Fritz
11-02-2005, 09:46 AM
Carl Jung had an idea of this Collective unconscious, that all of us, as human's, shared. A hereditary framework of unconscious perception, if you will. It contained several archetypes that are recurrent throughout time and across culture that can be seen in literature, film, music, everyday life etc. One of those archetypes was the Shadow.
The Shadow is obviously a prevalent theme in forty-six and 2 the word is repeated multiple times yet for some reason we blind ourselves to this obvious reference and instead seem to fixate on the reference to 46&2, or the idea of chromosomal evolution.
The shadow archetype:
" The shadow is our dark side, containing those things that we have repressed or ignored for one reason or another. It usually manifests to us in dreams as an archetypal figure who is dark and ominous. Just as the persona is that part of us that we want to present to the world, so the shadow contains those things that we want to hide from the world, and from ourselves. This dark side of ourselves must be confronted and accepted, at least in part, as the first step in the individuation process. Johnson (1991) emphasizes the need to acknowledge and accept our shadow in order to become a whole and complete person. "
Several times throughout the song Maynard makes reference to these evil or unwanted energies that he is attempting to embrace, this in fact is the key element of shadow individuation. The acceptance of previously suppressed and subjugated energies, and the ability to grasp the paradoxical nature of our psyche's. To understand that we have these two seemingly incongruous beings living side by side in all of us.
"I choose to live and to
Grow, take and give and to
Move, learn and love and to
Cry, kill and die and to
Be paranoid and to
Lie, hate and fear and to
Do what it takes to move through."
This passage is clearly indicative of a conscious effort to embrace these negative tendencies and emotions that we as people are reluctant to do or to experience. When the shadow is denied for too long we can experience constellation which is the complete takeover of a complex that has developed. If we for instance attempt to believe that we are only good and righteous people without the capacity for evil and wrongdoing and negative thoughts or actions, then we risk being overtaken by our shadow, whether it be in dreams or in real life.
This is not to say that the shadow is only evil, quite on the contrary the shadow can often contain good, referred to as the gold in the shadow. This is the aspect of the shadow that we often project onto others so that we can appreciate it. An interesting study of dreams found that people of extremely devout and orthodox religious beliefs ,were more commonly the subject of frightful nightmares. Even more compelling is that when the same study was done on hardened criminals and murderers they often reported having dreams of performing acts of altruism and kindness. The shadow in effect is not necessarily some universal idea of evil, rather it is the set of rejected ideas and feelings of each individual.
Thus it is my belief that 46&2 is explicitly about shadow individuation and it is through this that the idea of evolution through expansion of consciousness is reached. That we can become something greater if we can fully incorporate our unconscious into the Self. Oh well it is merely a thought and not fact, but I just thought it was interesting and that someone else might get a kick out of it. I am getting bored of typing now and so I will end this in some rambling sentence which pertains to the aforementioned material in no way whatsoever.
The Shadow is obviously a prevalent theme in forty-six and 2 the word is repeated multiple times yet for some reason we blind ourselves to this obvious reference and instead seem to fixate on the reference to 46&2, or the idea of chromosomal evolution.
The shadow archetype:
" The shadow is our dark side, containing those things that we have repressed or ignored for one reason or another. It usually manifests to us in dreams as an archetypal figure who is dark and ominous. Just as the persona is that part of us that we want to present to the world, so the shadow contains those things that we want to hide from the world, and from ourselves. This dark side of ourselves must be confronted and accepted, at least in part, as the first step in the individuation process. Johnson (1991) emphasizes the need to acknowledge and accept our shadow in order to become a whole and complete person. "
Several times throughout the song Maynard makes reference to these evil or unwanted energies that he is attempting to embrace, this in fact is the key element of shadow individuation. The acceptance of previously suppressed and subjugated energies, and the ability to grasp the paradoxical nature of our psyche's. To understand that we have these two seemingly incongruous beings living side by side in all of us.
"I choose to live and to
Grow, take and give and to
Move, learn and love and to
Cry, kill and die and to
Be paranoid and to
Lie, hate and fear and to
Do what it takes to move through."
This passage is clearly indicative of a conscious effort to embrace these negative tendencies and emotions that we as people are reluctant to do or to experience. When the shadow is denied for too long we can experience constellation which is the complete takeover of a complex that has developed. If we for instance attempt to believe that we are only good and righteous people without the capacity for evil and wrongdoing and negative thoughts or actions, then we risk being overtaken by our shadow, whether it be in dreams or in real life.
This is not to say that the shadow is only evil, quite on the contrary the shadow can often contain good, referred to as the gold in the shadow. This is the aspect of the shadow that we often project onto others so that we can appreciate it. An interesting study of dreams found that people of extremely devout and orthodox religious beliefs ,were more commonly the subject of frightful nightmares. Even more compelling is that when the same study was done on hardened criminals and murderers they often reported having dreams of performing acts of altruism and kindness. The shadow in effect is not necessarily some universal idea of evil, rather it is the set of rejected ideas and feelings of each individual.
Thus it is my belief that 46&2 is explicitly about shadow individuation and it is through this that the idea of evolution through expansion of consciousness is reached. That we can become something greater if we can fully incorporate our unconscious into the Self. Oh well it is merely a thought and not fact, but I just thought it was interesting and that someone else might get a kick out of it. I am getting bored of typing now and so I will end this in some rambling sentence which pertains to the aforementioned material in no way whatsoever.