Carl Jung: Even the saints cast a Shadow
Letters of C. G. Jung: Volume 2, 1951-1961
Dear Fraulein Kiener, 14 May 1955
In the Christ symbol the conquest of evil is suggested by the descent into hell and the breaking open of its gates.
But nobody has ever heard that the devil departed this life afterwards; on the contrary, the authentic New Testament view is that after the thousand-year reign of Christ he shall be loosed again on earth in all his youthful freshness, in the form of Antichrist.
Also, as you rightly point out, a strong light is the best shadow-projector, provided that there is something to cast a shadow.
Even the saints cast a shadow.
We do not know whether there is more good than evil or whether the good is stronger.
We can only hope that the good will predominate.
If good is identified with constructiveness, there is some probability that life will go on in a more or less endurable form; but if destructiveness were to prevail, the world would surely have done itself to death long ago.
As that hasn’t happened yet, we may suppose that the positive exceeds the negative.
Hence the optimistic assumption of psychotherapy that conscious realization accentuates the good more than the overshadowing evil.
Becoming conscious reconciles the opposites and thus creates a higher third.
With best regards,
Yours sincerely,
C.G. Jung ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 253-254.
