Carl Jung achieved what was thought to be impossible.
You see, every human being on earth is torn in half.
To live in a civilized society, we’re taught to be good. We must be polite, respectful, and calm – which is, without a doubt, a great thing.
The problem is that goodness comes at a price. For every bit of light you create, you also generate an equal amount of darkness.
You take those worst instincts and bury them in a hidden basement of your mind. And you’re stacking up shovel after shovel after shovel of gunpowder. Then one day, you’re just living your life, it’s a normal day, when it happens…
You will lash out at someone or, in some cases, even commit a crime. Trust me, very few things are off the table when you ignore the shadow.
Now Jung was able to figure out a way to balance the light and darkness within you. This will make your life more fulfilling but it will also help you become very creative. Because under all of that gunpowder, there’s a gold mine.
But you cannot just walk in and take it; you need to follow the protocol.
So here I’ll show you the 7 laws of the Shadow that will help you open the basement, clear the gunpowder, and claim that gold without burning your life to the ground.
#1 The Law of the Sin Eater
In ancient civilizations there was this interesting practice.
Every community would pick someone who for an entire year would do absolutely anything he wanted. He didn’t have to work, he was given the best foods and drinks, and was even above the law.
However, there was a teeny tiny catch.
At the end of the year, that man would be sacrificed.
Why did they do it?
They believed that, for the entire year, he was absorbing all the sins and evils of the village. So by destroying him, they felt like they were wiping their own souls clean.
Before you judge them, look around because we do the exact same thing.
We pick a celebrity. We treat them like Kings. And then… we wait, maybe not a year, it could be more, but eventually we wait for the addiction, the scandal, or the mental breakdown.
Instead of helping them, a predatory switch flips in our brain. We circle them, sensing that their protection is gone. And that is when we descend on them—tearing apart anything they have left.
Now how do you cleanse your soul without needing a sacrifice?
Well, pay attention to the specific thing you hate about these people because, according to Jung, everything that irritates us in others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
For example, calling them arrogant might signal that you are repressing your own confidence. Or if you hate them for being selfish it might mean that you’re exhausted from trying to please everyone.
#2 The Law of the Golden Burden
We all try to hide our worst traits but did you know that we hide our best qualities even deeper than our sins.
That’s why in my metaphor, you have the gold sitting way below the pile of gunpowder, which in itself is in the basement of the house.
But why would we hide our best qualities?
Because if you are a failure, if you are broken, then people expect nothing from you. You cannot disappoint anyone if you’re a loser.
However, once you admit that you’re actually capable of greatness, then you have signed a contract with yourself and with society. You now have a duty to act and put those qualities to good use.
The problem is that we see greatness as a burden. Maybe we fear the inevitable confrontations with others, or maybe we are just lazy.
Now what can we do?
Think about the things you have always said you would do someday.
Write them down if you want. And try to rate them from 1 to 10 on how scary they feel to actually start today. The item with the highest fear score has the most gold.
If you’re scared of the gym or sports, it means you’re hiding your sheer physical strength or athletic capabilities.
If you’re scared of public speaking, then it means your gold is in your voice and your intellectual prowess.
I know it sounds very weird. But the Shadow will push back the most when you get close to the thing you are meant to do.
So if in the beginning, you feel terror and a desire to procrastinate, then it means you have struck a vein of pure gold. That’s where you need to dig harder.
#3 The Law of the Unlived Life
The greatest gift you can give your child is to live your own dreams.
I know it sounds selfish, but it’s actually an act of love.
Here’s why:
If you tell your child to follow their dreams but you’re stuck in a job you hate, or you have no hobbies you’re truly passionate about, your child will unconsciously do the same.
But if you pursue your passions, you show them how to be brave and creative, and they’ll in turn, do the same.
In other words, if you don’t live your life, your kid feels obligated to live it for you. If you do live your life, your kid gets to be just one thing… themselves.
It’s the same thing if you carry emotional baggage. If you resolve your own issues, then you will not pass them on to your kids.
Here’s an exercise you can do.
Think about your parents. Father, if you’re male, mother if you are female.
What is the one thing they never let themselves do?
- Did they never travel?
- Did they never defend themselves?
- Did they never waste money on fun?
Whatever they repress, you need to live it out and release that family karma so your children won’t have to deal with it.
So you can decide to travel, say something controversial, buy something fun, take a massage or a nap… whatever is needed.
#4 The Law of Hero Absorption
Stop worshipping successful people. Eat them instead.
There is a weird story from the psychologist Robert Johnson. He spent years obsessing over the Nobel Prize winner Albert Schweitzer. He idolized the man.
Then one night, he had a dream. He was sitting at a dinner table, and on his plate was Albert. And in that dream, Johnson picked up the fork and ate him.
He woke up terrified.
He thought he was losing his mind.
But then he realized what his subconscious was trying to say: “Start acting like him.”
Johnson realized that worshiping someone is just a cowardly way to avoid one’s own potential.
Now how can we know what we actually want? How can we uncover those hidden qualities?
Simple.
You look at what you envy.
You don’t envy a bird for flying. Why? Because you can’t fly.
But you do envy the entrepreneur, the athlete, or the creator because your subconscious knows you can do that too.
So pinpoint exactly what you adore or envy about these people… Is it their discipline, the way they look, their courage, their articulation, their productivity… Then you perform a micro-version of that trait to prove to your brain that you possess it, too.
{
If you envy their writing: Write one terrible paragraph right now.
If you envy their style: Change one thing about your outfit right now.
If you envy their fitness: Drop and do 10 pushups right now.
}
So once you act out the trait you admire, eventually, you’ll have consumed the hero, and their power is now your power.
#5 The Law of the Virtuous Monster
Jordan Peterson used to say, “Stop being harmless.” Harmless people are not good; they’re just weak.
“If you are harmless, you’re not good. You’re like a rabbit. A rabbit isn’t virtuous, it just can’t do anything except get eaten… If you’re a monster, and you don’t act monstrously, then you’re virtuous.”
We are taught by society that to be good, you must repress your capacity for cruelty. But another psychologist Rollo May, argued that this is a lie – that violence doesn’t come from having too much power. It comes from having no power. You know it’s often a sign of impotence.
I mean, who is more dangerous?
The trained soldier who knows exactly how to kill you but has the discipline to walk away?
Or is it the insecure coward who cannot throw a punch, gets pushed in the corner, and suddenly grabs a weapon?
Weak people are a ticking time bomb. Sooner or later, they’ll explode and destroy themselves or others.
So don’t get scared or ashamed of having aggressive impulses. You need them. You can use that gunpowder to protect yourself and the people you love. However, you also need to learn how to integrate this monster.
You can do that by joining a boxing or martial arts gym; you can play sports more often; and you can speak up about what you truly feel, especially when it’s uncomfortable.
So the idea is to find healthy ways to channel that aggression and build discipline.
#6 The Law of the Purge
If you live in a society where you are forced to be polite, where you cannot say what you think, and where “niceness” is the highest virtue, then you need to… RUN.
The countdown to a massive disaster has already started.
A society is a collection of individuals. If you force millions of people to repress their natural aggression, then, as we said, it will accumulate and explode into a war, a revolution, or a mass psychosis where people are hunting down witches or traitors just to release that rage.
Real history makes The Purge look like a Disney movie of the woke era.
Now, if you work in a toxic environment or live in a polite country, you need to release that pressure.
Everything we have learned so far can work, but I’d also suggest driving into an empty place, rolling up the windows, and just screaming for a few seconds.
You can sprint up the stairs or a hill until you are breathing like a heavy smoker.
Or you can go to the gym and punch the boxing bag till you feel nauseous.
You know, I used to have sleep issues due to stress, and what I’d do is go to the gym and punch the bag until I couldn’t lift my arms. After that I slept like a baby.
#7 The Law of the Phantom Enemy
You don’t actually hate your enemies. You are addicted to them.
In the early 90s, the Cold War ended. And if you lived in the West, you should have been ecstatic because you were finally safe, right?
Within months, the US found another war to fight.
The reason is that having an Evil Empire to point at is psychologically comfortable. As long as the bad guy is over there… You get to be the good guy over here. But if you destroy your enemy, then there is no one left to fight. You are forced to look at the evil inside yourself. And nobody wants to do that.
So, if you find yourself constantly in conflict, stop looking out the window. Look in the mirror. You are likely fighting your own reflection.
If you want to go deeper into learning how to integrate the shadow, check out this book: Owning Your Own Shadow by Robert Johnson.
