Low Enough To See Your Shadow

I wrote last time that Jung’s approach to humility deserves its own post:

Modern men cannot find God because they will not look low enough.

Here’s the first piece of that post.

Look low enough by confronting the darkness in your personal hell.

Humility demands that you fix the problems in your own mind and life before trying to save the world. It is necessary to inspect the lens before you examine the territory. It is necessary to develop competence and purity of heart in humbler realms before seeking world-changing power. The world will fight you with everything it has – a single crack in your own defenses is mission-critical.

All of these are good reasons to conquer your own shadow. Would you trust someone without a shadow?

Here are two more essential reasons to take care of yourself and conquer your shadow before, or at least concurrently with, embarking on a heroic mission.

The first is that you will learn the power of attention by staring straight into the abyss. There is a handicap attached to this: every danger you leave unattended gets worse. Like gasses, shadows grow to fill the space they’re in.

The second is another rule of Jung, that the Golden Rule is symmetric. Treat yourself with the respect a human being deserves.