Illuminating the Shadow

Our world is becoming increasingly transparent, as the emergence of a higher consciousness is ever conspiring to light up our dark sides with the result that our personal, family, social, political, economic, national and human collective shadows continue to arise ever more forcefully around us, so David Furlong's book could not be more timely. It could also not be more revealing, as too many of us talk far too blithely about the Shadow or the 'dark side' without being fully aware of what it really is and how important it is at this time that we understand it and know how to work with it so we can stop projecting it outside of ourselves all the time.

Jung, who coined the term the 'Shadow', stressed that the way to become enlightened was not to sit on the mountain top in the sun but to have the courage to go down and confront our shadow sides, would be rising from his grave in joy at this book. Why? Because not only is it extremely well-written and does much to deepen our understanding of the term - placing as much emphasis on our repressed positive, light or 'spiritual' shadow and on the cosmic shadow - but it takes what Jung said to the next level. For me, it is everything about the shadow that one wants to know about but didn't know how to ask. While being very scholarly and dealing with dark and difficult issues, it is in no way ponderous, which is quite an achievement.

'We see things,' David tells us, 'not as they are but as we are' and we need both to stop demonising others (projecting our own shadow upon them) as well as rejecting polarities, as our shadow is as much carried by those who inspire us as by those we detest. (No doubt if he were writing today, he might have a lot to say about the significance of Donald Trump and what his presence tells us about the state of America, and who today, has overtaken Jimmy Saville and Tony Blair as the one we most love to hate!)

We learn a great deal about the shadow, David tells us, from the movies. Darth Vadar is the 'dark side' of the Force and the films are centred around themes of working through hatred, greed, deception and fear. In 'Return of the Jedi', Luke confronts his father and the Dark Lord who tempts him to give in to his hatred and anger. David shows us how similar shadow issues are present in the films on Superman and Spiderman and in particular in Pirates of the Caribbean. In ET, we glimpse the spiritual shadow where Elliot loves the unattractive-looking ET who is the magical ingredient allowing him to recover, showing us that 'when we love the ugly parts of ourselves, they release their powers to us.' The gift of the positive shadow is that, if owned, it asks us to be much more than the little self that we think we are. In Avatar, we see how shadow issues around greed and fear on the part of the mining company who want to exploit the beautiful planet for its precious minerals, create their own comeuppance. In Schindler's List, we see how Schindler, the rescuer of so many Jews, transformed his life through his relationship with his 'other half' - the evil Amon Goeth!

We learn that literature is also full of shadow themes. Harry Potter is challenged all the time by his shadow side, Voldemort, and is able to overcome him by learning to grow in his humanity and courage. Of course Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde is the archetypal 'shadow book' and we are shown that when we reject our dark side, it ends up destroying us. The point is that we all have our dark sides, or as David reminds us, quoting from the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, we all have albatrosses around our necks. Shadow themes also show up in mythology with Seth in Ancient Egypt, Lucifer the 'fallen angel' in Christianity and Loki in Teutonic mythology. Mara, like Satan with Christ, does everything in his power to deflect the Buddha from his mission on Earth because he knows that the Buddha's teachings can potentially remove evil from the world. As such, he is the Buddha's shadow.

David is very good when he helps us identify our own shadow sides and gives us many useful exercises to work with it, reminding us that all criticisms of others and all self-criticisms are shadow issues. I found it a bit alarming when he reminded us that people who say they are hopeless at something, say maths, always have a disowned mathematician inside them, as I like to say this about myself with regard to learning foreign languages. It made me realise that if I am to be honest, I need to shift gears and simply own a side of me that is plain lazy in this arena, yet in doing so, not be hard on myself! I think David is so 'right on' when he tells us that 'whatever politicians say, we know they'll do the opposite', as this happened when, a few months ago, Gove said "I unequivocally support my friend Boris Johnson to be the next prime minister", only, a couple of days later, utterly to denounce him as being completely unfit for the job! In this context, I think of Trump's assertion about 'America being in a terrible state' which only he can fix!

There is so much that is absolutely fascinating about this book. We learn how to identify our archetypes and sub-personalities and recognise our traumatised parts and how to work with them. He is very good talking about the shadow around families and in fairy tales (an excellent analysis of Beauty and the Beast) and draws on the Tarot and the I Ching to reinforce his arguments. I learned to see the various conflicts in the Ukraine, Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia and the contnuous struggle between Israel and Palestine through entirely new eyes. David, you have great political insight and I think you'd make an excellent diplomat. Why not give it a go? Don't 'deny' those impulses for a potential career change!

If I have any small criticism, it is that sometimes he describes things in too much detail, which, while always fascinating, can take one away from the actual theme of the Shadow. For example, while I found what he said about Richard Dawkins and whether God exists or not, very interesting just as I did his discussions about life after death, I was also wondering what their connection was to the main theme of the book. I also have one or two small disagreements. For example, to me not all dark material is necessarily shadow material and not all evil is necessarily shadow. Some evil is very conscious, that is, it exists very much 'in the light of a person's knowing'. Thus, there is nothing 'shadowy' and everything intentional about Russia dropping bunk busting and flame hurling bombs to assist Assad to kill all off all resistance in Aleppo, just as there was nothing unconscious about Hitler's determination to kill off all the Jews in gas ovens. I would also have been interested in what David would have had to say about the Dark Web, the hidden side of the Internet.

But these points are small in comparison to the overall excellence of a multi-levelled book that needs to be read by politicians, peace activists and economists as well as by psychotherapists and spiritual educators. Its 'self help' dimension constituting various exercises we can do with ourselves to help us integrate our dark sides, I repeat once more, is very well thought out. I finished reading this book full of awe at its magnitude and with a whole new understanding of how deeply shadow issues permeate themselves into all areas of our lives. This is a must for all our bookshelves.