Ebony Boy with Gift of Gold

Deep within this meditation I found myself in a dark forest. Among the shadows, I could see a boy coming toward me and in his hands was a nugget of gold.
A present for me.
Later, when trying to figure out what could be going on here, I remembered the discussions I have read by many people of the shadow and the importance of acknowledging and bringing forth through ritual the forces of one’s dark interior. I had always assumed that the shadow contained memories and feelings of shame, guilt, rage—those things we keep buried and don’t want others to see, fearful that if visible everyone I met at the supermarket would point and say: “Oh, you aren’t a very nice person at all!”
Then I started to read about this subject in a more directed way and came across:

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

— Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels words attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas

About six months after I had completed this painting, I found the following words in a book by Robert Johnson:
“Jung warned us that it would not be too difficult to get the skeletons out of the closet from a patient in analysis but it would be exceedingly difficult to get the gold out of the shadow. People are as frightened of their capacity for nobility as of their darkest sides.”
— Owning Your Own Shadow by Robert Johnson

I keep this painting on my studio wall to remind myself not to let fear hide my gold.