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“Duende is a power not a work, a mystery rooted in all we know and ignore… a mysterious power which everyone senses but no philosophy explains . . . Duende loves the rim of the world . . . draws near places where forms fuse together with a yearning superior to their visible expression.” — Lorca
In shadow work we meet our soul personified as “nymph at the well of grief.” ( Rikle 1:5 ) There is a certain timbre or tone that springs from grief drunk deeply. It is there in Lorca, Rumi, Rothko, Goya, and Rilke. Grief seasons us and ripens us. The sonnets tell us that only those who have dined on the poppy, Persephone’s flower, and have made the descent can sing the return.
The mystery of working in the dark areas of our lives is that there is much that can be learned only in Hades. We are moved from longing’s confessional tone toward our darkest hours and deepest knowing. We enter the shadow, the psyche’s dark underbelly where sorrow works its transformation. And we are moved even deeper past the personal level into dream, myth and archetype.
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