The Shadow Knows
This afternoon in posting on my own blog, I wound up rambling onto the issue of our “dark side,” our “shadow side.” I wanted to link to something that explained how I view that psychological concept, and so I Googled over to this site, which ended with the following:

My own experience with the dark goddesses has taken me down a path of several goddess myths and stories. I have struggled with and overcome an inferiority complex over body image (Medusa). Most recently, I have been working with Lilith, trying to incorporate her (heretofore forbidden) drive for freedom of expression and assertion of sexuality into my thinking and lifestyle. I look forward to working with Hecate, the Crone of Wisdom, when the time comes. I'm enjoying every minute of it; the feeling is like an opening flower. Each instance brings new light into my life, as well as a greater feeling of wholeness.

Polarity is undeniably a part of this world. The dark side is all around us, everywhere we look, in everything we experience. As the Christian Bible says "To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven." It follows by simple observation that all seasons are not right for all things; some are to be put aside, hidden, taken from the light into the dark for a time. Yet they remain a part of everything, a part of the whole, resting until the time in the great cycle to appear again.

And then as I was making dinner for my mom, I thought about posting something about “shadow,” and then had this weird deja vue thing that I had done this before and that Tish, on her fatshadow.com blog had linked to the yoni.com site before. Except it never happened.

So I’m going ahead and bringing up the “shadow” up here, because I think that Kali, and Lilith, and Hecate – in the Jungian archetypal sense – have a great deal to teach us. Years ago, I spent several years in therapy getting to know an love the Lilith in me. Got a lot of good poetry written out of that experience as well.

I’m wondering if any of the other BlogSisters have ever done these kinds of explorations of their “shadow” sides as a way of getting to know yourself better and change self-defeating behaviors. ???