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Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt:
Interview with Cody Peterson
By Carin Chea
A perennial of the American southwest, Cody Peterson is an entrepreneur and burgeoning author with the tenacity of an athlete and the wisdom of a seasoned spiritualist.
Though Peterson is a successful business owner by day, his heart dwells deeply in spirituality. It was the esoteric comforts of spiritual and religious teachings that rescued and sustained Peterson from alcoholism and drug addiction.
Now having been sober for over 11 years, Peterson has devoted himself to sharing his journey of recovery through his writing and talks.
His first book, The Shadow of a Figure of Light: The Archetype of the Alcoholic and the Journey to Enlightenment, chronicles the penetrating lessons he has learned along the way.
Was there a specific moment that made you think, “That’s it. I’ve got to get sober?”
I often talk about this in my 12-step meetings. I had ended up with nowhere to go in Las Vegas, and I had a moment of clarity sitting on a curb outside a casino. I had been trying to do things my way for years, and where did that get me?
I wasn’t working, I wasn’t seeing my kids, I wasn’t paying child support. I longed for real human connection.
That’s when it struck me that I needed to seek out an old-timer to lead me through this darkness I found myself trapped in, to help me climb out of this mess.
That’s such a specific image.
My way wasn’t working. It was the old timers that helped me. I would ask them things like, “I just got fired. What should I do?”
They’d say, “Go home and pray, and meet me at the meeting.” They encouraged me to take actions that didn’t make any sense, and it started to help.
Similarly, was there a specific moment when you decided to write your book?
Yes, there was. Five years ago, I had begun reading Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist who had a tangential relationship with the Alcoholics Anonymous [AA]. I loved the way he describes psychological transformation. I found my own story there.
That’s when I felt like I had to say something. I started writing what was intended to be an essay, but it ended up being 60 pages. A few editors later, what emerged was this book.
It has been such a blessing that I have been able to introduce information about Carl Jung’s relationship with AA that had never been discussed before. It’s original research.
I’m not a Jungian, but the Jungian community is excited about the book. I’ve given talks at various seminars and I’ve been able to invite prominent Jungian authors to come and introduce me.
I had no idea Carl Jung was at all associated with AA. How did that start?
His relationship with AA began in 1926 when he was hired by a billionaire, Roland Hazard. Carl Jung treated Roland the way he treated all his patients, but Roland was also an alcoholic. He told Roland that he wouldn’t be able to help him with analysis or therapy. Roland would need to have a vital spiritual experience in order to get sober.
Well, ten years later, Roland ended back in the hospital and joined a fellowship of Christians called The Oxford Group. About two years into this, Roland helped someone named Ebby Thatcher get sober.
Ebby Thatcher helped Bill Wilson get sober, and Bill is the founder of AA. Bill took the message of a vital spiritual experience and ran with it.
What’s interesting is that Carl Jung, in 1926, had just come off a trip where he traveled to New Mexico and Africa. That’s the year he discovered his own myth, which was something he’d been searching for 12 or 13 years.
What I brought to light was the fact that, when Jung met Roland, he was really expressing that Roland needed to go out and discover his own myth, as he had just done.
Essentially, the 12 steps are the individual’s journey toward discovering their own spiritual connection, much like Jungian analysis is. In an interesting way, the Twelve Steps are a Jungian myth.
Tell us about the process of writing your book.
Writing the book was a profound experience. At times it made me feel intoxicated, though I was sober of course. It was exciting to find this new stuff that I was going to present to the world.
It’s been like an extended Christmas. It’s a great opportunity to present these things to the world. It’s been a really slow process, though, extending over four or five years.
Every chapter takes months to figure out and dial in. I feel like I spent hours on each sentence. I’ve had a great editor throughout this whole process and what emerged is a piece of art that I am very proud of.
That’s nice to hear! I was expecting that it might’ve been tough for you, sharing your own journey toward recovery.
I don’t tell my story in the book. Of course, I’m in there, but it’s more of a description of these ideas, with an almost academic flavor. Since I was a kid, those were the types of books I liked to read. I wanted to write a book in that tradition, it is a deep dive into psychospiritual transformation.
I’ve learned so much through writing it. William James says that writing is yoga. It’s a form of meditation and contemplation, and that has been the case for me in writing this book.
I didn’t know most of the concepts that the book contains when I set out to write it. The book emerged from somewhere deep inside of myself.
Who do you hope to reach with The Shadow of a Figure of Light? Also, what message would you like your readers to take away from it?
I hope that the book reaches anyone who’s interested in transforming their lives. I think the book could have a wide application. Specifically, those in recovery and also those dealing with addicts and alcoholics would find it interesting.
I hope people can understand that (from my perspective) we derive meaning from our own darkness. That’s where we find growth and spiritual connection and meaning in life.
My book is an examination of what it means to be a complete human. It takes the light and the dark aspects as equal players in this divine drama called life. I’m hoping it will help people become more aware of their shadow, to make their own darkness conscious.
What is “the shadow?”
It's the part of our personality that we’re not very aware of, but that the people closest to us can often see. It’s those dark and dirty aspects of our humanity that we carry with us, but don’t share with others.
Addiction itself is a shadow element. An alcoholic, for example, has a hard time accepting that he or she is powerless over alcohol. That’s a shadow component.
In The Shadow of a Figure of Light, I show that recovery is a prototype of spiritual transformation in the modern west because it’s a process of making the shadow conscious.
Jung would say the same thing to Bill Wilson regarding Roland Hazard, that Roland’s craving for alcohol was a thirst or craving for union with God.
Addiction is a thirst for spiritual connection, but recovery is a process of becoming acquainted with one’s entire being.
I appreciate how you point out that the darker parts of our experiences are equally as important as the light and joyful ones. You sound genuinely happy.
Happiness is something we have to cultivate.
If you could travel back in time, what would you tell a younger version of yourself?
I would have to reassure young Cody that the people in his life who are acting displeased and unhappy with him are really having their own struggles.
Surprisingly, I would also tell him that he’s on the right path and to keep following his gut, because in the end, everything’s going to work out just fine.
It’s true, isn’t it? If you hadn’t gone what you had gone through, you wouldn’t be where you are now and this book wouldn’t be published.
That’s right. Everything good in life emerges from out of the darkness. I think that’s one of the fundamentals of “being.”
Who would you say inspires you the most today?
My wife is an amazing inspiration. She’s so supportive. I’ve been obsessing over this book for years now. She had gone through a challenging situation years ago, and she was trying to find answers as to why it happened, why she slipped back into harmful behavior for her and for the people in her life.
The things I was writing about in the book were the things that helped her find the most meaning. That’s probably the best part about this book, for me.
I have a new therapist, and he’s also an inspiration. And, of course, Jung is extremely inspirational to me.
For more information, please visit www.cody-peterson.com.
You can order Cody’s book directly through his website, or through Chiron Publications at Chironpublications.com.
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