Encountering the Shadow

Michael Garfield

"It is not staring us in the face...it is staring FROM our face. This is a game of Indian Poker where we are pretending to know our own cards."

On Encountering The Shadow

On the Perils of Letting Go

Download the audio for free, here:
http://evolution.bandcamp.com/album/scenes-from-the-light-shadow-tour

For more media from the Light & Shadow Tour, and contact info for discussion-continuing purposes:
http://michaelgarfield.blogspot.com

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Comments

and the same occurs with the

Submitted by cernunos on Sun, 12/26/2010 - 15:23.

and the same occurs with the negative side of energy. a lot of people (some of them healers) believe that negative energy is BAD. the fact is that the negative pole of energy, is necessary for life. all that is absorbent is negative, like the force of the earth. this force is feeding us permanently; it´s negative and is good for us. the real problem is the negative energy that transform itself in toxic energy. this occurs when the negative energy is obstructed . for example when a part of the body is in pain. this negative energy will transform in toxic, if is not redistributed. but if that negative energy is present in all the body, that means health. so, we can say that a person who has negative energy in all his/her body, is a healthy person ! ! ! sorry about my english, I´m from argentina.

"Stay Positive!"

Submitted by Michael Garfield on Mon, 01/10/2011 - 14:19.

This was something Charles and I wrestled with constantly on tour: the pervasive avoidance in the New Age and spiritual communities of the darkness within our being...the failure to understand "good" and "bad" as human categories and to embrace each lovingly as necessary and vital aspects of the self.

Joseph Campbell said something to the effect of "One culture's hero is another culture's war criminal."

True that.

Michael Garfield
(click here for my art, science, & spirituality newsletter)

Thank you

Submitted by ploeauriti on Tue, 12/28/2010 - 16:55.

Just a few days ago, I had a dream about my shadow, so the timing of this article is perfect. It always works that way. Thank you. :)

Shadow Work

Submitted by pinkelephantcollective on Fri, 12/31/2010 - 07:08.

"Pluto is in Capricorn.... The age when conspiracy is unveiled".

Please share your perspective on 9/11 Truth and it being part of the collective shadow play that is being exposed? -Nano

cargocollective.com/pinkelephantcollective

Google Nano Thermite 911, Building 7

"An Elephant Never Forgets...."

9/11

Submitted by Michael Garfield on Mon, 01/10/2011 - 14:14.

Ha, wow, funny you brought that up...Charles Shaw was insistent on addressing this at every opportunity on our tour. Obviously it's a fertile terrain for exploring issues of collective denial (and the equally pernicious belief that we know "the real story").

I tended to stay away from it because I found it difficult to keep the conversation on topic when such a heated subject came to the fore. People ended up arguing over whose facts beat whose, rather than looking - as RS author Paul Levy has, so well - at how this story (as well as JFK, UFOs, HAARP, and so on) are woven into the psychology of collectives.

My own stance is that 9/11 Truthers (whom I define by their behavior in the commons, not the story they choose to accept) tend toward the same kind of indignant, pushy hyper-rationalism that characterizes the atheist Brights and other groups that have sublimated mythic religious impulses into a modern context. With respect to the issue of the shadow, it's not just that this was an inside job in that "they" did it; it's that the terrorists are me - that my life exists in the context of the violence perpetrated in my name (the fossil fuels, the meat, the endless generations of evolutionary millstoning) and that to look "over there" and accuse some shadow ops group of being the bad guys is totally missing the point. I am violent, selfish, and conspiratorial as well, and it's only my acknowledgment of these aspects of my being that allow me the reflexivity and distance required to operate on them, work with them, rather than being ruled by them.

On tour, it was difficult to maintain the distinction between knowing my own violent nature and accepting, allowing, and apologizing for the terrorists. NOT the same thing. If the cycle of violence is ever to be broken, we must be able to look at our enemies with love and understanding even as we put our foot down and hold people accountable.

Michael Garfield
(click here for my art, science, & spirituality newsletter)