The Shadow and Leadership
“People say that what we’re all seeking a meaning for life… I think that what we’re all really seeking is an experience of being alive,—so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our innermost being and reality, so that we can actually feel the rapture of being alive.” — Joseph Campbell
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What is The Shadow?
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Understanding The Shadow is vital because it pierces the membrane of the emotional core and accurately addresses the unconscious parts of The Self—limitations and blockages, which stem from our past. In Jungian psychology The Shadow is well known and represents the aspects of personality that are hidden. The Shadow is the darkness that conceals our deepest emotions and that fabricate all projected personas that we unconsciously make up in order to repress, push down, or hide parts of ourselves. The Shadow is developed during childhood within the first 7 years of life.
The Shadow is holistic because it leads individuals to discover the totality of who they are. When an individual embraces their Shadow seeking to understand it and develop a relationship with it instead of judging and disowning it, this will lead them to wholeness. They will become more aware of their inner truth, consequently more authentic with themselves, and tap into the reservoir of their abilities and virtues—hence they will be liberated from their personal Maya (illusion) which ties to unconscious beliefs, emotions and behaviours. To meet and merge with The Shadow leads a person to full integration.
The Shadow is also multi layered. There is The Shadow in oneself, a Shadow side to parental and family dynamics, in religions, in the educational systems, in business and corporations (videos below), in the agriculture industry, in the medical and the pharmaceutical industries, in the natural sciences of free energy technology and ecological technology repressed by fossil fuel and electrical power corporations, in the aerospace engineering industries, in the military (?) forces (?), in the fascist governing society, and lastly, in the world’s political governing structures in regards to the truth embargo and full disclosure.
The journey of The Hero is to discover and uncover the Golden Buddha within. Addressing The Shadow leads to empowerment, hence Enlightened Leadership in all aspects of life. To bring more clarity to this topic its important to understand that The Shadow is not just our negative traits. Precious qualities, gifts and talents too are unconsciously disowned.
“Individuation means becoming a single, homogeneous being, and, in so far as ‘individuation’ embraces our innermost, last, and incomparable uniqueness, it also implies becoming one’s own self. We could therefore translate individuation as… ‘self-realization’.” — Carl Jung
A Crisis of Leadership
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In his Ted-X Talks presentation on Truly Human Leadership, Bob Chapman states: “that our country has been going through a major crisis over the past decades, it’s a crisis in leadership, where the symptoms are—broken families, broken marriages, and broken lives as a result—by sending people home each day with the sense that they are working for an organization that does not care about them, making them feel as if they are invisible, and treated as a number. The good news is that we have the power to solve this tomorrow—we just need to engage our heads with our hearts—in a leadership process that validates the worth of every individual where everyone matters.”
Statistics Canada reveals: “About 6 million Canadians met the criteria for substance use disorder (recreational drugs, marijuana/cannabis, and alcohol), while 3.5 million met the criteria for mood disorder (pharmaceutical drugs for major depressive episodes, bipolar disorders, and generalized anxiety disorders). Females had higher rates of mood disorders and generalized anxiety disorders than males, while males had higher rates of substance use disorders.”
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Management vs. Leadership
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Bob Davids in his Ted-X Talks presentation on Management vs. Leadership, The Rarest Commodity is Leadership Without Ego he states: “that management in not the same as leadership. Management is control. In business it is called the triple constraint. You can control quality, time and money, that’s it. We can’t control people. So, what category are people in? People come under leadership.”
Bob used the analogy of “a chain” to demonstrate the essence of leadership. He stated that: “if you stack a chain on a table and push it, which way will it go?” (Answer: we don’t know, the chain will fall but we can’t predict where it will land). “If a corporation pushes people deep down inside with no interest at all in who they are—then they really have no idea what their personnel are thinking, possibly saying to others, and which way they might end up going.”
At one point in his presentation Bob get’s up holding the first loop of a chain in his hand and starts walking (the chain just follows him) as he did this, he stated: “if a corporation can lead their personnel with appreciation and respect, honouring human value—then their workforce will loyally follow and even protect their corporation’s best interest.”
The Millennials in the Workplace
“We’re taking this amazing group of young fantastic kids who were just dealt a bad hand due to failed parenting strategies,—it’s no fault of their own,—and we put them into corporate environments that care more about the numbers,—than they do about the kids.—That care more about the short-term gains, than the long-term life of this young human being. That care more about the year, than the lifetime.
And, we are putting them into corporate environments that aren’t helping them build their confidence. That aren’t helping them learn the skills of cooperation. That aren’t helping them in overcoming the challenges of a digital world and finding more BALANCE.” — Simon Sinek
Simon Sinek is addressing an issue that needs our immediate attention. There is nothing new here, for years we heard this “saying” many times—that if we abuse our use of technology there are consequences. From our personal devices to industrial consumption, technology does facilitate our lives and it can be used as a medium to heal and to sustain life, but it also can be used to harm, destroy and limit human potential.
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When individuals prefer to text, Facebook, and email to communicate instead of direct interaction, or when individuals are unable to sit or lay in stillness and silence (meditation), or unable to engage in and maintain a healthy active lifestyle—this can be identified as a disorder. Those who are continuously seeking in life, the syndrome of “more”, it is because they are never satisfied with what they have, or not content with who they are. Many avoid solitude unable to spend time alone with themself and their thoughts. When individuals lack a sense of ease within themselves this is called a dis-ease.
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There is a reason WHY some people choose to keep busy. Unconscious emotions are at the root of all habits. Many surveys and statistics have demonstrated that all humans are dealing with the same core issues when it comes to unconscious feelings. The report indicated that the most common emotional traits where—lonely, restless, bored, impatient, unseen, unloved, or unfulfilled. Hence, some individuals may need outside stimuli or excitement to feel alive, or for distraction from their inner truth.
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All is in perfect divine order, there are those who seek to be entertaining, while others seek to be entertained. This is the core of The Shadow and human beings of all ages, nationalities, orientations, creeds, or wealth has a Shadow. It’s important to understand that The Shadow is not a negative trait just because it resides hidden. Rejoice! The Shadow holds golden nuggets of wisdom and power. When The Shadow has been embraced, understood, and transmuted, the center of your Hara will spark a sacred fire. Follow your bliss.
“If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.” — Joseph Campbell
The Shadow in Governing Society
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As a civilization, we know that, now more than ever, we need to find balance and live in harmony with nature because year after year, as we evolve into a more sophisticated futuristic and technologically more advanced society,—there is a 50% chance that our children won’t make it into the future. Not my words. Words of renowned theoretical physicist Michio Kaku. Realize that. There are more than just one reason at play here, which points clearly at WHY our children might not make it.
Avoiding or denying to recognize that we have, and continue to, over indulge and misuse our technology and science is a big problem. This should bring us to ask the right questions because understanding this behaviour can help us in finding solutions, hence develop new systems, which will steer our children into their destiny. One of the greatest world tragedies was the suppression of Nikola Tesla’s work and Viktor Schauberger’s work. The world would be a very different reflection right now.
The future of our species depends directly on our relationship with the earth. Our civilization is repeating the same mistakes as those of ancient past. Technology is amazing, exciting, and a need but also, we take our technology for granted.
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The quantity of time and the importance we put on our cell phone devices, and our addiction to all forms of technology is handicapping our culture’s sense of self—individual personality and the quality of human interactions. From birth, it is our innate instinctual nature to feel—empathy, to care, to relate, to nurture. Connection is our nature.
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In Thought Catalog, Jessica Serra writes: “Social media may appear to make our lives easier, but at the same time it complicates them. Studies show that the pressure of having to present oneself in a way that is acceptable to online friends increases stress levels. The fact that we have to worry about how we appear to “everyone” in cyber-society adds unnecessary stress to our lives. Simultaneously, we have far more information accessible to us than we’re programmed to have. Knowing too much about everything going on in the world through constant access to cyber reports requires us to be involved in it. We become seemingly too busy caring about the people we hardly know inside these machines; then we can no longer balance worrying about things with which we should be concerned, such as real-life relationships, skills, and (probably the most unfortunate) ourselves.”
“The parts of ourselves we try to avoid may be hidden from our view, but they exist as part of our energy field regardless. The behaviours and feelings we are not at peace with will always find a screen to project themselves on, and we can be sure this is happening when we feel an emotional charge in the presence of someone else.” — Debbie Ford
The Shadow is Masking The Golden Buddha Within
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As mentioned above, The Shadow is not necessarily just negative traits because it resides hidden in darkness. As Carl Jung stated “the gold is in the dark.” The Shadow can be great qualities and abilities that individuals have disowned or repressed simply because they were told that certain things were not acceptable, appropriate, or desirable. The Shadow can also be created consciously, some may hide behind personas to not reveal who they truly are to others—to protect themselves. However, there is also a negative aspect to The Shadow, as Alan Watts states “the evil inside us.” Some individuals do have hidden agendas and are constantly hiding behind a mask. They intend and strategize to deceive, pretending and lying to get what they secretly want, or to avoid what they don’t want.
Addressing The Shadow is the practice of inner alchemy.
It takes dedicated attention to witness ourselves with a neutral mind, and through this process of self-examination and contemplation—we need to ask ourselves the right questions and do the work, not just think about it. Individuals will remain bounded to their puppeteer, their Shadow if they do not—cleanse their soul and purify their mind by transmuting their emotional residue. Another thing to consider is Karma, everything we do comes back to us threefold, and Karma doesn’t come in the next lifetime only, it is also experienced in this life.
In alchemy we call ego the inner dragon. It is crucial to understand that we need to train our Shadow into discipline. Not get rid of it. The Shadow, when in balance, is our greatest teacher, it has purpose, it has golden gifts that serve our highest good. This is why in alchemy we say “tame the inner dragon.” This is the only way to master the egoic self yet we need to embrace it, not seek to reject or destroy it. Therefore, to polish the inner jewel requires a sincere commitment to rise up from our ashes, like the phoenix, and to love, accept, and train our dark aspect—the egoic mind.
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The symbol of the Yin and Yang is a perfect example. It’s a sphere, a circle, representing wholeness, or the integration of duality. Take one side out, is it still a circle? No. It will become uneven. Another analogy, can you drive your car with a flat tire on one side? No. Both aspects of light and dark are needed to journey in this life. Too much of one or the other, we wobble on instead of smooth sailing.
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As mentioned earlier, there are many layers to The Shadow within society and Enlightened Leadership will pave the way. This soul work is the golden key, it’s the missing link to create a more balanced society—one of caliber, coherence and harmony. There is so much to learn about ourselves through The Shadow and The Hero’s Journey. This introduction is intended to spark and inspire individuals to start mining their Inner Gold.
If you sincerely want to take action and dive in deep into the infinite waters of your subconscious and unconscious, to explore the inner terrain of your darkness in a safe, supported and loving way—training and coaching is found in SoundWave Yoga’s 4 day retreats, and small nuggets are shared in the online programs. Sat Naam and Namaste.