my shadow.

I keep coming across the idea--and not at all on purpose--of accepting your "shadow-self", of gaining the knowledge and accepting that the shadow makes up a huge part of who you are. And that it's only after doing this soul-work that we can really love ourselves, radically.

"Everyone carries a shadow," writes Carl Jung, "and the less embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is."

I read a lot of spiritual and inspirational material when I first wake up. I like to reflect on certain things and/or be thankful over coffee and watch the sun come up. And I've been getting this little itch that needs scratching, this thought:

Is illness itself a form of shadow? Or are physical maladies the manifestation of denial or masking of the shadow-self?

I find myself saying yes! and in the next minute, thinking no, or only sometimes. A very young child, for example, one who has no knowledge of darkness, one who hasn't even learned yet how to fear or the need to hide aspects of themselves that others find undesirable, can still wind up ill, and suffer from a horrible variety of conditions. I think there are exceptions. I think illness robs you of things and makes you feel inadequate, which just may be why a certain shadow aspect forms.

There's really no one, at least, not in my immediate vicinity who can shed some light on these questions for me. But there are books, all those tomes of undiscovered wealth. Though with things like this--hard, spiritual, psychological--I have to be careful not to cram too much in my head at once, which only serves to make me more confused.

Do you have any thoughts or resources for me, my friends? I'm very, very curious about the subconscious/illness connection.