Shadows along the spiritual pathway

Humphrey, Caroline

Abstract

Contemporary spirituality discourses tend to assume that a canopy of light and love overarches all spiritual pathways. Unfortunately, the dark side of humanity cannot be spirited away so easily, and aberrations of personal spiritual development, interpersonal spiritual relationships and new spiritual movements can often be traced to the denial, repression and return of our dark side. Transpersonal psychology offers a way of approaching, reframing and redeeming the unconscious depths of our psyche, with its metaphors of shadows and daimons on the one hand, and its therapeutic practices for symbolically containing and transcending polarities on the other. In its absence, any spirituality which eulogises holistic growth is likely to engender the reverse effect.

Citation

Humphrey, C. (2015). Shadows along the spiritual pathway. Journal of religion and health, 54(6), 2376-2388. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-015-0037-2

• Acceptance Date: Mar 1, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Mar 21, 2015
• Publication Date: Dec 29, 2015
• Deposit Date: Apr 22, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 22, 2015
• Journal: Journal of religion and health
• Print ISSN: 0022-4197
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 54
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 2376-2388
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-015-0037-2
• Keywords: Spirituality; Religion; Transpersonal psychology; Shadows; The daimonic; The demonic
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/372916
• Publisher URL: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10943-015-0037-2
• Additional Information: Author's accepted manuscript of an article which has been published in: Journal of religion and health, 2015, v.54, issue 6. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10943-015-0037-2
• Contract Date: Apr 22, 2015