Through our observation and experience we acknowledge that “evil” exists in both personal and transpersonal forms. In general, most of us see evil as something outside of ourselves. Jung, in his work, identified evil, among other things, as an “archetype” – the most ancient and universal thought forms of humanity that influence human perception and experience through informational fields akin to a living entity. Hence, Jung suggests that evil is not outside of us but hides in our shadow and acts out in our unconscious behavior. Through my personal journey over the past few years, I was confronted with my own capacity for evil. An evil that was entirely incongruent with the persona that I identified with or my value system at the time. My behavior made no sense to me or any of the people that it had such a tragic and negative impact on. Fitting with Jung’s work, I understand there was an archetypical process that was activated through unresolved trauma in my unconscious or shadow. My shadow was the part of me that I kept hidden from everyone, and most critically myself. This is where my hidden and unconscious capacity to commit evil resided. My journey to health and wholeness was a journey of fully confronting my shadow and slaying the dragon that was me all along. Dark to Light An outcome of this type of shadow work is a newfound vigilance to keep trying to illuminate my own darkness and bring my personal capacity for evil out of the shadows. Bringing consciousness to the unconscious, and then integrating it into a wholeness. I now specialize in helping others do this work.
However, it has also had the effect of bringing awareness to the transpersonal nature of evil and illuminating the shadow side of our society and culture in a way that had been previously completely obscured to me. I now recognize the depths of reach of this archetypical evil that we are all currently immersed in and mostly unaware of. It took me on a path of trying to answer the questions of “what is evil and where does it come from?” This question led me to the groundbreaking work of Paul Levy who, after his own encounters, found himself on a similar journey of trying to understand the nature of evil. He has written three books “Dispelling Wetiko”, “Wetiko” and “Undreaming Weitko” directly on the topic. “Wetiko is a Native American term that can be conceived of as being a mind-virus that operates through our psychological blind-spots. Covertly working through the projective tendencies of our minds, wetiko surreptitiously—beneath our conscious awareness—flavors our interpretations of and the meanings we place onto the world such that we unwittingly become instruments to act out act its agenda (which we can be assured is contrary to our own best interests). As if under a self-generated spell, when we are afflicted by wetiko (which we all potentially are, as it exists in the collective unconscious of our species), we entrance ourselves via our own projections onto the inkblot of the world, literally hypnotizing ourselves in the process.” – Paul Levy Wetiko is a mind-virus that perpetuates evil in our world, yet at the same time is the required fuel for personal and transpersonal “awakening” …….to be continued.
With Love,
The Way
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