The Brighter the Sun, The Darker the Shadow

Feature article from our 2024 November Newsletter

When I would visit my weaving teacher, Paul, we would sit cross legged on the floor of his tiny attic-warehouse. A magical den in the middle of the city.

We were surrounded by his hordes of looms, some dismantled, some set-up with woven beginnings on them, stacks of books, spools of yarns, coffee cups and collected treasures. A haunting mysterious mantra would be playing from his portable CD player while a cloud of incense and cigarette smoke hung over us.

Once, with a rollie sticking out of the corner of his mouth, he brought his hands together to make a pointed prayer shape, fingertips just touching, elbows sticking out.

"Look," he would half mutter so the cigarette wouldn't fall out.

"Can you see?

It's like this.

The brighter the sun, the darker the shadow.

Do you see?"

The shape he was making was a mountain, and he was pointing with his eyes to an imaginary sun shining on one side, and nodding his head to the other side where a blacker than black shadow was cast down one mountain-face and beyond.

 Places where the sun could not touch.

"See?"

He would look at me. Watching, waiting. Waiting for me to get it. For the penny to drop.

I'd look at the shape he was making for a bit and then gasp "OH!"

"Yes. Good". He'd say.

And then, a bit relieved that he could take his arms down, he'd ash his cigarette in the little starfish ashtray. He would take a few puffs, squinting at me through the smoke and then ask,

"What did it mean?"

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I share this question and hope that it allows your own golden wisdom to speak.

It turns out Paul was misquoting Carl Jung to me, one of the grandfathers of Psychotherapy who said 'The brighter the light, the darker the shadow'.

I prefer using the sun and the mountain, made of arms and hands.

It allows for a full picture of the sun rising and moving through the sky over the course of a day, a year, a lifetime, the cast-shadow changing in intensity and shape. And the human body being the vessel we use to understand it all.

And perhaps it is even true.

When that sun is shining so brightly, that shadow gets so much darker.

We see it so clearly. We feel it so clearly.

As we move towards our purpose and our awareness is shining more and more brightly, expanding, it may even feel like things are falling apart rather than becoming more 'en-lightened'.

It may feel frustrating to know what we know, or learn what we are learning, and yet be living the same way, with the limitations of imperfection and the slow movement of time.

 It is hard not to get judgemental, letting our beautiful intelligence and internal story-making machines turn against us, as our aware souls know of a healed version of ourselves and the world. And we even have the answers! On deeper levels we know what to do! What steps to take!

And yet, here we are.

Still working the edges, still in the same seemingly dysfunctional relationships, settings and states.

Getting closer to the heart of it.

That warm, bright, cycling sun.

That glorious, strong, steadfast mountain.

That deep, dark, mysterious shadow.

Dancing, eternally, with each other.

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If you would like to explore more deeply what this may mean for you, book in for a healthy chat with any one of our open-hearted therapists.