What did Jung mean by the "Golden Shadow"? (Self-Inquiry)

Tonight's meeting will be about the "golden shadow". It must be a forgotten concept of Jung's because I was much more aware of the "dark shadow" concept. But what is the golden shadow? Do we repress good qualities in ourselves and project them unconsciously onto others? It is a concept I feel that begs exploration. It reminds me of the Shaman practice of "soul retrieval", higher parts of ourselves that got siphoned off as we grew older in life and then we get to a stage where we believe we never possessed such good qualities or even are not worthy or capable to possess such qualities. Is this linked to why we put others on pedestals? We are projecting the qualities that we really desire onto another more likely character and thereby in so doing miss the underlying longing to possess these qualities for ourselves. Please join me if this topic strikes a cord with you and maybe we can work to dissect this phenomenon in our lives with more accuracy and help to bring ourselves back to a more natural place within ourselves and hopefully gives us more momentum on our spiritual paths.

Quote from the book, "Owning your own shadow" by Robert A Johnson, " To fall in love is to project that particularly golden part of one's shadow, the image of God - whether masculine or feminine - onto another person. Instantly, that person is the carrier of everything sublime and holy. One waxes eloquent in praise of the beloved and uses the language of divinity. But this experience is from the extreme right-hand side of the seesaw and invariably constellates its opposite. When in-loveness turns into its opposite, there is nothing more bitter in human experience. Most marriages in the West begin with a projection, go through a period of disillusionment, and, God willing, become more human. That is to say, they come to be based on the profound reality that is the other person. While in-loveness is close proximity to God, love based on reality serves our humble condition far better".

Another quote from the same book, "The shadow is that which has not entered adequately into consciousness. It is the despised quarter of our being. It often has an energy potential nearly as great as that of our ego. If it accumulates more energy than our ego, it erupts as an overpowering rage or some indiscretion that slips past us; or we have a depression or an accident that seems to have its own purpose. The shadow gone autonomous is a terrible monster in our psychic house".

Here is a link to an explanation of the golden shadow which could help to open the concept a little deeper for you: What is The Golden Shadow In Jungian Psychology? -

Thanks to Wiki Commons for the Cover photo of Carl Jung

Check out the "What we are about" section in the groups' main page for some guidelines we work to adhere to. Meetings are run on the popular Zoom platform. Please contemplate the topic in advance of the meeting to get the best out of it and bring your views and convictions to the meeting, if possible have a pen and paper close by to record anything useful that may come up that you resonate with on the night, little things you may want to contemplate further.