Characteristics of Shadow dreams

Ok, with that out of the way I can talk about the characteristics particular to Shadow dreams. Keep in mind the advice from near the top of the previous entry—pay close attention to the dream environment, the mood, your emotions, feelings, and any associated memories (often dreams include memories or imperatives, like the idea that "I've got to reach Hong Kong by noon or my mom will die!"). And also to pay close attention to dream figures. Especially important is to think about how dream figures, even if they resemble your friends and family members, are also showing you things about yourself—in particular whatever traits you associate with those particular people. Meaning if you dream about your sister, think about her and especially anything she might have done or been involved in that caused intense emotions in you. Maybe for instance when you were children she tattled on you and got you in trouble, and it was for something you only did because she coaxed you into it.

It might not be the first thing that comes to mind though. Keep thinking, coming up with other associations. Maybe it wasn't that particular incident. Maybe there's a clue in the dream itself to what incident it wants you to think about. Maybe there was a dog in the dream, and maybe once your sister fed the family dog something that almost killed it. That would have been a powerful emotional event for you! If there was a dog in the dream (whether or not it looks like the same dog) it could mean this is the event you want to think about. How did it make you feel?

And keep in mind, the dream is showing you something you aren't aware of about yourself. Shadow content that you don't want to see. So quite possibly you need to flip the roles. Maybe the dream is saying you've done something—or tend to do something—similar to what your sister did that made you feel so strongly. Maybe you're 'sistering' somebody, or a bunch of people—doing to them what she did to you.

That's one way a dream can show you shadow content, but it wouldn't be what's called a Shadow figure. A Shadow figure is a dream character (usually human) that's the same sex as you and about your age—maybe whatever age you seem to be in the dream, if that's a factor. In some dreams you have no idea what your age is, in some it's clear. Often shadow figures are somehow mysterious or threatening. They might wear a hood or a mask that hides their face, or be surrounded by literal shadows (darkness or mist) that doesn't allow you to see them clearly. I once dreamed, early in my Shadow work, that I was in a trailer that was 'my house' (though it wasn't a house I ever lived in) and I heard a slight sound as if someone had gently knocked once on the front door, or accidentally bumped it in passing. I went and looked out to see someone's back just disappearing across the street, as if they were on my step a moment ago and left rapidly. I opened the door and there lying at my feet was just the torn-off corner of one of those yellow paper shipping envelopes, like they send books or CDs and DVDs in. I examined it but there was nothing there, no words or markings or anything, I was left with the idea that this was an important and somehow magical visitor—I got that feeling through the entire dream, like something almost magical was going on. And I also felt like I had gotten the beginnings of a message or a package from him. Just a little piece, an indication, and I felt like maybe in the future more would be forthcoming. Oh, and the guy was wearing a hood drawn up so I couldn't see his face.

Often Shadow figures for white people will be black, and vice versa. It makes sense, because not only do we look different, but often our cultures are very different as well. Or if you live in an area with a different racial breakdown that might be reflected—maybe you'll occasionally see Hispanic or Asian Shadow figures.

A figure of the opposite sex (opposite to your predominant traits, in other words a woman if you're predominantly masculine) isn't a Shadow figure, it's more likely an Anima or Animus figure, because it represents your contra-sexual traits. You contain them both, but you wear one of them on the surface and the other is pushed down into the unconscious (or mostly anyway). We begin life pretty complete, with traits of both sexes (at least psychologically if not physically). As we grow we move toward one or the other (and not always toward what our bodies say we are). But that's for another post, this is about the Shadow.

As for the dream environment, Shadow dreams will often take place in decrepit, ruined and dirty places. Back alleys filled with trash and refuse, the destroyed husk of an old building, an ancient and deserted city. You might see a lot of rust, dirt, ravaged and destroyed structures, darkness, dereliction, etc. In fact frequently Shadow dreams will take place at night or in the dark. Not always. But that's another factor to pay attention to when writing down your dreams—did this part take place at night or in the day? Night is a time of mystery and wonder, the rules aren't the same as in the day when things are more logical and straightforward.

People in Shadow dreams will often be deformed, strange looking, frightening or evoke your pity or distaste. They might be wounded, hurt, sick or mutilated. Often there are dwarves—I suppose some parts of yourself are stunted because they didn't get the chance to develop fully. When you're doing Shadow work in fact you'll start to see more and more of this stuff.

You're starting to see the discarded parts of yourself, the things you repressed into the unconscious because you found them distasteful or unacceptable. They're parts of you but you sent them away to wander lost and forlorn through these desolate landscapes long ago. It's time to reclaim them.

The thing to do about them is to accept them as parts of yourself. What Jung would do in his Active Imagination sessions was say "I see you and I recognize you as a cast-off part of myself. I welcome you home!" You can do something like this if you practice lucid dreaming, or do active imagination sessions immediately after waking up, when you're still very close to the REM state. Or any time if you're able to do it when you want to and get good results—some people can. Re-imagine the dream, the part of it you want to address, and a character or maybe several of them that seem to represent your Shadow. What I would do is step up, maybe tell them that I recognize and accept them and welcome them home, and then hug them. And absorb them. I would literally imagine the person or the figure enveloped in my arms and then merging into my body to be absorbed. Visuals are very powerful, being the native language of the unconscious.

Dream of The Devil
I remember one really powerful Shadow dream, the most frightening one I ever had. I was sitting in a dark room with only a small slice of light in one corner, revealing some of the decor of the room. I couldn't tell if it was in somebody's house or a big public room, it had elements of both. In fact some of the decor looked like it came from my mom's house—the house I grew up in. This usually represents your psyche. I was sitting in a chair at a table and had my hands laying on the tabletop. In the pitch darkness I couldn't tell if anyone else was in there or not, but suddenly I had a flash-glimpse, as if there was a momentary flash of strobelight, and I could see there was a devil—THE devil—seated directly across from me. He was red and had horns and was smiling demonically, as if he had no trouble seeing through the darkness. In that moment I was petrified with terror. It was overpowering, it had that numinous quality to it—the sense of being in the presence of something supernatural and powerful.

In fact the feeling was a lot like this scene from Mullholland Drive:

Lynch is so good with dream stuff.

That was the whole dream. I woke in a panic breathing hard and my heart pounding like crazy. I know sometimes the body will active the panic system while you're sleeping as a sort of test-run, to see if everything is working, and sometimes that causes these kinds of dreams—just quick flashes of intense panic. But I also know the psyche uses even these dreams to help you see what you need to see about yourself. It fits your fears or your blind spots in somehow. And later I learned from reading Jung that these dreams are nothing to worry about. He had one of his patients come to him with just such a dream and told him not to worry about it—it isn't any part of himself, the dream was just showing him a representation of pure archetypal evil, since he was delving into his own shadow content at the time.

Shadow work is absolutely necessary to anyone who wants to try to mature psychologically (aka individuate or reach a higher level of consciousness). And when you get seriously into it, maybe partly as a test to see if you can handle it, your Self will send you a dream of the Devil or something analogous, some totally evil figure. That's an archetype—part of the Collective Unconscious—not some part of your own personal unconscious that you need to deal with or integrate. It's far bigger than you and has no personal connection with you, the Self just wants to make sure you understand that pure unadulterated malicious evil exists in the world and can touch all of us at times.

Before learning that though I went in and re-activated the dream by imaging myself in the dark room again and seeing the Devil sitting across from me. Then I imagined hugging him and saying "I recognize you, my Devil, as a part of myself, and I welcome you home!" and I proceeded to absorb him. It wasn't easy (sometimes it goes pretty well or even is easy, sometimes it takes a lot of work to make it happen and sometimes it just won't happen). But I didn't manage to absorb all of him. When his body had disappeared into mine his horns and hooves clattered to the floor. Lol, the hard parts I guess. I picked them up one by one and pushed them into my flesh to finish the job. The horns went into my head, and toward the end of each I had to put the tip of the horn against the wall because it was too sharp to push in with my hands. I'll bet my Self had a good laugh about that one! A mere mortal trying to absorb total archetypal evil! But I think it (my Self) Understood that my intentions were good (the Shadow always knows) and no harm came of it. In fact quite likely I got points for the effort and willingness to accept everything no matter how repulsive or frightening.

I don't think I ever re-did that one. Just now I did it—closed my eyes and re-imagined it and this time I pulled that sucker out from inside me and stood him up. Just to let the Self know I understand now. Not that he didn't already know, he knows everything I know plus a lot more. He has access to all the information I forgot, or that my automatic conscious filters blocked out because the conscious mind can only process so much information at a time. It works linearly and slowly, and can only handle one string of info-processing at a time, whereas the unconscious works in parallel and can have multiple strings of calculation and processing going on all at once. This is the fabled Acadian library I've heard mention of (I thought it was called Acadian? Maybe something else?)—a mysterious place where all knowledge is stored. [Note—I was trying to think of the Akashic Records] It's really the unconscious—most mysterious places in most myths and fables and religions etc are).

But this is what you want to do—remember as many of those Shadow dreams as you can and re-imagine yourself there. Best if you can do this while close to the sleep state. I find my imagination is far more powerful then and I can actually get imagery that's as good as in dreams, though if I get a little too close to sleep then I just fall asleep. Accept, hug , shake hands with or somehow make physical contact with the repulsive or frightening characters that represent your castoff aspects, and tell them you welcome them home. Then absorb them—that visual storytelling element that gets through to the unconscious so effectively.

But ultimately this is just a sort of "How's your father?" to the unconscious, a statement of intent on your part that you accept the Shadow elements as parts of yourself. Ultimately you need to do more than that—you need to really accept them and it needs to be reflected in the way you live. As I said before, it doesn't mean you give them free reign, but rather that you understand those impulses are there, though you don't intend to let them misbehave. Think of them as something like rowdy or misbehaving children that live inside you, and indulge them without letting them act out. Just think 'Yes, I know, I do have that tendency, as do most or all of us, but I refuse to let it take over and make me behave like a spoiled brat.'

Other elements that tend to show up in Shadow dreams are dumpsters and trash cans, piles of refuse, boxes full of garbage, deep mud and deep water. Often I've seen a puddle or a small stream that suddenly became much larger, and often I was plunged into it. All of this is a representation of the mystery and opaqueness of the unconscious I think. We can't see clearly through water or mud (sometimes water, but it's in the same ballpark).

Shadow/Anima dream
I once pulled the apparently dead bodies of an Anima and a Shadow figure out of a big (washing-machine sized) box of garbage beside a school cafeteria. At first I was walking past the big box, noticed a bunch of cabbage and lettuce refuse in there, and then I saw two faces looking up from inside the refuse. They seemed dead at first, lifeless eyes just staring. The male was black and the female was white—about the age I was when I went to college the first time. That was a very powerful and transformative time in my life, and at the time of the dream (several decades later) I was going through a very similar set of changes in my psyche/my life.

Shocked that these people had been thrown into the garbage, I reached in and somehow found a hand of each and pulled the box over toward me so it dumped out and they emerged from it. At first they were crouching, sort of like the Terminator when he first came though, and in fact they were also naked and covered with blood. They still seemed dead, but were somewhat reactive now. I stood up and they stood with me, rapidly becoming more alive, and now there was no blood on them and they were wearing clothes. I walked with them down toward the bus stop beside the row of long tables where all the lunchroom ladies were serving food.

They were also giving away or selling bus tickets, and you needed one to get on the bus. I was going to take them home with me, but the lunchroom ladies shied away from them in fear and stood in a huddled group up by the wall of the cafeteria. The bus showed up and we couldn't get on it, because we had no tickets.

People often react with shock or horror if you show Shadow elements in your behavior (and so do dream characters if they see your shadow figures). Most people repress that stuff, and those who don't are often actually possessed by the Shadow, not in a positive balance with it (actually they have it repressed too, but it's taken them over).

I could just keep going on. I wrote most of this in a heedless rush as ideas and words just poured out. I probably need to do a lot of editing on it (done).