Light: the key to Jungian shadow work

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We use phrases daily that offer insight into how we interact with and integrate the concept of light.

We can “bring things to light” and we can “shine a light on things”. We can, when waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, say to ourselves “let there be light” and hit the light switch so we don’t stumble into objects in the darkness and hurt ourselves.

From these linguistic constructs we can draw a couple of observations:

1. Light seems only relevant in opposition to its counterpart, darkness

2. We speak of light as though it is pertinent in making meaningful maps of the world.

3. Based on how speak of it, light seems to be secondary to darkness. Not in its importance, just in its genesis.

Darkness comes first, is the essential state, and is therefore the more “natural” state and could be said to have more appeal. Human behaviour leans back towards the past, towards the gravity of the dense darkness from which we have come.

In the way it is spoken of, Light seems to operate as a force that exists to penetrate darkness, ignorance and unconsciousness and could be said to be more fragile and requiring more effort to maintain than its counterpart.

Darkness is the default state. Light requires discipline, effort and persistence.

It is said that “ignorance is bliss”. I would say from my observations of the world that perhaps “ignorance is easier.” And anything that is easier, in the field of human activity, tends to become the more normative state.

Jung gave us the concept of “the Shadow”. That part of ourselves that is not in the Light. More primal, less rational, less open to undergoing the processes, rigour and ritual of civilisation. He saw it as a human beings lifework to shine light onto that darkness and to make the unconscious, conscious.

A pretty lofty goal. This life long mission he dubbed “individuation”. Out of the hot collective soup of intergenerational trauma, prejudice and violent instincts to an upright, cool state of self awareness and personal agency.

Individuation could be said to involve two elements: firstly, the process of detaching from the collective conditioning of the tribe, state, family and whoever else may wish to lay down their heavy brain washing dogma on the individual to keep them co-dependent and useful to the external agents purposes.

Secondly it could be said to be the process of waking up from the nightmare of “eternally bumping into objects in the dark night”. By shining a light, step by step, onto those elements of our unconscious that create suffering in our lives.

In the sense of seeking to “wake up” from the dark sleep of the unconscious to the sunny morning of individuation we are doing our best to map, categorise and list the “objects” we were bumping into and to go from “unknown unknowns, to known unknowns, to known knowns”.

This phrase was made famous by secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld speaking at the Pentagon in 2002. According to the deep research I just did 5 minutes ago whilst drinking a coffee and writing this article he got it from colleagues of his who had worked at NASA where the phrase was commonly used. Its actually from a 1955 concept developed by two psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham which they called the “Johari Window”.

The name “Johari Window” is a combination of the names of the psychologists Joseph and Harrington to make “Jo Hari”. Very cute, I’m sure you will agree.

Its actually a very useful model they present which offers a direct means of accessing that which may be unconscious in us, it is well worth looking up.

The issue of Light becomes more urgent when we realise that when we are trapped in darkness we are interacting with “internal objects” functioning as “unknown unknowns” from a place of reactivity, from the id, from instinct and primal responses of fight, flight, fawn and freeze.

The motto of this state could be : “I don’t know whats happening inside of me, I know that it sucks and I’m confused and in pain, someone must be to blame for this, let me find someone and blame them just to be sure.”

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