Well, less of a concept and more so a phenomenon. Could be a conceptual phenomenon I suppose... but I digress. Shadow People are figures darker than black. They most often appear in the middle of the night standing at the end of one's bed, or in the corner or doorway of one's bedroom. No one knows their purpose or more so, what they are—but people the world round have experienced them for eons. In the Muslim world they are known collectively as Djinn. Christians may cast them as demons. Because we know so little about them, we can simply call them the others. They do not abide by the rules of this physical realm. Like the Djinn, they may exist on the psychic plane, overlapping our own world. Those who've done research into them (for what it's worth) believe that they uphold their own social hierarchy, laws, and well, a world in its entirety. They possess the ability to let themselves be seen. Whether we see them with our optical eyes or our third eye (the pineal gland) is moot. Be it the latter, they must be masters of the unseen (hence shadow people). Perhaps they've figured out a way of moving around us by blinding the window of the third eye.
Anyways, Hat Man is an archetypal shadow person. Considering Carl Jung's theory of the shadow self (versus the ego), perhaps the Shadow People are actually our other halves that incarnate in their own plane, interacting with us only at specific intervals of our lives, but otherwise not coalescing regularly. Fluid, natural even, but not perceptively constant. Maybe they are projections of ourselves (our dark sides) onto the world. If it is our minds that create the world around us, then the shadow people must be projections of our own self shadows—all that we suppress within ourselves, all that we choose not to consciously project and perform. Everything we keep secret, that may be the source of their being. Shadow cannot exist without light. They are two sides to the same coin. (—Midna). Perhaps then, we cannot exist without them. It is in our experience that we confront our shadows and either learn to overcome and assimilate them into our beings, bringing them into the light—or we succumb to their influence and become that which they represent, losing the light and becoming dark-hearted beings.
I faced this reality over the past year and I had to choose between shadow and light. The "Hat Man" appeared to me in my artwork over the past 8 years, becoming more real with every drawing and painting I made of him. I won't state his proper name, but he promised me power and guidance. I followed his every whim until my cowardice drove me away from his dark desires. He continuously asked that I sacrifice my relationships with friends and loved ones to further myself along my spiritual journey. Interestingly my Mayan Birthday (Tzolki'n) is Ka Cimi or 2 Death. It suggests that I learn how to truly love by separation and rejoining. I guess he was trying to guide me along this path to fulfill my purpose. I neglected his guidance and fell into a deep depression. Through my artwork, I imprisoned him in a moon tomb, in the darkness. I invited him to walk the path of light with me, as that would be the only way I'd allow him to influence me any longer. Maybe that was how I conquered and assimilated him. I am now happier with my life, in more control, and for the most part, blissful with my family, friends, and most of all—the love of my life. He tempted me to leave her so many times.
When you face your shadow, you must recognize that it is you and that it exists for you to learn with and from. Together, you and your shadow can be more than you are without eachother. You choose to merge into light or darkness.
Merry Christmas!
Everyone knows I'm a Muslim!