From Owning Your Own Shadow by Robert Johnson:

"It is also astonishing to find some very good characteristics turn up in the shadow....Some of the pure gold of our personality is relegated to the shadow because it can find no place in that great leveling process that is culture."

And

"To draw the skeletons out of the closet is relatively easy, but to own the gold in the shadow is terrifying."

I thought this was interesting to remember the shadow contains all suppressed aspects of self. Is this why individuation comes later in life and we may be surprised to discover these positive hidden elements? Is it a necessary step in the heros journey to have to struggle to find the "gold" in ourselves rather than to have it all along? Or is it a negative feature of culture and trending to the mean?