Jacob's Shadow Experience

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27 The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

28 Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel (triumphant with God) because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

30 So Jacob called the place Peniel,[b] saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

Genesis 32:22-30
New International Version (NIV)

Robin Robertson had an interesting interpretation in "The Shadow's Gift", he argues that Jacob met his shadow that night and managed to keep him at arms-length. So instead of wrestling with an angel as the Bible presumes, he was in fact wrestling with his demon. I had always presumed that Jacob struggled with his super-ego given that it is hard to believe that God, or an angel for this matter, would dislocate Jacob's hip. But yes, the shadow interpretation seems to be spot on and reminds me of a dream I had many years ago.

I was with my family on vacation and while I was walking in the center of the city, I heard on the radio that convicts of a near-by prison had escaped. Luckily my family was safely staying at the hotel at that time but when I looked around I saw a number of criminals following me, and I heard one saying "Look, there is fresh meat". I ran away in a near-by building and one scary looking guy was running after me. He got a hold of me and as we wrestled we both fell through a window on a balcony. He was a macular man but for some reason I had the strength to keep him at arms-length. When I looked at his face I saw that of a demon but for some reason I was not that scared; I was more curious. If anything, the harder he tried to tackle me the more frustrated he got because he realized that he just couldn't overwhelm me. Then I woke up. I immediately knew that I had just met my shadow in my dream!

There are in fact surprising similarities with Jacob's experience in Genesis 32; in particular the fact that he and "the man", as Jacob calls his adversary, remained at arms-length all through the night. That's indeed step one in the shadow experience, one discovers the dark force and realizes that one very much has the ability to keep the demon at arms's length. Step 2 is to integrate the shadow and manage to transcend both parts of the "you" on a higher, more wholesome plane. Since my dream happened many  years ago, I hope I have made good progress in understanding my demon better. So I hope that if I ever have a similar dream today, I would see "a man" and not a demon, on the other side very much as Jacob did. Who knows, perhaps I would even see myself.