
alternative life-styles. [4] Although some of it involves an ardent quest for
living in harmony with the ecology, there is also a search for religious and
spiritual integrity as well as a sense of genuine community. Indeed, for this
very reason, many Westerners are attracted to primal cultures, especially to
In the case of new world style
communities where human unity is a conscious ideal, there is another important,
this time, psychological factor to consider. Not only can people from different
cultures have a generative and creative influence on each other but they can,
just as likely, also infect each other unconsciously, stimulating shadow
values. Inasmuch as one does not become conscious of how one is being
influenced, the effect can only be negative, overtly or subtly affecting normal
ego functioning. For people from cultures with strong ego development and a
feeling of cultural and/or spiritual superiority this is a decided risk. For
those with relatively weak ego development, for instance, local villagers, it
is more likely that an aspiration for the development of ego consciousness and
modernization opens them to being more consciously influenced—as long as
resistance to modernization has been overcome. In this case the risk is the
development of a perverse persona and the shadow values that accompany it. Meanwhile
post-colonial countries are often perplexed and very resistant to the moral
relativity they experience in Westerners and Europeans under postmodern
influences, although some, perhaps unconsciously, also succumb to its seductive
appeal. The spirit of place is, of course, always making its influence felt,
although consciousness of shadow and persona are indispensable for
collaboration with it to be realized in harmony with a higher will.
Humankind’s Double Nature
I wrote the above preamble on the
condition of the collective psyche along with its contemporary complications in
order to help put this discussion in perspective. For the development of a new world style
community, especially one with an ideal of human unity, it is very evident that
coming to terms with human imperfection is the first order of business.
Otherwise, there is the distinct danger of creating some form of postmodern
neo-colonialism, whether the neo-colonialists are from the West, from elsewhere
or whether they consist of some combination of power-ambitious individuals,
along with silent or explicit collusion from all members of the community. Whatever the case may be, coming to terms
with the persona and shadow, the subject of this essay, is vital. Moreover, it
is exceptionally important to realize that the problem is never only personal
but also collective and that individuals carry both the genius and shadow of
their own cultural background, from which there is no escape.
Indeed, as Jung perceptively wrote,
“the dammed up instinct forces in civilized man are immensely more destructive
than the instincts of the primitive, who, in a modest degree is constantly
living his negative instincts.” [5] The radical cleaving asunder of good and
evil in the Christian psyche, especially in the northern part of the globe, has
resulted in an opaque shadow that lies behind its consistent belief in moral
and cultural superiority. This is based on a tremendous power drive and the
projection on to other people of evil and cultural inferiority. Although the
darkness is not as black as with Westerners, certain parts of the post-colonial
world also exhibit a disquieting sense of cultural and spiritual superiority,
along with projections of inferiority onto other people, including their own
fellow citizens.
With the depiction of the violent
Orcs, Balrogs and monstrous animals working for the forces of evil, Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings poignantly
captures the repressed dynamic referred to in the above paragraph. It takes the
down-home humility of the Hobbit, Frodo, to ultimately sacrifice the ring of
power (along with his ring-finger, symbolizng ego-consciousness), at which time
the war between good and evil is over, with a victory for the Good. This
portends an elevated human rule with life organized around the Self and Eros,
meaning individual relationships and community life based on love. This, of
course, was Christ’s victory over the temptations of the power-driven animus of
ancient
Sri Aurobindo wrote that the
imperfection in the human being springs from the fact that it is of “a double
nature,” an animal nature consisting of instincts, impulses, desires and
unconscious automatisms along with a self-reflective and conscious higher
mental, aesthetic, ethical, emotional and dynamic nature. [6] Not even
Likewise, Jung considered the
imperfection of the creation the result of an unconscious and “not yet
transformed Deity,” a fact that is very evident in the study of the Bible and
Judeo-Christian history. [10] The psychological implications are, as Jung insisted,
that “there is no light without shadow and no psychic wholeness without
imperfection” and that “life calls not for perfection but completeness.” [11] Contemporary
psychology is indeed witness to the fact that the ego’s striving for perfection
and light, at the expense of the shadow side of life, is the source of severe
pathology and loss of containment and balance.
The Evil Persona
The moral issue raised here
concerns the psychological nature of the shadow side of life and the way of
coming to terms with it. To understand what is involved, it is necessary to
discuss both the natures of what Jung called the persona and what he refers to
as the shadow, two complementary sides of the same coin. As a matter of fact,
an ashramite by the name of Kishor Gandhi had presented Sri Aurobindo with some
of Jung’s writings, presumably on the nature of the persona and possibly the
shadow, which captured his attention. (Paulette Hadnagy) In his own words Sri
Aurobindo wrote that the subject “interests me greatly”. [12] Gandhi, who was
the editor of an Annual, Sri Aurobindo’s
Circle, published a letter of Sri Aurobindo’s on the subject, along with an
article on the Evil Persona by Raymond de Becker in August 1953. In the letter, Sri Aurobindo referred to the
“Evil Persona” as a “being” attached to someone intensely involved in the yoga
“which is just the contradiction of the thing he centrally represents in the
work to be done. [13] He went on to say that “its business seems to oppose, to
create stumblings and wrong conditions, to set before him the whole problem of
the work he has started to do.” [14] At the same time Sri Aurobindo saw it as
necessary for the disciple to personalize the problem and make “the difficulty
his own.” [15]
In the light of these comments it
is intriguing to note that the original Hebrew meaning of the word satan, the
name of Judeo-Christian Devil, is ‘adversary,’ ‘obstacle’ and ‘opposition.’ [16]
The English word devil, meanwhile, derives from Greek diabolos, meaning
“‘slanderer’, ‘perjurer’ or ‘adversary’ in court.” [17] Although the Christian
moralistic solution is hopelessly one-sided, the problem is not new,
particularly in the Judeo-Christian tradition, where emphasis has been put on
coming to terms with a morally ambivalent God in historical time. [18] Despite
the reality of Devils, Asuras and other “hostile forces” it is not a question
of blaming them for either the conflicted conditions of one’s own life or the
life of the community. “Their role,” observed the Mother, is to make “you see
and feel all the progress that has yet to be made.” [19] Thus the recognition
of the need for personalization of the difficulty involved and taking on the
full burden of one’s life brings the issue forcefully home for people in search
of greater consciousness and self-knowledge today.
Sri Aurobindo was a consummate
master of the English language and chose his words with considerable feeling
discernment and care. For this reason I am convinced that his choice of the
word persona was not fortuitous but judicious. In ancient
The problematic reality of daily
life, however, generally still needs attending.
In this light a middle-aged woman dreamt that she stripped naked in
front of a sympathetic and understanding male friend and then, in the
following, dream, he suggested she put on a beautiful silken black and white
gown with rhinestones and diamonds, which she did. Consciously she was
concerned about the problem of the persona and how to express herself with her
sisters, with whom she felt considerable anger and resentment. Nakedness in the
dream refers to a condition without a persona, whereas the beautiful dress
symbolizes a refined expression of value and attitude. The dream, in other
words, indicates compensatory integration of the opposites by way of the
heart-Self or psychic being, represented by the diamonds and rhinestones. It is
as if to say the persona needs to be refined or replaced by a direct expression
of feeling that integrates and transcends both her anger and normal desire to
present something of an ideal face to her sisters.
The persona is, at best, a
necessary evil, but necessary nonetheless, at least until a deeper reality
comes forward. Ideally it is flexible and infused with circumstantially
appropriate feeling values and evaluative discernment, and one does not identify
with it. First and foremost, it represents the role one plays in life, either
professionally or otherwise, and is filled out in choice of dress, comportment,
office space, diploma, business card, residence, car or bicycle and so on. It
is Herr Professor, with an armload of weighty books and a pensive look, the
smartly dressed police officer, with baton and commanding style, the mental
health worker with overweening concern, the all-knowing doctor dressed in a
white robe and stethoscope, and the dutiful housewife with her “feminine”
allure.
In the marketing-oriented world of
today, the persona has taken on an added dimension of falsity having become
“personalized” and manufactured in the desire to project an image or different
images of choice according to the situation and public appeal. In the
contemporary postmodern world, one can now be a serious business executive now
a dashing playboy, now a decisive war-President, now a warm and fuzzy family
man, sportsman and down-home Texan. Although, outside of a variety of
“feminine” personas, for instance, one is limited to the roles of wife and
mother or a man’s companion, its principal carrier has typically been men. Now,
of course, women play many different roles, including that of the business
executive and government bureaucrat and, dressed in their power suits, like
men, they too are subject to its dissembling seductions.
The persona has the function of
greasing the wheels of life, while giving one the confidence that the role
being played is up to collective standards and expectations. Its other function is self-protection in the
harsh reality of life. Although, in the West today, far too much of one’s
essential nature is sacrificed on the altar of the collective psyche, it is
still a requirement of the collective life of the community. Ego identification
with the persona and relying on it for self-esteem, respectability and
self-definition, still often the case is, however, problematic. Too much
concern over one’s worldly image and unduly concealing or repressing one’s
inadequacies is a sin against nature. If nothing else, the repression involved
can negatively affect people in one’s environment, for instance, through
displaced anger expressed towards one’s children and spouse. Moreover, children
often feel compelled to live out the parents’ repressed dark side. In the final
analysis, community life organized with only minimal concern for the persona
would have a felicitous and resounding effect, and potentially improve both
individual psychological well-being as well as the functioning of society.
There are other considerations
regarding the persona, however, which may be more relevant, especially amongst
spiritual seekers and idealists aspiring to bring in a new world. In such
circles, people may constantly re-invent themselves in the search of some form
of utopian fulfillment of being. In this case there are, at least, two
possibilities. Although there are individuals who excel in some new enterprise
as if to say they have found their place, ambition often propels one to take on
a persona and do work without either qualification or the natural
pre-disposition. In other cases there is, what Jung referred to as, a
“regressive restoration of the persona” where, after some defeat in life and
shattered persona, one takes on a lesser role than one’s true capacity. [25]
In some cases, it may not
necessarily be a defeat in life, but discouragement by the ambivalent values of
the contemporary world and motivation by the romantic ideal of a simple life,
where the fulfillment of wholeness is seriously devalued. In either case, as
Jung observed, one’s life can then amount to nothing other than “a cheap
imitation”. [26] I am fully aware that hard necessity often drives work values
in idealistic or spiritually-oriented communities and that, in some cases,
doing menial or other humble work can be an act of bhakti and surrender to the
Guru or Divine, ultimately for the sake of realizing a more authentic life.
Nonetheless, seeking a simple life can also involve resistance to taking on the
full burden of one’s life and Jung’s biting comment is relevant, suggesting the
need for honest discernment and integrity.
I am also aware of several cases
where life has eventually been re-cast, more according to the truth of one’s being,
and this, in my estimation, represents the ideal. For example, a middle-aged Canadian man, who
had lived for a number if years with a negatively restored persona, dreamt that
the heart of Whitman is still beating. Walt Whitman is the nineteenth century
American poet of freedom, of whom Sri Aurobindo writes that “he arrives at some
first profound sense of the greater self of the individual, of the greater
sense of the greater self in the community of the race….” [27] The genius of
the
One’s-Self I sing, a simple
separate person,
Yet utter the word Democratic, the
word En-Masse….
Of Life immense in passion, pulse
and power,
Cheerful, for freest action form’d
under the laws divine,
The Modern Man I sing.
In the current American adulation
of sports heroes, entertainers and the unbridled license to manipulate images
through advertising and public relations, this spirit is perverted and mistaken
for ego individualism and its persona, “a mask that feigns individuality”. [29]
The man referred to above is, in fact, in the process of reformulating his life
in a way that suits his inherent talents and authentic self-expression of
being, by which not only he, personally, but also the community can benefit.
This at least is the potential and a sign of vocation, the finding of which
requires shifting attention away from collective standards to the inner voice of
the Self and one’s uniqueness. This requires, as Jung [30] observed, “trustful
loyalty” in the inborn law of one’s life, one’s swadharma or self-law. In
the words of Sri Aurobindo, this involves ultimately doing work “according to
the truth within us,” which “should not be an accommodation with outward and
artificial standards,” but “a living and sincere expression of the soul and its
inmost powers.” [31] The final answer to the persona, in other words, is
withdrawing energy away from its false standards and living according to the
values of the psychic being or heart-Self and related expressions of the
archetypal psyche.
The Mother made some remarkable
comments regarding a certain aspect of the persona that are worthy of serious
contemplation. Some of her disciples might be astonished to read her
observation that “this kind of will for purity, for good…in the ordinary
mentality, as the need to be virtuous is the great obstacle to true self-giving.”
[32] “This,” she contended, “is the origin of Falsehood and even more the very
source of hypocrisy-the refusal to accept to take upon oneself one’s own share
of the burden of difficulties. [33] Likewise, although from a more
psychological perspective, Jung wrote, “We must begin by overcoming our
virtuousness, with the justifiable fear of falling into vice on the other side.
The danger certainly exists,” he went on to say, “for the greatest virtuousness
is always compensated inwardly by a strong tendency to vice, and how many
vicious characters treasure within themselves sugary virtues and a moral
megalomania.” [34] Not only is there a need to detach from one’s identity with
being virtuous, but there is a corresponding need to become conscious of and
reject one’s related, yet repressed shadow tendencies.
Similarly, according to Jung,
would-be-prophets and prophet’s disciples who pepper their arguments with
“truth,” to which they alone are privy and which they proselytize to others,
actually systematize a segment of the collective psyche, by which they are absorbed.
[35] In these examples, despite what is often presented as a modest persona,
the astute individual can recognize its dissolution into the collective psyche
and the loss of true psychological independence, along with psychological
inflation. This particularly refers to
individuals who self-righteously stand on the moral high ground, as well as
those who consistently and naively quote holy writing, sacred scripture, or
insights from the most recent workshop, in ready response to every problem of
life in the community and, for that matter, the world. The words in themselves
are always inspiring, but their meaning needs to be assimilated at one’s level
of psychological and spiritual integration and, first and foremost, applied to
oneself, or as presented to others as an integral aspect of a cogent argument.
Throughout the essay I give
examples from sayings attributed to Christ, which I use to emphasize that
Christianity offers many valuable psychological and spiritual insights, some of
which are pertinent to the subject of this essay. Christianity is an important
part of the Western heritage for better and for worse. From one point
of view it brings spiritual continuity and yet it carries a
dark shadow that needs to be assimilated. It continues to affect
the whole world one way or another. Christianity was the religion for
the Age of Pisces, which is presently giving way to the Age of
Aquarius. The symbol for that aeon is two opposing fishes, representing
Christ and the Antichrist and the differentiation of the opposites of good and
evil. Now, the task is reconciliation of these opposites as suggested
in the Aquarian symbol of the water-bearer, who is depicted as carrying a
vessel of living water and pouring it out on humankind. Jung saw this potential
happening in the new age through “the action of the Holy Spirit,” commonly
referred to as ‘the spirit of truth’. [36] With Sri Aurobindo and the Mother,
it is through the transformative power of the Supermind, or “Truth
Consciousness,” which they defined in the most comprehensive way. [37]
There is considerable evidence
today that the sayings attributed to Christ were largely based on Jewish
sources, and esoteric wisdom that was widely circulated in antiquity long
before the time of Christ. [38] [39] [40] This in itself should alert one to
the fundamental existential truth of the Christian message. Rather than
unmindfully rejecting Christianity outright, both the shortcomings, which I
alluded to at the beginning of the essay, and the unique truth of its concern for
time-bound life and a fellowship of love need to be assimilated to
consciousness, especially by people with Christian roots. The image of a
suffering Christ fixated to the cross suggests that not only does the
realization of his message still lie in the unconscious but that it is the door
to the Godhead. It is, in other words, the cross of suffering for the Christian
world, to be free from which requires consciously coming to terms with the
persona and shadow.
As a matter of fact, Christ made
similar observations to Jung and the Mother when he says: “Alas for you,
scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! …. You are like whitewashed tombs that
look handsome on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every
kind of corruption… [41] [42] The word
“hypocrite” means actor and, in antiquity, actors wore masks. [43] Given the
fact that, at that time, persona meant mask, the deliberate choice of the word
“hypocrite” by Christ and “hypocrisy” by the Mother implies that they were
referring to the persona. Christ is also reported to have said: “You are the
very one’s who pass yourselves off as virtuous in people’s sights, but God
knows your hearts. For what is sought highly by men is loathsome in the sight
of God.” [44] He was warning people here about the falsehood of the persona,
which conceals one’s true nature, feelings and thoughts. This is especially the case when it involves
the ego’s ambition for and identification with purity, goodness, virtue and
truth. Given the sayings attributed to
Christ and the Mother’s comments here, one can understand Sri Aurobindo
referring to the persona as evil, by which I mean his reference to the Evil
Persona as a “being” whose “business seems to be “to oppose,” and “create... wrong
conditions.” [45]
The Evil Persona separates one from
the heart-Self or psychic being. There is nothing essentially real about it
and, despite its glitter and seductive power, it is illusory. In the
Judeo-Christian tradition there is a legend that, out of envy, Satan, the dark
Son of God, would incarnate in order to mimic Christ, which, as the great
deceiver and father of lies, seems to be his destiny. [46] Occultly, the Mother
spoke of a “big asuric being who has taken on the appearance of Sri Aurobindo”
and it is not difficult to imagine that there are also false Mothers. [47] This
means that one can easily be misled in one’s spiritual life by false
understanding, misunderstood or misapplied ideals and attraction to the Evil
Persona, surely a creation of the Asura of Falsehood.
The Shadow
The Mother expanded on Sri
Aurobindo’s comments on the Evil Persona with her discussion on the shadow,
which she described as a symbol of the inconscient. [48] The shadow is the
other dark side of the coin and compensates for the seductive light of the
persona. Indeed, the more one identifies
with the persona and the more it shines in ideal splendor, the blacker and more
demonic the shadow. From one point of view, the shadow can be understood as the
whole unconscious. In this connection, later in his life, Jung expressed the
belief that it was “stifling stupidity and unconsciousness of people more than
evil in them that seemed to be steering us towards a worldwide catastrophe.”
[49] With consideration of the shadow, in other words, one moves from the
province of the Asura of Falsehood to the unconscious and the Asura of
Ignorance.
For pragmatic reasons Jung
conceptually differentiated between the personal shadow and the archetypal
Shadow, which he once referred to as “absolute evil”. [50] As there is a direct
relationship between the personal and archetypal Shadow the nature of the
latter can be inferred from experience of the former and understood as its
amplification. The personal shadow is contained in the personal unconscious,
the contents of which are acquired during one’s lifetime through repression,
denial, faulty perceptions and forgetting. From the point of view of the
conscious persona-identified ego, the shadow is inferior, threatening,
shameful, primitive and awkward. It comes laden with emotions, and works
autonomously with an impulsive, obsessive or possessive quality. It is
consequently tied up with projections, which means it is disowned and displaced
onto somebody else, object or circumstance.
In the Mother’s language “others
are a mirror reflecting the image of what you are, and that one needs to
concentrate on one’s own self-perfection instead of blaming or seeking
perfection in others.” [51] “Only a fool,” observed Jung, is interested in
other people's guilt, since he cannot alter it,” but “the wise man learns only
from his own guilt.” [52] These are reminders of Christ’s admonishment to “take
the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to
take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.” [53] Moral judgments about others
are typically subjective and ignorant and, noted the Mother, one “has not only
no right but no capacity to judge the state others are in.” [54] Christ,
likewise, warned his disciples not to judge, “because the judgments you give
will be the judgments you get.” [55] Psychologically, this refers to the fact
that if one judges others, one is also condemning an aspect of oneself. According to Sandford, an Episcopalian priest
and Jungian therapist, there is consequently “a condemnation of consciousness
on the part of the unconscious,” which means that one unnecessarily represses a
part of one’s own psyche, while perverting it. [56] The real task is to
withdraw the projections one makes on other people and discover the shadow in
one’s own psyche.
The shadow is morally inferior and
therefore susceptible to what Medieval Christianity refers to as the seven
deadly sins: pride, wrath, envy, lust, greed, avarice and sloth, as well as any
other expressions of moral inferiority such as hatred, cruelty, lying,
cowardice, indolence and insincerity. Having noted that, it is important to
realize that the shadow is relative to the individual’s one-sidedness and
personality style, if not pathology. Some people, for instance, need to learn
to relax (be lazy) and others to become conscious and act in accordance with
their desire-nature and selfishness.
Some need to accept dependence, while others need to become more
independent. Generally, there is a need
for unrelenting ruthlessness in the service of wholeness. Moreover, as the Mother pointed out, the
shadow can often involve qualities that are the opposite of one’s normal
conscious attitude and quality of being. [57] Thus, rigorous intellectuals can
be sloppy in some areas of thought, courageous people can act cowardly in
certain circumstances and generous individuals can be miserly at times, and so
on.
With insight and good will the
personal shadow can be recognized as an aspect of oneself and either extirpated
or assimilated into consciousness, while undergoing a process of personality
transformation. Without such a moral effort, however, projections are not
withdrawn and, in some cases, one suffers from a meaningless life, one of the
well-documented psychopathologies and possibly bodily somatization. The
extirpation or transformation of these shadow attributes requires the light of
consciousness, moral values and high ideals and, in the darker corners, the
penetration of a spiritual light. [58] [59] [60] [61] In this context Jung's
warning that "one does not become enlightened by imagining figures of
light, but by making the darkness conscious" supports this view while
illuminating a common error of spiritual seekers, especially amongst Westerners.
[62] What attitude is appropriate and what needs to be done in any given
situation requires sincerity and feeling discernment as it is not necessarily
always so obvious.
Disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the
Mother, who recognize the beneficial value of the Mother’s spiritual guidance,
may yet underestimate or fear the wisdom contained in her following words of
advice: “Do not try to appear virtuous,” she said. “See how much you are united
with everything that is anti-divine. Take your share of the burden, accept
yourselves to be impure and false and in that way you will be able to take up
the shadow and offer it.” [63] As a matter of fact, life presents ample
opportunities for this possibility and following the Mother’s counsel is
advisable on both psychological and spiritual grounds. One can, for example,
fully identify with one’s anger and resentments, both in feeling and fantasy,
while offering them to the Mother and the Self and aspiring for their
transformation along with taking back one’s projection.
It is possible to integrate the
personal shadow and experience it as an aspect of one’s nature, but not the
archetypal Shadow. With moral effort and meaningful suffering, however, the ego
can play a role in the transformation of the dark side of the Godhead and its
integration in the Self. [64] In this case, it is essential to pay heed to what
both Jung and Sri Aurobindo both contended. The former observed that “God is a
‘complexio oppositorum’ a paradoxical union of opposites, where truth and
delusion good and evil are equally possible.” [65] Likewise, Sri Aurobindo
wrote that “the discords of the world are God’s discords and it is only by
accepting and proceeding through them that we can arrive at the greater
concords of his supreme harmony…” [66] Thus, at an archetypal level, the
problematic relationship between good and evil does not belong to the ego, but
to oneself as “a vessel… filled with divine conflict.” [67] One becomes such a
vessel by consciously “suffering the problem of opposites to the utmost,” an
endeavor that enables their coming together in the Self. [68]
This phenomenon may ultimately be
related to the fact that, according to the Mother, the Asura of Ignorance has
been converted and is now collaborating in the divine work as a being of
Consciousness and Light, his original nature. [69] In Judeo-Christian tradition
this being is known as Lucifer, a name that means Light Bearer, who, according
to tradition, out of hubris, was separated from God and became ‘prince of this
world’. As the Mother said, “It is the
greatest Asuras who are the greatest beings of light,” and with their
conversion they become “the supreme beings of the creation.” [70] Presumably,
the conversion of the Asura of Ignorance back to his original nature of
Consciousness and Light is the reason why a quantum change in human consciousness
is taking place today, both individually and collectively. Not only are some individuals on paths
involving a growth in consciousness but, collectively, shadowy elements are
also surfacing in an unprecedented manner.
The Shadow as Positive Value
It is exceptionally important to
realize that the shadow contains virtues that can intensify life and round out
one’s existence. Although, at the outset of one’s confrontation with the
unconscious, the shadow is unadapted, awkward, primitive and embarrassing, with
time and increasingly differentiated ethical decisions, it becomes a vital
aspect of life that only a fool would suppress. Related to this is the fact
that the very difficulties in life that frustrate one’s best efforts are, in
the Mother’s words, “the nature of the difficulty you will exemplify in yoga.”
It is, she says, “the door by which he will attain God in his own individual
manner.” [71] Assimilating shadow values to consciousness, in other words,
opens the door to the archetypal psyche and the Self.
Indeed, the psychological quest for
wholeness involves integrating what Jung referred to as the inferior attitude
and function of conscious, which is variable and depends on one’s individual
inclinations. [72] The inferior function (and attitude) are primitive,
unadapted and highly sensitive to criticism and typically covered up by the
persona. It is the place of suffering
and one’s cross and yet “holds the secret key to the unconscious totality of
the person.” [73]
The four functions of consciousness
are thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition, whereas the two attitudes are
extraversion and introversion. Briefly put, sensation is perception of what is,
thinking informs one what is, feeling puts value to it and intuition sees possibilities.
Extraversion is an exteriorization of energy towards life and the world,
whereas introversion withdraws energy and directs it inwardly. Depending on
one’s natural adaptive predisposition, one’s attitude and some functions of
consciousness are conscious and others lie in the unconscious and are
consequently related to the shadow. The goal is psychic balance with all the
elements of being in their right place, harmonized around the heart-Self. “If
you organize everything,” said the Mother, “—your feelings, your thoughts, your
impulses, etc,—around the psychic centre which is the inner light, you will see
that all inner disorder will change into an inner order.” [74] Integrating the
inferior side of one’s nature brings wholeness, relatedness to the psychic
being and the possibility of one’s life being directed by the Self as a
relatively conscious instrument of the Mother. This truth is illustrated in
fairy tales by the fact that it is the foolish one and brother or rejected
sister that finds the treasure and Holy Grail, and not those who are
one-sidedly adapted and think they know the way.
Although humans consist of both
divine and asuric tendencies, inasmuch as one identifies with the ego (and
persona) one is acting out of an asuric nature. [75] Associated with the Asura
are the Rakshasha and Pishacha of Hindu tradition, the violent and passionate
ego of the Rakshasha and the ignorant and obscure hostile forces of the
Pishacha. [76] However anthropomorphic the depictions of the dark forces in
Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the
book and movie are treasure chests of descriptive archetypal images. With all
his deceit and treachery Sauron and his acolyte, Sauruman, would represent the
Asura of Falsehood, the Orcs and Balrogs embody violent Rakshashic-like energy
and Golem, hostile attributes and obscurity of the Pishacha. The general
darkness or shadow that covers Mordor, Gandor and Rohan prior to the siege of
Gondor and elsewhere until the last battle would be the work of the Asura of
Ignorance. Indeed, in light of the Mother’s observations on the conversion of
this Asura, the complete elimination of darkness with Frodo’s victory over the
terrible temptation of power is interesting and instructive. The darkness of
unconsciousness, in this case, lifted with the letting go of all ambition and
the drive for power.
According to Sri Aurobindo the
Rakshasha, in particular, has replaced the animal soul. [77] This observation and the above reflections
clearly indicate that the contemporary mind is, by and large, out of touch with
the animal soul that he regarded as necessary to reconcile with the higher
person for an authentic subjectively spiritual life. This condition is
succinctly described by Jung when he observed that “we are still such
barbarians with a thin veneer of culture” without any “trust in the laws of
human nature,” which “seems to us a dangerous and unethical naturalism.” [78]
There is, in other words, no trust in the natural person who lives close to the
animal soul and its dynamism, as life has become perverted with ambition and
the power principle. As a consequence,
there is little Eros or relatedness and love, the necessary healing balm for
those invested in the future.
Individual Transformation and Transformation of the Community
For life to be changed from being
organized mainly on mental principles and the pursuit of pleasure and power,
the present condition, to subjective spiritual principles, Sri Aurobindo
emphasized the important role of the individual. He wrote that this change
needs to be first accomplished in “individuals and in a great number of
individuals before it can lay an effective hold on the community.” [79]
According to the Mother, the first step is the unification of the different
aspects of the psyche including the shadow, around the psychic being, the
divine centre of one’s psyche, in a process she calls individualization. [80]
Similarly, Jung’s psychology is principally concerned about what he referred to
as the individuation process “by which a person becomes a psychological
‘in-dividual’ that is, a separate indivisible unity or whole.” [81] Like the
Mother and Sri Aurobindo, he emphasized individual fulfillment and “the coming
to be of the self,” the unique innermost core of individual being, which is “as
much one’s self and all other selves, as the ego.” [82] This is the fundamental
requirement for creative renewal at the level of the community for the very
reason that the Self is the ground of all social instincts and the
interrelatedness of Eros. [83]
Conscious individuation
necessitates detachment from the collective mind and “resistance to the
organized mass.” [84] [85] By collective
mind I mean the common understanding of the way life should be organized,
whether it be in mainline society, a subculture, a spiritual or idealistic
community or elsewhere. Over-emphasizing transformation at the level of the
collectivity is a hopeless underestimation of the power of the Self and the
archetypal psyche, that is to say the Divine Mother, to propagate a spiritual
renewal of culture. For effective instrumental realization in an individual
life, the animal soul and the higher person all need to be spiritually
reconciled and related to consciousness, the further reaches of which include
reconciliation with what Sri Aurobindo referred to as the superconscient with
the subconscient and inconscient.
Spiritualization of the Animal Shadow and Its Healing Effect on the
Community
Marie-Louise von Franz, Jung’s most
important disciple, discussed a vision of the Swiss saint Niklaus von Fluë,
also known as Brother Klaus, [born on March 21, 1417], that involved
spiritualization of the animal shadow and its reconciliation with the higher
person [86]. Von Franz indicated how
this fact alone is what allowed Brother Klaus to be instrumental in bringing
about a healing reconciliation of a bitter conflict between new and old cantons
in
An extremely beautiful pilgrim,
staff in hand, and wearing the hat of a wayfarer and a cloak, advanced towards
Brother Klaus. Klaus was enraptured and, as he gazed at him,
Jung commented that a numinous
individual with extraordinary influence like Brother Klaus typically has
theriomorphic attributes, and “surpasses the ordinary man not only upwards but
downwards.” [88] The figure of Christ, he went on to say, appears here in two
forms, “1, as a pilgrim… and 2, as a bear.” [89] Later, Jung suggested that the
vision may indicate that “in his instinctual [bear-like, i.e. hermit-like]
sub-humaness Brother Klaus recognized himself as Christ.” [90] Jung concluded
that he was “healed, holy, whole” due to the fact that he consciously suffered
within himself the opposites of the Self, containing both “the highest united
with the lowest.” [91] In the process, the dark side of the Self was
transformed and put into the service of a superior will and divine love.
Although Brother Klaus seems to
have identified the wayfarer as Christ, von Franz indicated how much his
clothes and transformations actually remind one of Wotan, the “Germanic god of
war, of truth, of ecstasy, and of shamanic wisdom.” [92] In the world of
ancient
As early as 1931, the Mother
urgently called for “a new world, a true world, the expression of the
Truth-Consciousness… This world,” she observed, “will be realized; and the
sooner the better!” [96] Building this new world with healthy relationships,
communities, townships and cities depends on individuals, their conscious
relationship to the paradoxical Godhead and their becoming a vessel reconciling
extreme opposites. It depends first and foremost on the ability to integrate
both light and shadow aspects of the psyche, the higher person and the animal soul,
around the heart-Self or psychic being. Related to a common humanity, such
integrated individuals are open to a vast river of primordial ideas and eternal
images, while containing the instinctive dynamism that allows for their full
realization in time. Only then can things and people begin to find their right
place in the economy of life, either in a more extraverted or introverted mode
of being depending on one’s natural propensity.
My methodology in all the papers in
the Four Part Series on Jung was to refer, first and foremost, to Jung’s
visions and dreams and what he himself said and wrote. In this way I was
always being faithful to his inner life and myth and his own
declarations. In order to bring some measure of understanding to them, I
applied the method of amplification and brought disciplined imagination and
thought to bear. I also referred to the thought of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
mainly to show similarities, but also to show contrasts. In Part III, I used
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s words to compare and contrast, but mainly for
purposes of explication and mediation of three of Jung’s late visions and
dreams and what he, himself, wrote and said about them and related
subjects. I always stuck closely to Jung’s inner life and its outer manifestation.
I have been driven to relentlessly
study Jung, and Sri Aurobindo and the Mother together for some forty years as a
vocation stimulated by my own inner life. I am not classifying Jung,
categorizing him or judging his level of consciousness from an external vantage
point, which I would consider to be totally inappropriate. I am only trying to
open up understanding of the wholeness of his life and the place of his
psychology in the world by bringing explications to bear on Jung’s inner life, mainly
from the thought of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, who, surely, have the largest
vision and understanding of anybody on spiritual and psychological
matters. I believe that I logically applied explanatory material from the
former’s writings and what the latter is reported to have said. If this
means that I come to some tentative conclusions about Jung’s spiritual
attainment, it is based on my heart-felt engagement in the process.
At the same I realized in the
process of writing these papers, especially Part III of the series, that I may
be crossing the line of what some people might consider to be taboo or out of
limits. I took the freedom to proceed with my writing, nonetheless, as I
believe it is most important to follow one’s inner truth even if it eventually
proves to involve error or miscalculation.
References
[1] The Mother,
(2004), Being of Gold: Our Goal of Self-perfection,
(A Compilation of the Mothers Writings) Auroville: The Centre for Indian
Studies, p. 207
[2] Gerhard Adler,
editor, (1975), CG Jung Letters, in
collaboration with Aniela Jaffé,
Translations from the German by RFC Hull, Vol. 2, 1951-1961, Bollingen
Series XCV:2, Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 58-61, 71-73
[3] Peter Berger,
Brigitte Berger, Hansfried Kellner, (1974), The
Homeless Mind: Modernization and Consciousness,
[4] Ibid.
[5] Jolande Jacobi
and RFC Hull, editors, (1974), CG Jung:
Psychological Reflections: A New Anthology of his Writings: 1905-1961, selected
and edited by Jolande Jacobi in collaboration with RFC Hull, Bollingen Series
XXXI,
[6] Sri Aurobindo
(1971), Social and Political Thought: The
Human Cycle, p. 220
[7] Ibid., p. 225
[8] The Mother
(1967), Path to Perfection, Dipti
Publications, p. 125
[9] The Mother
(1978a), Agenda de l’action supramentale sur
terre, in L’Agenda de Mère, 1961,
Vol. II, Paris: Institute de Recherches Evolutives, pp. 280, 281
[10] Edward F Edinger
(1996), The New God Image: A Study of
Jung’s key Letters concerning the Evolution of the Western God-image,
(Edited by Dianne D Cordic and Charles Yates, MD)
[11] Jolande Jacobi
and RFC Hull, editors, (1974), CG Jung:
Psychological Reflections, p. 315
[12] Sri Aurobindo, Letters on Yoga, p. 1660
[13] Ibid.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Jeffrey B
Russell (1989), The Prince of Darkness:
Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History,
[17] Ibid.
[18] Bede Griffiths, (1983), Christian Revelation, in The Cosmic Revelation: The Hindu way to God,
[19] The Mother
(2004), Being of Gold: Our Goal of
Self-perfection, p. 228
[20] CG Jung (1975b),
The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious,
in Two Essays on Analytical Psychology,
Part II, Vol. 7, p. 156
[21] Ibid., pp. 155, 156
[22] Matthew 7: 3-5,
18:3-5, 19:14, 23:25, The Jerusalem Bible,
Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
[23] Mark 10:14, Ibid.
[24] Luke 16:15, 18:16,
Ibid.
[25] CG Jung (1975b),
The Relations between the Ego and the
Unconscious, in Two Essays on Analytical
Psychology, pp. 163-168, passim
[26] Ibid., p. 168.
[27] Sri Aurobindo, The Future Poetry, p. 180
[28] Ibid.
[29] CG Jung (1975b),
The Relations between the Ego and the
Unconscious, in Two Essays on
Analytical Psychology, pp. 155, 156
[30] CG Jung (1974c),
The Development of Personality, Translated
by RFC
[31] Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, p. 507
[32] The Mother
(2004), Being of Gold: Our Goal of
Self-perfection, p. 229
[33] Ibid.
[34] Jolande Jacobi
and RFC Hull, editors, (1974), CG Jung:
Psychological Reflections: A new Anthology of his Writings: 1905-1961, p.
102
[35] CG Jung (1975b),
The Relations between the Ego and the Unconscious,
in Two Essays on Analytical Psychology,
pp. 169-71, passim
[36] Edward F Edinger
(1996), The New God Image, p. 119
[37] Sri Aurobindo
(1978), Glossary of terms in Sri
Aurobindo’s Writings, pp. 160-61
[38]
[39] Tom Harpur
(2004), The Pagan Christ: Covering the Lost
Light,
[40] Joseph Campbell
(1975), The Masks of God: Creative Mythology,
[41] Matthew 23:25
[42] Luke 11:39-40
[43] John A Sandford
(1970), The Kingdom Within,
[44] Luke 16:15
[45] Sri Aurobindo
(1970b), Letters on Yoga, p. 1660
[46] CG Jung (2002), Answer to Job, the Collected Works of CG
Jung, Vol. 11, pp. 50, 101, 108
[47] The Mother
(1978b), Agenda de l’action supramentale
sur terre, 1962, pp. 133-134
[48] The Mother
(2004), Being of Gold: Our Goal of
Self-perfection, p. 217
[49] Marie-Louise von
Franz (1997), Archetypal Dimensions of
the Psyche,
[50] CG Jung (1975a),
Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology
of the Self, The Collected Works of CG Jung, Vol. 9, part II, p. 10
[51] The Mother
(2004), Being of Gold: Our Goal of
Self-perfection, p. 218
[52] CG Jung (1977), Psychology and Alchemy, Vol. 12, p. 117
[53] Matthew 7: 3-5
[54] The Mother
(2004), Being of Gold: Our Goal of
Self-perfection, p. 219
[55] Matthew 7: 1-2
[56] John A Sandford,
(1970), The Kingdom Within, p. 123
[57] The Mother
(2004), Being of Gold: Our Goal of
Self-perfection, p. 272.
[58] Ibid., pp. 210, 211
[59] Jolande Jacobi
and RFC Hull, editors, (1974), CG Jung:
Psychological Reflections: A New Anthology of his Writings: 1905-1961, p.
217
[60] CG Jung (2002), Answer to Job, Vol. 11, pp. 101, 108
[61] CG Jung (1975a),
Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology
of the Self, The Collected Works of CG Jung, Vol. 9, part II, p. 8
[62] Jolande Jacobi
and RFC Hull, editors, (1974), CG Jung:
Psychological Reflections: A New Anthology of his Writings: 1905-1961, p.
220
[63] The Mother
(2004), Being of Gold: Our Goal of
Self-perfection, p. 229
[64] Marie-Louise von
Franz (1997), Archetypal Dimensions of
the Psyche, p. 48
[65] CG Jung (1965), Memories, Dreams, Reflections, recorded
and edited by Aniela Jaffé, (Translated
by R Winston & C Winston),
[66] John A Sandford
(1998), Evil: The Shadow side of Reality,
[67] Edward F Edinger
(1996), The New God Image, p. 111
[68] Marie-Louise von
Franz (1997), Archetypal Dimensions of
the Psyche, p. 48
[69] The Mother
(1978c), Entretiens 1953, pp. 426-27
[70] The Mother
(2004), Being of Gold: Our Goal of
Self-perfection, p. 207
[71] Ibid., p. 208
[72] CG Jung (1974b),
Psychological Types, (Translated by
HG Baynes and RFC Hull, The Collected Works of CG Jung, Vol. 6, Bollingen Series XX passim
[73] Marie-Louise von
Franz (1975b), The Inferior Function,
in Jung’s typology,
[74] The Mother
(2004), Being of Gold: Our Goal of
Self-perfection, p. 213
[75] Nolini Kanta
Gupta (1977), Collected Works, Vol. 6,
pp. 20-25, 21n
[76] Sri Aurobindo
(1970a), Letters on Yoga, pp. 394-96
[77] Sri Aurobindo
(1972), The Future Poetry, p. 180
[78] CG Jung (1974b),
Psychological Types, p. 213
[79] Sri Aurobindo
(1971), Social and Political Thought:
The Human Cycle, p. 231
[80] The Mother (2004),
Being of Gold: Our Goal of
Self-perfection, pp, 268-274, passim
[81] CG Jung (1975c),
The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious,
The Collected Works of CG Jung, Vol. 9, Bollingen Series XX, p. 275
[82] CG Jung (1975d),
The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche,
the Collected Works of CG Jung,
Vol. 8, Bollingen Series XX, p.
226
[83] Marie-Louise von
Franz (1975a), Individuation and Social
contract in Jungian Therapy, (M Spicer, Ed.), Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci: Les
Editions Bellarmin
[84] Jolande Jacobi
and RFC Hull, editors, (1974), CG Jung:
Psychological Reflections: A New Anthology of his Writings: 1905-1961, p.
158
[85] The Mother
(2004), Being of Gold: Our Goal of
Self-perfection, pp 248-273
[86] Marie-Louise von
Franz, Archetypal Dimensions of the
Psyche, pp. 37, 40, 41, 48, 55, 56, 386
[87] Ibid., p. 40
[88] Jolande Jacobi
and RFC Hull, editors, (1974), CG Jung:
Psychological Reflections: A New Anthology of his Writings: 1905-1961, pp. 363-365, 364, 365
[89] Ibid., pp. 363-365, 364, 365
[90] Ibid., p. 365
[91] Ibid.
[92] Marie-Louise von
Franz (1997), Archetypal Dimensions of
the Psyche, p. 41
[93] Ibid.
[94] Ibid., p. 55
[95] Ibid., p. 56
[96] The Mother
(1979), Conversations, p. 186
This concludes the present series on Jung’s Psychology.
