"Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once, beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something that needs our love." Rainer Maria Rilke
Let’s talk about demons and dragons. What are the dragons in your life? Who are the demons? We all have parts of ourselves that we are not proud of. How do we deal with these parts? Do we challenge our demons, shun them, or embrace them? Do we slay our dragons or do they slay us?
Our Exiles
Maybe what seem like demons are repressed feelings or exiled parts of ourselves. We all have a part or parts of us that we imprison. This part could be a wounded inner child, or angry feelings, or a shameful memory. We hide those unwanted feelings or parts in a dark place. Unfortunately, the darker the dungeon, the angrier or more lonely or more ashamed they become. The spurned feelings get stronger. Once we get to know them, however, they don’t seem so threatening. If we attend to them, talk to them, they calm down and stop yelling. We can open the door, let them out, and find that they can actually be quite civil after a nice tea-time chat.
Exiles Reconsidered
Maybe these feelings or parts are like histamine. Histamine helps our bodies fight off pathogens like cold viruses, causing us to feel sick. Our noses run, we develop a fever, we feel run down. We don’t like the histamine, the mucus in our nose, the fever, but they are our helpers. Similarly, our inner critic tries to protect us by criticizing us. He or she may believe that criticism prevents us from getting into trouble; if we feel shame about an act, we will probably refrain. How about our inner child? He or she may throw a tantrum, wanting attention, rest, or love. Our Shadow is another part of us that feels like a threat. But when we shun our Shadow, we project it onto others and lose a potentially valuable part of ourselves.
Kissing Frogs
Our immune system, our Shadow, our inner child, our critic; all may make us feel sick, but it it a love-sickness; the phlegm, the criticism, the walling off don’t feel good, but they are our body’s and psyche’s attempt to heal or protect us. So perhaps what seem like demons and dragons are hexed princes. When we embrace our inner critic, tend to our wounded inner child, love each part of ourselves, the demons, like the kissed frog, become princes.
Jung said it first :-) -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvgmyaSTosg
