Letting the shadows out to play.
Your Dark Side: Olympus 35 LC – Ilford Delta 3200
I really love the unexpected. This photograph was totally unexpected. Tom and I were walking through Greenwich Village on our way out, heading for the subway. It was Halloween evening, a time when we can pretty freely allow our shadows out to play. I spotted this person dressed as a nun and took a quick photo. It looked interesting. I didn’t realize that she was headed into a bar. Man, I thought that I couldn’t have designed it better myself. Now, taking a closer look at the picture, there’s an advertisement at the door advertising some type of drink and the slogan is: Your Dark Side.
The hero’s main feat is to overcome the monster of darkness: it is the long-hoped-for and expected triumph of consciousness over the unconscious. The coming of consciousness was probably the most tremendous experience of primeval times, for with it a world came into being whose existence no one had suspected before. “And God said, ‘Let there be light”‘ is the projection of that immemorial experience of the separation of consciousness from the unconscious. C.G. Jung
If you have read any works by Carl Jung you’ll know that he believed that we all posses a dark side, or shadow side. That side which we would like to disavow or perhaps deny that it exists. Read any mythology and you’ll see the heros struggle. Before becoming triumphant, they must always have a moment of doubt, a moment to face the monster within. Fascinating. Within each of us there is that side that we’d rather not talk about and certainly wouldn’t want to let out. I know, for certain, that I have those dark thoughts and the ‘side’, yet, I don’t fear it, as I understand that there has to be balance. Interestingly, within the shadow lurks our untested/unused good points as well. There’s some good reading about it here should you find it interesting.
Being in the Village was entertaining because there were so many people letting out their shadow sides and expressing themselves by the costumes that they selected, or perhaps in their wild and crazy behavior that they could indulge in while in The Village where it’s quite acceptable to ‘be yourself’.
I didn’t want to go to deep into this as I am certainly not qualified to do; however, it was fascinating to be in The Village and to experience this behavior that is rarely seen outside such an environment. All in all, I think that those who embrace some of their shadow are more well adjusted than those who continue to deny that it exists.
Paul – are you suggesting we all have a deep rooted desire to be drunken nuns?
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Ah, my favorite topic – the “dark side”. Of course we all have a dark side. We are all capable – given the right conditions – of doing very bad things. The opposite is also true.
Heck, we routinely applaud the “bad guy” in movies. I remember taking my kids to one of the first showings of “Return of the Jedi” back in the 80′s. In one of the very first scenes, Darth Vader arrives at the new Death Star. The movie audience practically gave him a standing ovation! He was THE MAN. In the story, he was a guy responsible for countless horrible deaths and these people are cheering him. The “good guys” got no such response.
Real life is often similar. We are all guilty of sometimes rooting for the bad guys who show up in the news, especially if there aren’t any identifiable victims. If they’ve cheated the government or some huge corporation, we secretly wish them well.
In short, charismatic bad guys are more popular than run-of-the-mill good guys. We love people who can beat the system and get away with it. Life without the dark side just wouldn’t be any fun.
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I remember as a kid going to the “Village” it was the beat generation then, an interesting place.
Problem is on halloween you never know who is playing a part or if it is their norm.
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I embrace my so called dark side. It is a real part of me and at times the interesting part. The only wrong is denying that side of myself or the results of it to make me seem something I am are not.
Besides who gets to decide what is the dark side of me and what is just me. Dark side or light side is the label others get to put on my actions to make them understandable or acceptable to them, I am not living their lives or for them. Basically a moot point unless I am worried about what others accept or think. Life is only unbalanced if you deny a part of it or try to live out of who you are.
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@Mark: I didn’t say that. What were you thinking? Letting a bit of your shadow side out, no?
@Ray: I think that it is more appropriately referred to as the shadow side. That side that is within the shadows and is not always seen, whether that is what is considered by society as good or bad.
@Paul M: You make a very good point here. We can, while watching movies, support the bad guy and give in to that shadow.
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The grain and characteristics of the film work really well here. It is an excellent moment to capture, man your images from NYC must contain lots of gems!
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Sixteen years of Catholic school. I open this up to an essay on the dark side and see a nun. Talk about post-traumatic stress disorder. Holy cow!
Great post. As a psychologist in real life, I am a reader of and believer in much of the Jungian stuff. Thanks for sharing.
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