Autobiographical Synergy - Illuminating Our Shadow Material

by Robert Wilkinson

There's a lot of upheaval in many lives right now, with people looking for jobs, changing jobs, or wondering if they should be doing something differently than they are. As I was in the same situation many times when younger, today I'll offer some ways to approach what is, and what could be.

I've found over the decades of doing what I do that whether I've known it or seen it or not, it seems that almost everything I've ever done has served the whole of what I bring to my craft. Though I started doing astrology many decades ago, I've also done many other things along the way.

I used to wonder why I had accomplished a certain set of tasks and skills only to move in a seemingly different direction into a new set of skills and tasks unrelated to the previous set. As time goes on, I am noticing the pieces falling into place, often not the way I suspected earlier in life.

I've been thinking about these things, since many friends and clients have remarked that some of what I say and analogies I use are perfect to convey practical understanding of astrological terms, as well as human challenges. Much of this is synthesized from the many things I've learned and done throughout my life.

For example, two decades ago I spent a few years producing, directing, and editing many types of television shows. I did thousands of hours in studios and on locations, as well as hundreds of hours in editing bays, training in set design, lighting, camera and sound setup and balancing, signal routing in control rooms, character generating, and all the other minutiae of the craft.

I got into it quite by accident as a result of a temp gig I almost turned down, which is a strange story in itself. The magic of how I came to be an accomplished producer, director and editor allows me to say that we should never overlook an opportunity simply because it doesn't conform to our vanity, short-sightedness, or assumptions about what we should be earning or doing. Even a very low paying temporary job can lead to a very fulfilling career in television!

The synergy part of this example comes in what I learned about lighting a studio set. Without boring you with details, when interviews are done on a set, each figure is lit from three angles so that there are no shadows on their faces. There is a key, fill, and back light, which fills the space in ways that almost all shadows are dispelled.

Before learning these things, I hadn't understood some principles about working with what we call "the human shadow." To understand how my knowledge of light and shadow relates to my ability to "shine a light" on personality problems, a little background is in order.

When younger, I had explored (and experienced!) a tremendous amount of difficulty, suffering, and frustration when dealing with human shadows, both my own and others, even if that term didn't exist back when I got my BA in Psychology. Carl Jung hadn't been "rehabilitated" in those ancient days, and the concept of "shadow material" was not taught in universities.

What I didn't learn from my psych studies about my life questions led me to explore astrology, starting that chapter of the adventure my life has become since then. While finishing college and embracing astrology, I also kicked around learning practical skills like cooking, making good coffee, even running restaurants, then wound up having a bookstore and school of astrology and metaphysics while producing a lot of concerts and cultural events from the mid-1970s through the mid-80s.

However, all good things come to an end. Bad ones too! I was done with producing and promoting concerts by the mid-80s, and didn't really know what I wanted to do next. I couldn't go back, didn't see clearly how to go forward or even where to put my energies, but still needed to make money somehow. So I did pickup gigs for over a year, mostly word processing. (That led me into being a feature film consultant for some of the biggest movies of the time, another story in itself.)

After countless temp gigs, it segued into the television work I've described. After some years, that too ended, but I've never forgotten what I learned when I did set lighting, as it's the perfect analogy for dealing with human shadows.

The analogy is specific and applicable. Usually when we confront shadow material in ourselves or another, we understand it from our pre-set point of view. That's one way to see things, and can be illuminating to some degree, but it still leaves other areas in the shadow.

That's the reason when we're dealing with our own or others' intellectual shadows, or emotional shadows, or interpersonal shadows, it's always useful to illuminate whatever dense object of thought and/or feeling that is creating the shadow from multiple light sources. In that way we dispel those shadows that arise when we only view things from one point of view.

Illuminating anything from multiple light sources entails finding enlightening views toward whatever is shadowed. If we find enough enlightened views of a thing and have lit that thought, feeling, or action from key, fill, and back light angles, we dispel shadows and can see anything in its "unshadowed" state.

That's also why it's often not enough simply to know what we know. We are forever challenged to keep learning different angles of approaching human experiences on this dense Earth, so that we can view things from multiple angles. And because none of us individually is as aware or knowledgable as we all are together, often if we wish to find a different way to illuminate something we must learn how others might view that particular shadow material.

The added benefit to this is found in something our old friend the "I Ching" has to say about learning. From the Wilhelm/Baynes translation, a piece from Hexagram 58, The Joyous:

Knowledge should be a refreshing and vitalizing force. It becomes so only through stimulating intercourse with congenial friends with whom one holds discussion and practices application of the truths of life. In this ways learning becomes many-sided and takes on a cheerful lightness, whereas there is always something ponderous and one-sided about the learning of the self-taught.

It's always good to share insights with others on your spiritual wavelength so that we can come to insights that can help us to help others. I've lived that principle for decades, and over the years and many diverse experiences in many crafts and skills, I've learned how to use insights and knowledge from any number of crafts and interactions to apply them to my work as an astrological and spiritual counselor.

I suppose it comes with almost 40 years' practice of astrology, since it's given me many opportunities to blend multiple practical experiences I've developed, including the writing and speaking skills I've cultivated over decades. My experiences as an astrologer have helped me understand the overview of my life experiences, just as my life experiences have contributed to my astrological interpretive abilities. Everything in our lives can contribute to all we do if we open to the spirit of learning and applying the knowledge we find in ways that we like.

At the very least I can say that having lit my life from so many different angles of experience, I'm not as beset by shadow material as I used to be. And that helps me put spotlights on the charts and lives of my clients so that they also can view their mythos, or movie of their life, from different angles of vision.

Never give up learning, and seeing how what you've learned can be applied in other ways, other fields, other angles of understanding. If we are in fact the stars of the movie of our lives, then it's important to light ourselves in the right way so that we and the audience don't wonder what's in the shadows.

© Copyright 2008 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[michele]

robert
left u a message...this is great awakening segment topic (shadow material); as well as what you blog here about the pluto in cappy.

blessings

michele

[Lainie]

Thank you, Robert . . .what is your advice when there seems to be resistance at every turn, and the doors close but no windows open? And when you're not young any more? I lost my job 14 months ago and it was clear that my focus for the last 15 years had been effectively destroyed -- I wouldn't be able to work in that area again, and that all those years of helping other people in that industry and lifting them up would not be repaid in kind. I've put a lot of energy into trying to create things based on my passions and the truth of who I am, while also doing what you call "pickup gigs" -- freelance writing and research to pay the bills, but it's very tedious and lonely -- and now I feel spread too thin, overwhelmed by trying to do everything, with dwindling resources, and I've made no headway in rebuilding a life. I can go on and on doing things for free, but I need to make a living. I've had plenty of "exposure."

I keep putting a lot of energy and faith into possibilities that don't work out, where I always seem to be a runner-up, or the situation turns out to be untenable. Help! If we measure what's right by a sense of ease and flow and serendipity, I'm striking out.

[Pamela]

Dear Robert-

Thanks again for reminding me of what is true.. Remembering to come from the perpective of being open to the reality of being illuminated from multiple light sources is in itself illuminating.

Thanks for being out there.

Kind regards,
Pamela

[Annette]

Lainie, I have found that what Robert says has been true in my life, but it's always so good to hear it reaffirmed by someone else. For what it's worth, when windows closed for me repeatedly, either I was going in the wrong direction (and that was a signal) or I learned what I needed by the experience to open the one window that opened and grew wider.

It's so hard to keep the faith in times of transitions. That's why I think sites like this are so important for support. I guess in my right mind (eg when I remember to have faith), I hold onto the kind of thing that Robert said -- all good things come to an end. And bad things, too.

Every experience is really transition-- you never actually arrive anywhere solid -- all things fall apart (Do you know Pema Chodron's book "When Things Fall Apart"?). So whether the life you're leading at any given moment is frightening and unknown (or one or the other), or comfortable and satisfying (or one or the other), it's still really just a step toward something else.

This window slamming won't last. And the trick is not to go into fear but instead into faith (or love, if you prefer).

Easier, always, said than done.

Peace, Annette

[J. Sue Gagliardi]

Hi Robert,

What a great article! I love to hear your stories about yourself; it makes everything you discuss more understandable and real.

Your experience with lighting is a wonderful analogy to Jung's "shadow" and how it may take at least three types of light to despel it. We could compare key, fill, and back light, to Sun, Moon, and Ascendant's dawn light, perhaps.

I've always thought that one of the "shadow" figures is denoted by the negatives of the Sign opposite the Sun Sign. As a Taurus Sun, when my "shadow" appears, it's either hostile or sarcastic. ewwwww :o(

Sue

[Damien]

Plutooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

[SB]

Hi Robert,

Can you please give some examples of "shadow material". I would like to get to know, exactly what it represents and see, what I hold onto myself. Thank you!

[BritLitChik]

Hmmm....TV requires 3 lights to rub out physical shadows? Don't emotional shadows also require 3 lights - those of faith, hope and charity? Coincidence? Nah...

[TropiGal]

This morning I journaled about a topic I have taught about in the past -- the recurrence of the same or similar interests in my life, but at different times. I use the analogy of climbing the stairs in a tower with windows that are set in vertical lines. Each time I come to a window in that particular vertical line, I may seen the same scene below -- but I see it from a fresh angle. By synchronicity, I had set aside this column to read when I had more time to attend to it. And it turned out to be the perfect morning to meld your ideas about this with me own. Peace and blessing, TropiGal

[AceStar]

dear Robert! You know i cant put any words here to explain my feelings i am kind of your big fan and love everything about you :)
i was thinking of you today :)

Love my friend :)

[zeta]

Thank you for writing such deeply positive and inspiring words. I always feel much clearer after reading what you have written - as though it were obvious and I knew it all along.
I have experienced the shadow of poor health for most of this year and am struggling to keep up my spirits, especially in these times of planetary stress. I am new to astrology and am still trying to understand transits, charts and the like, but will I begin to see a little more light soon? I am reaching an age when I need to think about having children, but can't seem to find the one - especially as I spend most of my time in bed(!), and it is substantially adding to my sense of time running out. Hope I'm not asking too much but I need a little light right now (melb, aust. 16 june 72. around 7.30pm)
Thank you and with blessings.

[Robert]

Hi Michele - We can definitely cover this sometime. And when we go live on New Year's Eve, I'm sure we'll discuss Pluto in Capricorn.

Hi Lainie - Usually when we're not clear what to do, then doing nothing to mess things up is helpful. Remember that the future often doesn't look like what we're looking for, or we'd already be living it. At any age we must make each day a learning adventure. It's never been easy to begin anew at any age of my life, but it's also been a necessity from time to time with no other options. You may need to learn a skill that the world needs, or will need. First get centered within yourself, assess all the multiple skills you've learned throughout your life, and see how some of those things you do well could be adapted somehow to something that isn't tedious or isolating. Stop putting time into pro bono work, and remember that you're as entitled to good work for good pay as anyone else. When we're in transition between life chapters, I find persistence and determination more useful than expecting ease, flow, or serendipity. Demand a revelation, and you WILL get one. It's our job to pay attention and do whatever we must to follow Spirit's lead.

Hi Pamela - You're welcome. I believe that well rounded experience gives our life flavor and texture, and since all is Light, then it's always good to learn its various principles.

Hi Annette - Thanks for offering perfect advice about focusing on what is opening that we may not be noticing. Keeping faith is good, and if it's founded on our direct experience then we can never lose it, any more than we can lose our Eternal Nature. The only things we lose are the circumstances we were just in. Things in this set of planes are so fluid and in perpetual motion that we may as well enjoy the journey. And yes, love truly is letting go of fear.

Hi Sue - Well, I figure if I can share some things about how I dealt with what came down, maybe it'll help others get free of straitened circumstances more quickly. Good inference of the Sun, Moon, and Asc. Also factor in the concept of trines, a.k.a tri-noviles. Very good insight about the opposite signs. I've observed over years that you can always see how positive or negative any given sign is by how it externalizes through its opposing sign traits. Aries dysfunction is to be imbalanced or unjust. Taurus exhibits negative magnetism, Gemini gets scattered across too large an area, and so forth.

Hi Damien - As one with Pluto rising, I have learned I better be friends with Lord Shiva, since anything else just goes the way of the wind.

Hi SB - Think any of the vices or weaknesses that plague humanity. Cruelty, fear, hate, greed, avarice, vanity, desire for strong feelings, and ten thousand others.

Hi BritLitChik - Great creative analogy. Perhaps emotional shadows develop in the absence of those three. I have found also that dispelling emotional shadows requires the lights of Spirit, Soul, and Higher Mind. Accessing these makes life a lot lighter!

Hi TropiGal - Another great analogy of windows, walls and perceptions! Angles of view are everything in getting perspective.

Hi AceStar - I figured you'd like the lighting analogy, given what you do!

Hi zeta - Mostly my self reflective stuff tends to be grist for the mill of Soul, and if I can offer some things to others that lights up the path we all tread, then it's got to be good. Sorry you're having health difficulties. Be kind to yourself as you move forward and work through what you must.

You'll be learning Saturn and Uranus lessons for a while, which will require a sense of humor as well as patience. 36 is where we learn the rules of the game and find a new structure of identity in the social or cultural realm. You'll get a much larger vision and set of opportunities after mid-2009, though Mars and Jupiter will be giving you hints beginning mid-February.

[Lainie]

Thank you Robert - wishing you a very peaceful and beautiful holiday full of love.