The Light/Shadow Contrast
| Intelligence: | Unintelligent, Dim-witted
| Intelligent, brilliant, bright; a bright idea |
| Culture: | The Dark Ages | The
Enlightenment |
| Consciousness: | Unconscious or unaware |
Conscious or aware: |
| In the dark; blacked out | Enlightened, sees the light |
| Shadow (repressed or evil parts) | Shed light on; The light of reason |
| My dark side. | My sunnier side |
| Opaque, murky, obscure | Clear, lucid |
| Mood: | A dark mood | My mood brightened |
| Dim prospects; hope dimmed | Bright prospects; a bright picture |
| Dark humor | Sunny disposition |
| Cast a shadow on | Put in a good light |
| Fame and talent: | A lesser light | A star, a
luminary |
The value connotations of the Light/Shadow contrast are:
- knowledge of the world,
- knowledge of oneself,
- spiritual knowledge (enlightenment),
- light as radiating love
| Phrases that mediate this contrast: |
| Shading instead of black and white, chiaroscuro |
| Complementarity. Can't have one without the other |
| Me and my shadow (Dancing together as
complementary parts) |
Discussion
As pointed out in Five Big Clusters of Metaphors,
which is about what I call concrete organizing notions or CONS, light and vision
are the basis of a number of important metaphors, including perspective and
point of view. The remarks here stress the contrast between light as a symbol
of awareness, consciousness, enlightenment and reason, and shadow as a representation
of ignorance, unconsciousness and the non-rational part of the self. A lightbulb
is a common cartoon representation of having a good idea, while metaphors like "seeing
the light," "brilliant mind" and "dimwit" stand for intelligence and stupidity.
Carl Jung used the term "shadow" to represent the unconscious, which has not
only the negative connotation of bad or neglected parts of the self but also
the positive suggestion that these parts will evolve positively if brought
to light in the right way.
In spiritual traditions that emphasize fertility and agriculture, sun and
sunlight stand for the divine power to make things grow. More abstractly, they
represent divine knowledge and love. Thus, while a figurative light goes on
in the head of an individual, there is another experience of light, one that
to some people, at least, is much more than figurative. It's a light found
in their reports of near-death experiences, a light that radiates from figures
in a realm that has no shadows at all. This light suffuses these people with
love and sometimes brings a sense of infinite knowledge or understanding.
In the MetaSelf model, the front to back axis through our body or through
the box-frame diagram can be seen as a ray of light that illumines the self.
It makes clear the contents of the unconscious, usually represented by the
shadowed space behind the box-frame; the whole self becomes transparent. This
axis stretches from other people in the world, through the self and its body
and personal unconscious, out through nature which surrounds us (represented
by the wall on which the box-frame hangs), and further out into the space outside
the room, a space which for some people will represent the figurative location
of the collective unconscious, the soul, the transpersonal Self and a transcendent,
Divine Light. Thus this axis runs through and connects the visible, tangible
world with the invisible world we try to capture in metaphors and which always
remains in part an unknown, transcendent mystery.
Phrases that counter this contrast:
Shades of gray, tones, chiaroscuro.
|
