“There is no light without shadow and no psychic wholeness without imperfection. To round itself out, life calls not for perfection but for completeness; and for this the “thorn in the flesh” is needed, the suffering of defects without which there is no progress and no ascent.” – C. G. Jung (CW 12, par. 208)
We get clues from the unconscious to further our “progress and ascent” toward a more complete and whole personality. Sometimes they are from a shadowy figure, a “thorn in the flesh,” a side of us that is less conscious and dismissed as not adequate for the persona’s identity.
But the figure is ours to own, a guest in our house, who seeks to become part of the evolving person. Sometimes the guest possesses all the qualities of type orientations that are not our regular friends. We get acquainted with that guest in our projections and eruptions.
A quiet, calm, relaxed individual may self-righteously condemn the drivers who cut him off dismissively on their hurried drive to somewhere else, treating him as an obstruction to their aims. He may carry on an inward conversation about them, illuminating all the ways they are wrong or stupid or crass, and all the ways he is right. But if he is alert, he will find his own shadow in them and if he is wise, he will welcome a conversation with this figure, stripped of self-righteous condemnation.
A gregarious, easy going, friendly restaurant manager, who always has time to talk with anyone, may enter a management meeting abruptly, abrasively, and rudely complaining about all that has not been done. He will find his own shadow in his eruption, and if he is wise, will befriend it and learn from it.
Our human consciousness transcends ego consciousness. We sit aloft as observers of that which is in shadow and that which is our illuminated identity in the world, observing both. We not only know them, we know that we know them.
Ours is a transcendent consciousness that unites the opposites, that transcends the ego identity to see the whole psyche as a “guest house” in which complexes, thoughts, feelings, and figures within often carry archetypal and typical significance,
“The Guest House”
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
Meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
Because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
If people can be educated to see the lowly side of their own natures, it may be hoped that they will also learn to understand and to love their fellow men better. A little less hypocrisy and a little more tolerance towards oneself can only have good results in respect for our neighbor; for we are all too prone to transfer to our fellows the injustice and violence we inflict upon our own natures. C. G. Jung (CW, vol. 7, par. 439)