RECOGNISING WHEN I AM PROJECTING

How do I recognise when I am projecting?  If what I see in other people simply informs me, I can assume that it is more or less correct.  If it strongly affects me emotionally, the chances are that it is a projection.  The Shadow is always associated with intense emotion.  But we have to be careful that we don’t think every time we experience emotion that the Shadow is at work.  Certain situations, of necessity, arouse emotion.  The indicator of Shadow is when the emotion is out of proportion to what the situation warrants.

 “Know thyself.” the Delphic Oracle urges us.  Not to know ourselves is to leave ourselves open to unconscious forces that can overwhelm us.  It is only if we recognise the negative within ourselves, only if we recognise our capacity for evil and experience this, that we can hope to regulate and humanise it.  “Know thyself.”  We may not like everything we know but it is important that we accept it and learn how to integrate it.  It is important too that we recognise and claim the essential goodness within.  It is this inner goodness and power which enable us to contain the negative that comes our way.

 But to recognise and understand the Shadow, the disowned self, it is not enough to know and understand ourselves in the NOW, we have also to know and understand our life story.  We  need to recall how our life unfolded over time from our earliest years; the people, events, and situations that impacted on us and the effect this had upon us - upon the way we see the world, our attitude to life, and how we come into relationship with people, with our work and with whatever happens to us.  We have to know and understand the legacy handed down to us through the generations; from our parents, grandparents, great grandparents.  We need to know and understand the various influences that have shaped us into the kind of person we are today.

 We don’t meet the Shadow in the rush and frenzy of life.  “Meeting the Shadow calls for slowing the pace of life, listening to the body’s cues, and allowing ourselves time to be alone in order to digest the cryptic messages from the hidden world.” [1]