In a letter dated January of 1923, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke writes:
What you say of your life - that its most painful event was also its greatest - that is, so to speak, the secret theme of these pages, indeed the inner belief that gave rise to them. It is the conviction that what is greatest in our existence, what makes it precious beyond words, has the modesty to use sorrow in order to penetrate our soul.
SORROW
The sorrow of this time is tremendous. Lives prematurely ended. Jobs lost. Immense anxiety and deep depression. The ubiquitous sense of loss. Of loneliness. Of fear.
We are, needless to say, experiencing a time of such immense uncertainty and pain. It is a collective trauma, unfolding in real-time, felt both individually and en masse. And while there is so much that is overwhelming, recognizing the sorrow embedded in this moment of our experience is necessary and can provide a platform with which to work through the complex maze of this complicated and difficult time. Further, through allowing this sorrow, as Rilke says in his letter, to “penetrate our soul”, we can initiate the work of transmuting it into a catalyst for the healing our psyche and world so desperately need.
WHOLENESS
The idea or concept of wholeness deserves attention in a time like this. When so much feels unreliable, unsafe, and fragile how do we begin to access a sense of wholeness both individually and collectively. What does wholeness even mean? How might we begin to understand it, describe it, or create it? I offer a humble place to begin: the dictionary. A quick google search for the definition of wholeness yields the following results:
the state of forming a complete and harmonious whole; unity.
the state of being unbroken or undamaged.
The second definition stands out as missing something essential. Or instead, perhaps it points to an essential but too often unacknowledged component relating to wholeness: that in order to create a complete and harmonious whole, it is actually necessary to recognize and include that which is, or has been, broken and damaged. All aspects must be considered - the entirety of a thing, experience, or person. In other words, in order to have genuine wholeness, we must courageously embrace the complexity, contradictions, and fractured nature of everything within that whole.
SHADOW
Much has been written about Carl Jung’s concept of the archetype of the shadow. One of the things regarding Jung’s view of the shadow that has always stood out to me is how he emphasized the importance of recognizing its existence so as not to be caught in its power. Even more, he did not approach the shadow from a place of judgement or regard it as a facet of our being that is necessarily inferior. Rather, he understood the shadow as deriving from the very places within the psyche that are typically wounded and often filled with shame. Because of this, the contents of the shadow are generally buried very deep and are largely unconscious. The result is that the shadow may influence one’s behaviors, attitudes, and general experience in ways that go unnoticed but have tangible consequences nonetheless. Broadly speaking, the shadow exists as an unavoidable “other half” of an individual. A natural and inevitable half that contains important material for the development of consciousness. We must endeavor to understand our shadow as much as possible in order to become fully ourselves, to heal, and to further the ongoing work of creating wholeness.
The emergence of covid-19 is revealing much that is in our personal and collective shadow. This is evident on a collective scale in things like the lack of protective equipment for those on the frontlines and the inequities relating to who has access to treatment and tests. It is vitally important to confront these phenomena, to try and understand the systemic and psychological components of their existence, and work to enhance consciousness relating to the motives and consequences associated with these occurrences. On the personal level the challenges posed by the corona virus, the ways it has implicated daily life, and the difficulty of being with the myriad unknowns associated with this pandemic can enliven usually unconscious contents that are in the shadow. For instance, old patterns and behaviors that we may have wished were in our past might be surfacing. Sorrow is, at the end of the day, a difficult companion and we may well turn to prior ways of soothing our pain, our sadness, and our deep and far-reaching existential worry. Facing our inner shadow material, however, has the potential to facilitate significant personal growth and transformation. If we can meet this dimension of our being we can deepen and enhance our understanding of it and gain agency with regard to how it exerts influence upon us.
The shadow is frequently experienced or viewed as inherently “bad” or as something broken or damaged. This makes it challenging to see our shadow and engage it in a way that fosters meaningful change and transformation. In many circumstances it is, in fact, a broken or damaged system or external circumstance/situation that pushes various components of one’s being or society into the shadow. Although the work of understanding our shadow is an ongoing and difficult pursuit, it also brings immense depth and meaning to our lived experience. It enables us to become more compassionate and understanding, and to ultimately live in accordance to our highest potential as human beings.
RE-ENVISIONING WHOLENESS
There is a pervasive cultural subtext that tends to conflate perfection and wholeness. This is made evident by the quick google search of wholeness and the corresponding association of being “unbroken” and “undamaged”. However, if we limit our perception of wholeness to an idea of perfection how can we genuinely accept ourselves and each other in our fullness, including our shadow? How can we proceed in the honest and humbling work of constructing a new wholeness, one that is capable of considering and learning from the fractured parts of our lived experience and our society? Creating a wholeness that is truly whole requires seeing and understanding what is damaged, broken, and in the shadow so that it can be transformed. In this way the immense sorrow associated with our current global crisis can also be an agent of change, a catalyst for individual and collective healing.