We are invited or forced to listen to the call that the shadow makes on us. By connecting to the shadow, we become more ourselves and get in touch with vital life energy that allows us to become who we are meant to be. The ugly frog sometimes turns into a prince. The shadow is the rejected stone that becomes the cornerstone of the personality. According to Carl Jung, the shadow is one of the first steps in the individuation process, the psychological process of growth. Nothing is more healing to the individual, the society, for nature than the individual person to become aware of their own unconscious and shadow. Jung says that one does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.
John van Eenwyk is a gifted teacher who has thought deeply about the shadow and shares some of his ideas and insights in this lecture.