Resistance to the sway of unconscious archetypes can be done — according to C. G. Jung — both individually and socially. That is, by the individual uncovering one’s own shadow, i.e. bringing it to consciousness, and then by the same individual exposing the shadow-side of a society, i.e. the negative archetypes that are acting up within that society.
Jung’s position can be probably best summarized by a well-known Gospel teaching: Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye (Mt 7:3-5).
A Jungian interpretation of these verses goes like this: Stop seeing evil in others, and do not be a moralist crusader eager to correct other people’s behavior; take care first of what is in the shadow of your consciousness — in terms of ideas, behaviors, attitudes — which you can only dimly see inside yourself and yet is very active and blocks your vision of the outside world; then, do help out your society.
Jung was not an activist, and one can hardly find positive references in his work to movements of solidarity among the oppressed, but he was not at all disinterested in social realities.
As renowned Jungian analyst Murray Stein writes, Jung was not a quietist about evil in the larger world, in politics, in economics, or on the stage of world affairs. (…) He felt deeply that fanatical ideologies of any sort were demonic because they depended for their existence upon identification with archetypal images and upon grandiose inflations, which crippled individual accountability and destroyed moral consciousness.
Jung’s suggestion to start working from the individual consciousness sounds impractical, of course, especially when the house is on fire, but at the same time it sounds correct, after we have witnessed in the West in the past two centuries or more throngs of people who strongly believed in their ideologies and were intent on changing the world while being unprepared to face the complexity of reality, within and without themselves.
The proverbial evangelical log is still very much an unavoidable psychological reality.
Our present situation is not, of course, determined by the fight between opposed ideologies. We are in the next stage, which Jungians correctly characterize as being in the grip of the archetype of the Antichrist.
But if we want to try to do something about the horror we are living through, it would be a mistake simply to advocate for a reversal to the preceding situation, that of confrontational ideologies (“culture wars”). A good deal of shadow-work at the personal level, as well as at the level of activist groups, appears to be essential.
Shadow-work is not done to clean up and therefore be better than all others, i.e. to become morally pure and devoid of blame. This would be a major misunderstanding of Jung’s lesson. Shadow-work surely makes one stop projecting on others, that is, finding in them the vices that one is actually prone to. Yet it ought to be done not to become “good” but to gain consistency, clarity, and strength as actors on the life stage that we have been given not for our own sake only, but for the sake of the whole.
See Matthew Fox, Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Also see Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Also see Fox, Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Also see Fox, Meister Eckhart: Mystic-Warrior for Our Time
Banner Image: Facing the shadow within: “Dark Mirroring.” Photo by Claus Tom Christensen on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
How much is shadow-work part of your practice? Have you find issues in understanding or practicing it?
Recommended Reading
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Matthew Fox lays out a whole new direction for Christianity—a direction that is in fact very ancient and very grounded in Jewish thinking (the fact that Jesus was a Jew is often neglected by Christian theology): the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality, the Vias Positiva, Negativa, Creativa and Transformativa in an extended and deeply developed way.
“Original Blessing makes available to the Christian world and to the human community a radical cure for all dark and derogatory views of the natural world wherever these may have originated.” –Thomas Berry, author, The Dream of the Earth; The Great Work; co-author, The Universe Story
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Visionary theologian and best-selling author Matthew Fox offers a new theology of evil that fundamentally changes the traditional perception of good and evil and points the way to a more enlightened treatment of ourselves, one another, and all of nature. In comparing the Eastern tradition of the 7 chakras to the Western tradition of the 7 capital sins, Fox allows us to think creatively about our capacity for personal and institutional evil and what we can do about them.
“A scholarly masterpiece embodying a better vision and depth of perception far beyond the grasp of any one single science. A breath-taking analysis.” — Diarmuid O’Murchu, author of Quantum Theology: Spiritual Implications of the New Physics
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election
Matthew Fox tells us that he had always shied away from using the term “Anti-Christ” because it was so often used to spread control and fear. However, given today’s rise of authoritarianism and forces of democracide, ecocide, and christofascism, he turns the tables in this book employing the archetype for the cause of justice, democracy, and a renewed Earth and humanity.
From the Foreword: If there was ever a time, a moment, for examining the archetype of the Antichrist, it is now…Read this book with an open mind. Good and evil are real forces in our world. ~~ Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Conversations with the Divine.
For immediate access to Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ: A Handbook for the 2024 Election, order the e-book with 10 full-color prints from Amazon HERE.
To get a print-on-demand paperback copy with black & white images, order from Amazon HERE or IUniverse HERE.
To receive a limited-edition, full-color paperback copy, order from MatthewFox.org HERE.
Order the audiobook HERE for immediate download.
Meister Eckhart: A Mystic-Warrior For Our Time
While Matthew Fox recognizes that Meister Eckhart has influenced thinkers throughout history, he also wants to introduce Eckhart to today’s activists addressing contemporary crises. Toward that end, Fox creates dialogues between Eckhart and Carl Jung, Thich Nhat Hanh, Rabbi Heschel, Black Elk, Karl Marx, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Dorothee Soelle, David Korten, Anita Roddick, Lily Yeh, M.C. Richards, and many others.
“Matthew Fox is perhaps the greatest writer on Meister Eckhart that has ever existed. (He) has successfully bridged a gap between Eckhart as a shamanistic personality and Eckhart as a post-modern mentor to the Inter-faith movement, to reveal just how cosmic Eckhart really is, and how remarkably relevant to today’s religious crisis! ” — Steven Herrmann, Author of Spiritual Democracy: The Wisdom of Early American Visionaries for the Journey Forward
