If you’ve spent any time in the personal development or spiritual (particularly witchy) communities, I’ll assume you’ve at least heard of shadow work, even if you’ve not delved into it for yourself.
A quick background/history on the concept: In analytical psychology, the shadow is an unconscious aspect of the personality that does not correspond with the ego ideal, leading the ego to resist and project the shadow, which leads to a conflict with it. The psychoanalyst Carl Jung is often credited with first developing the concept.
I’ve heard shadow work described as “you are trying to piece your soul together”, which really does not fit my personal frames of this work. I feel that piecing your soul together has this underlying implication that you’re broken. And it took me a while to get here, but I don’t think anyone’s broken. My self-journey with this “broken” belief has been long, but that’s a story for another time…
I prefer to look at it like this: there being pieces, parts, or aspects of yourself that are either hidden, repressed, or unconscious. Your “shadow self” describes the things you repress or do not like to acknowledge. It’s all of those things that make us feel cringy, about ourselves (and others). And shadow work, is shining a light on those pieces, and fully accepting and integrating them, possibly transforming them, so they are no longer hidden or repressed.
Shadow work in my view, allows us to embrace the whole-beings that we are. Every single part! We were never broken, we just haven’t integrated all of our aspects, and fully embraced wholeness.
I won’t get into the many ways to tackle shadow work here, although, please do leave me a comment if you’re interested in exploring this more, as I’m wanting to create some more shadow work experiences and resources.
If you’re looking for shadow work resources — I have these available for free:
Now that we’re all on the same page, I wanted to share a concept a couple of my mentors (Dr. Valerie Rein and Jeffrey Tambor) use in their approach to shadow work, and one that I’ve come across only a few other times in my many many years of doing shadow work…
This doesn’t seem to get mentioned often, if at all, in introductory spaces that share approaches to shadow work, which makes me wonder how many people actually know of this concept of THE LIGHT SHADOW
Let me ask you this: first, think of someone who admire. Now, what do you admire this person for?
Truly take a moment here to think about this, I’ll wait :)
The interesting thing about this question is that the answers give us insights about our own dreams and desires. And it reveals our light shadows!
Our light shadows are the traits that we admire in others and feel that we are not.
So what was it about your person that you thought of, that you admire? Do you feel you are not this? Or that you’d like to be more this way? If so, this is a light shadow of yours. Something that you feel you aren’t (or aren’t enough of) and a trait that you admire in someone else.
You don’t even have to admire the person themselves, it could just be a trait of theirs you admire.
I admire people who can get up in front of a full room, and speak confidently. This has been a light shadow of mine for some time now… And I know it’s a trait that I possess. I don’t have any horrible memories of being cast as the ‘Head Elf’ in the Christmas play in grade 5. Something that was performed in front of the school and all the parents. I actually recall performing well, despite having many lines to memorize… but likely somewhere else along my journey, the access door to that confident public speaking got locked. And it’s not something I that I consider I can do (confidently).
I invite you to explore a few of your own light shadows, and see what you notice!
If you think of examples for yourself that feel a little unclear whether it’s a dark shadow or a light shadow, don’t worry… the line between them can sometimes be a bit blurred. We are a full human spectrum after all!
And keep in mind what is a light shadow for you, might be a dark shadow for somebody else.
A handy way to think of it is this: in both cases, it is something that you feel you are not, even though the potential for every trait lies inside all of us. The main question is whether you are judging something or admiring it.
And that’s it! An introduction to the concept of light shadows. Comment your questions or thoughts, and if you dance through the shadows, don’t forget to twirl in the light as well.
I hope you’ll continue to embrace the enigmatic journey of conscious self-discovery, where every facet — light and shadow — contributes to your brilliance.
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