~ Aasa
The Phantom / The Dracul / The shadow
The famous psychologist Carl Gustav Jung called it "The shadow" - the unconscious/repressed darker sides in the human psyche. In endless fairytales and stories we meet it as a person, a force or a symbol,- the earthly manifestation of the darkness within, our inner demon.
The Dracul is maybe one of the more famous of these symbols. And facing the Dracul is a very old story, with roots in medieval times. Battling him, or killing him is a myth repeated in different versions, with different storylines, but it has never seized to fascinate humankind.
The Greeks had Hades, stealing Persephone down to his dark kingdom once a year. From modern times, we have the musical Phantom of the opera, taking the young and fair Christine into his hidden world of darkness, deep down in the catacombs.Humans have always been forced to fight battles with their own darkness. The inner Dracul that leaves us in despair, that metaphorically can suck out our blood, our very will for life. And we have always been dealing with it in different ways, individually. Some with repression, some by fleeing, and some directly, by facing it or killing it. Although it can come in many forms, the story that always seem to penetrate into the world of tales is most often the direct battle, the confrontation with the demon inside.
Choosing not to run from inner demons is according to modern psychology one of the most important steps into recovery. But in doing so, one very often meets new difficulties, as if just facing the demon wasn´t enough.
In darkness there also lies a lot of strength, or at at least these personal energies can feel or look very much like exactly that, and many people have got lost in it. In darkness lies aggression, in darkness lies negativity, feelings that can give an illusion of power. to the subject experiencing them
more covert and less direct ways of dealing with this inner darkness is feeling sorry for ourselves, and through this feeling we can similar to the more direct ways, also gain a feeling of power through importance, focus and self pity.
These things can create a paradox when facing the darker side. Something in us might also be drawn to it, this "evil within", it can make us feel strong or important.
We can easily observe such elements in several myths concerning the theme. In "The phantom of the opera", Christine has to fight an attraction towards the phantom - he holds a strong power over her. In the end she still succeeds freeing herslef from this dark symol. Why?
It is an important to understand the "positive" that can come through our inner darkness, so we can transform these illusory feelings of power into real strength and personal growth
Excerpt from "The Phantom Of The Opera"
Christine has been kidnapped by the phantom down to his dark catacombs. Here he has also taken prisoner "Raol", which is the positive male figure of the story, the Phantom, the the dark male figure battles with, for the heart of Christine.
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PHANTOM: Down once more to the dungeon of my black despair! Down we plunge to the prison of my mind! Down...that path into darkness deep as hell! Why, you ask, was I bound and chained to this cold and dismal place? CHRISTINE: .... Pitiful creature of darkness, what kind of life have you known? God, give me courage to show you you are not alone... (she kisses him) PHANTOM: Take her… Forget me… Forget all of this… Leave me alone… Forget all you've seen… Go now… don't let them find you! Take the boat… Swear to me never to tell The secret you know of the angel in hell! Go… Go now, go now and leave me! Christine, I love you... CHRISTINE:(To Raol) Say you'll share with me, one love, one lifetime RAOUL: Say the word and I will follow you... CHRISTINE: Share each day with me each night, each morning... PHANTOM: You alone can make my song take flight It's over now, the music of the night...Christines story is not unlike many others. In giving love to the Phantom, she releases him and ther bound is broken. And through receiving her love the Phantom changes. He releases her of his tightening, controlling grip. But the phantom is just a symbol of her own inner darkness.
The inner truggle for Christine in this movies, is not just the fight with her innner darkr sides, but also the need and want to rescue and save The Phantom. A well known theme for people in the grips of their own subconscious darkness, which they must face to become free. And this need is often just a projection, a reflection of their own deeper need of wanting to be rescued themselves. (This might not even be conscious, but shows itself in a pattern of love relationships that exists as fantasy projections, and therefore shatters after some time)
In other words, the woman in the grips of her own subconscious darkness needs to choose herself and rescue herself, and draw back her out projection of rescuing someone else.Then, in facing, loving and accepting her darker sides and "distorted parts", she is also freed from them. The darkness disolves with the light of love.
In the story of the Phantom, Christine also sees his true face and the distortions which lies there. The mask of the phantom falls, but she still accepts it. There is no judgement in seeing the ugliness of his darkness, she shows him love and compassion.
Maybe this is the hidden theme for many of these stories. To tell us how important and stranforming it is to accept and acknowledge the darker sides in our minds, in our fellow humans and in our society. And that trying to pretend it is not there will always just strengthen it and make it grow to a larger Dracul or a phantom.
Still - common for all these stories is a solution that is never easy to find, an easy-fix is not an option. It is a long and hard process to face our own demons, it is a task of a lifetime. And only to love and accept is never enough to give the "cure".
As nature and also old tales shows us, these stories also holds the truth of a atural balance in everything,- to switch between darkness and light - summer and winter. Persephone needs to be taken down to Hades every winter, so the plants will die. But she returns again in spring, bringing life back to the planet. This theme is also repeated again and again through the history of mythology and tales. It is a call in nature, the high and low of the tides, the phases of the moon,the yin and yang...it is an archetype, and a pattern in the human psyche.
"In sleep he sang to me
In dreams he came
That voice which calls to me
and speaks my name
and do I dream again - for now i find
the phantom of the opera is here
inside my mind"
It is not a dream. He is in all our minds, and we are forced to deal with it, in the manner we choose to. But nevertheless we must deal with it. And if we come through it or not is an other story.
We all carry some darkness inside, it is as old as human wars. And maybe duality exists so it can be experienced. For there would be no light without the shadow.
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