How do I start with shadow work

[Angelofdeath]

I really dont understand shadow work , like does it has to be written and stuff...

 

[Yazata]

Here are some people talking about it:

Folk who has done genuine shadow work, what did you do?

Lol this really sounds like a crappy reddit thread name doesn't it? Know Thyself, this is a motto for many of the practices/practictioners and there definitely is a reason to be so. To understand ones self is a most noble work, and many practitioners just repress this side to us. I am...

wizardforums.com

 

[Angelofdeath]

thank you Yazata

 

[HoldAll]

Journalling definitely helps in order to keep track of your insights, to discern patterns, and to record any methods of self-observation that have proved particularly useful. A word of warning though from an obessive journaller: don't take words too seriously. The temptation is to depict your own findings in overly dramatic and colourful terms when in actuality nothing much had happened or didn't merit such sophisticated descriptions - many insights of mine have been pretty banal and conventional. Narcissism is another hazard. Once you feel like you're the only person in the world who has such a unique and rich inner life, you've lost the plot. Everybody has dark sides, it's just that you're now making an effort to explore them intentionally, that's the only difference between you and the common herd.

Of course you can research shadow work, what Jung wrote about the shadow, etc. yourself, so I suppose you're asking for opinions and experiences, not so much for theoretical knowledge. In my opinion, there has been a certain moralistic overtone in what has been written by Jung and others. Jung had been a student of Freud's who had beein interested in the repressed urges of his bourgeois patients and the mental problems this repression caused them. Even before Freud, there was this tendency in religions to disown the 'sinful' facets of one's personality by pretending they didn't exist. In the last 100 years, however, societal norms have become much loser and individualism more dominant. As a result, I think that the emphasis of shadow work should nowadays be on exploring the unknown within oneself instead of searching for 'dark forbidden secrets' or the like.

Shadow work shouldn't be limited to ruminating in private and then journalling about it; it should include observation from daily life as well. Say the subject is aggression - on which occasions does it crop up? It's a distinct clue, for example, whenever you fell inordinately hurt by someone or something without really knowing why, and that's your shadow rearing its ugly head. I liken such aspects of myself to unexploded mines within my psyche but how you specifically wish to deal with them is up to you. You may want to clear them or explode them in a controlled manner, but for me it's enough to know that they are there so I don't step on them by accident.

Speaking for myself, the main benefit of shadow work was learning how to apply the method of investigation, not so much the fruits of my labour, i.e. new insights. Dispassionate observation coupled with ruthless sincerity is my go-to introspection tool. The 'dispassionate' part is important since any violent emotions like remorse, shame, guilt, anger, embarrassment, etc. only lead to distortions and exaggerations; you may make mountains out of molehills if you're not careful. Another result of shadow work explorations is that your self-image (and possibly your whole personality!) may become less rigid. For example, you may think of yourself as this patient, calm person but the other day you were standing in a supermarket line when the guy up front struck up a chat with the check-out girl, and you wanted to slap him for holding everybody up. Shadow work would be observing this unexpected burst of rage and modifying your self-image accordingly. Where that rage was coming from isn't so important, whether it was a childhood experience, undiagnosed claustrophobia, yada, yada. A valuable insight would be "I'm a patient and calm person except when I feel trapped and helpless." Another mine mapped, another correction to your self-image accomplished - without judging, rationalising, or justifying.

When you read some of the older texts on the subject, you'd think the aim of shadow work was to become a saint or angel, and I think even today many think of it on these terms. In my opinion, however, the crucial question is: "What is really there?", and that includes the good as well as the bad, the ugly, and the un-woke.

 

[Angelofdeath]

Journalling definitely helps in order to keep track of your insights, to discern patterns, and to record any methods of self-observation that have proved particularly useful. A word of warning though from an obessive journaller: don't take words too seriously. The temptation is to depict your own findings in overly dramatic and colourful terms when in actuality nothing much had happened or didn't merit such sophisticated descriptions - many insights of mine have been pretty banal and conventional. Narcissism is another hazard. Once you feel like you're the only person in the world who has such a unique and rich inner life, you've lost the plot. Everybody has dark sides, it's just that you're now making an effort to explore them intentionally, that's the only difference between you and the common herd.

Of course you can research shadow work, what Jung wrote about the shadow, etc. yourself, so I suppose you're asking for opinions and experiences, not so much for theoretical knowledge. In my opinion, there has been a certain moralistic overtone in what has been written by Jung and others. Jung had been a student of Freud's who had beein interested in the repressed urges of his bourgeois patients and the mental problems this repression caused them. Even before Freud, there was this tendency in religions to disown the 'sinful' facets of one's personality by pretending they didn't exist. In the last 100 years, however, societal norms have become much loser and individualism more dominant. As a result, I think that the emphasis of shadow work should nowadays be on exploring the unknown within oneself instead of searching for 'dark forbidden secrets' or the like.

Shadow work shouldn't be limited to ruminating in private and then journalling about it; it should include observation from daily life as well. Say the subject is aggression - on which occasions does it crop up? It's a distinct clue, for example, whenever you fell inordinately hurt by someone or something without really knowing why, and that's your shadow rearing its ugly head. I liken such aspects of myself to unexploded mines within my psyche but how you specifically wish to deal with them is up to you. You may want to clear them or explode them in a controlled manner, but for me it's enough to know that they are there so I don't step on them by accident.

Speaking for myself, the main benefit of shadow work was learning how to apply the method of investigation, not so much the fruits of my labour, i.e. new insights. Dispassionate observation coupled with ruthless sincerity is my go-to introspection tool. The 'dispassionate' part is important since any violent emotions like remorse, shame, guilt, anger, embarrassment, etc. only lead to distortions and exaggerations; you may make mountains out of molehills if you're not careful. Another result of shadow work explorations is that your self-image (and possibly your whole personality!) may become less rigid. For example, you may think of yourself as this patient, calm person but the other day you were standing in a supermarket line when the guy up front struck up a chat with the check-out girl, and you wanted to slap him for holding everybody up. Shadow work would be observing this unexpected burst of rage and modifying your self-image accordingly. Where that rage was coming from isn't so important, whether it was a childhood experience, undiagnosed claustrophobia, yada, yada. A valuable insight would be "I'm a patient and calm person except when I feel trapped and helpless." Another mine mapped, another correction to your self-image accomplished - without judging, rationalising, or justifying.

When you read some of the older texts on the subject, you'd think the aim of shadow work was to become a saint or angel, and I think even today many think of it on these terms. In my opinion, however, the crucial question is: "What is really there?", and that includes the good as well as the bad, the ugly, and the un-woke.

Thank you for answering. I really appreciate the time you took to explain it, and your reply helped me understand it much better.

 

[Beyond Everything]

I'll let you on a little (actually huge) secret. People doing shadow work (or any psychotherapeutic kind of modality) are working at the level of thoughts and emotions qua thoughts and emotions. But ultimately what all these things are is simply energy. Rather than getting into the weeds of the specifics of these things, you can figure out how to deal with them in a more 'generic' energetic way. Which is a lot more transformative on the esoteric level.

 

[Angelofdeath]

I'll let you on a little (actually huge) secret. People doing shadow work (or any psychotherapeutic kind of modality) are working at the level of thoughts and emotions qua thoughts and emotions. But ultimately what all these things are is simply energy. Rather than getting into the weeds of the specifics of these things, you can figure out how to deal with them in a more 'generic' energetic way. Which is a lot more transformative on the esoteric level.

Ooohh alchemyy right??

 

[FireBorn]

I'll let you on a little (actually huge) secret. People doing shadow work (or any psychotherapeutic kind of modality) are working at the level of thoughts and emotions qua thoughts and emotions. But ultimately what all these things are is simply energy. Rather than getting into the weeds of the specifics of these things, you can figure out how to deal with them in a more 'generic' energetic way. Which is a lot more transformative on the esoteric level.

Aren't the weeds the entire point of shadow work? I can see energetic work helping with emotional charge, but how is reducing it all to “energy” not a bypass? Ego and shadow originate in the psyche and lived patterns, not just the energy field. Seems backwards to me.

 

[Beyond Everything]

Aren't the weeds the entire point of shadow work? I can see energetic work helping with emotional charge, but how is reducing it all to “energy” not a bypass? Ego and shadow originate in the psyche and lived patterns, not just the energy field. Seems backwards to me.

This is the trap of labeling and reification, which -again- leaves one operating on the same plane as thoughts and emotions. It's all energy, the charge of an emotion as well as whatever underlying instinctive reactiveness and cognitive perspective is involved. What on earth do you think everything is? It's energy. The less you realize that the more you're an effect, rather than a cause.

 

[HoldAll]

Both Freud and Jung where physicians so they saw the shadow as something like a potentially dangerous affliction that had to be confronted head-on and then integrated into a harmonious whole. The danger here is harbouring preconceived notions as to what the end result of this integration process should ideally look like, which is why I advocate thoroughly taking stock first. There's even a sociological and political dimension to it, for example when the hippies in the late Sixties refused to conform to the ideas their parents and the government had about how

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. You could claim that the authorities were impatient for those long-haired bums to finally integrate their shadow according to their obsolete value system, and I'm afraid many still approach shadow work from this angle and insist on becoming this super-efficient übermensch before they've even taken the first step towards introspection. That super-efficient übermensch may just not be in the cards, and making peace with your flaws and failings might be rewarding enough in the end.

Not sure if I buy into the whole emotional alchemy thing though. It's one of the reasons I'm so loathe to use the word 'energy' in spiritual contexts. 'Energy' suggests a basically neutral force that can be channelled, manipulated at will and then exploited for any old purpose, just like electricity. Simply reverse polarity and turn your destructive urges into positive ones, that kind of thing. It's what I call the 'tinkering stage', which is when you've identified unwholesome components of your shadow and attempt to turn them into something else. Instead, I recommend using different strategies for such tinkering, if tinker you must, starting with the one you might want to leave such some horrid component well alone and e.g. refrain from trying to make your Inner Axe Murderer into the epitome of lovingkindness. Other little pieces from your dark side may be a good complementary fit for fundamentally beneficial character traits, for example when you're helpful and considerate to a fault but don't know how to put down your foot and shout "Stop, enough is enough!" I wouldn't count on such exact fits though, and the question always is how much control we have over such integration processes. Self-help books make you think you're your own head emotional engineer, 'the captain of your heart', while in truth the whole thing may not come together so easily or not at all. Some pretty ugly pieces may be of no use whatsoever, or change shape once you direct your dispassionate gaze at them - your Inner Axe Murderer may just be unacknowledged rage and frustration, not the ugly monster you took him to be at first sight.

However, I'm skeptical whether all that rage and frustration can be turned into some kind of battery you can plug into whenever you need a fresh boost of energy. Congratulations if you're able to, I'd love to have such a convenient ability myself. These days I limit my shadow work to dispassionate inquiry, the tinkering stage is a totally different ball where many different schools of thought and spirituality have developed various methods, some more effective than others, but I myself would rather go with a definition of Jung's ultimate aim of individuation I read somewhere: becoming yourself, but even more so. For me, shadow work is a lifelong process, so I don't think along the lines of 'problem => solution' anymore. I'm not a medical doctor, so I'm not looking for a 'cure'. It's a journey, and I'm not in a hurry.