Today I talk a little about the externalization of the Shadow-self, and how to deny it, transform it, allow it to be corrected by and with Love. In an ironic twist, I just realized that my feeling before writing this, and as I was writing it, could very well have been an externalization of my Shadow-self. You see, I was feeling annoyed, even angry, at the general “state of the world”. Writing brings to consciousness that which is unconscious…you see how well the Journey worked today! Instantaneously!

##

Guiding Thought

We fill our minds with the Light of the Truth of Love. What more is there? In the Light of the Truth, we are Free. What more is there? Our consciousness expands in the Truth of Love, forever One, forever Joyful, forever in Peace.

Reflection

A few days ago, I wrote about right use of desire, which grew out of the A Course in Miracles concept, proper use of denial: 

This peace is totally incapable of being shaken by errors of any kind. It denies the ability of anything not of God to affect you. This is the proper use of denial. It is not used to hide anything, but to correct error. It brings all error into the light, and since error and darkness are the same, it corrects error automatically.

True denial is a powerful protective device. You can and should deny any belief that error can hurt you. This kind of denial is not a concealment but a correction.

Since then, the concept has been slowly stewing in my little brain, regarding other ways that proper use can be applied, and if there is a general rule about it.

I think, regarding the general rule, the above quote is instructive. Proper use corrects error, and denies anything that limits the Peace of God. 

What inhibits or prohibits the Peace of God? Jealousy, anger, blame, greed, hatred, deceit, carving out divisions, polarities, factions, “for” and “against”…and we are seeing a lot of these recently.

… Deny these things. Resist them. Release them. Stop feeding them. …and when I say this, I mean within yourself. Stop contributing your energy, your mind, your heart to the ideas and actions that prevent your awareness of the Peace of God within you. Start focusing your energy, mind, and heart to ideas and actions that allow the Peace of God to be present within you.

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. Everyone carries a Shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate.” ~ Carl G. Jung

If Jung has it right, then perhaps we (collective humanity, Americans, etc.), are experiencing the “fate” of our Shadow. We are experiencing “coming to consciousness”–and it’s painful. If Jung has it right, then one approach to a remedy is to face your own Soul, face your shadow, bring the unconscious to consciousness. If you do it, if you allow it, and transform your Shadow willingly, it won’t “appear as fate”. Allowing your Shadow to continue, without denying it as an error, without replacing it with Love, leaves you vulnerable to its whims.

If true denial is a powerful protective device, then using it will increase your strength against even your own shadow when it exposes itself in your external world.

Two final thoughts:

• What does this have to do with gratitude? Our consciousness expands in the Truth of Love, forever One, forever Joyful, forever in Peace. In order to be grateful for Life as Love, it’s important to experience, really experience, the Truth of Love. We cannot do that if internally we feel divided, abandoned, worthless, or unheard. Love wants us to be with It, for It is always with us. When we choose to accept (rather than deny) the things that keep our consciousness too limited to be with Love, we cannot get to the place of experiencing Love, which means we cannot be grateful for all our experiences, which are always of Love. 
• Today’s reflection foreshadows the next Journey, Journey of Courage. It takes courage to face the dark places inside you, to allow them to come out for transformation, to bring them into the light. If you are experiencing tumult, conflict, anxiety, distress, fear, these are pointing you toward your dark places. Take Courage! Go deeper. We’ll do more work with this in about a month.

For now, love yourself. Forgive yourself. Know that you do not know as much as you think you do, and allow that thought to comfort you. All is as it should be.