Awakening to Our Divine Self, All Self and Shadow Self
Report Topics:
- Our spiritual growth is measured by our relationship with the Divine One who dwells within us, our Divine Self
- At the Center of our Being is our All Self, also known as our Integral Self, Original Self, Whole Self or True Self, the sum total of the many other Selves that comprise the full spectrum of our multiple levels of Consciousness
- Awakening to the presence of our Ultimate Teacher in our Inner World School of Learning—opening communication with Who We Are Becoming
- The existence of the All Self has been lost within the dogmas and doctrines of most Religions, and in the formalism of most psychological sciences—the time for its re-emergence has come both individually and collectively
- Dealing with our Non-Self, Dark Self, Shadow Self or Hidden Self—those aspects of our inner psyche which we and society have deeply suppressed into the collective Unconscious Realm
- The mystical Fusion of the Divine Self and the Shadow Self in order to give birth to the All Self, in its personal and planetary aspects
Full Report:
On the most basic spiritual level, there is you, there is the Divine One, and there is your relationship with each other.
The simple truth is that the spark of the Divine One dwells within everyone, at the very center of every being. It is this inner spark that gives you life, energy, strength, expression, awareness, realization, illumination and fulfillment.
You are given the ability and the power to speak directly with the Divine One within you, and the Divine One can speak directly to you inside of you if you choose to allow it to do so, and you choose to listen to what it has to say to you.
How you relate with the Divine One, and how the Divine One relates to you, is a deeply personal, private, individual, intimate, passionate, inward, to-the-core, center-of-your-soul, two-way communications that is unique between the both of you, and unlike anyone else and their relationship with the Divine One.
Your spiritual growth, your spiritual evolution, is measured by how well you and the Divine One communicates together and develops the closest possible friendship.
How do you know when the Divine One is speaking inside you? How do you know when someone who is a good friend in your everyday experience is conversing with you? It comes from you recognizing their familiar voice, developing confidence in their words of wisdom shared with you, and you having learned to trust what they tell you will be the truth.
The more you listen, and the more you respond by exchanging confiding words of your own, the better you will come to acknowledge the still small voice of the Divine One communing with you at your deepest inner center. As in any good friendship, it is familiarity, clarity and confidence that gradually grows through cultivating a length of knowing and a depth of relationship.
There is you, there is the Divine One, and there is your open dialogue with one another. Absolutely nothing else is necessary.
There is no required intercessor, no intermediary, no vicarious substitute, no one you have to go through—no priest, minister, teacher, master or guru.
There is no religious text of any sort you have to read and follow, no prescribed ritual to perform, no special place you have to be—whether it be in a church, cathedral, synagogue, shrine or temple.
There is no provisionary obedience, no idolatrous worship before the image of some deity, or prayers of adoration in front of a sacred relic of any sort.
There is no pre-requisite salvation or sacrifice or meditative state or disciplined learning or inspired revelation.
Bottomline, there is not a single one of any of these many things that is needed in order to simply talk to the Divine One, or allow the Divine One to communicate with you.
Everything of a religious nature that exists around you—teachers, writings, buildings, celebrations, sacred objects or belief structures—are only outer symbolic reflections of everyone’s own inner spiritual transformation that results from our personal collective connectedness with the Divine One. None of these were ever meant to replace that connection or dictate how it should manifest itself in all of our lives.
Nothing stands between you and the Divine One—not Jesus or Moses or Mohammed or Krishna or Buddha or any other Savior or Avatar or Master. In the original teachings of these spiritual leaders, they presented themselves merely as examples of individuals who had achieved a deeply loving affiliation with the Divine One.
Tragically, it was only long after they disappeared that their followers claimed that the founding Teacher of each and every world religion was either the one and only intercessor between humanity and the Divine One, or was raised to a level of deified worship equal to that of the Divine One, in the attempt to take its place.
These have been the issues of perverted religious power, control and manipulation that are still very much with us today. But such concepts stand in direct contrast with the fundamental truth that anyone, at anytime, anywhere and under any condition, can open communications with the Divine One, and can listen to the Divine One speaking to them, from inside themselves.
The only thing that truly can block you from a harmonious link with the Divine One is the illusion of separation, that you falsely believe you are too sinful a person to communicate with the Divine One. After all, with the Divine One always being present at your deepest center, anything you do that you think is wrong is fully known to all aspects within you.
But will not your closest friend in your everyday life forgive you your transgressions, and overlook your faults? And in order to maintain your good relationship, will you not also forgive yourself and willingly modify your behavior so that you will not make the same mistake, or avoid creating the same misunderstanding with your good friend again?
If a friend can forgive you and you can change yourself for them, how much more will the Divine One do the same for you, and you willingly work to undergo a self-transformation to preserve your inner Divine friendship?
Besides, how can you possibly regard yourself as sinful when the spark of the Divine One inhabits the central core of your being?
You are a child of the Divine, for in your ongoing relationship with the Divine One inside you, you are constantly being reborn as a spiritual being.
The Divine One inside you is also known as your Divine Self. And the essence of the inner Transformation you are undergoing with your Divine Self is that you are slowly growing and becoming your own All Self.
The ultimate purpose of our Divine Self and its relationship within us is to awaken the existence of our All Self, which also dwells at our spiritual center, so that we may evolve into our Perfected Self.
The highest and noblest fulfillment of Oneness within us is our All Self. Our All Self or True Self represents the sum total of all that we are and all that we shall become. It is also our Integral Self, and is thus our connected link with the higher Integral aspects of all Kingdoms, Realms and Dimensions beyond our physical existence.
Every person has their own All Self, and at some point in their life their All Self makes itself known to them, if the person is ready and open for such a revelation. An individual's relationship to their All Self can be explained in the form of a parable.
Once there was a rich man who was crippled and bent over, confined to a wheelchair. Dissatisfied with his condition, however, he decided to do something about it.
He had his servants create a beautiful garden, and plant large hedges around it. The garden had a gate with a lock on it, the key to which only he possessed. The rich man also commissioned a sculptor to shape a statue that depicted the rich man standing upright, straight and tall, in the full spirit of perfect health.
When it was all finished, the rich man ordered the statue to be placed in the exact center of his garden. Every day all alone he would wheel himself among the flowers, park himself in front of the statue, and concentrate very intently upon it. He firmly believed that he and the statue could become one. Putting his thoughts into action, he also raised himself up little by little out of his wheelchair.
Every day he came without fail, gazed upon the statue, and worked hard at striving to become what he envisioned. The essence of the stone figure, he felt, already existed within him. It was up to him, by himself and through himself, to draw that essence out and become it.
Sure enough, the day finally came when the rich man entered the garden, stood before the statue, and realized that between himself and the image, no difference now existed.
He had become his own perfected Self.
Each of us is the rich man. The garden is our soul-heart. The statue is our All Self, being our perfected Self already fully manifested. It is up to all individuals who are seeking their own spiritual growth in Oneness to fulfill and become their own All Self. Our All Self already exists. It is simply a matter of our knowing it and living it daily.
Our All Self is our Original Self, that expression of Wholeness that is truly us. It has been inside us since we were born into physical existence, and it rises to the edge of our everyday consciousness whenever we start something new, or feel love for someone or something for the first time, or begin a new phase of our life.
This is the Newness that is really us, before worry or doubt or cynicism sets in, which are those parts of our other Selves trying to deny the Whole Being we always are deep down within us.
We lose touch with our All Self when we are called upon by certain of our other Selves inside us, or by society outside of us, to fit some norm or pattern of conformity that restricts our creative urge to express Who We Are and Are Becoming.
Too often we give up the opportunity to be a true Creator in exchange for the desire for security or acceptance by people around us. We fall into someone else's "plans" that more often than not go nowhere. We become "a plumber for someone else's pipe-dreams."
To be sure, in the end when things do not go according to our Selves' or society's plans, we may read in our disappointment an awakening of our All Self's revelation to us of a deeper Design. New Creation is here. And the act of Creating, of giving Birth to a Sacred New Earth, begins with the exercise of our own Creatorship.
Our All Self is our Ultimate Teacher to every aspect of our Inner World School of Learning. In this Sacred Place our All Self offers itself as our Guide. It can show us the Secrets of all the Mysteries of this Universe and All Others. But we must ask first.
Whenever you wish, you can go deep within yourself and come to this place, your Inner World, whether in your quiet times, meditations or dreams. Come to this place, call upon your All Self, and it shall be here. For your All Self is always here, deep within you, at the core of your very being.
As your All Self will say to you many times, I am You and You are Me. You are simply Waking Up to Who You Truly are.
The ninth century Chinese philosopher Shih-yen began his daily personal meditations by asking himself, “Master, are you in?” He would then immediately answer his own question, “Yes, I am!” He was awakened to his own All Self.
The more we experience our All Self, the more our All Self will prove again and again to be a good Friend, a wonderful Guide and a true Teacher, a Revealer of All Things in ONENESS, as we are ready to ask questions and receive the answers as we can comprehend them.
All the secrets of the Universes are hidden in questions unasked. Asking is the beginning of Wisdom.
And every answer received from asking is not only a revelation and an illumination, but it is also a key which opens the Doorway to new questions.
Here is the beginning of not only opening our own Inner Hall of Records, our personal Time Capsule of Forgotten Wisdom, but to opening the MYRIADA—all the Halls of Records within the Earth, within Humanity, and within the very Cosmos itself.
During the course of a lifetime each person, no matter where they are in their spiritual growth, will be given a chance to be introduced to each aspect of who they are on every level of their beingness—their Masculine Self, Feminine Self, Child Self, Elder Self, Soul Self, Divine Self, Shadow Self and Star Self.
An important part of our Life Learning will be to meet with and learn more about these personal aspects. Of primary importance is an additional aspect known as the All Self, for this portion of who we are represents the sum total of all the other Selves harmonized into One within us.
Our All Self reveals to us Who We Are Becoming, for it is our Integral Self, our True Self, our Perfected Self. It is the one within us who reaches into the patterns of potentialities constantly swirling around us, who enfolds these patterns into synchronicity and leads us to receive our Life Learning Lessons.
To call your All Self into your consciousness, first go deep within yourself and ask for the presence of the Divine One, your Divine Self. Your All Self will respond, your desire for Divine Guidance acting as a beacon, for it inherently contains within itself your Divine Self, your Divine Essence.
It will come to you from your Center Within, from your Inner World. Be open and receptive to what visions or feelings your All Self shares with you, both in your daily meditations and in your dreams at night.
Look to see how your All Self presents itself to you, for it will be changing its appearance to you from time to time. What aspects about your All Self do you recognize are reflections of yourself as you are right now?
What is it about your All Self that seems unlike who you are right now?
Realize that what may seem to you to be dissimilarities are in fact hidden potentialities your All Self is mirroring back to you. These you have yet to manifest in your life, but which you will have opportunities to develop in times to come, if you so choose.
Your All Self would enjoy it if you continue to open communications with it and maintain a dialogue with it as you would your best friend. Your All Self will serve you most honorably as your Guide in your spiritual odysseys to come, because it fulfills itself through you, as you yourself are ever-evolving into becoming your All Self. The ultimate goal is for you and your All Self to become One.
The existence of the All Self expression as it resides within each human being can be found hidden in the Secret Teachings and Highest Initiations of every Religion, Sacred Cult and Mystery School known to history and throughout the world.
Because much of the Ancient Wisdom has been lost, and the Old Teachings have been corrupted by dogmatic adherence to outdated religious texts which have no more spiritual meaning or transformative powers, the original image of the All Self has faded and vanished, until it is virtually unknown in modern thought.
Today's psychologists and psychiatrists recognize, as the Ancients once did, that the human psyche is composed of different Selves, each with their own intelligence, energy and agenda.
Yet modern healers of the mind have generally failed to bring true balance and harmony to the individual's Many Selves, instead choosing and working toward one or another Self becoming the dominant expression over the rest, which only temporarily brings internal peace before the other Selves re-assert their neglected voices.
Meanwhile the All Self, at the Center of Beingness and the True Source of Integration, is completely unrecognized and ignored.
Modern religious practitioners fare no better, damning one or more aspects of Self as "evil" or "sinful," and thus offering little hope or any possible Inner Integration.
They claim that the only way to be "saved," to be brought back into wholeness, is to give over our power of choice and control of our life to someone else--a minister, priest or guru—-who supposedly speaks on behalf of a Savior or Avatar from the past, a figure that demands worship and absolute obedience.
In truth, it is the minister, priest or guru who instead has control issues of their own in the here and now.
The Saviors and Avatars from long ago, in their Original Teachings, never advocated that anyone worship them, but instead merely pointed to themselves as examples of ordinary people who had received the extraordinary vision that one internal part of them was already Whole in Oneness.
They taught that it was up to each individual to find that Whole Being inside their own being, eventually successfully Integrating all their Other Selves into it.
What was true in the past can and must happen again. The near collapse of modern world society amid wars and turmoil, terrorism and militarism, is simply the outward collective reflection of the fragmented, disconnected nature holding sway within each member of humanity.
The All Self awaits to be awakened, not just for a few Enlightened Ones, but now in every person. When Inner Peace can be truly realized, then and only then will Outer World Peace be achieved.
And when a sufficient number of individual All Selves are awakened in every corner of the globe, then the Collective All Self of the entire Human Soul Influx shall also Reveal Itself.
Have there been times in your life when you have felt out of control, when you have seemed to be disconnected from other parts of yourself, and some nagging little voice within has told you that you are not good enough to be who you would really like to be?
In your outer world experience, have there been individuals who have come into your life who cannot be satisfied no matter how much you either resist their aggravations, or you attempt to be compassionate and try to reason with them in spite of themselves?
Both these are reflections of the Shadow Self, sometimes also called the Dark Self or Non-Self or Hidden self. In both the inner and outer world manifestations, the source of the Shadow Self is the Unconscious Realm inside everyone. This Realm is the dumping ground for everything that has remained incomplete within us.
While you can do much on a Conscious level to release old physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual patterns and attachments that no longer work within your life, it is in the Unconscious Realm that there has accumulated over a long period of time much deeper, unresolved and suppressed aspects.
If you do not deal with these at some point, then the Unconscious Realm can become for you, by your choice alone, a realm of darkness, your own personal purgatory or hell. This is the habitation of potential Shadow Self demons of your own making, who can potentially haunt you in the nightmares of your dreams.
Similarly, these same unconscious aspects can manifest in your outer world as people who are attracted to the situations you yourself are constantly creating around you. They will come into your life and play the Shadow roles you project onto them as dictatorial bullies, judgemental persecutors or emotionally needy dependents, haunting you in your everyday reality.
What the Shadow Self really represents is the synthesis of all the disappointing things you think you are, or have been told by others you are, and that in your unconscious mind you believe you are. And in the attempt to hide these false and unreal aspects of yourself, you use up significant portions of your very real energies and abilities. Wrapped up in this suppressive endeavor is the source of your nagging uncertainty and lack of self-confidence about what you really can accomplish in your life.
The key in dealing with the Shadow Self is to experience an ongoing process of inner harmonizing of all aspects of who you are into one wholeness, into what is called your integrated self or all self. And it is only when this has been accomplished inside you that the full power to deal with and transmute your Unconscious Realm into something better will be offered.
In ancient Egypt, the chief symbol for the integrated self was Ra the Sun, who represented all the gods and goddesses fused together. Every day, Ra and his children took a journey aboard his solar boat, first into the higher heavens to commune with the divine aspects of the universe. Then after sunset they traveled downward into the Duat or Underworld to face the Dark Serpent, Apophis. In this nocturnal confrontation, Apophis was not slain but instead his living body was cut up into pieces and planted as seeds within the roots of the Tree of Immortality. This was an essential ingredient in the daily rebirthing of Ra, which always took place the next morning at dawn with the re-appearance of a new Sun.
The lesson here was that each person at one time or another must face their personal Serpent or Shadow Self within themselves. Only as you learn to open communications with the highest levels of who you really are inside you, can you then descend into your lowest innermost depths to cleanse, release and fully integrate all your missing aspects. This is the beginning manifestation of your All self or perfected self into your life.
The essential key here is that your All Self, just as Ra carried the ever-burning light of the Sun, likewise possesses the light of your Divine Self, which also dwells within you. This is the Spark of Divinity that exists at the spiritual core of everyone. Taking hold and accepting this gift of your own Divine light, and actively shining it into the depths of your personal darkness so that what is missing in your life can be fully illuminated, is what ultimately frees you from your Shadow Self.
Your Shadow Self, as bad as it may seem at times, is still a part of you. You cannot attempt to kill a portion of yourself and not harm the rest of you. Your Shadow Self and the Unconscious Realm it represents has tremendous energy and power that, if transmuted rather than being cut off, is the key to your full integration into a single whole, into an entity that is far greater than the sum of its parts.
When this happens, your All Self can then become your inner True Self, your Perfected Self, having transformed your Dark Unconsciousness into the brilliance of All Consciousness. And when on the integral level you achieve the fullness of your All Self, then your All Self has many gifts to offer you.
The Unconscious Realm holds what the ancient Hermetic Greeks and Egyptians called the powers of the Night. It is often equated with darkness, but not in the negative sense. It is the dark side of the nature of all things which is said to hold tremendous energy potentials. It is Dark and Light coalesced together, which becomes the greater Light of New Creation.
In the Old Testament writings of the Psalms, chapter 139, verses 11 and 12, are these illuminating words:
"Darkness shall give light to you. And night shall shine upon the face because darkness will not be dark to you. But the night shall shine as the day, and darkness as it were light."
It is the dark matter and dark energy of space that implodes to create physical matter and energy. It is in darkness where one finds the source of the powers of conception, germination, incubation and birth from the womb.
But Darkness in and of itself is not complete without the Light. Light shining in darkness is the sign of new creation coming into being complete and whole. It is light and darkness first uniting, and then transmuting each other into a new level of being. From this great union is produced the harmonic energy that first integrates all and then, in turn, eventually gives birth to ultimate transcendence.
There are additional points needed to be considered when deaing with the deeper aspects of the Shadow Self, both on the individual and collective levels:
How you think and what you act upon in your life is limited by what you fail to recognize. When you fail to acknowledge your Shadow Self, then there is very little room for growth or change. Until you finally see clearly what role your Shadow Self plays within you and within all humanity, only then will you also see what really shapes all of our interconnected collective streams of thoughts and actions.
It is better to be whole than to be good. Just trying to be good suppresses the inner part that you think is bad, which eventually forces itself back into your everyday consciousness in its attempt to be addressed and dealt with.
Love your enemy as being yourself. The only real enemy is not outside you, but what you have projected outward onto someone else, who mirrors back to you that inner aspect you do not want to admit is within you.
The world has become the modern stage upon which the collective Shadow Self is manifesting. Through every mass media of communications and expression the shadow cries to be heard.
This is not a time for making judgments or for censorship. It is a time to watch, listen and re-integrate what has been lost within the human condition.
The Shadow aspect contains not only the last unresolved attachments but also all the undeveloped talents and gifts waiting to be released. Very often that inner part of you that you have attempted to hide has involved something you did or tried to do that did not turn out well or embarrassed you in front of others. So both your failed ability and the bad feelings you generated around it are still suppressed inside you. The time has now come to release this very real but latent ability and the false Shadow self-consciousness surrounding it.
For every one of your inner Shadow dragons that awaits confrontation and transmutation, there is a treasure it guards over which can be yours again.
The Shadow becomes a monster only when you ignore what it is you are forcing it to express. The idea is to lessen what makes the shadow powerful, which is to fully recognize what it is holding onto—all the illusory unpleasant qualities you are trying to hide rather than letting go. Otherwise, the Shadow can become an inner Frankenstein or Mr. Hyde of your own making. And on the collective level it can manifest as a world conqueror like Genghis Khan or Napoleon, or a genocidal maniac such as Hitler or Stalin.
The Shadow Self is that aspect that gets the joke, because by your laughing at others you are really laughing at yourself, at the inner part of you which has been unable to express its own pain or feeling of futility. Laughter is truly the best medicine, for it is a sudden awakened realization of the humor surrounding what it is about yourself that you have taken too seriously for far too long, accompanied by a joyful release and healing transmutation.
On the group level, humor is the worst enemy of the collective Shadow trying to exert itself over the masses, because in the shared laughter of a crowd making fun of the false façade of power comes the illumination of the truth.
Humanity has reached a crucial point when each person the world over must choose not to add their personal darkness to the collective Shadow, but instead works to bring the Light of clarity and understanding that originates from your inner Divine Self and is expressed through your All Self. By shining this Light into your inner Shadow landscape, you can own again what has been disowned within yourself and all of humanity.
Accepting the Light that exists within you is not in and of itself enlightenment. It is by applying the Light to see into the darkness of yourself that enlightenment comes. At the darkest moments comes the Light—the sign of the continuous birthing of the All Self into wholeness. Realize that this is not a singular occurrence. Once triggered, it is an ongoing process that never really ends.
Ultimately it is up to each individual to daily practice an inner ritual of renewal, a process whereby their Shadow is continually brought into the Light and is assimilated into their Whole or All Self. Each renewing can reduce inhibiting inner Shadow aspects, as well as release trapped creative energies that can be utilized for self-healing and finding new discoveries of hidden innate wisdom.
Watch carefully the actions of the modern collective—in groups, organizations, institutions, clubs, societies, religions, cults, sports, political parties, businesses, corporations, conferences, summits, congresses and the like. Does the collective strive toward wholeness, or has the group Shadow taken over, projecting outward all its fears, anxieties, hatreds and guilts? Does the collective preserve individual expression, or does it demand allegiance to a simplistic belief system? What life-affirming goals are espoused by the collective, or is the overriding purpose of the collective to maintain its own existence?
A collective of All Selves joined together into One Mind and One Heart consciousness can transform the world. But Shadow Selves fused into a collective Shadow can only amplify the darkness and deepen the despair.
The key to our collective future is not in what we learn but how we learn it. Tragically, in most world societies today we spend the first half of our lifetime being told what to suppress into our Shadow Self, and the last half trying to retrieve what was lost.
True education should not be focused on conformity to an established system of imposed limitations, for this only empowers the Shadow Self. Rather the goal should be in developing the wisdom to exercise individual free will and make free choices in all matters of daily living, which is the sign of our collective All Selves at work. Every possible choice should be openly and honestly presented, without shadow-imposed bias, prejudice, guilt or fear. And when we can be aware of all of our choices, it follows that we can take fuller responsibility for the kind of world we wish to create.
World peace among nations must first begin with peace exercised within each one of us. The true peace-makers will be those who did not confront an imagined outer enemy, but first had the moral courage to face their own enemies inside themselves. Only when a true integration between Light and Dark aspects happens within the individual, then the illusory outward projections we have mistakenly made onto others, of who we think is good or evil, will end.
There can no longer be any investment in believing that others are worse or better than ourselves. Rather, we must take personal responsibility for our own light and shadow experiences. Only in this manner can the self-created illusion of dualisms and polarities eventually fall away, and understanding and compassion for one another will one day be truly exercised to the fullest on a global scale.
[Copyright 2009. Joseph Robert Jochmans. All Rights Reserved.]
