Have you ever met your dark side? Just like a diamond, we all have different facets that represent the 'whole' of who we are. One of these facets, I refer to as my dark side; the side that is the part of me that, if allowed to become out of balance with the rest of my psyche, can wrought destruction, both to myself and others on quite a grand scale. Thank goodness then that over the years, particularly my younger years, I met my dark side many times and got to know its peculiarities and foibles very well and in so doing, I was eventually able to assimilate it into the rest of the collective me thus bringing harmony and stability into my life. There is nothing wrong with having a dark side, in fact it is a major source of personal power but you do have to bring it into the light rather than deny its existence. According to Freud, Jung and others, 'everything with substance casts a shadow. The ego stands to the shadow as light to shade. This is the quality that makes us human. And perhaps it is in what we don't accept about ourselves - our aggression and shame, our guilt and pain - that we discover our humanity'. I think, on reflection, that I my dark side had its last real fling during an exquisite moment of revenge taken some years ago now. This particular act of revenge was sweet, so sweet that even now, as I write this blog, I can feel my dark side smiling about it. There was a lot of collateral damage done by this particular act of revenge but it was the right thing to do, as it blew apart the dark side double dealings of certain others and in effect put everyone involved back on a level playing field. As you can perhaps tell, I am quite comfortable with my dark side today. It is a valid part of my make up and in being so, it serves to make me whole.
C.G. Jung said:
'Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in an individuals conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. At all counts, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions.
If you are interested in finding out more about the dark side of human nature then the following link may be of interest...
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