The Shadow holds all our forgotten memories, trauma and joy, through all the phases and transitions of our lives. With each period of our life, we in a sense, reinvent ourself and cast off all the thoughts, feelings and desires of our previous self; not unlike the teenager who struggles to become an adult and comes to reject childhood toys. These forgotten memories in their repressed state, lurk to reinsert themselves with so many of our knee-jerk reactions and responses to situations in our current life. To get to this strata of our psyche, we can begin by owning and taking responsibility for those reactions and responses, and then tracing them back to their source.
Please see the sermon video below, and the notes used to deliver the sermon below that.
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Sermon Notes
The Shadow
1. “Who knows what evil lurks in the heart of mankind? The Shadow knows.”
1A. Evil can become manifest when difficult or uncomfortable psychic issues are suppressed into the shadow where they can be ignored & forgotten.
1B. The Shadow is an old radio program where an invisible here wreaked vengeance on villains.
1B1. It present this archetype and caught the imagination of listeners in teh same way that so many great stories have done so in literature & drama (mythology).
1B1a. That archetypes make their way into the arts, we can see how art functions to map the psyche.
1B1a1. That this works its way into works of art unconsciously shows a method by which the shadow functions & shows us to ourselves.
1B1a2. This is the Rosicrucian formula in the creative process.
1C. The shadow is an invisible force inthe psyche & projects itself outwards.
1C1. It is our functional or active unconscious that shows itself when we irrationally blame others or even credit others in an undue manner, such as putting someone on a pedestal.
1C1a. Our darker impulses; hate & venegeance, violence & aggression are but a part of our shadow.
1C1b. Self-loathing & self-destructive impulses, our inferiority complexes & other knee-jerk reactions are a part of the shadow.
1C1b1. Neurotic & compulsive behaviors; unconscious preferences & motivations.
1C1b2. Guilt, shame, pride; forbidden desires & fears.
2. Old memories seemingly fogotten, yet neatly tucked away are stored in the unconscious.
2A. These can be life lessons learned; including trauma, but also where role models & their teachings rom early periods in our life can be stored there.
2A1. This is often called the sub-conscious, which might be another term for the same thing.
2A1a. However, a minor distinction can be made, as these memories can be readily evoked by certain triggers, such as smells & other sounds or even other sensations.
2A1a1. These memories can even be wholly remembered in dreams and meditative states.
2A1a2. These memories often will present symbols that represent obscuring or shadow memories.
3. The Shadow can intefere with our psychic development; taking away a functional & wholesome approach to the construction of the self (Will) & the creation of meaning in our lives.
3A. It can rob us of the energy needed to formulate intent; one of the 4 Yods.
3A1. Loathing of one’s life & alienation from teh self & others follows.
3A1a. The diminishing of the joy of living.
3B. It can confound the intuition; one of the 4 Yods.
3B1. Our path through life becomes dysfunctional, as we make bad choices & come to feel the circumstances in our lives are beyond our control.
3B1a. This can damage one’s integrity (1 of the 4 Yods), which has as much to do with honor, as it has to do w/the wholesome & functional structure of the psyche.
3C. One’s intelligence (1 of the 4 Yods) can be darkened by brooding, unconscious sensibilities that hamper rationality.
3C1. More positive character traits can come from the same place.
3C2. Cognitive dissonance can also be setup unconsciously.
3C2a. This can also be reinforced by the collective unconscious.
3C2a1. Mob psychosis.
4. What is shadow work? How do we apprehend & get control over our shadow?
4A. Psychotherapy is one potent form.
4A1. It gets one to talk through issues in order to get at deeper causes.
4A1a. This can also come about thorugh the relationships to other people we have in our lives, but it is not as intentional.
4A1a1. Spouses, friends & workmates.
4A2. Psychotherapy can also help us to understand & get at the rood of our preferences; likes & dislikes.
4A2a. It can help us to understand why we made or are making the choices we make in life.
4B. Diary keeping is a form of psychotherapy that can hellp to foster the Gnostic Dialogue.
4B1. It is a conversation with the higher self.
4B2. We can search our diaries to find patterns of behavior that cycle and repeat themselves.
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