Essay example "Autumnal Shivers"

by Tricia Urlaub

October, again. A time to trade the coolness of shade for elongating shadows. Days get shorter, nighttime cool and crisp and...endless.

During summer, we don't much think about the weight of our shadow. It isn't until autumn when the sun no longer pinnacles high in the sky when shadows appear so thick they can almost be touched.

Throughout history, shadows have received a nasty reputation. The reasonable, logical, realistic explanation that shadows are a mere absence of light holds no water with imaginative humans. We see our souls, we see doppelgangers, we see fantastic creatures who exist purely to entice our primal whims.

No doubt part of the reason shadows is considered evil is because they're dark. The sun, representing everything that is light and airy, the very giver of life itself, must have a nemesis, so we have tiny pieces of the night during the day that follow us around wherever we go.

I have selected five websites that showcase, in some way, the beauty and mystery of the shadow. We owe it to October, the changeable month when we set the clocks back in an attempt to keep the night at bay, to look a little deeper into the meaning of the shadow.

“Shadowself” by Ty Drago is about a man who has dabbled too deeply in ancient rites. How do you escape your shadow? His was torn from him during a ritual and longs to take him over. Liam Reese can't take a job during the day because people, eventually, notice he casts no shadow. They realize something, somewhere is wrong. Does he look two-dimensional? Does he stand in the sun and cast no shadow?

The story is long but worth the read. Mr. Drago spins a good, solid tale that will give you pause when you go to turn out the light.

But Earthly shadows are not the only ones we need to examine. Back in February 2001, the FOX news network ran a special on the Apollo moon landings. It posed the question - did we really land on the moon? They showed a series of photographs and raised plausible questions regarding the event. The majority of the pictures under scrutiny are because of the shadows - how can an astronaut be lit when the area around him is dark? I watched this show and wondered if, in fact, they had hit on something. Was it all a hoax? (But NASA and the government would never lie to us about this, would they?) And then the Red Hot Chili Peppers sang about how space is made in a Hollywood basement, so, hey, I just wasn't sure.

“Are Apollo Moon Photos Fake?” attempts to scientifically refute the questions raised in the FOX broadcast. For those of you who heard of the hoax then looked up at the moon and bent your eyebrows with a "hmmm..." take a look at what science can explain (better than Mitch Pileggi can.)

Far before landing on the moon, however, the ancient Egyptians had their own theories about shadows. They believed that all living creatures consisted of nine "bodies." One of those bodies was the Khaibit or "shadow body" and is associated with the soul because it is believed to always be near it.

Those ancient Egyptians were interesting folk; they didn't leave anything to chance when it came to after-death experiences. You can read about their shadowy-soul idea and other interesting aspects of ancient Egyptian life at Seshet’s Mysteries.

Endlessly interesting is the idea that "shadow people" actually do exist. Shadowers is an atmospheric website, although still going through labor pains. It requests your own personal "shadow people" story but does not yet offer any to the public. It promises to explore, in-depth, the idea that shadowers (Aliens? Extradimensionals? Ghosts?) are real. It does have several links that will connect you to other people and websites dealing with the paranormal. In the months ahead it will be interesting to read what experiences others have had with "shadow people."

And finally, because shadows are a purely visual delight, I steer you to Ducu’s Photo Gallery. Here you'll find Sun & Shadows I, II. Photos that give substance and texture to shadows as if they were tangible, touchable objects. They are all eerie in some way, like hearing voices in an angry wind.

What happens to our shadow when we turn out the lamp? It literally gets absorbed back into us. All of our evil thoughts and primal urges reconnect and it isn't until the light of day that they are cleaved from us again.

Enjoy October!