The Mirror

 The Mirror

Mirror, mirror, on the wall.

Show me my shadow, so I can overcome all.

Not quite what was said in Snow White, but perhaps it is what should have been. The mirror does not lie – it shows us everything about ourselves, whether we like it or not. We can face and accept what we see, and love it regardless, or we can fight it, deny it, and embark on a fruitless quest to find what we think we need outside of ourselves.

The mirror shows the Wicked Queen that she is not as beautiful or as fair as Snow White. But not only does it show her this comparison of looks, it also brings up all the things that she despises about Snow White. Her goodness. Her kindness. Her purity. The Queen dislikes all of these things about Snow White, because they are things she dislikes in herself. It makes her uncomfortable because she knows those things dwell somewhere inside of her, too, and that makes her even more uncomfortable, because she has buried such things and believes them to be attributes of weakness.

Because, after all, even wicked queens have some shred of light buried deep inside them. They were good, once. Just the same as the majority of us who are good, have a darkness inside us. That is the truth of what mirrors really show us.

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

- Carl Jung

People can be mirrors, too. When someone does something that irks us, or upsets us, or makes us downright uncomfortable, we should be questioning why that is so. Usually the mirror is showing us something that we do ourselves, but deny, or it is showing us what we need to work on, face, or change our reaction to. 

The mirror is usually revealing to us our shadow. That innermost part of us that is with us wherever we go, bringing together everything that we don’t like about ourselves or that we don’t want to be, but fear that we are. It combines this with all our insecurities, faults, issues and problems, and works in tandem with the ego to suppress us and keep us from reaching our full potential. Unlike all the other archetypes described by Carl Jung, the “Shadow” does not affect how we see the world, but rather how we see ourselves. No matter how successful or talented or lucky a person is on the outside, they too will have a shadow, bringing up insecurities in some form or another. We all have one – it’s just that some are more in balance than others, depending on how willing we are to dance with it.

And of course, as with the archetypes of people, the shadow too becomes an archetype of society. All that is perceived wrong with the world becomes this mass shadow looming over our heads, keeping us from the freedom of living the way we want to. 

“A healthy social life is found only, when in the mirror of each soul the whole community finds its reflection, and when in the whole community the virtue of each one is living.”

- Rudolph Steiner

Early on, the one thing I didn’t get about Occupy was the people who didn’t get Occupy. Whether you are a student, a working class citizen balancing on the breadline, one of the lucky ones who has accumulated wealth through either luck or hard graft, or somewhere in the middle, how could you not stand back and look at what Occupy means and feel glad? How can a movement that is peacefully protesting against everything that is corrupt and wrong with the way society works, cause such derision from so many?

I could only conclude that those people who didn’t get it were those people who were stuck in the cycle and afraid of change. Fear works in many ways and one of them is to keep people happy with what they know. What would happen if the establishment changed? What would happen if society had to look at itself and make huge sacrifices and changes for the better?

Learning and growth within my own life, however, led me to realise a further element to Occupy’s opposition – the act of looking in the mirror. Some people don’t want to face up to what is wrong with the world because it means facing up to what is wrong with themselves.

It is far easier to live in a state of denial and perceived pleasure, stuck in the safety of our comfort zone, than to face darkness, pain or suppressed emotions, breaking through into the potentiality of real bliss and moving beyond the comfort zone to the place that we truly want to be, but fail to believe can be anything more than a pipe dream.

“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.

Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakes.”

-      Carl Jung

Acknowledging and dealing with this shadow side of ourselves opens us up to true, authentic living. A form of living that comes from the heart. When we are open to our true selves, we are no longer held back by the fears, misconceptions or oppositions of others, because those things only have power over us if we, too, have those fears, misconceptions and oppositions within.

Conquering those inner demons and bringing the shadow back into balance with the rest of ourselves, rather than running from it or hiding it away, means that we can progress forwards and live life according to the way we want and are meant to live it. We open up our hearts and that allows us to have more empathy, more understanding, of the world around us. Greater harmony with ourselves leads to greater harmony with others.

Now, instead of fighting to be heard, or rallying against injustice with the same anger, resentment and hate that those injustices are creating, we can bring to the world a calmer, more peaceful offering. A shining example, a better way, a positive encouragement, rather than an endless battle that can have no end except a negative one. 

Rather than wasting negative energy fighting against something you want to change, be a positive force of energy instead, by being that change, or instigating it, or at least contributing something towards it.

“Enlightenment is not imagining figures of light

but making the darkness conscious.”

~ Carl Jung

In some ways, the dark days of the world can be just the wake up call needed for a population to wake up and realise it has been sleeping. To realise that it is no good crying and shouting over a world turned corrupt and unjust, where only the powerful and wealthy can rule. Those powerful and wealthy folks will keep on doing what they do, so long as everyone else allows them to. The only people who can change the way the world is run is that sleeping population, now awakened and coming to terms with the truth of reality. The work of those who have awakened, now begins.

Some will remain asleep, no matter what you tell them. Shaking them will only make them fight you all the more. Gentle persuasion, however, will bring some of them around.

"Seek out a tree and let it teach you stillness."

- Eckhart Tolle

It is tempting to complain that gentle persuasion will get us nowhere fast. Time is running out. Something big needs to be done right now.

But what is needed more than ever right now is a shift in perception. A shift from fearful, selfish, mind-centred living, to empowered, empathetic, heart-centred living. That takes time, but the times we are living in right now is speeding up this process considerably.

As with so much of issues of spirit, politics, and the health of both man and world, there needs to be balance. A balance of peace, positivity and love, coupled with an empowered determination to stand up for the world and what is right.

It has been a steep learning curve over the past few years. But now, it is time to take that, and stop talking about what needs to be done. Now, it is time to take action, in the most positive ways we can.

"As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Ask yourself, what it is that you can offer a world that needs you. And yes, the world does need you, in however large or small a way. That voice in your head that dismisses such a notion? That belongs to your shadow. Don’t let it rule you. Coax it out, face it, listen to it, spend time with it. Heal it. Overcome it. Don’t hide or suppress or destroy it. Bring it into balance with the rest of you.

And then, and only then, will you find yourself capable of so much more than you could ever have dreamed possible.

The more people who can do this, the sooner we will discover that the world is capable of far better things than we could ever have dreamed possible, too.