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Tuesday, 07 October 2008
Archives 2006 I Have Met The Enemy & He is Us --Pogo
| I Have Met The Enemy & He is Us --Pogo | | Print | |
| Written by Rev Jan Chase | |
 ...owning our own psychological shadows, rather than projecting them out onto others in the world. I knew I had to attend the moment I heard about it: “A Conference on World Religions after 9-11” to be held in Montreal September 11-15, 2006. Not only was I invited to attend this conference where global teachers like Deepak Chopra, Karen Armstrong and Huston Smith were presenting, but I was invited to be a part of a panel from our local Interfaith group to put on our own presentation. The message I felt drawn to share was to present the importance of owning our own psychological shadows, rather than projecting them out onto others in the world. I am a minister, not a psychologist and not an expert in the field of shadow work. And so I am working at learning about those aspects of us as individuals and as religions that we discount, reject and keep hidden in our unconscious individual and collective psyches. Cartoon character Pogo’s most famous line is “I have met the enemy and he is us.” In our natural unfoldment as children we build a “personae” that we show to the world so that we can be accepted into our culture. The rest of our wholeness is secreted away within us as our “shadow.” We each put different aspects of the wholeness we share into our shadow. These hidden parts don’t go away. They live deep within our unconscious and drive us into reactive behavior. We find ourselves overreacting to people who show those aspects that we have so carefully hidden away. This is called “projection.” Robert A. Johnson in his book Owning Your Own Shadow writes: “Good characteristics turn up in the shadow. The ordinary, mundane characteristics are the norm (for the personae). Anything less then this goes into the shadow. But anything better also goes into the shadow! Some of the pure gold of our personality is relegated to the shadow because it can find no place in that great leveling process that is culture.” We project our hidden assets on sports heroes and celebrities, making them better than us, giving them our adoration and power, power that is a part of the wholeness we share with them, but have not accepted within ourselves. We project the aspects of our shadow that we consider “bad” onto those who have accepted and displayed those aspects. Because we don’t accept them, we can’t stand that they have. It often becomes our duty to “kill” the “unacceptable” not only in us, but in others, by whatever means possible. Violence, terrorism and war erupt in the name of “goodness.” “Self” is seen as good. “Other” is deemed bad and called names like “the Evil Empire,” “the Infidels,” “Evil Doers” or “Satan.” I have heard that Carl Jung predicted the atrocities in Germany before they occurred, because he saw that they were “owning” only their “Superiority” and would need to project their “Shadow” onto someone. Trying to “kill” the enemy does not work, for Pogo is right: the “enemy” lives within us, “the enemy is us.” Hidden in the unconscious, it comes out in twisted and vicious forms, often mirroring the very thing we are fighting against. I see it everywhere. When I judge another’s behavior, if I pay attention, I find myself drawn to the very thing I judge as “bad.” We have seen ministers who rail at the sins of fornication, caught with prostitutes. We have seen “Right to Lifers” glorify the sanctity of life, condemning abortions but willing to kill those involved in them. We are everyone! We hear terrorist leaders condemn the loose secular ways of the West as Satanic, yet willing to kill those they judge, even though it goes against the teaching of their Holy Koran. And on the other hand, we have seen leaders of the West condemn the values of the Terrorist as evil and commit themselves to their destruction in the name of God and good. Both are projecting their shadow on the other, without any awareness that they are playing similar roles. Rollo May writes: “…the individual who wishes to have an answer to the problem of evil, as it is posed today, has need, first and foremost, of self-knowledge, that is, the upmost possible knowledge of his own wholeness. He must know relentlessly how much good he can do, and what crimes he is capable of, and must beware of regarding the one as real and the other as illusion.” Carl Jung says that “the function of war is to reveal to mankind his enormous capacity for evil in such an unforgettable way that each of us will ultimately acknowledge his own dark shadow and come to grips with the unconscious forces of his inner nature.” We must STOP and LOOK within, at the darkness we are fighting outside of ourselves. So what are we to do to heal this vicious reactive cycle of destruction and pain in the world and in ourselves? Our work is to integrate the various hidden aspects of our wholeness into awareness and acceptance. We can bring light to our shadow a number of ways. Rituals that honor the unacceptable in ourselves and bring it to our awareness, like confession, journaling, free forms of art, music, and body movement such as dancing our “Power Animals”. Attention to and acceptance of all our feelings––moment to moment––helps us own, rather than project, feelings out on others. Prayer and Meditation assist us by allowing us the time and space to be present with ourselves and all that arises when we are quiet. As we learn to accept ourselves in the “Silence” we also learn to accept others without judgment that condemns. A Course in Miracles teaches that the ego “projects conflict from your mind to other minds, in an attempt to persuade you that you have gotten rid of the problem.” However, it says, “Teach no one that he is what you would not want to be. Your brother is the mirror in which you see the image of yourself, as long as perception lasts.” By understanding that which we dislike in another is something that needs to be embraced within ourselves, we break the reactive patterns of the unconscious mind, grow in consciousness, and gather tools to work creatively with differences. Energy is released and activities of Terror and Destruction are replaced by Communication and Communion, as we honor our Oneness. REV. JAN CHASE is minister of Unity Church of Truth www.unityofpomona.org 524 E. Pasadena, Pomona 91767 909-629-3035 |
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