The Shadow in Fairy Tales

In the Hindu dualistic philosophy of Samkhya Yoga, Spirit is which is a non-existing existence, is proven
to be a “thing” indirectly, by way of the existence Matter. Similarly, Jungian psychology as another system
of philosophical dualism, understands the concept of the shadow as a kind of non-existent existence,
complimentary to those psychic structures of light, i.e. the persona, ego, consciousness and the Self,
which are known though contrast. The cliché “you wouldn’t know day without night,” fits with the concept
of the shadow, with its night time consciousness, in contra-distinction to the ego and persona day time
consciousness. As I have mentioned in other posts, the shadow has its own kind of light, a “luciferian
quality” (Interpretation of Fairy Tales pg.126), that kindles awareness in consciousness by disturbance
and neurosis. It has a kind of “black” light coming from the void, and this void or “voids,” are the holes in
our psyche, where our perceived weakness, inferiority and badness, bubbles up and coagulates in the
unconscious to form the structures of the complexes. Though we take this inferiority, gather it up, pack it
up like a snow ball, then project (pro=forward or out, ject=to throw) out onto the world and hit our target
projection carrier. We see the darkness in others when hit them smashingly with our cold and critical
judgements. This flurry of illusion (which is also related to the Hindu concept of Maya), is our dark, icky,
emotional, moody and subjective coloring of the world, that Jung says “is a replica of one’s own unknown
face” (Aion pg.9). So instead of a snowball, it might be more apt to say the shadow projection is more like
a boomerang, sent out by our own hand which must return and be caught with the right grip if we are ever
to realize what we are sending forth. Yet, it often grips us, as we get tossed around and moved against
our own will and it feels as though we are under attack, or that the world is against us.
It is true, that the shadow is born out of our inferiorities and perceived feebleness. But these problems
contain autonomous drives and energy, which are deriving from our instincts which can connect us back
to nature and our nature These drives are constantly moving us, and can be used for moral or immoral
aims, based on the way position ourselves towards the collective persona ideals, that seek to limit or
control these drives. The shadow, likes to rebel or defend, to avert and slide to the left, or throw a punch
and hook right. That is why the shadow is often found or associated with the rejection of societal norms
and the dominant of the collective consciousness (Interpretation of Fairy Tales pg.114), which may also
speak the dominant of our individual consciousness, our superior and inferior functions. The ego, with its
bandwidth of consciousness and seemingly ethical aspirations, royally selects and accepts what it
perceives to be morally right into its kingdom and whatever it is “wrong” it rejects and throws out of its
castle. These rejections are actually repressions of content, that descend down into the unconscious and
fuse with other content to morph into shadow. Misery loves company, and company creates cohesion,
and cohesion creates a basin of reserve and bound up energy. This bound energy needs to be released it
can either be a source of renewal and creativity (for the king/dominant) or alienation and inflation that lead
us into acts of destructive behavior towards ourselves or others.
Light always casts a shadow and fairy tales, you can see shadow figures in relation often, to the King, the
dominant of the collective consciousness, as servants, sons, or animals. The negative aspects of the
shadow are found and seen in fairy tales (or film for example) as the shadow of the hero figure
(Interpretation of Fairy Tales pg.114). One thinks of Scar in relation to Mufasa or Simba in Disney’s “The
Lion King as a relatable and well known example. The Jungian Study of film is another way we share our
stories and John Beebe’s work on “Type and Film,” are great examples on the elaboration and study of
the hero and anti-hero in fairy tales. Particularly, Beebe’s concept of “The Opposing Personality” which is
the shadow function of the dominant function that for example, may show, through Scar as a
representative of the shadow through his qualities of greed, jealousy, spite and hatred (Interpretation of
Fairy Tales pg.132).
As stated earlier, the shadow is the rejection or repression of those contents of the collective
consciousness, because fairy tales are not personal, but collective and archetypal. Therefore, when we
encounter a shadow figure in a fairy tale, we are looking into the eyes of not personal evil, but absolute
evil (Aion pg.10) and the archetype of the shadow. Some of these contents are allowed to come up but as
von Franz says, some must stay repressed and even eradicated (Interpretation of Fairy Tales pg.132).
The shadow contains energy and has an autonomous drive, like ambition, desire etc. Therefore, it can
show up in fairy tales and dreams as an animal figure, because animals are representative of our instincts
and are closer to the original source of energy. Animals, (particularly helpful ones, like a dog) can show
up as a positive aspect of the shadow. Yet, somehow, shadow has a negative connotation and evil, in

one way or another is tied to matter and nature (Interpretation of Fairy Tales pg.126). The animal figures
show how far away we are from our nature, and how far something is from consciousness and therefore,
some aspect of ourselves that needs to evolve from the theriomorphic to the anthropomorphic.
Now, though these fairy tale figures are archetypal (including animals), the principle of as above, so
below, the microcosm, within the macrocosm, still applies because it helps us to know something about
the personal shadow, that is, the personal unconscious, by looking at figures of the collective
unconscious. In a comparable way, it is like the Self being the core or archetypal aspect of the Ego. In
fairy tales, shadow figures often show the transformation process that the Self undergoes (Interpretation
of Fairy Tales pg.136) and how one must come face to face with disagreeable and painful knowledge of
oneself, in order to access the symbols and images that provide a possibility for renewal.
So to conclude, von Franz says “This figure appears as a shadow-hero, more primitive and more
instinctive than the hero,” (Interpretation of Fairy Tales pg.114) and that “shadow qualities of which the
hero could and should be conscious, contents that should fuse with and be contained in the archetype of
the hero” (Interpretation of Fairy Tales pg.126) it gives us a clue as to why one should examine the
shadow figures in the fairy tale. Therefore, these shadow figures or animals, help us to connect back to
our instincts, and it shows how we can take for example, Beebe’s typological Hero Archetype who rules
the Superior Function (Say Introverted Thinking) and link it up with the Opposing Personality (Shadow of
Introverted Thinking, which is Extraverted Thinking) as a way stich conflicting parts of ourselves back
together. Because as one knows, most of our problems result of us being contradictory and split
personalities, rather than a whole and unified one.

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