What is Shadow Work?

The shadow self is coming up for a lot of people as an important theme to work on right now, but what exactly is it and why is it so important?

If you've had a reading from me in the past couple of years, there is a good chance I may have mentioned the topic of "shadow work" as my guides have been highlighting this for many people.

Just as a quick disclaimer, before we start, I'd like to clarify I am not a counsellor or psychologist, and this is not any sort of medical or psychology advice - it's simply my personal understanding of the topic based on my own experience and what my spirit guides have communicated to me. If you'd like to know more about the psychology, I recommend researching the work of Carl Jung or speaking to a professional therapist such as Chrissy Sawyer.

So what is all this Shadow stuff about anyway?

If you've been around or involved with the spiritual or holistic communities for any length of time you will undoubtedly have heard the word "light worker" being used to describe people. It's a moniker I used to employ myself, but I realised it was not only outdated, but also something of a mistaken identity. As I explained in my blog from May 2019 "Why I don't call myself a lightworker anymore" to only focus on the light and not to explore the darker aspects of the self is in my opinion a big mistake. The shadow self in this context, includes the parts of us that we don't want to admit are there, the bits we are not proud of or perhaps have convinced ourselves don't exist within us. The anger, negative emotions, narcissism, excessive pride among many other possible things lurking in the dark corners of our subconscious. 

We live in a world where you're told from a very early age that you "have to be good" and this is reinforced by the overly glib, good versus bad, black hat white hat television and movies in popular culture. 

As a result, I believe that we hide and deny the "bad" aspects of self so that we can, at least on a surface level, believe ourselves to be "good" so we feel acceptable to society. To accept that there is "bad" within us is terrifying on many levels - we may fear rejection by others, by society, or persecution. To believe we are "bad" can lead to painful feelings of guilt, dread and terror that we will never be happy, loved or accepted. 

The good news here is that we can work on those darker, shadow aspects of the psyche, and the key here is to find them, heal the wounds and integrate them so we become a whole, holistic person, balancing the light and dark within.

In hindsight, I see the irony of many people in the holistic community completely rejecting the shadow aspect of self, and trying to portray themselves as holier than thou, whiter than white and somehow better than the next person because they are "only love and light." Love and light my ass - I've met some very nasty people in all walks of life including that one. 

Shadow Work for the Age of Aquarius

As we move further into the new age of enlightenment, a Great Awakening is taking place. Part of this awakening is to see what other people are doing which is harmful to others, and how the systems and governments of the world may actually be doing more harm than good, but that is only half the story. The other half is on the inner plane, within each one of us, and that is where the most important work needs to be done. After all, we cannot control what other people do, but we do have agency over ourselves, our actions, reactions and choices. 

From a spiritual perspective, I believe that the outer world is a reflection of the inner landscape, so it would make sense that healing and integrating the shadow on the inside would in turn bring about a happier, more whole, healed and healthy world around us. 

This isn't about "goodies" versus "baddies" much as Hollywood might try to tell us it is. 

Shadow work involves recognising that each one of us is "good" AND "bad" and that we must take responsibility for our own personal healing if we want to make the world a better place. 

In my opinion, doing your inner healing work and working to heal the wounds, karma, ancestral karma and negative patterns of your own life are the most important things you can be doing right now, as we usher in the new age, the new energy.  Spiritual growth requires radical honesty - we can no longer hide behind the ego we have built up, that we use as a mask that we show to the world what we would want them to believe about us, while denying our darkness.

We must heal ourselves, otherwise our growth will be forever stunted and the world will remain in the mess its been in for a long while now.

Change truly comes from within, and it begins with our own shadow.