2.
3 - The Shadow in Man
Were God to punish people for their deeds
immediately, not one creature would have
survived on earth. However, He has given them a
respite for an appointed time and when their term
comes to an end, let it be known that God watches
over His servants.
(Quran 35:45)
2.3.1 – The Path of Mercy
Carl Gustav Jung, the most brilliant of 20th
century psychoanalysts, used the term “shadow”
to describe the archetypal image of evil in our
unconscious psyche. It is very likely that he chose
the Egyptian science of the shadow in order to
name this aspect of ourselves, for the khaibit or
“shadow” in Ancient Egyptian psychology was one
of those 9 elements which composed our
composite or incarnate being.1
In mentioning this psychological
“shadow”, Jung says:
“One who goes towards oneself
runs the risk of finding oneself. The
mirror does not take sides; it shows a
faithful image of what is observed, it
makes visible that face we never show to
the world, because we hide it with the
persona, the mask of the actor. But the
mirror is behind the mask and reveals
the real face. That is the first stage of
courage in the inner path; a test that is
enough to scare anyone, because the
encounter of oneself is one of the most
unpleasant experiences and man avoids
it as long as he can project all that is
negative on the surrounding world.
If one is in the position of seeing
one’s shadow and endure the knowledge
of having it, only one small part of the
work: at least the personal unconscious
has been transcended.”2
1 thus become an enemy of the soul in the
The idea of the shadow as a part of being is
also found in Shamanic traditions, as with the Koryaks
of Kamachatka Krai, Russia. It is usually part of the
descent into Hell motif of archaic myth.
2
Carl Jung - Archetypes and Collective
Unconscious p.26.
We might recall an earlier quote from
Chapter 92 of the Book of Coming Forth to Day
which is entitled “Chapter of Opening the Tomb
for the Soul and the Shadow”. Following the
earlier quoted piece which spoke of liberation
from “the place of bondage”, there is a mention
to the shadow being taken along:
My soul seeth the great God,
Within the boat of Ra on the day of
souls.
My soul is in the front,
Among those who tell the years.
Come; the eye of Horus:
Which establishes glories upon the brow
of Ra
And rays of light upon the faces
Of those who are with the limbs of
Osiris,
It has delivered my soul.
O shut not in my soul!
Fetter not my shadow!
May it behold the great God within the
shrine,
On the day of the judgment of souls,
May it repeat the words of Osiris.3
The brow of Ra symbolizes enlightenment
or the opening of the Ajna Chakra in Hindu Tantra
which is at the forehead between one’s brows.
Horus, or the spiritual identity of Man has
regained its vision and thus the illusion of a fear of
material death is overcome. It is judgment in the
Cosmic Law or Ma’at which now becomes the
concern.
Most noticeable in this text is the petition
that the shade or shadow be allowed to “see the
Great God”, which is Ra, the archetypal or
primordial Light. To bring the shadow into the
light means to make it conscious, to make it
assimilated by the light of consciousness. There is
a petition that the shadow “repeat the words of
Osiris”, meaning by this that there is a wish that
the shadow does not accuse one before Osiris and
Judgment by Cosmic Law (Ma’at).
The shadow within is the natural aspect of
Man which creates the animal impulse of craving
3
Chapter XCII, Egyptian Book of the Dead after
Wallis Budge.
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for sensorial gratification. It is the psychological
“instinct”, and it is a “serpent in the Earth” in the
archaic mentality: a lower energy which attracts
to the Earth.4 This aspect is not annihilated, but it
is at times “cursed” or “damned”: spells are
written for the protection against these titanic
powers, but the true teaching is to assimilate or
control it. The control or power over the
“darkness” of oneself is considered an element at
play in the achievement of Moderation or
Temperance as a virtue.
The idea that our shadow or dark nature
is able to accuse the soul in the cosmic judgment
is referring to a reality of the Cosmic Law. The
path of enlightenment does not include a
rejection or repression of the shadow, and yet it
does not avow its tyrannical grasp over the soul
and spiritual nature either. The initiate is pointed
towards the idea of a dynamic balance between
two opposing forces of the universe, because it is
this Equanimity (Samadhi as the Hindu philosophy
teaches) that brings forth the actual equilibrium
and reconciliation with Cosmic Law. Its
psychological effect is peace of heart and mind:
satisfaction or Hotep in the Egyptian doctrine.
The world exists in a basic bi-polar
structure, by an integration of at least two
elements, so peace cannot be obtained by
battling on one side or the other with the intent
or bringing an annihilation of an opposite or
reciprocal. Reciprocals find reconciliation by what
they have in common, and what they have in
common is a Unity which is the same in all. The
idea of “God” is essential in this religious
experience of consciousness.
The sentiment of war and strife leading to
suffering comes from the intolerance of
difference which is “discrimination” understood
as a social phenomenon. Tolerance with
difference is the basic requirement for a peaceful
society, but on a more philosophical level of
thought it is the basis of individual existence or
personal and differentiated consciousness.
Enlightenment is only possible when there
is reconciliation between polar opposites, and
understanding the functions of these polarities is
crucial to their reunion. However, as Jung says, it
takes courage to face oneself and know oneself
because Man is a universe, and in the center of
oneself there is “God”, or as the Upanishad
4
We will again speak of this lower aspect in
section 2.4.2.
teaches: Atman (Self). There is a “Great Mystery”
or Wakan Tanka as the Lakota Oglala Indians say.
Before God, however, are the “gods” and
“spirits”: a bundle of woven archetypes which
make up the universe of mental and psychic
reality. From the Supreme God shines a Light, and
in this Inner Light the psyche creates shadows and
forms: thoughts, imaginations, feelings,
memories, dreams, nightmares, etc. The psychic
life of Man, as complex as it may appear, is
ultimately ruled by archetypes and is entirely
empowered by a “tension” between two polar
opposites or reciprocals. These reciprocals, which
must be brought into a harmony or cosmic order
(Ma’at) is symbolized by the powers of Horus and
Seth in Pharaonic tradition.
In the psychic universe of Man the divine
and celestial powers many times clash with the
terrestrial and titanic ones. Spiritual success is
never an annihilation of the titanic powers but a
reconciliation of these dark forces with the
celestial powers above. However, it is not a static
equilibrium that would mean the extermination of
both Horus and Seth: the human experience of a
dynamic and living equilibrium demands at once
an awareness of difference and sameness: a
coordination or cooperation of both hemispheres.
The key to the psychological effort of
reconciliation is very well explained by the
Christian idea of repentance and redemption: a
notion which is also very clearly explained in the
Holy Quran. The will to repent from sins is the first
symptom of a psyche evolving from the
unconscious slumber of gross sensorial
awareness. The heart of Man is directed to accept
an adequate submission to a Higher “Will of God”
that is nothing other than the Cosmic Order or
Law of Truth itself. It is a submission to a Supreme
Goodness that orders and brings beauty to
existence in every way, but this beauty and order
is brought about from a chaotic and non-
harmonic state.
In no other literature have we found a
more sincere and human description of this truth
about the struggle with our human nature than in
the Epistle to the Romans of St. Paul:
For we know that the law is
spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold
under sin. For I do not understand my
own actions. For I do not do what I want,
but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do
what I do not want, I agree with the law,
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 that it is good. So now it is no longer I
who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
For I know that nothing good dwells in
me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the
desire to do what is right, but not the
ability to carry it out. For I do not do
the good I want, but the evil I do not
want is what I keep on doing. Now if I
do what I do not want, it is no longer I
who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when
I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
For I delight in the law of God, in my
inner being, but I see in my members
another law waging war against the law
of my mind and making me captive to
the law of sin that dwells in my
members. Wretched man that I am!
Who will deliver me from this body of
death?5
Here is a very human problem, and it is
not absent from those who know the Cosmic Law.
The key is a reconciliation of opposites, and the
human experience is reconciliation between
Man’s Olympian and titanic forces: the archaic
myth of the Bird catching the Serpent: Zeus’
victory over Typhoon, the Devas over the Asuras,
Marduk over Tiamat, Baal over Mot, etc.
In the Book of Genesis it is said that the
fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil brings death.
This Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is
the symbol of the knowledge of the Law: a Cosmic
Law based on the consciousness of Good and Evil.
But it is not enough to be conscious of Good and
Evil, because this only makes us conscious of our
moral duty with God and our sinful nature. In
other words, this knowledge makes us aware of
our shadow and that of humans in general, but
this is not the finality of the teaching. It is the Tree
of Life that brings the resurrection, and thus there
is another higher knowledge than this judgment
of Good and Evil.
What is then the solution for Man’s evil?
Man incarnate finds his psyche under the
possession of an impulse to sin and disobey the
Law of God in favor of his personal and egotistical
gratification. This is instinctive in Man, part of the
way in which God made Man, “out of clay” in so
many mythologies including the Abrahamic.
Man’s shadow works its deeds from an
unconscious realm that cannot be subdued, and
5 7
Romans 7:14-24
so Man will sin even with the knowledge of the
Law. This lesson is among the first one of Genesis:
God gives to Man advice, and Man does not take
it.
Here we are then confronted with the
Christian revelation that the way is through
sincere repentance; that is, by the “circumcision
of the heart”:
So then it depends not on
human will or exertion, but on God,
who has mercy.6
For God has consigned all to
disobedience, that he may have mercy
on all.7
The spiritual path is not a competition or a
race for Nirvana. The knowledge from the Tree of
Life which delivers Man into the resurrection in
the Spirit of Christ requires forgiveness from sin
or redemption, and no strict observation of the
Law by the imposition of austerities or moral
codes will provide this crucial freedom or release
from Evil and the fruits of our actions or “karma”.
The Islamic and Christian teaching on
redemption is very clear and transparent: God, all
powerful and omniscient is Merciful: there is
forgiveness in the Supreme Love of God. As we
have seen in the earlier section in regards to the
terrible aspect of God, that aspect is present in
the universe as a form of maintaining the Dharma
or Cosmic Order and this Angel of Destruction
appears before Man as an adversary (shatan)
when Man decides to violate the Law. Now,
however, Man is conscious of his sinful nature, his
“shadow” or satan and this nature drags the heart
around into sin. Man not only realizes his own
imperfection but becomes aware that the powers
at work are more powerful than him: the taming
of the shadow or its friendship cannot be
obtained by any human will power or
determination, and it cannot be solved by any
reasoning. It is only the Mercy of God that allows
deliverance from sin because it is necessarily a
form of forgiveness from a transgression.
The Holy Quran is exceptionally effective
in making Man remember this fact: all but one of
its 114 chapters or Suras begins with the phrase:
“In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the
Most Merciful.” Mercy or Clemency is a divine
6
Romans 9:16
Romans 11:32
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gift, a religious virtue given to Man for the fact to acknowledge and know about the shadow in
that he does two things: firstly, that he believes in Man.
the Unique and Supreme God, and second that he It is for this reason that the Gospel also
practices goodness. Both of these are reciprocal says that we must forgive one another’s sins so
exchanges with God in a religious consciousness. that our Father in Heaven will forgive our own.10
The great Mercy of God is also established Once again there is a statement about a reciprocal
in the Bhagavad Gita of India wherein Krishna relationship between Man and God through a
speaks of redeeming even the greatest of sinners. reciprocal vision of the “other” and “myself”.
It is only bhakti or devotion that gains the loving
friendship of God. "That which is hateful to you, do
not do to your fellow. That is the whole
Even if the most sinful of people Torah; the rest is the explanation; go
was to worship Me in devotion and no and learn."11
one else, even that person shall be
considered just (sadhu), because his
resolution is correct.
Very soon that one becomes a
virtuous soul and acquires a constant
state of Peace, O son of Kunti! Know
very well that a devotee of Me shall
never be destroyed!8

Now, very quickly, we have revealed the

secret of redemption from sin: through the
devotion of the Supreme God one finds the
highest Love: the “power” through which
forgiveness, compassion, and mercy is found.
Without the devotion of God there is no salvation
from sin: Man will inevitably sin, but the strife and
“battle” against Evil must be fought within oneself
anyways with a determined heart for the Good.
The religious aspect of this dilemma, however -
which is the solution to it– exposes that without a
conscious relationship with God there is no
possible solution to “karma” understood as a
cyclical (and even mechanical) retribution for
moral or immoral action.
In this devotion, however, there also
comes a divine knowledge to Man which discloses
mysteries related to the self. The mystery of
psychic and spiritual phenomena which is so far
removed from the mechanical and materialistic
science does indeed exist and it persists in its
archetypal manifestations through the psyche of
Man. The rules of this inner awakening are
exposed by Jesus in the Gospel when we are
taught the golden rule: that we are to treat the
other as we would like the other to treat
ourselves.9 This divine teaching also implies that
we know ourselves and the other, and this means

8 10
Bhagavad Gita 9:30-31. Luke 11:4; Matthew 6:12.
9 11
Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31. Talmud, Shabbat 31a.
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