The Mask + Shadow Self [BONUS 9]
Updated: Nov 16, 2020
In this week’s bonus episode, McCall examines the shadow, or the dark side of Self, and the mask, or what is projected to the world. Through the exploration of an Al-Anon reading, Pinnochio, and Pandora’s Box, McCall guides us through these Jungian archetypes and how she handles her own mask these days.
For this episode, she also enlists the help of Kyle, her husband, to unpack these concepts in a more relevant way: through rock and roll. Then singer-songwriter Kaciny has something to say, er, sing about it.
Summary
[0:44] The shadow
[3:53] “The Actor’s Life for Me” and masks
[6:30] The 3 P’s: Perfectionism, Procrastination, and Paralysis
[12:04] Putting on the lab coat everyday
[16:36] Pandora and her Box
[19:46] Kyle
[20:27] The Stranger
[21:16] “The Stranger” and masks
[25:51] Marie Louise von Franz and the dark side of the self
[30:43] Kaciny
[34:00] “Battle Scars” by Kaciny
Quotes
[5:38] "Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is." -- Carl Jung, from Collected Works, Vol. 11: Psychology and Religion
[8:13] "’Anything worth doing…’, goes a slightly cockeyed version of the old saying, ‘is worth doing badly.’ Perfectionism, procrastination, and paralysis are three of the worst effects of alcoholism upon my life.” -- from Courage to Change, an Al-Anon daily reader, p. 86
[10:20] "Think of life, not as a command performance, but as a continuing series of experiments from which I learn more about living." -- from Courage to Change, an Al-Anon daily reader, p. 86
[10:12] "All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.” James Russell Lowell
[12:43] “What if just for today, I don't rush? At all. For any reason. What if I don't yell? What if I give everyone I speak to today a heartfelt compliment? What if I don't worry for more than five minutes about anything that won't matter in five years? What if I don't future trip for this entire day? And I stay totally in the present moment?” --McCall Bennett-Lawrence
[15:02] “Lean into your fears. Dare them to do their worst and cut them down when they try. If you don't, they'll clone themselves, mushroom ‘til they surround you, choke the road to the life you want. Every turn you fear is empty air, dressed to look like jagged hell.” -- from Running from Safety by Richard Bach
[23:23] "Once I used to believe I was such a great romancer. Then I came home to a woman that I could not recognize. When I pressed her for a reason, she refused to even answer. It was then I felt the stranger kick me right between the eyes." -- from “The Stranger” by Billy Joel
[25:07] “The more distinctly an idea emerges and the more consciousness gains in clarity, the more Monarchic becomes its content… The King constantly needs the renewal that begins with a descent into his own darkness...” -- Carl Jung, from Collected Works, Vol 14: Mysterium Coniunctionis
[26:04] "...the dark side of the Self is the most dangerous thing of all, precisely because the Self is the greatest power in the psyche. It can cause people to 'spin' megalomanic or fall into other delusionary fantasies that catch them up…” -- Marie Louise Von Franz
[27:29] "A man who is possessed by his shadow is always standing in his own light and falling into his own traps... living below his own level." --Carl Jung, from Collected Works, Vol 9: Archetypes
[27:44] “...confrontation with the shadow produces at first a dead balance, a standstill that hampers moral decisions and makes convictions ineffective ... nigredo, tenebrositas, chaos, melancholia" -- Carl Jung, from Collected Works, Vol 14: Mysterium Coniunctionis
[30:27] “...in spite of its function as a reservoir for human darkness—or perhaps because of this—the shadow is the seat of creativity.” -- Carolyn Kaufman, Three-Dimensional Villains: Finding Your Character’s Shadow
Recommended Resources
Courage to Change, an Al-Anon daily reader
Running from Safety by Richard Bach
The Stranger album by Billy Joel
Find Kaciny at https://kaciny.com/
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Email Waldo (McCall and the team) at waldolovesme@gmail.com if there’s anything you’d like to unbox with us!
tags: 12-step recovery | spiritual recovery | recovery podcast | spiritual exploration | spiritual podcast | carl jung | jungian psychology | shadow | self | mask | procrastination | perfectionism | paralysis al-anon | courage to change | billy joel | the stranger | kaciny | battle scars