Jungian Shadow Work (3 Approaches)

How to integrate your dark side and its power (💾 + asset)

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious”

— C.G. Jung, ‘Alchemical Studies,’ para. 335

The Shadow is the accumulation of everything you deny about yourself.

As childhood innocence and simplicity was replaced by responsibility and complexity, many traits and beliefs were pushed out of conscious life. The First Law of Thermodynamics states: energy can’t be destroyed, only transferred or transformed.

Psychological energy is never lost.

Only repressed, brought into consciousness, or transformed.

If neglected, the Shadow becomes a bestial force of chaos.

It is represented in myth and dreams as an ambiguous shadow figure or something dark and frightening because it’s the embodiment of unknowing.

What you resist persists. It will literally haunt you.

But by facing it, you’ll find it soon dissipates (along with fear) to reveal the inner gold you lost all those years ago

Here’s 3 approaches to Jungian Shadow work to integrate your dark side and its power… (see end for asset 💾)

Approach #1: Dream Analysis

“The dream compensates the conflicts of the conscious mind”

– C.G. Jung, ‘Psychology and Alchemy,’ para. 26

The unconscious is the primeval sea of potentiality our conscious minds emerged from.

Like how physical life evolved from the ocean, so does our psychological inner worlds. The unconscious is the unfathomable source of everything. The insanity of the modern world is the hubris of the Ego (Latin for “I”) to think it is its own progenitor.

All religion and spiritual practices share the common goal of reconciling this split.

Dreams are the attempts of the unconscious to inform us of the danger we’re too blind to see.

They’re cryptic symbolic stories that when decoded, reveal profound wisdom and insight about ourselves. The Shadow will appear as anything dark and frightening. It’s a call to face something in your life you’re neglecting.

See HERE for a comprehensive guide to dream analysis.

Approach #2: Active Imagination

If dreams are the unconscious talking to us, active imagination is us talking back on the same symbolic level

Jung developed this method during his “confrontation with the unconscious.” A period of isolation, depression, and questioning. Simply:

1. Sit down with pen and paper (I use Apple Notes)

2. Close your eyes and call for an audience

3. Communicate and engage with whatever fantasy presents itself to you

[Key points for each stage]: