Reflections on the Shadow: Part 5
The Root Cause of the Human Condition
We all have a shadow side that contains the buried emotional toxicity we have not yet faced. That emotional toxicity is the root cause of most of the difficulties facing the human race. The shadow separates us from our soul and brings the toxic emotions of fear, greed, anger, and resentment into our lives. The shadow also rekindles the ancient traumas hidden inside our psyches, causing them to repeat in the present. If those patterns are left unchecked they will repeat far into our future. In other words, the shadow is a karma generating machine that leads to the denial of destiny. If we do nothing to deter it’s subtle workings, it will continue to do it’s will in our lives until we do.
Personal Peace
Now take a deep breath and imagine yourself at peace. Are any of those negative emotions active when you are feeling peaceful? Of course not, because they are the very antithesis of the ease we all long for. We cannot be at peace and be negative. Yet these are exactly the toxic emotions that dominate the lives of most people. How can the world become a better place as long as emotional toxicity drives most people’s actions?
World Peace
The world won’t change until we change. If we are to make the world a better place we must establish a conscious relationship with our soul and become happy, peaceful, and loving. Happy people don’t want to hurt or dominate other people. Peaceful people want to serve others and share unconditional love. Unfortunately, the shadow and its emotional toxicity stands directly in the way of a conscious relationship with the soul. It is the great impediment to the expansion of spiritual light on this planet.
An Interesting Case of Emotional Toxicity
When Sean came to me a powerful piece of his emotional toxicity came up during the session. Soon after we started he found himself in ancient Egypt as a slave dragging huge boulders across the desert in a line with thousands of other slaves. During the course of the day’s labor an overseer came by and pulled a woman out of the line just in front of him. He threw her down in the sand and whipped her repeatedly. Sean kept on tugging the rope while she screamed and begged for mercy. She died in the desert sand, her blood staining the ground near his feet. If Sean had shown any emotion or taken any action to try to save her he would have met a similar fate. When he saw these scenes unfolding unexpectedly inside him he began to sob. His sobs lasted a long time. The woman who had been murdered had been his wife. He had never grieved for her then, never released his emotional toxicity. He had been too scared. He was grieving for her now, thousands of years later.
In his current life Sean was a bartender and indulged in a series of one night stands. Commitment was not part of his emotional repertoire. He did drugs to mask his pain. These choices were a direct response to what had happened to him in that past life. That ancient trauma had seared his soul and was very much alive in the hidden recesses of his being. In response, he had subconsciously created two governing beliefs that ruled his life without his having any conscious realization that he had done so.
Governing Beliefs
The first subconscious governing belief was that if you loved someone they would die, hence his decision to have one night stands in lieu of a real relationship. The second governing belief was that it was safer to stay in the dark than it was to be seen by those in authority. If you were seen you might die. Hence his decision to work in the shadows as a bartender. To complete the cycle he took drugs to mask the pain of an unfulfilled and unhappy existence.
When he cleared that ancient emotional toxicity from his soul his life changed quickly. He left his job as bartender and got a sales job with a prominent hi-tech company. He met a wonderful girl there and got engaged to her. And he gave up his dependence on drugs.
As Sean’s case illustrates, the emotional toxicity in our shadow can fester forever, a clear instance of conditional immortality. It’s tyranny in our lives doesn’t end until we face it. As long as it exists it separates us from our soul. Every time we clear a layer of our emotional toxicity we close the gap that exists between our soul and our conscious nature.
When we clear our shadow we remove the internal resistance in our lives and accelerate our growth. The result of that acceleration is greater happiness, success, and fulfillment than before. As we continue to go forward and merge with our soul our happiness grows exponentially.