The Shadow of Rosacea

"That which we do not bring into consciousness appears in our life as fate." - --- C. G. Jung

The human body has lived for two thousand years in the shadow of Western culture. Its animal instincts, sexual passions and decaying nature have been banished to the darkness by religious philosophies honoring the realm of the mind and rational thought. The mind/body split runs deep in our culture, and is nowhere more evident than in the body as shadow.

The shadow is the repressed part of the ego, and represents what we are unable to acknowledge about ourselves. The body as shadow represents that which is repressed by the ego. Jung stated that "The ego and the shadow come from the same source and equally balance each other. . to make light is to make shadow: one cannot exist without the other." Anything of substance casts a shadow, so it is important to examine the dark side of any phenomena, particularly of dis-ease.

The shadow finds its way through the cracks in the psyche, and appears in dis-ease and dis-orders. In disowning the body we are dangerously cut off from our instinctual natures. The life energy has been cut off. The dark side of Rosacea is the unexpressed and repressed emotions that lie beneath a skin disorder.

This may also be the unexpressed aspects of the "unlived" life. Are you being authentic? Are you expressing your true emotions? Are you living the live you dream or someone elses? This is where dream analysis and active imagination are particularly effective in discovering the root cause, the essence of Rosacea. Keep a dream journal and notice dark or repressed images that appear. These images all give clues as how to balance the emotional energy in the body and give clarity and radiance to the skin.