Shadow Work • Exercise #1
Dualism and Animism
Disclaimer: This is not a work of personal opinion, merely a use of historical facts and concepts to build up a correlation. In no way, shape or form is this meant to be read as a favoring of one belief over the other, instead, the objective of this research is to provide an informed and contextualized application of a specific belief in Shadow Work.
Dualistic Belief in Witchcraft
In witchcraft and religion, Dualism means that there is a belief in two divine or supreme powers that oppose each other, and through a shock, mix or encounter they caused the World to come into existence. There are different types of dualistic views, but the concept of two opposing forces is maintained, with changes of how these forces work, which originated first and so on.
Through historic facts, we can see that the Dualistic belief originated in the Ancient World (3000 C.a) and slowly start to reappear with the passage of time, it can be seen in the Middle Eastern (Mesopotamia, Egypt and Iran) religions, as well as in Greece (Hellenistic), India (Hinduism), China (Yin and Yang).
With that brief historical contextualization, we can better understand and identify the origins of certain terms, concepts and beliefs commonly used in many actual witchcraft practices, through the focus of this research doesn’t lie in them, it would be a pity to not briefly mention them so that we can take a look at the historical roots and it’s ramifications and similarities in the actuality.
Light and Dark
We can point out the existence of a distinction between Light and Dark in many specific beliefs and religions, but to briefly explain this dualism, I’ll broaden these beliefs into the Witchcraft Umbrella, generally defined as the “The activity of performing magic to help or harm other people” (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus). In Witchcraft there is a recurring concept (that creates many discussions within the community) about Light Magick and Dark Magick. These are opposing forces, wherein in Light is said to be the ethical performing of protection, peaceful and healing magick, and in the Dark is where people define curses, hexes and practices that cause harm.
Left-Hand Path and Right-Hand Path
The beliefs of the dualism of the Left- and Right-Hand Path was originated in India, to distinguish those that followed certain ethical codes that abided to cultural norms (The Right Handed Path) from those that followed another specific spiritual path, seen as extreme to cultural beliefs (The Left Hand Path).
What this means is that the Right-Hand Path is one that is constructive and communitarian, the knowledge is achieved, exchanged and taught for the sake of the majority or group, as opposed to the Left-Hand Path, in which one seeks knowledge with their inner growth and enlightenment in mind.
Then, this term was integrated in western Witchcraft, and the Left-Hand Path became a representative of those who performed Dark Magick and The Right-Hand Path of those who performed Light/White Magick.
Good and Evil
Another dualistic concept, that too generates a great amount of discussion is Good and Evil. These are opposing powers, and this concept is one that can be described as an ideology in certain contexts, if described by Chauà (1981b: 3) “Ideology is a systematic body of representations e norms that “teach” us how to obtain knowledge and act, which objective is to unify thought, language and reality to the image of a dominating class.” With that said, an ideology can be applied to any belief or knowledge. And then enters the concept of Good and Evil in Witchcraft, its first historical appearance was in the Ancient World (ac 3000) in Iran, and so, we’ve completed the cycle and wound up in the topic of Dualism’s origins.
The Animistic Belief
Now, let’s revisit the Paleolithic period (2.5 Million years ago to 10.000 B.C), it is the oldest period of history, when humans were in the early stages of discovery of tools. In that period there are many evidences of traditions, such as burying the dead, that we still practice to this day. There are also evidences of a religious practice, or perhaps a world view, known as Animism.
Animism, in brief words, is the belief that everything in the World and the Universe has a distinct spiritual essence, all is alive, all breathes. It can be assumed that at the time, the concept of magick didn’t exist, because there was no concept for material or mundane, or whichever may be the antonym of magick/spiritual. Through this, we can see that there was no distinction between the spiritual and the material, they were one and the same. As such, when everything has essence and spirit, dualistic concepts held no ground in that. Instead, it was believed that there was one single “culture” that could have a variety of natures.
What that means is that the divine powers were encompassing, they were both Chaos and Order, Light and Dark, not as opposites, but as existences and compliments of each other. Good or evil was entirely based on morals and acts, but it was not an inherent of the Divine Powers. So it is safe to assume that animism is a non-dualistic belief.
With that said, many indigenous beliefs still have traces or follow animistic world views, such as Shamanism and Totenism (One can be seen in the other, but they are not necessarily the same). There are also some religions, philosophies or belies that believe in nondualism, such as some branches of Buddhism.
Nondualism applied in Shadow Work
With all that contextualization, we arrive at the final objective.
This concept can be seen as an exercise, one that suggests going back the roots of humanity and briefly forgetting many years of a shared Dualistic world view to practice and look at Shadow Work through a non-dualistic perspective.
If the Shadow is a part of us that we fundamentally consider evil, and Shadow Work is meant to balance our inner selves and promote self-knowledge and self-acceptance, it feels kind and dignified, perhaps even honorable to our common ancestors, to try and exercise a wholesome view over Shadow Work.
The Challenge here is to try and stop the ingrained thought of “This is my dark side, and it needs to breathe. It is bad, but I need to accept it to become enlightened and balanced.” and instead, slowly shift that thought to a more accepting and kinder view, a non-dualistic view of yourself in your wholeness.
A Suggested Exercise
When doing Shadow Work, let’s try and shift the previous thoughts, instead, let us try and think:
“This is my dark side, it is part of me, I may not like it or accept it at the moment, but that does not mean that my Shadow is the opposite of me. My Shadow is not Evil, and I don’t intend to work with it as one does a disease while trying to obtain a cure. My Shadow is dark, but my shadow is me, and I'll try to understand and accept it. There is no evil and there is no good within this Work, there is only me.”
I think this can be of course, altered to one’s taste and demand, as long as the point stands, and that’s a non-dualistic view of this process.
Introduction • Shadow Work: Origins, Meaning and Utility.
Images:
René Magritte – Decalcomania in Black and White
Pablo Amaringo - Forest
References:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/dualism-religion/Historical-varieties-of-religious-dualism
http://dianic.faithweb.com/lightvsdark.htm
http://www.themagickkitchen.com/light-magick-vs-dark/
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keepingherkeys/2018/01/balance-dark-light/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-hand_path_and_right-hand_path
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_and_evil
https://study.com/academy/lesson/paleolithic-age-religion-artifacts.html
https://www.shorthistory.org/prehistory/language-and-spiritual-culture-in-old-stone-age/
https://www.britannica.com/topic/animism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nondualism
