The USA witnessed a momentous change this past weekend, one I’ve longed for and worked toward for a long time. As one who writes about personal change, I’ve avoided political advocacy in the belief that we can make no lasting changes in the world without first changing ourselves. I still believe that. But now I see that the movement growing in me has also been growing in our nation’s collective unconscious. Last week these inner and outer movements joined and surged like a tidal wave into our collective consciousness.
I see this as a movement away from an old political order — regardless of party — characterized by greed, self-interest, hostility, and divisiveness, toward a new order of greater openness, receptivity, kindness, unity, and compassion. But we must take care. In the same way that every individual has shadows and flaws, so is every movement unconsciously contaminated by shadow undercurrents and toxic inner forces. The truth is that all individuals and movements have a very long way to go before we recognize their shadow qualities well enough to avoid perpetuating them.
The successful outcome of our current epic change rests on the willingness of each individual to open to growth and change. Clinging to old grievances won’t make us feel better about ourselves. Accepting our authentic selves and others will. Disparaging and humiliating people or movements that disagree with us or thwart our ego’s goals will feed the monsters within, but won’t make them go away. The only solution to our conflicts is to unite the opposites in ourselves with compassion and love. This is what religions have always been about, even if they didn’t know it. Remember, the kingdom of God is within.
Our anger and frustration are not really about politics. They’re about us and our inability to see our own holy bright and shadow sides. We humans still don’t understand the mystery of ourselves. We can’t see the sacredness that dwells within us. All our egos can see is our failures and flaws, because that’s what our experiences in the outer world constantly show us. Our pain over constantly feeling “less than” automatically causes us to project our disappointment about our lives onto others, and to blame them for our suffering. Everyone does this regardless of which side of the divide they favor.
The divisiveness we experience makes it easy to project our disappointments onto others, guilt-free. I saw the truth of this very clearly this weekend as Fred and I were on our way home from a COVID rapid test (we both tested negative). We were first in line to stop at a red right-turn signal at a busy intersection. Distracted and anxious, we waited for it to turn green without realizing that cars were no longer whizzing past in front of us. Soon, cars honked angrily behind us, so we turned right. A woman with a little girl in the front seat beside her immediately pulled out from behind us and stopped to our left as we waited for the next light to change. The little girl opened her window and leaned out to say something we couldn’t hear. Then the driver leaned over and yelled angrily. “You’re Trump supporters aren’t you?”
Fred laughed in disbelief and said, “No.”
“You better not be!” she said as she drove off. We chuckled at the irony all the way home.
Our political problem is a personal problem. The results of this presidential election are an invitation to be part of the change. If you’d welcome some guidance on how to grow in the direction of your better self, I have another invitation for you.
Next Tuesday, evening, November 17th, at 5:00 PM Eastern Time, I will celebrate the official launch of The Soul’s Twins on Facebook Live and Zoom. Here’s your link to the invitation. If you would like to join me, please click RSVP on the invitation and enter your email address. This will insure that you’ll receive an email link to the event early next week. If you’ve already received an invitation from Eventbrite and haven’t responded yet, please do so to receive your link.
The Soul’s Twins: Emancipate Your Feminine and Masculine Archetypes was written for you. It will help you free your inner opposites from the prison of your unconscious so you can restrain their shadows before they obstruct your growth into greater freedom, justice, fulfillment, and love. If you want to know more about this book which was written specifically for you and our times, click here to read the latest review.
6 Responses
So I think my political shadow could be summarized in EAT THE RICH!
I knew it in someways but it came to the big screen with the 2019 JOKER movie .
Description –
Forever alone in a crowd, failed comedian Arthur Fleck seeks connection as he walks the streets of Gotham City. Arthur wears two masks — the one he paints for his day job as a clown, and the guise he projects in a futile attempt to feel like he’s part of the world around him. Isolated, bullied and disregarded by society, Fleck begins a slow descent into madness as he transforms into the criminal mastermind known as the Joker.
I felt the jokers deep sadness ,like the wolfman character played by Benicio Del Toro expresses (The Wolfman 2010) as he howls at the moon from the classic scene beside the tree ,and rooted for the Joker played by Joaquin Phoenix when choke holding his father through the security gates .
If you might say -really? I would say – no doubt!
Just saying…
Wow, Mark. That’s a pretty scary shadow. I sincerely hope you manage to restrain it! Best wishes, Jeanie
“A million zeros joined together do not, unfortunately, add up to one. Ultimately everything depends on the quality of the individual, but our fatally shortsighted age thinks only in terms of large numbers and mass organizations, though one would think that the world had seen more than enough of what a well-disciplined mob can do in the hands of a single madman. Unfortunately, this realization does not seem to have penetrated very far – and our blindness is extremely dangerous.” ~ Carl Jung
Jean ~ You can erase my comments but not the truth. Your embrace of Jungian ideas and talk of “universal peace, justice and love” in your latest book invite my comments and challenges.
Yet in a private email you say I’m “projecting” and that I lack empathy for “those tortured by their inner shadows”, apparently (???) referring to the Bidens, Trumps, Obamas, Clintons, and Bushes of the world, among many others ~ all of whom *act out* both their personal as well as the collective shadow by inflicting extreme acts of violence, torture and suffering on millions of people throughout the world, in very REAL ways.
I hope you understand what it is you’re supporting/promoting and how your own perspectives and shadow have been shaped and distorted by the thousands of lies we’ve been told and are rewarded for repeating.
Do you really want to live in a world without thoughtful discourse, dissent or depth? In a world where violence, oppression, lying and injustice are denied or rationalized and where truth-tellers and whistle-blowers are silenced, tortured, imprisoned, murdered? Where books are burned and homogeneous (authoritarian) thinking is the only thinking allowed? Where endless war, mass murder, oppression and exploitation are socially accepted norms, so long as our rulers maintain a polite face?
Our empathy for those who commit acts of violence *doesn’t mean we ought to actively and intentionally deny, promote and support these architects of violence*. I don’t advocate for or wish violence on anyone, something I made clear in the first comment you deleted:
“It’s not voting day for all of us. Some have realized the truth of it and abstain for the sake of ALL who would suffer, both near and far. Knowing this, some vote for 3rd party candidates with little or no chance of winning ~ something I understand and respect. And some aren’t given the option of voting, or if they are, of having their vote counted. So much of what we’re taught to believe about our ‘democracy’ is illusion.
Throughout our country’s history, and with notable exceptions in some local races, who among our elected rulers and ‘representatives’ has had the moral courage to consistently seek truth by always standing on the side of love and truth for ALL in an *impersonal/transcendent* sense? Who among these elected rulers has NEVER supported imperialist violence, oppression, exploitation, cruelty or injustice? I can think of only one, Jeannette Rankin.
The so-called ‘compromises’ so many of us have been culturally conditioned to accept as ‘duty’ always and inevitably involve the suffering of someone, somewhere. We’re being lied to by powers that benefit from these lies. And so also, we lie to ourselves.
Most of us seek out sources and information that validate our positions through a process known as confirmation bias, in which our psyches effectively block any contradictory FACT or transcendent TRUTH from sinking in. As you know, we project onto others what we fail to recognize in ourselves. While politics is an example of this, many, if not most religious and spiritual people do it too, as do most ‘Jungians’. No one is exempt.
Even Jung understood the paradox and necessity of understanding the true nature of God as being both personal and impersonal/transcendent. Yet most of us remain locked in our fixed *personal* positions, comfortable in our collective illusions.
It’s important to consider how the political promotes the idea and illusion of personal rights, while at the same time negating *the sacred nature of each and every person*. No matter who we end up with as president or in congress, inevitably ALL of us lose. Tolstoy had the right idea.”
This time around, I hope you’ll find the courage to leave my comment, without erasing it.
LB, I did erase the other comments but found this one and re-posted it so people can see the kind of discussions we’ve been having behind the scenes. They are very painful to me and I’m sorry we couldn’t come to some understanding before you wrote this. I’m glad we’ve made peace with ourselves and each other since then. Thank you very much for your final, and very kind email. You’ll note I’ve addressed this situation in my next post. Love, Jeanie
The tension of the opposites keeps me in an exhausted knot since the election. I hoped for resolution and calm, but it was not to be. The political situation is less turbulent in New York State where I live than in most of the country, but I don’t like my Republican representative to Congress and he won again. Still, no one tore down my sign for his opponent or yelled at me from their car. The loser of the election won’t leave the national stage and seems focused on destroying as much as possible before mid January and taking the whole country down with him. That frightens me and there isn’t a thing I can do about it. I rejoiced about the election outcome but the tension goes on, so it’s not surprising it would show up in blogs, too.
The astrology of this time is fierce and difficult. It’s a huge turning point and change is demanded if we are to save the earth as a habitable place, but will we turn toward unity or more conflict as each fights for what they claim as their right? It’s hard to know. A shadow energy has been collectively released and honored for a few years. Now what?
I totally agree, Elaine! Very well said. That shadow energy has been seeping into the collective unconscious of all of us these last few years. And we’re all vulnerable to the inner and outer pressure to release it. It somehow makes me feel better to know I’m not the only one!! Thank you.