Insights Volume 1 Issue 4 - Shadow

INSIGHTS Autumn 2025

Shadow I S S U E

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Equipping you to change your world

TABLE OF CONTENTS Cultural Shadows and Belonging

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Shadow and Projection Loralee M. Scott, Executive Editor

24 Nicholas S. Literski

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Reflections of the Shadow Carolyn Vega, Co-Editor

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The Golden Shadow Kristina Berger Projection, the Shadow....

of Depth Psychology 6 Emergence Glen Slater

30 Debra Merskin

8 The Shadow in Jungian Psychotherapy?

32 Elizabeth Martin

the Shadow 13 Befriending Emily Christensen

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The Shadow of Joan of Arc

Nancy Swift Furlotti

Poems

40 Brooke Bergman Parr

Leading with the Shadow 14 Indhushree Rajan

Insights is a quarterly magazine of Pacifica Extension and International Studies.

Lay Down Your Weapons

16 Loretta Mijares

Loralee M. Scott, Vice President Institutional Advancement and Lifelong Learning, Executive Editor Carolyn Vega, PGI Extension Director & Events Management, Co-Editor Angela Wood, Co-Editor Joyce Familara, Assistant Editor

allegory in plaster

18 Michael Blackman 19

Meeting with Grandmother Megan Sprague

Swallow Esther Marcella Hoffmann

Many thanks to Carolyn Vega for the use of “Reflections of the Inner Self” as the cover art.

20 Poems

Zachary Murdock Field

© 2025 Santa Barbara Graduate School, Inc., dba Pacifica Graduate Institute. All rights reserved. Pacifica is a registered trademark of Santa Barbara Graduate School, Inc.

A Baby Blessing

22 Christian Skoorsmith

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“...the shadow can to some extent be assimilated into the conscious personality, experience shows that there are certain features which offer the most obstinate resistance...These resistances are usually bound up with projections..”

-Carl Jung CW 9ii, AION Dear Reader, Welcome to this fourth edition of Insights focused on the illumination and further evolution of Carl Jung’s concept of the shadow. Both the natural world as well as the scholarship of Carl Jung remind us that light and shadow are inescapably intertwined. Taking a walk in the crisp, cool air of Autumn on a sunny day reminds us that it is when we are walking directly into the light that our shadow is directly behind us and therefore, most invisible to us. Goethe reminds us that “Where the light is brightest, the shadow is the deepest.”

Understanding “shadow work” as learning to consciously assimilate those parts of ourselves that we have been taught to fear, despise, or repress is essential. However, it is vital to realize that every new area of enlightenment also creates a corresponding shadow. The paradox of shadow work is that it is generally much easier to see the shadow of the other than to recognize the shadow that I carry, to humbly admit that where I may consider myself most enlightened could also be where I am most blinded to my own shadow.

It is vital to understand the tremendous degree of unconscious resistance that works to keep us unaware of our own shadow primarily by hiding behind our projections.

The mirror that we are asked to look into for shadow work, expecting to see the faces of our worst enemies, the attributes of those we most dislike, may instead show us our own. Perhaps this is part of the reason why in CW 9ii, Carl Jung defines the shadow as a “moral problem” that “challenges the entire ego-personality.”

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I write this letter as the wind blows the Autumn leaves outside my office window and the setting sun casts long shadows across the fields and gardens now gone by. I am left humbled by this walk with shadow and the conscious realization that shadow is ever with me. I am challenged even in these challenging times to withdraw the pointed finger of projection, to be kinder, gentler, to myself and to those I meet along the way.

As you read through the vibrant and diverse tapestry of creative scholarship reflected in this issue, I invite you to ask yourself, “What is my relationship with shadow?” “What is it that I am projecting that may hold something to be revealed to me, something essential to my individuation journey?” I am grateful to this community of Pacifica for the collective artistry of light and shadow, scholarship and soul that continue to challenge and transform us.

Thank you to our readers and to all those who contributed to this issue of Insights, who are walking towards the light while living with and learning from the shadow.

Walking with you, Loralee M. Scott, MFA Pacifica Vice President of Institutional Advancement and Lifelong Learning

“Projections change the world into the replica of one’s own unknown face.”

Carl Jung, CW 9ii, Aion

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“This process of coming to terms with the Other in us is well worth while, because in this way we get to know aspects of our nature which we would not allow anybody else to show us and which we ourselves would never have admitted.”

-C. G. Jung Cosmic Reflections of the Inner Self by Carolyn Vega

This surreal image depicts multiple mirrored faces emerging from a single form, each crowned with an opening to a cosmic void. Symbolizing the Shadow, the fragmented, unseen dimensions of the psyche mirror and multiply within us, reflecting both the light we seek and the darkness we deny.

Contemporary Reflections of the Shadow

by Carolyn Vega In contemporary culture, the Jungian concept of the Shadow has taken on renewed significance as individuals and societies grapple with hidden aspects of the self made visible through art, media, and social discourse. Initially confined to the language of depth psychology, the Shadow now emerges in public conversations about identity, unconscious bias, and the collective projection of fear and desire. It represents not only the personal darkness we repress but also the disowned creativity, empathy, and power that lie beneath our conscious awareness. In an age defined by digital dualities and curated personas, exploring the Shadow invites a radical form of honesty—an integration of the unseen forces that shape our choices, relationships, and cultural narratives.

Carolyn Vega, MA, is Director of Pacifica Extension and International Studies. She combines her scholarship as a Pacifica Humanities alumna, experience with diverse communities, and creative spirit to foster engaging and inclusive learning environments.

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Emergence of Depth Psychology in History as Compensation for the Western Shadow An Interview with Glen Slater, PhD Glen Slater is the author of Jung vs. Borg: Finding the Deeply Human in a Posthuman Age, as well as being a faculty member of the M.A./Ph.D. Jungian Psychology and Archetypal Studies program’s new online cohort (DJO).

Angela Wood: We often speak of “shadow work” very casually, at least in California, to refer to any kind of self-reflection or emotional transformation that means looking at the parts of ourselves that are not palatable. When depth psychologists speak of the shadow, how does that differ from the usage it has in popular culture?

Glen Slater: Yes, the term “shadow” and the concept of shadow work have really taken off. As the origins of this popular term are to be found in Jung and Jungian psychology, there is some continuity of thought at work. However, it’s difficult for anything to become popular and find a foothold in the self-help movement without it also falling prey to an egocentric interest in self-optimization. I think the deeper thrust of Jung’s concept takes us in a different direction.

The fear of introspection subsides and the light of consciousness is turned towards a more expansive inner realm where a more complete picture lies.

The implications are then quite extensive. If we push what’s less acceptable out of our awareness, we not only shut the gate on the realization of our deeper character, we also surrender a deeper appreciation for the foibles and complexes that are woven into the very nature of the psyche, which is what generates an empathic regard for our fellow human travelers. Without the shadow, the whole sense of the unconscious as a psychic reality, which moves toward a recognition of archetypal patterns shaping our experiences, also escapes our awareness. We are then less likely to feel genuinely tethered to something larger than ourselves. By contrast, when shadow awareness ushers us into a more expansive vision of the psyche, there comes a fullness of being and profound sense of the “other” within. This makes for a far more grounded, authentic, and complete personality. Less perfection, more completeness and depth—that is the deeper goal.

Jung saw the shadow as the gateway to an awareness of the unconscious as a full partner in our psychological make-up. Recognizing we have tendencies and impulses that run counter to the ideal conception of who and what we are establishes a relationship with the unconscious. We see that adhering to this ideal conception, often oriented to social acceptability and worldly stature, casts a shadow. Both the narrowness and the collective orientation of our conscious outlook keeps us in the dark. But a fuller and richer sense of psychological life awaits. The problem is that waking up to the less acceptable parts as well as unlived potentials that have been hiding in this shadow is uncomfortable. An inner tension is created that most people want to avoid. In the end, though, the payoff is substantial.

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Angela: Your upcoming class for the Intro to Depth Psychology certificate will address the emergence of depth psychology as a compensation for the Western Shadow. I’m new to the idea of a collective shadow, and I was hoping you could elucidate what you mean by the Western Shadow?

Glen: Just as individuals have an ideal view of themselves that casts a shadow, so too does the modern, particularly westernized view of life. We can see, for example, since the Enlightenment a certain preference for rational and logical modes of thinking and a certain detached, objectified view of nature and the world dominates. These modes have value, or at least utility. But what falls into this collective shadow is the whole irrational and emotive side, as well as a more grounded, instinctual way of being. Westerners often scapegoat other cultures because we project these shadow qualities onto them. Of course, what’s built into Jung’s theory of the shadow is that what is split-off and devalued also returns in the form of compulsive symptoms, not just projections. So we are at the same time frequently overtaken by passions and swallowed by materialism. To revalue and then consciously integrate more embodied, feelingimbued ways of knowing and to reconnect to the earth are thus ways of offsetting this Western shadow. The interest in yoga and wilderness experience are attempts to do this.

But more needs to occur. If we don’t, for example, compensate for our investment in all things technological with a resuscitation of the humanities and an education in the imagination, our sense of soul will itself recede into the shadow.

Angela: You’ve said that Jung came to understand a deeper dimension of the unconscious being “structured by archetypes— universal and timeless patterns of behavior and imagination.” How would the shadow present as an archetype, and in the therapeutic context, what part would Jung think this played, if any, in personal development?

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“Paper Vessel” by Sofia Barao

Glen: Well, the shadow is archetypal because it represents a universal dynamic. It stems from nature itself, where light and dark, creation and destruction, life and death, the elements, the seasons and so on are constantly at work. And deep down, despite all the ways we try to convince ourselves otherwise, we are natural beings.

So the psyche as a whole, with its roots in nature, will eventually correct our onesidedness. This is why you can consciously ignore the shadow, but then its contents will just appear unbidden as fantasies, projections, obsessions and compulsions.

And it’s just these things we spend most our time in therapy talking about, isn’t it?

Befriending the shadow side and learning to accept this rather than just putting it behind you is a big part of any depth psychologically-oriented therapy. Perhaps the main thing to know about the shadow is the more you repress it the more insistent it becomes. So the goal in Jungian work in particular is not to get rid of the shadow but to become conscious of it to the point it doesn’t need to show up in such problematic and destructive forms.

Jung’s whole model of the psyche reflects the archetypal patterns of psychological life. Individuation is, itself, archetypal. It represents the idea that the psyche is attempting to realize itself as a more conscious totality, through our consciousness.

And the shadow is a prominent part of this archetypal process. You can thus find this pattern in the spiritual quests, underworld journeys, and campfire stories told worldwide. Just as the shadow is personified in dreams as that threatening or disruptive figure that doesn’t go away, it appears in stories of every culture as that antagonist or dark angel that inevitably rises to meet the wanderer, seeker, or adventurer. Dreams, myths, and literature all tell us the same thing: There’s no real progress without encountering the shadow.

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What is the Shadow in Jungian Psychotherapy?

by Nancy Swift Furlotti, PhD Individuation, the basis of C. G. Jung’s process of psychotherapy, is a gradual enlargement of consciousness, including the many elements in the unconscious that we must struggle to become aware of and to differentiate—because they all have an affect on us. These include the shadow, anima/animus, and our inferior function. It takes hard work and determination to begin to see how they impact our lives, frequently in negative ways. The focus of this paper is on the shadow, although there is always a great overlap with the other parts of the personality including the persona, animus/anima, and complexes.

In Jungian psychology, we generally define the shadow as the personification of certain aspects of the unconscious personality, which could be added to the ego complex but which, for various reasons, are not… the shadow is the dark, unlived, and repressed side of the ego complex… Jung [also] said the shadow is simply the whole unconscious…So in the first stage of approach to the unconscious, the shadow is simply a “mythological” name for all that is within me which I cannot directly know… after a time, it appears in the dreams as a personification of the unconscious, of the same sex as the dreamer… partly of personal and partly of collective elements. (Von Franz, 1995, pp. 3-4)

The initial experience of the shadow carries a definite and describable negative feeling-tone. The shadow is emotional and autonomous: Its nature can in large measure be inferred from the contents of the personal unconscious” (Jung, CW 14, par.514) “This means that it contains lost memories, painful ideas that are repressed, subliminal perceptions…and finally, contents that are not yet ripe for consciousness… It is the negative side of the personality, the sum of all those unpleasant qualities we like to hide, together with the insufficiently developed functions and the contents of the personal unconscious. (Jung, CW 7, par. 103)

Jung reminds us that it takes a moral effort to come to terms with one’s shadow because one has to admit one’s weaknesses and inferiorities. That is never easy to do. We would rather defensively block off these negative perceptions of ourselves and remain half a person. People not willing to look at their inner opposites are left with problematic conflicts in their lives and project their unconscious shadow onto others.

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It is very difficult to look at one’s shadow and it requires a certain amount of moral strength to do so: The darkness which clings to every personality is the door into the unconscious and the gateway of dreams, from which those two twilight figures, the shadow and the anima, step into our nightly visions or, remaining invisible, take possession of our ego-consciousness. A man who is possessed by his shadow is always standing in his own light and falling into his own traps (CW, vol. 9,I, para. 222).

This is true of those who have a high degree of arrogance and hubris. They are one-sided and can’t see anything wrong with themselves. The mythological example of this is Icarus who flies too close to the sun, causing the wax holding his wings in place to melt and then as a consequence, crashes headlong back to earth. This is a frequent motif in dreams. You could also say that narcissism is a set up for not recognizing one’s shadow and inevitably leads to one crash after another.

How do we Work with the Shadow?

Our patients come to therapy with symptoms: something is not right. They feel depressed, lost, they no longer feel creative, they have body symptoms, or they can’t maintain relationships.

Their psychic energies are not all flowing in the same direction, or toward the same goal. They don’t even know what that goal is.

They are torn apart by differing desires, fighting themselves from within. They have many different voices in their heads that want to go in different directions and have different desires.

How do we heal these conflicts, these “neurotic splits”? Jung was very clear that it involves the use of imagination, which allows another way of knowing. When we are split into two— between the persona, the face one presents to the world, and the shadow—we are held in a concrete place where imagination is shut down. I say persona and shadow here because a substantial ego has not yet been adequately established with strength of its own and resilience. Shadow work helps the individual move toward creating a stable ego by tolerating the opposites that reside within. While one is beginning this work, one is held in a defensive battle between the opposites. We cannot see them clearly as they are a mix of intense emotions.

Yet, dreams and visions bring us images of the shadow that we ordinarily try to avoid. Although we may begin to see a vague pattern of projection of our shadow onto others, it really hits home when it appears in an image that has emerged from our psyche. This now cannot be dismissed and is actually quite a gift, for we can see what it is for the first time.

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While it is difficult to merely feel the shadow’s presence or think about it, once we have an image of what it is, we can begin to approach it and see that it is a separate part of ourselves that has a life of its own. As we approach it, we can begin to develop a relationship with this lost and hidden part of our personality. This is the hard part because many times it is so alien and disturbing to us that we may not want to see it as a part of ourselves or even worse, to get to know it. The shadow can be amoral, weak, lazy, gluttonous, greedy, angry—I could go on. Or, it can be powerful, courageous, creative, soulful, independent, kind, and here I can also go on and on.

The image that comes to us is important because it allows us to “symbolize,” as we move away from thinking reductively, making everything concrete and outer focused. Symbols are archetypal representations that act as transformers of psychic energy or libido.

As the powerhouses of the psyche, they are representations of wholeness and the union of opposites, thus carrying the potent and current connections between humanity and the greater Self, which is the archetype of wholeness and meaning. As psychic transformers, symbols create a charge, a sense of numinosity, like having come into contact with something truly other. Symbols help restore health and wholeness, healing the blockages within the personality and helping to reconcile the opposites within us and within the larger collective. They ultimately hold the possibility to lead us to a working relationship with the greater Self. Put another way, it is clear that inviting in symbols pertinent to our individuation fundamentally changes us. We recognize that our ego is not alone but there is a large stage full of other characters involved in our drama.

Meeting these figures and the grand orchestrator of all, the Self, leads us back to our soul, to our whole Self, no longer neurotically split into many parts, each of which has a different intention and voice. We bring them all together to work in concert, creating the harmonious music of our unique personality.

Toward the beginning of our work together when he first had to confront his shadow side, Roger (not his real name) had dreams of being up on towers, cliffs, high buildings and my sense of him was that he was not embodied at all, quite dissociated. He lived in a rarified fantasy world of his and his father’s making. As he began to come down to earth and into his body and was beginning to connect to his feelings, he had a dream of being on a large field where pieces, like dominos, were moving, slowly shifting. Roger had to concentrate to move with the pieces and to keep his eye on the devil who was on the other side of the dominos. He had to keep a buffer zone between himself and the devil. He was frightened because the devil was so close. In the dream the devil as his shadow represented the rejected, unlived, instinctual aspect in Roger’s psyche, all the unlived feeling, including his dark rage, which could be construed as evil.

When parts of the personal shadow are not sufficiently integrated, the collective shadow can sneak through this door… we have to be aware that these two aspects exist, because this is an ethical, practical problem and otherwise we may inflict too much guilt on people… It is unhealthy not to see it, but just as unhealthy to take too much of it. One cannot function psychologically if one takes on too much. (Von Franz, 1995, p. 8) When aspects of the unconscious first emerge into consciousness, they are always dark and dangerous. Here, they are represented by the collective shadow of Christianity, the devil himself. The feelings and impulses that were emerging were at first angry and dark and mostly directed towards Roger’s father and later his older brother.

The feeling of this shadow was horrible, vicious, hateful, and truly evil. It was hard to sit there week after week in this unconscious shadowy matrix.

His dreams were full of images of him fighting and slaughtering hundreds of people on battlefields or hunting and killing hordes of wild animals.

Case Material of a Man: I’d like to give an example of how this plays out in therapy. A male patient with a negative father complex had a father who exaggerated everything about my patient in a positive and grandiose way. Nothing negative ever entered his vocabulary. He was frequently emotionally absent due to alcoholism.

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After many months of work, the dream attacks began to become more personal with Roger fighting and winning against his brother or a bully who tormented him in high school. The large-scale collective imagery subsided and these real people in his life took their place. He was recovering his power and instinct, building ego strength, and in the process, also his feeling life.

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As he incorporated more of his true self into his ego complex, his father lost power over him and he was able to see his father’s strengths as well as his weaknesses. He was also not as affected by others’ comments that in the past would have driven him up the tower, into his fantasy world where he would escape the real world and then project hatred and fury. He could tolerate more of himself in an honest way. The complex was loosening its grip on him as he accepted more and more aspects of his shadow into his conscious awareness.

We identify with our shadow at first, then the second stage is to dis-identify and see it as separate from our ego complex. The third stage is to integrate it into our wholeness and accept it as a significant part of ourselves. This last stage is actually taking a moral action in owning oneself, the good and bad of who one is.

The negative characteristics of shadow always have an opposite side so what we get by integrating our negatives in a basket of very positive qualities that help strengthen our personality and move forward in a much more creative way.

Regaining clarity means becoming conscious of one’s shadow and complexes through the process of individuation. The ego is strengthened through the collision with the outer world and its challenges and responses.

Further, one establishes an ego-Self axis, which leads to maintaining a constant relationship to the Self, the archetype of wholeness and meaning, and to a spiritual life that requires the correct attitude of honor and respect toward the ineffable, unknowable source of creation, destruction, and wisdom. While we all have our personal shadows, we also are affected by the collective shadow. For example, what was constellated in Germany in WW11 was an outbreak of collective evil, the shadow-opposite of the proper, efficient, hard-working German culture.

Collective shadow possessing our country is evident now. It is split into opposites where the dark shadow is projected on to the other. There is no middle ground, no integration of dark and light, right and wrong, or differences of opinion. It is up to each one of us to remain as conscious of all aspects of ourselves as possible to avoid projecting onto the other and furthering the split. The same is true of collective groups, but it starts with the individual’s integration of the shadow.

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Nancy Swift Furlotti, Ph.D. is a Jungian analyst and psychologist living in Aspen, Colorado. She lectures internationally on Jungian topics such as working with dreams, mythology, trauma, and creativity. Her own books include: The Dream and its Amplification; Eternal Echoes: Erich Neumann’s Timeless Relevance to Consciousness, Creativity, and Evil; and her recently released book, The Splendor of the Maya: A Journey into the Shadows at the Dawn of Creation.

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“Touching the Dark Side” by Natalia Hubbert Mixed Media Digital Collage

“Embracing” by Natalia Hubbert Mixed Media Digital Collage

“The Path” by Natalia Hubbert Mixed Media Digital Collage

Natalia Hubbert is a Houston-based UkrainianAmerican artist and Depth Coach.

She is currently enrolled in the Graduate Certificate in Contemporary Analytical Psychology and Neo-Jungian Studies program from Pacifica Extension.

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Befriending the Shadow

by Emily Christensen, M.A. The shadow box artwork explores the archetypal process of confronting the shadow. The paper-mâché house, made from pages of Grimm’s Fairy Tales and set within a forest, symbolizes the psyche’s return to its own interior landscape. As the girl enters the house, she becomes conscious of her shadow leering down at her. This marks the moment that begins her integration with the shadow.

Although encountering the shadow can be frightening at first, this process begins to uncover the forgotten parts of ourselves. As James Hillman emphasizes, addressing the “abandoned child” and the “shadow” within is essential for growth and individuation (Rohde-Brown, p. 109). The girl’s confrontation mirrors this process, embodying the tension between fear and revelation.

“Daylight”

The girl represents the puella archetype, one who hides behind perfection to maintain acceptance. Susan E. Schwartz explains that for the puella, the pressure to be perfect forces her to conceal unacceptable feelings while striving to please others outwardly (Schwartz, p. 212). The artwork reflects this image, as the girl must confront the parts of herself she has long repressed.

The shadow figure is sculpted from clay and hunched forward in wisdom. She represents the Crone archetype and embodies the girl’s hidden potential. Kim Krans describes the Crone as an energy that “accepts everything in, devouring beauty and suffering with the same mouth, using their energy to reveal hidden secrets and knowledge” (p. 87).

“Shadow Glow” The matching pattern on the two skirts suggests that the two figures are connected. The Crone is the girl’s shadow, inviting her to face her fears and reclaim her creative power. As Krans reminds us, awakening this energy is “dangerously rich and unapologetically magic” (p. 87). The forest, the fairy tale, and the shadow together symbolize that individuation is not a rejection of darkness but a necessary passage for growth and transformation.

Emily Christensen earned her M.A. in Depth Psychology and Creativity, with an emphasis in the Arts and Humanities, from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is an artist and piano teacher whose creative process engages a Jungian Arts-Based Research (JABR) methodology to explore creativity as a bridge between psyche and art.

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Leading with the Shadow The Work of Dr. Indhushree Rajan Dr. Rajan is a graduate of Pacifica’s Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with Emphasis in Depth Psychology as well as an adjunct Professor at Pacifica. Dr. Rajan’s nonprofit, Project Satori (www.projectsatori.org), is a small organization seeking to provide comprehensive mental health treatment services to sex trafficking survivors and their families in and around Los Angeles, with a vision to expand globally.

Dr. Rajan has been both a mental health care provider to survivors of human trafficking and an advocate and educator on the global human trafficking crisis.

Her work in this regard is ongoing and expanding. It’s work that I intensely admire and respect, and I also wonder how she fields a topic that is so universally distressing, especially when addressing an audience.

The answer begins with breathing exercises, meditation and grounding the listener. As she says, “We as a group hold their stories. A lot of the time, when discussing this topic, people with good intentions can still objectify the people they’re talking about. This trauma is about people being used and manipulated as objects. So, I invite people in the room to honor these people and their stories.” For those reading this, let’s hold the story of this crisis collectively and with respect for the people who have experienced it. And if anyone feels like they need to stop reading, please do.

There is no country where human trafficking doesn’t happen, whether they are the origin country, the portal country, or the destination country. Women and children are taken from their country of origin, trafficked through other countries, and then in the destination country, women, girls, and boys are forced to work in brothels.

And it affects the poorest and most vulnerable of people.”

Jung’s concept of the shadow would seem particularly prescient in the work Dr. Rajan does, so I ask her how the shadow presents itself in her practice and how she works with it. She responds, “The shadow will show up in treatment, but I personally don’t call it out. When we’re looking at the personal process, the shadow will show up as resistance, denial, or something the client doesn’t see. So sometimes I find myself holding different pieces for the client until there’s an opening that allows them to see things they weren’t ready to see before. Everyone has to reach a point where they can face and own the material they’re carrying. How that shows up varies from client to client.”

I was not particularly well informed about the scope of human trafficking before speaking with Dr. Rajan, but she was quick to point out that it’s a global pandemic, saying, “Everyone is affected by and vulnerable to this.

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If we look at the idea of a collective shadow, we certainly could think of the collective shadow that victims of sexual abuse carry.

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by Angela D. Wood

But we also can look at the collective shadow of the people who perpetrate these crimes or even the larger socio-political climate of the moment. When I ask Dr. Rajan about this, she says, “I first look at the shadow at a macro level in terms of what we’re encountering as practitioners. There are so many kinds of power divides and imbalances in our society right now. And there’s always fear and denial in any situation where we’re not able to honestly face all of the elements. We end up with repressed material or shadow. So certainly, I hold the collective shadow with my students, and when I’m doing therapy work. It helps my clients to understand we’re permeable. Beyond the work in the therapeutic container, we’re affected by the energies around us, so certainly, people’s emotional states and mental health are being affected by what’s happening at the macro level. It’s triggering when we have leadership or aspects of society that are invested in silencing certain people or distracting from certain issues. There’s a disconnect between what we’re told to believe and how things actually are. So shadow material is activating in terms of how people react to each other and the kinds of energies we’re seeing in the collective.”

When I ask Dr. Rajan how this might affect people who are victims of abuse, she replies, “We have trauma survivors who are enduring things in the collective that are retriggering them. With all of the talk of the Epstein files that are in the public ethos, people who have survived trafficking are incredibly scared and triggered to know that people can get away with such heinous, inhumane acts. It makes them wonder if there is space for their story or if they have any recourse. There’s a sense of powerlessness and hopelessness when we see the laws not enforced equally, when we see justice is not being served. I process some aspect of this every day with clients and with students.” Dr. Rajan continued, “I lead with the shadow. I want my students to see what’s going on, not fear it, so they can choose how to orient themselves in the world and how they show up in this work. I try to hold the space for my clients so they can feel empowered and find their voice because every soul is precious, and every person has a purpose. Value, real joy, and fulfillment derive from connecting with what that is.”

I can imagine that consistently thinking about this topic, working with survivors, and educating about it might be heavier than what many in the field of counseling are used to. I ask Dr. Rajan how she keeps herself balanced and prevents feeling overwhelmed. She replies, “It’s a difficult field of work and an uncomfortable topic for most people to hold. It can be difficult to even conceive of the fact that human trafficking is happening in our communities. Self-care is important in this field. I have boundaries in terms of what I watch or read. People often give recommendations for anti-trafficking material. But I am careful about what I let into my personal space, and about where I put my mental and emotional focus. I don’t live in that world aside from when I’m working in that world. Being in my own therapy, having hobbies and being able to take care of myself ensures that I’m balanced enough to do this work. We are all in process, and we all have our woundings and limitations.

It’s important to be aware of and honest about this, too. We all try to engage in self-care, which for me includes how much I’m exposing myself to this topic. Otherwise, it would be too dark and heartbreaking.”

Dr. Rajan concludes with a very important point that I think many people in the Pacifica community can relate to: “People who do this work tend to have gone through serious trauma themselves or have been around it enough to recognize it and have a relationship with it. I’m one of those people. I’ve been through a lot of trauma in my life of various kinds. It’s not something you’d want to befriend, but when you know it, you tend to see it around you. It ends up being that bittersweet weave of survival and purpose. I think that’s how we make meaning out of things. In the healing, we find the meaning, and then we can help others find meaning in their healing too.”

Dr. Rajan’s Project Satori (www.projectsatori.org) is a small but growing nonprofit, seeking to provide comprehensive mental health treatment services to sex trafficking survivors and their families in and around Los Angeles. Dr. Rajan also recommends the following resources for those who would like to have more awareness of this problem and how to help: CAST Collaboration to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking and Polaris Project.

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by Angela D. Wood

Lay Down Your Weapons

by Loretta Mijares, Ph.D.

Acrylic paint over collaged dictionary pages on paper, 11”x14”, 2025

“This image is the concluding piece in my “alphabestiary” (alphabet + bestiary), an artbook documenting my work on a yearlong Jungian arts-based research project titled Rewilding Literacy.

Through a multi-modal creative practice that includes somatic movement, imaginal writing, and image-making, Rewilding Literacy uses a depth psychological lens to trace the genealogy of the English alphabet back to its origins in Semitic pictorial writing. Granting the possibility that letters themselves are animate, autonomous entities, I engaged in imaginal dialogue with each letter of the alphabet as well as a panoply of other voices that emerged.

This piece, “Lay Down Your Weapons,” looks back to the origins of the letter Z in zayin, the Semitic pictorial sign for “weapon.” My embodied imaginal exploration of this letter was informed by the extreme divisiveness and toxicity of our times, marked by wars, political assassinations, and mass shootings. Exploring the image of Z as “weapon” was laden with deep grief and questioning about violence and human nature. Surrendering to the process of active imagination carried me into the shadow territory of giving voice to those I generally reject and feel repulsed by.

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Loretta Mijares, Ph.D., has been an English professor for decades. She also offers creativity workshops in the practice she developed, MovingWriting, which combines conscious movement with expressive writing. She is currently completing her M.A. in the Depth Psychology and Creativity program.

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Furthermore, the work asked me to consider the unacknowledged violences I bring to my own way of being in the world, in the form of judgment of myself and others. Here is one writing piece that emerged during this inquiry: Mourners’ Lament After Catastrophe We find the survivors, we bury the dead.

We pull our hair, we weep, we gnash our teeth.

Let us keen and wail and hold each other.

But let us not ask why.

From why we created gods, wanting order and reason in the world, wanting to believe propitiating the right gods in the right way would keep us from harm.

But, O, such harm has come to us!

Despite our prayers and sacrifices, such harm has come to us!

So let us rend our garments, cover ourselves with dirt, crawl on our bellies on this unforgiving earth.

Let this forgiving earth take our tears as she will take our bones.

Let our grief and confusion drive us into each other's arms.

Let us stroke each other’s hair, clasp each other to our bosoms.

Let us exclude no one from our grieving, even the terrible-making ones— the ones who pillaged, who raped, who killed.

Let us keen our grief for them, our sons, our fathers, our brothers and husbands.

Let us grieve that they lost their way, took a road into the dark, and found dark things they brought home with them.

Them most of all, let us clasp to our bosoms and hold, as we weep for them and for those they've killed.

And when we have exhausted our tears, let us collapse onto the earth in a long dreamless sleep, so that when we rise, we can see again the young ones who still want our laughter and our play.

Let us see again the dawn on the horizon and the waves lapping the shore and the berries in the forest.

Let us dig through the destruction to find what can be salvaged to rebuild our homes or carried away to begin again.

If we have to leave this place, let us search out all the good seeds we know to carry away with us.

For these are the things we can see.

These are the things we can do.

Why, we cannot see.

With why there is nothing we can do.

Let us lay down why with the ashes and the bones.

Laying down why, we soften into the tenderness of and what now?

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allegory in plaster

by Michael Blackman moribund and rounding the corner, his shadow casts large on the opposite wall plato builds the fire of light he sees his turncoat, coward father he sees his absent mother he feels the weight of thirty silver there is no fanfare, just a white plaster wall with the shadow his father’s averting eyes his mother’s scowling jowls it strikes with so much force his feet cannot carry him fast enough to this field of blood brown and withered, a few ravens startled, fly up from rooting again, even here, broken up by the texture of garrigue his shadow casts long against the ground quiet the father quiet the mother his guts spill out into the aged underbrush

Michael Blackman is currently seeking his doctorate at Pacifica in Clinical Psychology. He is multi-disciplinary artist living in Los Angeles. His paintings deal with dreams and his relationship to them. His poetry is an exploration of the world around him. He is previously published in Book of Matches Literary Journal and awaiting publication in Neologism and SLANT.

shadow gender Oil on hand-stretched canvas 48" x 21"

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Swallow

by Esther Marcella Hoffmann H a r py hea r t g row n t a l o n s w i n gs f l ow n ove r d es o l a te h a p pe n i n gs d es pe r a te g ro a n s a mo n g m a ny d a r k p i nes c l ea r i n g t r u t h l u n g es f ro m g o l d e n h a u nc hes Po et i c a c u r l s fa n gs snaps at last wits babble in bramble he e d l ess t h ro a t w i l l i n g ness of a p p ro a c h i n d rea m s et a t n i g h t i n a t t i c w h i te s he et c ove r s sway i n g ro c k i n g c h a i r l i f te d i n to g a s p awa ke d r i n k w h a t i s l ef t i n s m a s he d c h a l i c e drink d e p t h s we p t o n l y fea r lost thirsts swa l l ow Esther Marcella Hoffmann is enrolled in the Mythological Studies program. She is the author of four poetry collections, including upcoming, Un-Orphaning: an anthology on individuation, and is the curator of the Niche Nook, a roaming art and events gallery.

El Sueno de Sofia

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Endangered

by Zachary Murdock Field it’s time to burn these cobweb husks & see once & for all if there is anything eternal if not, thank you for the hospitality & allowance of space if so, i look forward to the afterparty but if this consciousness thing truly is an infinite ride i would love to squeeze in a proper nap here & there & an amnesia pill might not be such a bad idea once in a while oh wait…

Perfect Timing

by Zachary Murdock Field sitting cold waiting for lightning to strike, shivering sleeping in the vineyard dream begging the grapes to become wine, crying one inch from your beloved praying to be touched, pouting drooling over an empty page hoping the spittle becomes brilliance, waiting drop this phantom weight unslouch bethlehem is inside you your wanting is a mirror wake up demand freedom the gatekeeper is drunk & unconscious do not fear his growling snores snatch the keys shake off the chains see how they fall away like cobwebs in the sun you baited yourself don’t you remember? set the trap, became the prey, lost control & how wonderful for now here you are caught & ready to begin this short walk home

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Words Fall Short

by Zachary Murdock Field

courting myself the librarian hands me books “perhaps you’ll find some clues in there” on cue, i fall in love with her & then the books themselves the silence of the space like a duckling born without its mom i imprint on one thing after another follow unfollow until it’s a cloud i chase after off of a jagged plateau i guess this is goodbye i think you know what happens next an educated guess at least? the stranger & the one i thought was me reverse & words fall short…

Zachary Murdock Field is a poet, writer, musician and creative director who has been creating multidimensional art for nearly three decades. His collective, Channel the Sun, is responsible for endless acts of imagination resurrection and you can find him navigating The Path in his Pink Hearse with reflective hubcaps which are mud splattered and proud to be. You can explore his work through Instagram @channelthesun .

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Parents sometimes argue. Sometimes we are not everything we want to be. Sometimes

A Baby Blessing

by Christian Skoorsmith

we are angry, sad disappointed frustrated foolish wrong. Sometimes we feel bad, guilty unappreciated tired alone. Sometimes that comes out in words and ways that are unkind. Sometimes we are unreasonable or needy. That happens.

Some days are difficult. Even if they’re not every day or most days, bad days are heavy. We will let you down but we don’t want to. You deserve the best parents, and we will try. In the end, we are the ones who get to let you down (hopefully not often and mostly just in small ways, but probably in big ways too, at some point). And we

Christian Skoorsmith is a hypnotherapist in Seattle and is participating in Pacifica's graduate certificate program in neo-Jungian studies.

Find more about him at www.Skoorsmith.com.

wouldn’t give it up for anything. Even knowing I will make mistakes, you are my child, I want to be the one who is so close to you that when I fail it matters.

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Microcredentials New for 2026!

Pacifica Microcredential Courses are crafted for busy professionals and lifelong learners who seek meaningful, flexible ways to deepen their personal and professional growth. Each course offers an inspiring bridge between depth psychology and real-world practice, bringing Jungian principles into fields such as leadership, education, creative arts, and care work.

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Cultural Shadows and Belonging

By Nicholas S. Literski, JD, PhD

“Forest of the Night”

by Caroline de Mauriac

C. G. Jung wrote of the shadow aspect of psyche, disowned parts of ourselves that we prefer to ignore or suppress. While the personal shadow dominates in academic discourse, the current climate calls for an examination of how the cultural shadow impacts society. Just as an individual might project their own shadow qualities onto others, entire cultures can project their unwanted qualities outward, casting groups of people into the role of “other.” Cultural complexes begin to act autonomously, fueled by shadow projections to overcome logical or empathetic thinking. A civilization that prides itself on order may project chaos onto marginalized groups. A community that insists on its morality may scapegoat those it deems “immoral.” These projections harden into stereotypes, laws, and practices that exclude.

C. G. Jung wrote of the shadow aspect of psyche, disowned parts of ourselves that we prefer to ignore or suppress. While the personal shadow dominates in academic discourse, the current climate calls for an examination of how the cultural shadow impacts society. Just as an individual might project their own shadow qualities onto others, entire cultures can project their unwanted qualities outward, casting groups of people into the role of “other.” Cultural complexes begin to act autonomously, fueled by shadow projections to overcome logical or empathetic thinking. A civilization that prides itself on order may project chaos onto marginalized groups. A community that insists on its morality may scapegoat those it deems “immoral.” These projections harden into stereotypes, laws, and practices that exclude.

In recent years, cultural projections seem to have focused particularly on already marginalized segments of society. Such groups represent minority characteristics and lack substantial political power, such that they can be readily framed as enemies and outcasts. This has dire consequences, for example, when it comes to gender diversity. The othering of transgender persons in the United States has been inflated to create a political litmus test, as politicians and activists create a monstrous common enemy in order to motivate their supporters. Notably, this condemnatory public discourse has largely ignored transgender men, and focused instead on both transgender women and nonbinary persons.

This preoccupation is currently magnified due to a heightened fixation on the archetypal image of masculinity. Social media is rife with influencers who claim to embody this image while simultaneously sounding the alarm of a “masculinity crisis” in the United States. Political and military posturing has centered on a masculine warrior ethos to the exclusion of diverse skills and perspectives. Young adult men, in particular, seem to be susceptible to this image, leading some to doubt themselves while others craft an extreme persona of the so-called “alpha” male. Ironically, this persona is itself based on outdated, inaccurate descriptions of wolf behavior that were based entirely on captive animals, rather than wolves in their natural habitat.

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These patterns, while highly visible at this time, are hardly new. In The Bacchae, King Pentheus condemned the gender fluidity of Dionysus, whose long hair, soft skin, and “womanly” form did not reflect the culture’s hypermasculine ethos. At the same time, however, Pentheus was attracted to Dionysus, passively declaring him attractive. In other writings, I have called this simultaneous condemnation and attraction the Pentheus complex. As Patricia Berry explained in her 2008 work, Echo’s Subtle Body, humans construct hard gender roles in order to avoid feelings of inferiority, even while secretly enthralled by the violation of such markers.

As our culture increasingly manipulates the masculine archetype by narrowing it to the bellicose warrior image of Ares, whole swaths of men have become increasingly anxious about whether they meet the expectations of the day. The resulting “crisis of masculinity” has led influential figures to deride the majority of men as “betas,” inevitably activating the complexes of even cisgender men. For example, a dear friend of mine who is a military veteran and appears almost hypermasculine on first glance, worries privately that his love of art and poetry are supposedly “feminine” characteristics. As masculine gender roles both narrow and calcify, complexes are inevitably activated, to the point that supposedly unmasculine persons who were assigned male at birth have become the target of harmful projections. As complexes protect a fragile archetypal core, the need to preserve rigid categories of masculinity results in scapegoating those who embody ambiguity.

Ironically, other traditions have long honored images of gender fluidity, such as Dionysus. The alchemical image of the hermaphrodite symbolized the union of opposites, a vision of psychic wholeness that Jung saw as central to individuation. In earlier times, figures who transgressed gender norms have often been healers, mediators, or spiritual functionaries. What modern society has cast into the cultural shadow, past cultures have often revered.

Unfortunately, projections of the gender-related shadow

A more expansive masculine archetypal image would not erase

prevent inclusivity. They deny belonging by reducing

differences, but instead allow for vulnerability, interdependence,

transgender and nonbinary persons to dangerous

and yes, even gender fluidity. Such an archetype would honor

enemies. When transgender identities are framed as a

Dionysus alongside Apollo, the “man-womanly” god alongside the

“trend,” a “delusion,” a “danger,” or even a “mental illness,”

sunlit ideal of order. By broadening the American image of

these projections overcome reality, exploiting cultural

masculinity, the grip of shadow projections can be eased to the

insecurities to guard the boundaries of a supposedly

point that nonbinary and transgender expressions no longer are

threatened cultural value. As a result, lawmakers in the

seen as threats.

United States have rushed to enact laws strictly curtailing the freedom of transgender persons to live openly in

Shadow projections translate into policies, practices, and

society as their true selves. The Pentheus complex is

interpersonal rejections that deny humanity and belonging to

alive and well, triggering hostile reactions based on a

transgender and nonbinary persons. Expanding the archetypal

broad cultural shadow.

imagination has real-world consequences, allowing us to see difference not as a threat, but as an invitation into deeper

If the Pentheus complex reveals the shadow of our

community. When individuals allow themselves to see the shadow

cultural anxiety, then the task is not to eliminate

in their antagonism, cultural complexes can begin to soften in their

difference but to reimagine our own symbolic ground. As

influence. If we can meet this opportunity with openness and

Jung taught, shadow work is not about purging what

curiosity, we may find that inclusivity is not a concession, but a

seems undesirable, but rather integrating what is

fulfillment of psyche’s instinct for wholeness.

repressed so that it becomes part of a deeper, richer wholeness. For American culture, this means widening

Dr. Nick Literski is Assistant Professor and Associate Chair of Depth Psychology and Creativity at Pacifica Graduate Institute, where their work explores the intersections of psyche, spirit, and the imaginal. Their research applies a depth psychological lens to spirituality, ritual magic, and LGBTQ+ experience.

Beyond the classroom, Dr. Nick serves as a professional spiritual guide and maintains an extensive collection of rare esoteric texts.

the archetypal images that drive gender roles.

Masculinity, in particular, requires revision. Too often it has been defined by rigid boundaries that defy ambiguity, thus that ambiguity is cast into the shadow and projected outward onto those who embody it.

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The Golden Shadow with Kristina Berger Kristina Berger is a graduate of Pacifica’s Psy.D. in Counseling Psychology with Emphasis in Depth Psychology program, currently in practice as a psychotherapist in San Luis Obispo.

Angela Wood: You completed your dissertation on “Psychological Recovery From Religious Cult Defenses: A Feminist and Interpretive Hermeneutic Perspective.” What drew you to this work, and how did you orient it within the context of depth psychology?

Kristina Berger: My interest in high-control religious groups and cultic systems began in an undergraduate social psychology course in 2001, when I first recognized that I had been raised within a cultic environment. That realization profoundly shaped the trajectory of my academic and clinical pursuits. Since then, I have been deeply engaged in studying the psychological and sociological mechanisms that lead individuals to join such groups, as well as the operational structures that sustain their control.

From a depth psychological perspective, I am particularly interested in unconscious processes, such as projection, idealization, and identification, that function within authoritarian or patriarchal systems. These dynamics often mirror early object-relational patterns, where dependency and fear of abandonment become powerful tools of manipulation. My current work seeks to bridge feminist theory and depth psychology to better understand the intrapsychic and collective dimensions of coercive control, primarily as they manifest in patriarchal cults and other high-demand environments.

Angela: As this issue of Insights focuses on the shadow, I wondered if you could share with us your definition or experience of the shadow and its importance in the healing process?

Kristina: Although I did not explicitly reference Jung’s concept of shadow in my dissertation, the process of recovery from cultic systems closely mirrors the Jungian path of individuation. Survivors of high-control religious groups often engage in a profound reorganization of the psyche, such as confronting disowned, projected, or repressed aspects of self that were once subsumed under authoritarian belief structures. In therapy, our work often centers on illuminating what has been hidden from conscious awareness.

In cult recovery work, the therapist serves as a co-regulating witness, someone who helps the client steady their nervous system while gently inviting moments of reality testing.

Rather than providing answers or interpretations, the therapist becomes a curious companion, asking questions like, “What makes this feel true?” or “How else might we understand this experience?”

It’s a process much like visiting an optometrist: the therapist offers different lenses of understanding and asks, “Is it clearer now, or now?” The client’s task is to notice which perspectives bring their inner world into sharper focus. Over time, these small acts of discernment rebuild confidence in one’s own perception, something often eroded by years of coercion and external authority defining what was “true.”

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As clarity grows, shadow work naturally emerges. Clients begin to encounter the parts of themselves that were shamed, denied, or projected within the group system. When clients start to see the patterns, emotions, and defenses that once operated in the shadow, they open the door to integration. Awareness becomes the bridge between fragmentation and wholeness, allowing the client to reclaim(or claim for the first time) the disowned parts of the self and weave them into a more coherent and authentic inner voice.

In this sense, cult recovery represents a movement toward integrating the shadow: reclaiming one’s moral agency, emotional complexity, and capacity for ambiguity. Viewed through a feminist depth psychological lens, this individuation process also entails a critique of the patriarchal and hierarchical forces that have historically split the psyche into dominant and subordinate parts. Healing, therefore, involves not only the integration of intrapsychic opposites but also the deconstruction of internalized systems of control.

Through this integration, individuals begin to experience a fuller, more relational sense of self, one that honors intuition, embodiment, and relational wisdom that have long been marginalized within patriarchal paradigms. In this way, psychological recovery becomes a personal act of individuation, restoring wholeness through the conscious reconciliation of the shadow within and without.

Angela: One of the focuses of your practice is “providing compassionate care for individuals navigating religious trauma, particularly from high-control religious groups, high-demand organizations, and cults.” How does the Jungian conceptof the shadow present itself within your practice?

Kristina: In my clinical work with individuals recovering from high-control religious environments, the Jungian concept of the shadow appears almost constantly. These clients often confront parts of themselves that were forbidden, condemned, or projected onto others within their former systems, such as anger, doubt, desire, curiosity, or the longing for autonomy. Within cultic and patriarchal frameworks, such qualities are typically labeled as sinful, disloyal, or dangerous.

One of the most insidious dynamics in high-control or cultic environments is the projection of shame. Members are expected to represent perfection and unquestioning loyalty, displaying the group’s ideals at all times. When they inevitably fall short, the community’s unacknowledged guilt and moral conflict, their collective shadow, in Jungian terms, are projected onto them.

Because such groups cannot tolerate awareness of their own behavior of exploitation and antisocial behaviors, they externalize it, casting dissenters or struggling members as flawed, weak, or spiritually failing. In patriarchal systems, this process often takes on a gendered dimension: Women become the holders of the cult’s systemic shame, expected to absorb the group’s moral failings and maintain the illusion of purity and harmony. The projected shame becomes a tool of control, silencing the very individuals the system has abused and exploited.

Therapeutically, recovery begins by turning toward shame with curiosity rather than judgment. Survivors learn to ask, Whose shame is this? And who taught me to carry it? In doing so, they begin to engage with their own shadow in a healthy, integrative way, recognizing that what was once labeled “bad” or “sinful” may actually contain vitality, truth, and agency. Healing involves discerning what truly belongs to the self and what was imposed by the cultic system.

“Autumn Shadow”

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As survivors inherited burden, they rediscover an inner sense of dignity, authenticity, and self-worth, the parts of themselves that existed long before the shame was ever projected onto them.

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In therapy, the shadow emerges as both the pain of that repression and the vitality that was lost in the process. My role is to help clients approach these disowned aspects with compassion rather than fear, to understand that what was once considered ‘bad’ or ‘unacceptable’ often represents their authenticity, intuition, and capacity for self-direction.

From a feminist depth-psychological stance, this integration is not only intrapsychic but also a form of resistance to internalized hierarchy and control. As clients begin to reclaim (or claim for the first time) their shadow material, they often rediscover creativity, embodiment, and agency, the very elements that were suppressed to maintain conformity. In this way, shadow work becomes a pathway to psychological authenticity, allowing the individual to move from obedience to authentic selfhood.

Angela: Do you see an aspect of the collective shadow in cults?

Kristina: Absolutely. Cults often function as embodied expressions of the collective shadow. They externalize what a broader culture cannot tolerate within itself: its yearning for certainty, purity, belonging, and moral superiority. From a depth psychological perspective, this process is sustained through the defense of splitting: the tendency to divide reality into all-good or all-bad categories, creating an “us versus them” dichotomous worldview.

“My Shadow”

This dynamic doesn’t only exist within cults; it is also reflected throughout contemporary culture, in political polarization, religious fundamentalism, and even in social media echo chambers that reward moral absolutism over nuance. Within patriarchal and hierarchical systems, splitting reinforces control by discouraging ambivalence and complexity, both of which are essential for psychological growth.

The cult, therefore, becomes a concentrated expression of our collective difficulty with holding tension, difference, and uncertainty.

Recognizing this shadow and splitting dynamics challenges us to consider how easily your own cultural narratives can replicate the same defenses of idealization and rejection that we attribute to so-called ‘extreme’ groups.

Angela: What are the particular challenges your clients face in the path to healing and what kinds of tools and methods do you find most effective in helping in that process?

Kristina: One of the most significant challenges my clients face after leaving high-control religious groups or cultic systems, particularly those who are born-in or multi-generational survivors, is the slow and painful process of rebuilding an internal world that was once organized around external authority. For many, the system was not merely a belief structure but the entire social and psychological environment in which their identity was formed.

They have often been conditioned to distrust their own perceptions, emotions, and moral intuition. The recovery journey involves learning to differentiate authentic self-expression from the internalized voices of the group that continue to echo within.

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Another common struggle is the repetition compulsion that draws survivors into relationships or environments with antisocial or exploitative dynamics. These patterns mirror control, charisma, and dependency once experienced within the group. These dynamics frequently manifest as a tendency to defer to others who may significantly harm them in their post-cult life.

In therapy, I find that depth-oriented and relational approaches are most effective, particularly those informed by objectrelations theory, trauma-informed care, and feminist depth psychology. Techniques such as cultivating psychological safety, offering psychoeducation about borderline-level defenses, and encouraging clients to trust their intuition support the development of an observing ego, one capable of recognizing projection, idealization, and splitting. Over time, this work strengthens the capacity to hold complexity rather than reverting to all-good or all-bad thinking. Healing, then, becomes not only recovery from the group’s influence but a reawakening of internal authority, self-trust, and relational safety, especially vital for those whose formative years were shaped by totalizing systems of control.

In the journey of cult recovery, survivors often begin by releasing layers of shame, guilt, and perceived defectiveness, the emotional burden of years spent carrying the projections of a controlling system. Once that weight begins to lift, something remarkable tends to emerge: an immense capacity for focus, creativity, and perseverance. Many former members discover that the very traits once exploited by the group, their loyalty, work ethic, and longing to serve something meaningful, become powerful assets when reclaimed for themselves. No longer driven by fear or obligation, they begin to work for their own growth and purpose, channeling the same tenacity that once upheld the system into building lives aligned with authenticity and choice.

Mary Manning Whitaker is an artist, a writer, a music healer, and a woman driven by curiosity to study depth psychology, synchronicity, mythology, and the deep past in order to lead the way for a calmer, more peaceful, more confident future. She studies ancient prehistoric cultures, especially those of the Americas, because she feels rooted to the lands of the Southwest, especially the Four Corners area, and is a Ph. D. Candidate in depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute where braiding art and science may become a lifeline to see the earth and the cosmos in fresh ways.

Jungian analyst Robert A. Johnson called this process reclaiming the “golden shadow,” the radiant, life-giving qualities we exile when living under shame or control. In therapy, this means not only mourning what was lost but also recognizing what remains: the survivor’s innate strength, intuition, and resilience. As the shame is released, the golden shadow emerges as determination, courage, and self-directed purpose. Cult recovery, then, becomes an act of transformation, turning survival into self-agency and reclaiming the brilliance that was theirs all along.

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“Autumn Shadow” photograph of a local petroglyph with mineral paints to enhance parts of the image, mixed media. 21" X 18" “ My Shadow” mixed media self portrait of me unpacking a deerskin drum on a dreary December day. 21" X 16"

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Projection, the Shadow, and Stereotypes in Media and Society

By Debra Merskin, PhD

The Cave You Fear to Enter

by Caroline de Mauriac

In psychology and media studies, few concepts are as revealing and relevant as projection, the shadow, and stereotypes. These ideas illuminate the inner workings of the psyche while exposing how media can create and reinforce distorted images of others. By examining how individuals and societies project unconscious traits onto marginalized groups—and how media reflect and amplify these projections—we uncover a feedback loop that shapes perception, culture, and policy.

Projection is a defense mechanism in which people attribute unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or impulses to another person or group. Von Franz (1978/1995) described Jung’s adaptation of projection as “an unconscious, unintentional transfer of subjective psychic elements onto an outer object.” That object may be another human being—or, at times, an entire social category. Jung extended this concept through his theory of the shadow, the unconscious part of personality containing traits we reject or deny. Psychological growth requires acknowledging and integrating the shadow, yet when we fail to do so, these disowned qualities are projected outward onto those perceived as “Other.”

This mechanism explains how prejudice takes hold collectively. Individuals and groups externalize unwanted feelings, thereby avoiding selfconfrontation. A person repressing aggression may accuse others of hostility. Scaled up, this process fuels social scapegoating. History offers many examples—witch hunts, colonialism, and genocides—all revealing how collective shadows can manifest as persecution.

Stereotypes emerge from the same psychological dynamic. They are cognitive shortcuts that categorize people into simplified groups, erasing individuality. Lippmann (1922) referred to stereotypes as “pictures in our heads,” mental images that help manage the “great blooming, buzzing confusion” of reality. Yet when repeated without nuance, these images harden into bias. Media play a central role—as mirror and magnifier of collective projections. Television, film, advertising, and news construct archetypes that, through repetition, become stereotypes.

Standardized depictions of Black men as violent, Muslim women as oppressed, or LGBTQ+ individuals as flamboyant do not arise randomly.

They express shadow traits dominant groups disown in themselves. Similarly, portraying immigrants as dangerous or “job-stealing” reflects deeper fears of scarcity or displacement. By projecting these anxieties onto others, media narratives offer emotionally satisfying but intellectually dishonest explanations.

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Such portrayals also uphold systems of power. Stereotypes legitimize exclusion and inequality by normalizing who is feared and who belongs. When news coverage associates people of color with crime or when Hollywood confines minority actors to narrow tropes, these images reinforce hierarchies and shape public opinion. The result is a cycle of projection and reinforcement: distorted representations produce fear and bias, which in turn demand more distortion to sustain them.

A contemporary example is the U.S. response to immigration and ICE raids. In the American collective psyche, fears of scarcity, cultural change, and loss of control are projected onto immigrants, who become symbolic containers for unacknowledged fears. Labels such as “illegal,” “criminal,” or “invader” dehumanize individuals and justify harsh enforcement. The spectacle of ICE raids serves as a ritualized enactment of the collective shadow, enabling society to externalize and confront what it refuses to acknowledge within itself—fear, aggression, and the desire for purity.

Breaking this cycle requires conscious cultural work. Media creators bear the responsibility to portray complexity and resist stereotypes. Audiences, too, must become reflective participants rather than passive consumers—questioning narratives, seeking diverse voices, and examining their own projections.

Ultimately, the interplay between projection, Jung’s shadow, and media stereotypes reveals a profound truth: what we refuse to see in ourselves, we inevitably “see” in others.

Recognizing this dynamic is the first step toward dismantling harmful narratives and fostering empathy. The journey toward integration—of self and society alike—is challenging yet essential for maintaining mental health, cultural integrity, and a shared humanity.

“Grail Quest”

by Caroline de Mauriac

Caroline de Mauriac, an assemblage artist and photographer, was born in Augusta, Maine. She spent her youth in New England and New York’s Hudson Valley. After decades living in the Midwest and Rockies, she returned to her ancestral roots in Maine.

She holds degrees in Anthropology and Museum Studies with an emphasis on Material Culture and Comparative Mythology. She has a Bachelor of Science from Michigan State University and a Master of Arts from Denver University. Her professional career spanned work in museums and environmental organizations. She spent the early years of her retirement traveling abroad. More recently she has devoted herself to artistic pursuits at her home near Brunswick.

Debra Merskin, PhD, is Professor Emerit in the School of Journalism & Communication at the University of Oregon. Merskin's research centers on media representations of marginalized groups, including both humans and nonhuman animals.

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The Shadow of Joan of Arc An Interview with Elizabeth Martin JD, PhD Angela Wood: Based on your paper, “Mislaid Disorder – Joan of Arc and Her Disruption of Ordered Liberty in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization (597 U.S. 215 (2022),” how would you say the life and death of Joan of Arc represent shadow in Jungian terms?

Elizabeth Martin: Joan of Arc’s life and death illuminates the Jungian shadow as both a societal and individual phenomenon: she personifies the traits—feminine autonomy, visionary courage, spiritual dissent—that patriarchal order represses and projects as dangerous or heretical, thus casting her into the collective shadow. Her persecution exposes the darkness, fear, and destructive potential in social systems that disown the “other,” but Joan’s enduring mythic presence and eventual sainthood reveal the shadow’s redemptive, creative energy: what is repressed not only returns, but also makes renewal, transformation, and healing possible when reintegrated.

In Jungian terms, Joan’s story demonstrates that the shadow holds not just what society fears or rejects, but also the source of vitality, authenticity, and wholeness—qualities essential for individuation and cultural growth. She is “both/and”: Joan embodies the archetypal feminine force— intuitive, creative, and receptive—but her life also integrates traits typically coded as masculine: courage, autonomy, leadership, and transgression against gender norms. These are precisely the types of qualities societies have historically repressed in women, casting them into the shadow. In this way, her fate parallels suppressed liberty in Dobbs, showing the consequences of shadow denial. Yet, her sustained regard also models how confrontation with shadow—through recognition, mourning, and reclamation— can ultimately lead to justice, empathy, and collective psychic integration.

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“Return”

Angela: In your paper, you posit that “Joan of Arc stands as a literal and personified expression of feminine choice (heresy) and bodily agency (gender transgression) gone socially and culturally awry.” But you also say that, in Jung’s view, the psyche always seeks to correct imbalance. In moments when the shadow seems to hold sway (in times of war, of social violence, etc.), how does the psyche work with this in an attempt to balance it?

Elizabeth: When the shadow holds sway—such as in times of war or social violence—the psyche responds through its innate drive for compensation and wholeness. As described in the paper, Joan of Arc embodies the archetypal feminine—choice, agency, creativity—whose suppression in culture creates psychological imbalance. According to Jung, the psyche instinctively generates compensating images, symbols, or movements to restore equilibrium; what is repressed will resurface, often in powerful, disruptive forms.​ Thus, when the feminine is marginalized or immolated (as was the literal case with Joan of Arc), the psyche will image her return— through dreams, symbols, revived myths, collective activism, renewed demands for justice, and even through landmark Supreme Court opinions. These opinions, whether through dissent, litigation, or the very wounds inflicted by majority holdings like Dobbs v. Jackson, serve as powerful conduits for psychic compensation and the re-emergence of the lost or mislaid feminine in public consciousness.

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The wound and the cure arise together: loss or repression evokes a symbolic call for reclamation (as with Joan’s posthumous revival or contemporary protest movements), guiding individuals and cultures toward awareness, empathy, and eventual integration. In this way, the psyche does not simply accept shadow’s dominance but continuously prompts balancing responses—creativity, protest, mythic resurgence—so missing aspects can be re-membered and restored.​

“Descent”

What this means for us as a collective: In moments of psychic or social darkness, the very symptoms of imbalance (loss, sorrow, protest) are also invitations to notice our shadow sides, hear new calls to justice, and participate in the collective project of reclaiming what has been mislaid— thus fulfilling the psyche’s deeper aim of healing and renewed wholeness.

The wound and the cure arise together: loss or repression evokes a symbolic call for reclamation (as with Joan’s posthumous revival or contemporary protest movements), guiding individuals and cultures toward awareness, empathy, and eventual integration. In this way, the psyche does not simply accept shadow’s dominance but continuously prompts balancing responses—creativity, protest, mythic resurgence—so missing aspects can be re-membered and restored.​

Angela: Over time, what you call “the more shadowed form of the archetypal feminine, including that of the lost feminine, such as Medusa, Lilith, Mary Magdalene, Medea, and Little Red Riding Hood” come to mean something very powerful to us, even if they came from stories in which terrible violence occurred to them. What is the enduring power of the shadow form of the archetypal feminine?

Elizabeth: The enduring power of the shadow form of the archetypal feminine—embodied by figures ancient and modern, from Medusa, Lilith, Mary Magdalene, Medea, and Joan of Arc to contemporary women like Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado, Malala Yousafzai, and Greta Thunberg—lies in their ability to represent what cultures repress, fear, and marginalize, yet deeply need for renewal.

Though cast as unruly, dangerous, or subversive, these women’s stories captivate us because they preserve lost vitality, moral courage, and fiercely creative potential. They become living conduits for the return of truth and conscience that, once integrated, propel social transformation and healing.​​ Today, icons like Machado (who stands for democratic rights under oppression), Malala (symbolizing girls’ education despite violence), and Thunberg (galvanizing climate action amidst resistance) show how the shadowed feminine re-emerges through activism, mythic voice, and public witness. Their presence not only reflects collective wounds but also lights the way to authentic renewal, proving repeatedly that what is mislaid or silenced in one era may return in another with transformative force for individuals and society alike. The shadowed feminine—ancient and modern—invites a conscious reclaiming of what is exiled or feared in perpetuity, offering hope that personal and collective wholeness depends on honoring these stories and figures as potent agents of healing, truth, and deep, creative change.

Angela: Are we in a period of reclamation of the feminine and what kind of archetypes do you see appearing in our society that might speak to this?

Elizabeth: Yes, I think we are experiencing a reclamation of the feminine, visible in the emergence of archetypes that blend creativity, agency, and stewardship of the environment across genders and cultures. For example, Yayoi Kusama channels trauma into visually immersive art that fosters healing and wonder; chef Massimo Bottura uses creative food initiatives to combat waste and feed vulnerable people, embodying social caretaking; and Wangari Maathai’s leadership in founding Africa’s tree-planting Green Belt Movement exemplifies both agency and environmental transformation through collective action.

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Journalist Maria Ressa stands for courageous truth-telling under threat, while spiritual leader Sadhguru brings together ecological activism and inner wellbeing. Then there is Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel laureate, who led the Green Belt Movement, empowering women and restoring entire ecosystems through mass tree planting and Indian activist Vandana Shiva who campaigns globally for ecological justice, biodiversity, and against corporate control of seeds, centering women and grassroots knowledge.​ These figures and their work exemplify how the revitalized feminine principle—whether creative, relational, ecological, or restorative—is being reclaimed globally, signaling a profound psychic and cultural shift toward integration, healing, and hope for a more balanced world.

Angela: In what ways can Carl Jung’s theories of archetypes, the collective unconscious, and psychic compensation deepen our understanding of Supreme Court decisions and major news events—such as Dobbs v. Jackson—by revealing how these public moments reflect, magnify, and even help heal underlying cultural, psychological, and historical dynamics within our shared national psyche?

Elizabeth: Cultural events like Supreme Court decisions reflect what’s happening in our shared psyche—our deeper beliefs, values, and fears. When we look for the symbols and backstories beneath the headlines, we can see not just arguments, but our cultural wounds and hopes. It helps us ask, “What bigger truths are trying to be told here?” This doesn’t mean picking sides—it means seeking understanding.

My prior research on the Citizens United opinion provides another example of how Jung’s theories illuminate Supreme Court decisions as much more than legal texts—they are also psychic images erupting from the collective unconscious, infused with metaphor and archetype. In Citizens United, the figure of the corporation emerges as a modern-day Frankenstein—fragmented, powerful, and cut off from its creators, mirroring an archetypal pattern of separation, innovation, and danger recurring throughout American history. The decision’s imagery, invoking union and disunity, wholeness and severing, reflects the same mythic tensions seen in the Promethean myth: technological and social advancement comes with wounding and the risk of losing our wholeness.​

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In this sense, Supreme Court opinions such as Dobbs and Citizens United act as portals into our underlying cultural narrative. They magnify anxieties about autonomy, power, and the boundaries between self and collective, activating the psyche’s drive for compensation and balance. Through a Jungian lens, the legal landscape becomes a field where old wounds repeat, but also where new possibilities for integration—personal, cultural, and ethical—are revealed when we read these moments as symbolic messages from the depths of the American soul.​ Angela: How can depth psychology strengthen democracy and dialogue?

Elizabeth: Jung valued diversity within the psyche, and it is diversity, unity, and inclusive dialogue—not homogeneity—that form the foundation of democracy. Healthy conversation thrives when every voice and viewpoint is seen as a source of insight, not a threat. Depth psychology encourages us to listen beyond the surface and to welcome what is unfamiliar, helping communities move from either/or conflicts to creative solutions that honor everyone. It strengthens democracy and dialogue by revealing that unity in society doesn't arise from sameness, but from a tapestry of voices, varied experiences, and psychological perspectives woven together in the collective. Jung’s analytic theories present the psyche as inherently multifaceted, capable of integrating opposites through creativity, imagination, and symbolic meaning-making rather than repression or exclusion. Democracy, likewise, flourishes when it brings all viewpoints into the conversation and treats difference as a wellspring of understanding. Depth psychology holds that our drive toward wholeness emerges by maintaining the tension between disparate elements until genuinely unifying solutions appear—reflecting the essence of democratic process. True unity is not the absence of difference, but its richest form—creating a democracy that is both resilient and generative by honoring diversity and pursuing creative reconciliation rather than domination.

Angela: Depth psychology is often applied to analyze dreams or inner conflicts, but what does it look like when we bring those ideas into our actual conversations with others? Specifically, how can principles from Jungian thought, archetypal theory, or shadow work help us navigate disagreement and foster genuine compassion—especially in times of cultural division or emotional tension?

Elizabeth: Depth psychology fosters more compassionate dialogue by inviting us to look beneath surface opinions and uncover the deeper stories, emotions, and unconscious patterns that shape what people express.

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Instead of focusing on “winning” or being right, this perspective encourages us to explore the motives behind our own and others’ reactions, opening space for empathy, curiosity, and respectful disagreement. Grounded in Jungian principles of integration and wholeness, it recognizes that everyone carries both visible and hidden influences, with the archetypal feminine serving as one pathway to embrace and process qualities often overlooked—like nurturing, relational depth, and emotional intuition. This archetype guides us toward vulnerability and connection rather than control and division, shifting the focus from debate to true dialogue. When these qualities are honored, conversations allow for collective healing, genuine wholeness, and respect for the fullness of human experience beyond mere intellectual consensus. In essence, depth psychology and the archetypal feminine together strengthen our capacity for compassionate communication, rooting our exchanges in shared humanity and collective growth rather than polarization.

Elizabeth Martin, J.D., Ph.D., is a strategist, business consultant and accomplished producer of community events.

An executive leader renowned for her impact in corporate strategy, innovation, and diversity-driven growth across health, consulting, and public service sectors, Elizabeth’s multidisciplinary expertise spans law, business, the arts, and depth psychology. Elizabeth holds a doctorate in Depth Psychology (Jungian and Archetypal Studies) from Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Descent & Return, 2025 mixed media on wood by Katelyn Morris

Endlessly inspired by the harmony and balance of the sacred design of life on Earth, Katelyn blends modalities in the visual, auditory, and healing arts to give voice to the Soul. Her body of work explores the nuances of the human experience, from the cycles of nature and feminine rhythms, to dreams and mythology, to subtle energies and sacred geometry.

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Descent & Return speaks to the delicate, intricate, and sacred journey of venturing into the underworld to encounter the shadow, explore deeper layers of oneself and return to this world with greater awareness, clarity, and personal power. Integrating the shadow is a necessary step on the path to individuation. In cultivating psychic wholeness through individuation, one encounters the Self, which Jung believed to be related to the square (1968). In this work, string is woven from side to side on the square frame to create a rotational pattern. The concentric squares point to the notion that we often journey back and forth to the underworld over and over and over again on this journey of individuation; rather than being a binary process, it is instead a continual weaving. This journey of descent and return is a mythic narrative embodied by Persephone, Innana, Isis and Osiris, and Jesus, among others. Embarking on this journey of meeting the shadow requires a willingness to transform— to leave behind what was in favor of integrating a greater depth of who and what you really are.

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Official Pacifica Alumni Connections presents

LUMINA

PACIFICA ALUMNI JOURNAL

We invite all alumni to contribute to this new publication to create something necessary and beautiful in the world: an outward manifestation of the work we carry forward from Pacifica A Call For Submissions: Are you published? Are you an artist?

Writer? Poet? Photographer? Scholar?

Share your work with the Pacifica Community!

Advertise in LUMINA and reach over 5000 Pacifica Graduates and extended community members.

Inquire with bradley.mcdevitt@my.pacifica.edu.

Why LUMINA? Why Now? Beyond scholarship and service lies a deeper faith and trust which implies a sacred bond and a knowing.

So many of the students, faculty, and staff of Pacifica Gradtuate Institute return to the source from which we as a community collectively draw: the mythic, archetypal, and imaginative powers that feed the Soul of the world.

An annagram of ‘alumni’, LUMINA meets this community of dreamers, healers, scholars, and seekers who all carry forward this light: perhaps first lit at Pacifica, or intensified by its lens.

This journal serves to focus the light of the stars which each alumni represents, and to constellate new patterns, structures, myths, in service to that most noble of callings with which we are so familiar:

Animae mundi colendae gratia “For the sake of tending Soul in and of the world.”

“Nyx,” by Sofia Barao, a drawing in graphite and gold leaf, where a golden thread attempts to navigate a labyrinthine dark path, symbolizing the difficult yet necessary search for individuation and wholeness. “Paper Vessel” featured on Page 7, also by Sofia, is a sculptural piece made with paper, a material I utilized in a novel way to allow light to move through the form, physically embodying the concept of illumination within the shadow.

Sofia Barao is an archetypal astrologer and visual artist who is currently enrolled in our Graduate Certificate: Contemporary Analytical Psychology and Neo-Jungian Studies.

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Meeting with Grandmother

by Megan Sprague The thing I’ve always known is true, but didn’t want to look at.

She says, “You believe in getting ready, so what do you think this is?”

I do believe in getting ready!

I just didn’t think it would be like this.

Now I can’t look away.

Nothing can stop me from feeling all of this.

The space is mixed: a storm on a sunny day.

And she keeps whispering, “We need to get this out.”

Louder, now.

Rolling thunder.

Until, at last, I growl, “I want this out.”

I watch her working, incantations pouring from her melodic voice.

Entranced, the storm starts to clear.

And I wonder, who am I really?

I call out to her as she walks away: “What do I do now?”

A laugh – “Anything you want.”

Gazing at the vast expanse before me, I realize I can see once more – Clearly now, as if for the first time.

There is no going back.

Megan Sprague, MA, is a thirdyear student in the Clinical PhD program, where her research centers on the reclamation of Celtic traditional land-based practices. In ongoing study with plant and Indigenous teachers, she seeks to restore right relationship between psyche and place through ritual, story, and care for the living earth and her inhabitants. Megan resides in Sonoma County, California, on unceded Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo lands.

And it comes.

Disgusted, I give it back to her.

She knows what to do with this – that which made me who I am today.

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(Mother’s Milk An Ode to --that which is Unseen Goddess Nectar)

by Brooke Bergman Parr

Was not to be found in the pews where I used to sing.

(I looked).

No mention of Her, there.

So I remembered: She Is from the Beginning (s) She: the curves the chaos the pleasure The wet tangled vines of Her Song—sang to me in my Desires in wishes unspoken in strange echoes and tongues I followed Her into the Shadows Under the cover of the Dark The Veil of safekeeping And found the Bones Hidden in the caves of Dancing Women.

I first met you in a dream: All I knew was that you-Were chasing me I Was Running.

I truly believed you were there to kill me-(the predatory breath gathering itself).

But then I took a breath, Stopped running, And turned to look: There you were, Golden curls, Green eyes, Tender heart And you opened your arms After all this time You still believed In me—in us.

Brooke is a second year PhD student in Pacifica's Depth Psychology with emphasis in Integrative Healing Practices Program. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Executive Coach with a private practice in Laguna Beach, CA. She specializes in supporting clients healing from complex trauma and psychedelic integration.

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