Carl Jung wrote about how we humans develop an outward way of being in the world which becomes our ‘dominant’ self. It becomes so dominant we don’t always recognize the abandoned selves we hold in our ‘shadow’ side. Exploring and accepting our shadow, however, is essential for maturity and also  sustained activism because it reminds us of our full humanness and keeps us more humble than we’d likely be otherwise. Spiritual work might be described as shadow work, especially for Unitarian Universalists. We usually arrive at our values and ideas through our dominant personalities which highly value reason – the bright side of our moon you might say. And there is nothing wrong with that as long as we also look within at the less dominant ways we engage life which we find in our shadow.  The moon has a side always in shadow to us. We have to make an extra effort to send an intelligent vehicle around back to look at it and see things from that perspective. Some of you remember the old radio show, “The Shadow knows.”  Still true?

Blessings, Marye Gail Harrison, Board Chair Spiritual Life