~ Carl G. Jung
“To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light. Once one has experienced a few times what it is like to stand judgingly between the opposites, one begins to understand what is meant by the self. Anyone who perceives his shadow and his light simultaneously sees himself from two sides and thus gets in the middle.”
Much of what I have written in this blog have been about projections. The outside world is a reflection mirroring the depths of our suppressed issues, much of the time because we are too scared to explore these shadows or see them as part of ourselves. We thus draw people into our lives to show us what we have not dealt with. As they become more pertinent to resolve, we will start seeing such people/incidents more frequently in our lives. This is why it is important to pay attention to patterns in our lives. Once we know where that shadow is lurking, we can expel it out of our system.
Another trajectory to examine this idea of projections is projecting our fears outwards and seeing them in people, and then internalising the projected outcomes further into our own processing. It is like an infinity mirror effect! Let us take for example, person X does something that scares the depth of us, and we would gasp, cringe, and remind ourselves repeatedly that no way are we ever going to do that in a situation, nor even allow ourselves to get into that situation. Imagine that pattern. Imagine retrojecting that, each time overcompensating, each time finding ourselves distancing and avoiding that pattern. Sounds all good and clever? Not quite.
We forget that it is/was person X’s situation and that they have their own issues to deal with and their lessons are not ours. We forget that we can do things differently, and that what is their truth is not our truth.
One may ask, “shouldn’t there be just one truth, if it really was pure truth”. Well, there is a Universal Truth, which I always use the capital T for this, for it is unbendable and applies to all. There is also the individual, personal truths, which I call them the small t ones. The big T is that we are all here to learn our lessons and be guided by the big universal Love in this world of duality. The small t is that in this world of duality, we are learning both sides of the coin and to learn that balance. Henceforth, you and I may be on the opposite sides of the coin, and our t may be to gain closer understanding of either direction.
Let us take another practical example. I have always felt pangs of fear when I see or hear mom talking to everyone about us, the good positive chats included. The fear comes from a matter of perspective: what she deems as good and brag-worthy may be something that I am uncomfortable with being put out in the public eye. (Just like it may not be a great idea that I am blogging about this publicly. 😉 ) The truth is, she is speaking her truth from her understanding, but also that there may be a “higher lesson” for her to not go too extreme into voicing her opinions or “positively gossiping” about us; or that there is too a “higher lesson” for me as an audience, had I not been overwhelmed by mere fear. The mirrored projection from my position is that I get so darn scared about her outward expression, that I project these fears and the consequential outcomes into my own life. The result being that I overcompensate by holding myself back from speaking about anything at all. The retrojected fear that whatever I say will backfire or be misconstrued by others (for my fear saw her words backfire and misconstrued in her situation). See the two sides of the coin that we are learning to get closer to the Middle Way?
Seeing the projections for what they are helps me see myself clearer. Expelling that shadow out of my system helps me see that I can stand in my own power and speak my own truth.
That words spoken in the moment, with full Love and complete presence, can serve their function for everyone’s highest good (however the people judge it as good or bad).
Thank you StockSnap for the background image https://pixabay.com/photos/people-girl-face-lips-mirror-2604159/