The Shadow of the New Age
In an earlier essay entitled ‘Nameless Days, Ghost Festivals and the Shadow' I discussed traditional festivals that acknowledge shadow energy, the dark side of our world and ourselves, and allow that shadow to come out into the light of day. In Jungian terms, the shadow is within us, the instincts repressed as children, the unattractive personality traits repressed as adults, and other parts of ourselves we prefer to deny. The act of making a decision implies we could go two ways. If the path we choose becomes our reality, the path not chosen may also follow us in our shadow, something we might have chosen but are ashamed to admit. The problem with the shadow is that the more we deny it, the closer it comes to controlling us.
I think that as we move toward the new age, the next great cycle following 2012, we must examine our core beliefs and what exactly is at stake. I made the comment that the Hopi are wary of 2012 because of the fear that they may be overrun by outsiders seeking sanctuary. I received a sincere response that expressed regret for their apprehension, and regret that the Hopi do not understand that it is the ‘dawning of a golden age.’ Well, Hopi prophecy is apocalyptic, but the Mayans also do not assume that this new age is going to be a utopia served to us on a golden platter. As co-creators with God we share a joint responsibility, and as we approach a great transition between ages, Mayans understand that the world we inherit is the world we must reconcile with now if we are to be inhabitants of anything resembling a ‘golden age.’
I am not the only person to recognize a possible deficiency in a tendency within the New Age movement to not recognize the dark side of change, and understand that if we do not embrace the shadow in ourselves, our suppressed selves may contribute to the unraveling of our hopes. I came across the follow quote in the book The Judas Legacy:
‘My first encounter with the soft, sweet persona of New Age thinking came when I trained at Jungian events… In these encounters I found an inflated notion of superiority seemed to color the conversations, despite the focus on spirituality and visionary notions of a world where peace would reign supreme. Behind the perfectly closed faces and spoken declarations of “we are all one” was an undertone of moralizing that implies how right New Age thinkers are in comparison to all those other hateful, ignorant folk who haven’t found Jungian theory on New Age thought. Hidden behind the intellectual facades of polite platitudes lurked the very heavy, hidden viscosity of denied shadow.
‘The New Age fundamentalist may substitute a goddess as the object of worship in place of Jesus or God, and a ritual using crystals may take the place of the sacrament of communion. But a system of belief that assumes only the good, the lovely, and the light are worthy of attention is an out-of-balance belief system, whether it is centered in the institutional church or in the contemporary New Age movement... The shame of owning a shadow is the key to its denial. If the church and the New Age movement are both supposed to be places of love and light and compassion, but people are feuding with each other, to claim such conflict brings guilt and shame. After all, being good must mean one is not in conflict’ (from The Judas Legacy by Sandra Rushing).
Denying the shadow never ends well, and for institutions and governments is inherent in the process of degeneration. For individuals, a denied shadow is out of our reach. We cannot correct it because we do not recognize it as ours. It is more common for a denied shadow to be projected, or transferred, so that the chaos it causes becomes in our minds the fault of others. Jung wrote that if inferiority was conscious, we have the chance to correct it, but repressed from consciousness it never gets corrected: “the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is.”
We depend on shadow. The animal instincts that connect us with the earth reside there. Much of what we call creativity may begin there. The bad need compassion and the good need anger, and both risk life out of balance by denying shadow. Jesus channeled his shadow energy to drive the money changers from the temple, although the gospel writers give us few other glimpses of his shadow self. The Dakota speak of the Red Road, a path between extremes and a place of balance. ‘Balance is implicit on the Red Road. When you’re on the Red Road, you are in the center… You do not go to either extreme, and you allow both sides to exist’ (from Mitakuye Oyasin, by Dr. A.C. Ross (Ehanamani)). If you wander too far to the good or to the bad, and shadow side will penetrate the consciousness and control you.
Dr. Ross’ book examines the shadow in American Indian spirituality, and how they have evolved healthier expressions of their duality than their white neighbors.
‘I came across traditional Native American methods from different tribal groups for attaining spiritual balance. When Hopi ‘kachinas’ come out to pray, the ‘koshari,’ the sacred clowns, appear. The sacred clowns do everything wrong on purpose. They do everything backwards. They keep the crowd amused with laughter. There are two sides to this ceremony: one is the kachina side, doing things properly; the other the koshari. There is a system of balance within the entire ceremony.
‘The Navajo have a ceremony called ‘yebechei.’ The yebechei are the masked dancers. When they come out, ‘toneinili,’ the sacred fools or sacred clowns also appear, doing everything wrong on purpose. Once again, the ceremony has two sides, a balance.
‘D/Lakota people have a being called ‘heyoka.’ The heyoka does everything backwards on purpose. He does everything wrong. But the heyoka is also ‘wicasa wakan,’ a holy man with the powers to heal. He is both. He is in balance. He is whole’ (from Mitakuye Oyasin, by Dr. A.C. Ross (Ehanamani)).
If you are ever unlucky enough to be hauled into jail on the Hopi reservation, you’ll be taken in through a jail door decorated with an inviting, life-size and smiling koshari clown. This is both the shadow side that might have landed you in the Hopi Pokey in the first place, but also it must represent an acknowledgement that your life is about to be turned upside down. I was once pulled into a Kachina dance by a pair of koshari clowns. I’m half Croatian and half Western European, and last person you would expect to see in a Kachina dance, but that’s what Hopi clowns do, the last thing you would expect. I was ordained a minister and had to marry a man to a pig in front of the entire village. It’s theater of the absurd, but it’s absurdity shoulder to shoulder with the most serious of human devotion, and it’s all public, not hidden from view.
This is the proper place for shadow. It should be out in the light of day.