Wolf in the Shadow

Once again, I have been inspired by a television show. I'm not sure if I watch too much TV or if I just watch great TV. This time, the show is 'Once Upon a Time', which does a surprisingly good job of connecting all of the fairy tales together, somehow.

A recent episode focused on 'Red', who we know as Little Red Riding Hood. In this world, she is not only the sweet and curious girl we have read about, but also the big bad wolf. This show's take on this story is unique and quite enlightening, as the character becomes much less static as she incorporates this other side to her being.

"The only way you can control the wolf is by accepting that it is a part of you."

Red 'turns' into the wolf during the full moon, a habit she has a hard time controlling. She detests this part of herself and is willing to let the town people kill her because of the guilt she feels about the wolf. This is her ego. The ego is the part of our personality that wants to be seen in a certain way and feels vulnerable (which can manifest as anger, embarrassment, fear, etc.) when something threatens our self-image. The wolf, or the part of herself that she does not want to incorporate, is the shadow. The shadow is the part of the personality that we may not want to admit is there; it is where we hide what makes us uncomfortable because we were (perhaps subconsciously) instructed to by parents, teachers, relationships, and society. The little things we were encouraged not to do have internalized themselves so deeply into our minds that we no longer want to accept them as traits of our own. But they are still there, somewhere.

In 'Once Upon a Time', Red vs. The Wolf is a symbolic representation of the battle for consciousness that we all experience. If you have ever had an outburst that was unlike your usual temperament, or you said something you later regretted (think: "I don't know where that came from"), or simply felt transgressed by someone who did nothing TO you, then you have experienced your shadow fighting for embodiment. The trouble with shadow is that, because we work so hard to keep it out of our consciousness, it surfaces when we are least in control of our emotions, like hot lava that has been heating up and waiting for the chance to explode. And it does just that.

The quote above is great advice. If we want to prevent a volcanic erruption of the shadow, we need to allow it into consciousness in a way we can control and feel comfortable with. The first step towards this is recognizing what is in your shadow - what triggers a reaction in you that you feel no control over, what do you project onto other people and see them as 'bad' for? When we are able to recognize and accept these aspects of ourselves, and integrate them into our personalities in some way, we are able to become more whole, more balanced, and less threatened by others. In the most meaningul sense possible, let's change the ending of the fairy tale: the Big Bad Wolf will not eat Little Red Riding Hood, but rather, Red will consume her shadow of the wolf.