The Importance of Shadow Work
You’re in the right place if you want to…
learn what the shadow is and what it means to do shadow work
understand how shadow work relates to witchcraft
become more in flow with learning about yourself and growing as a human and a witch
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To start off the show, we look at our Tarot Card for the week and we look for moments that relate to this card in our daily lives.
For this week, we chose the Five of Cups. The theme of this card is emotional perspective.
The figure in this card is wearing a heavy, black cloak and their head is bowed, looking down at three spilled cups. It has the appearance of grief, literally shrouded in darkness. There are two unspilled cups behind the figure that they are not giving any attention to.
To me, the three spilled cups are hopes and dreams lost. It’s important to spend time acknowledging that loss whether there is regret, grief, depression, hopelessness, anger, or another emotion. But at some point, it’s time to move on.
This card reminds us that time will go on without you, so don’t spend too much time focusing on what is lost. Take the time necessary and no more or less.
When this person is ready, they can turn around and see these other two cups that are still upright. I see these as the present and the future hopes and dreams. And all the potential that you. can find in the dreams and wishes of the present and the future.
You can hear Erica’s and Maggie’s stories related to the Five of Cups by listening to the episode.
What is Shadow Work?
The concept of shadow work comes from Carl Jung, who called the subconscious mind the human shadow because this is where he believed a person hides the darker aspects of their Self. Over time, the field of psychology began calling the work one does learning about and integrating their shadow, “shadow work”.
Where does the shadow come from?
The dark parts of the self come from a huge variety of sources making shadow work a lifelong, continuous pursuit of reflection, investigation, and evaluation. The Shadow is a culmination of every experience, every belief about yourself and the world, and every thought that you’ve ever had. It forms and solidifies primarily in childhood during your early development and impressionable years. This is when you start to comprehend what is normal based on your circumstances. Your unique version of normal becomes a measuring stick that you use to judge the experiences you have throughout your life.
Why do we need to do shadow work?
Since everyone has a unique story, with different traumas, experiences, parental figures, friendships, cultural and societal influences, etc. it varies, but we’ll boil it down to the essence that is common among all witches.
The reason witches need to do shadow work is ultimately to be better. Better witches, better in relationships with friends and family members, better at work or at home, better in love, better to the self.
I very rarely make statements about things ALL witches ought to do because each witchcraft practice is as unique as the witch. However, in the case of shadow work, I believe whole-heartedly that shadow work is a practice ALL witches should pursue in one way or another.
Witchcraft relies on a deep understanding of yourself and your relationship with your magic. Without shadow work, you function purely on the surface and this severely limits your potential.
Shadow work takes you into the dark, hidden parts of ourselves, that we ignore, pretend don’t exist, don’t want, etc. In this space you can learn about, evaluate, and accept yourself completely. It gives you freedom to change, and knowledge about how to change.
It’s important to remember that this isn’t about going in and hacking out the darker parts of yourself in order to match some idealized version of what you, someone else, or society says you should be. You are uncovering the parts that you have forgotten, or hidden. These parts may still be hurting or tender and the goal is to heal rather than remove.
Shadow work is self love at its most radical because you give yourself an opportunity to love the parts of yourself that you have been told are unworthy of love. This gives you the freedom to be exactly who you are, warts and all—so to speak.
Other things to consider
Limiting Beliefs
Another reason to practice shadow work is that magic relies at least in part on belief, and any beliefs you hold can either limit or empower your spellwork, ritual and other activities. Shadow work is how you dig into the parts of your mind to find out what beliefs are lurking there that may be affecting or blocking your manifesting abilities.
You can pour your energy into a spell, correspond with the proper spirit realm entity, choose a perfect time, collect the exact right materials, and everything else that goes into spellwork, but if you have a deeply held belief that you are unworthy of what you are asking for, or that you are being selfish to want more than what you have, or any other number of limiting beliefs, the magic is unlikely to work.
Your conscious mind may be saying “yes, I deserve it, it is already mine, I can do anything, I am capable of greatness,” but your subconscious mind can be working 24/7 in the background saying, “no, I don’t, I won’t ever have it, I’m worthless, I can’t do it.”
Know Thyself
Another reason to practice shadow work is to achieve a central principle of magic which is to “know thyself.” If you don’t know yourself, you will be taken by surprise frequently. It’s the same way other people can act in unpredictable ways until we know them better.
Without self knowledge, your magic will be ineffective at best and unpredictable with unintended consequences at worst.
Knowing yourself gives you the ability to access great power, understand your limits, and strengthen your weaknesses. It reveals your spiritual self so that you can better understand your dreams, connect with your psychic senses, travel the astral plane, or direct power into your spells and rituals.
Basically, Shadow Work is important to everyone because it is self therapy, and helps you accept yourself, which ultimately makes us feel happier and healthier. But perhaps more importantly for a witch in particular, shadow work is how you make your magic work with ease.
Spiritual Bypassing
I’ve told you what shadow work is, where the shadow comes from, and why we should practice shadow work, especially as witches. Now you may be wondering what happens if you don’t practice shadow work.
I know a lot of people who just pretend the shadow doesn’t exist, preferring to dwell in the realm of “love and light” and “positive vibes only”. And I get it, it feels much more pleasant to not muck about in the darker places of yourself and society.
Our universe exists with polarity in many ways. Certain aspects of our expereinces exist on a spectrum where it is hard to find the delineation between two opposites. For example:
Temperature: At what point does hot become cold?
Brightness: At what point does light become dark?
Moisture: At what point does wet become dry?
We can’t have light without shade and vice versa. Pretending otherwise is what’s considered Spiritual Bypassing.
Spiritual Bypassing is a term coined in 1984 by psychologist John Welwood. According to Welwood, spiritual bypassing is "the use of spiritual practices and beliefs to avoid dealing with our painful feelings, unresolved wounds, and developmental needs."
Spiritual bypassing takes multiple forms, most predominately in the form of suppressing one's own emotions. This is especially true of unpleasant emotions, such as anger.
Emotion
Humans can feel a range of emotions, and learning to recognize what emotion we are feeling, and why, is extremely healthy. Emotions let you know something is going well and how to recreate that feeling, Emotions also tell you when something is wrong, or unsafe, and should be addressed.
There is a misunderstanding in the spiritual, new age, and witchcraft communities, led by the love and light movement, that one must not have any "dark" emotions. It’s honestly prevalent in most areas of society especially in America. It’s actually a concept known as toxic positivity.
The belief here is that magic works through attracting a similar vibration to that of our thoughts. So, if you have negative thoughts, it follows that you would attract negativity.
Recommended Reading: Bright Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich
But the logic is flawed. The darker aspects of ourselves don't disappear because we ignore them. In fact, they get worse. With a love and light “be positive” mentality, we end up judging others and ourselves for expressing negative emotions in favor of “staying positive”.
I’m not saying being positive isn’t a good thing. It’s much more pleasant to live your life feeling happy and healthy and whole. But, you can’t skip the hard work of dealing with the low vibe emotions.
By doing shadow work you learn the tools and techniques you need to recognize the unhelpful emotions, understand where they are coming from, and let them go.
So, live in love and light, but don’t bypass the work to get there. 💜
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Send us a voicemail
We play one listener voicemail on each episode of Talk Witchcraft, with a few exceptions. To send us a voicemail, record a voice memo on your phone and email it to welisten [at] talkwitchcraft [dot] com. Please keep in mind that we only choose voicemails that are two minutes in length or shorter (even if they’re great!).
What we’re looking for in a voicemail
Share from your personal experiences (especially experiences that we could never have) and use that to illuminate the zodiac season or theme in new ways.
Ask questions of Erica and Maggie, so we have an opportunity to respond meaningfully to your voicemail during the podcast.
Use one of these prompts: Is there something happening with you and your life that aligns with the current zodiac season or a Tarot card? How do your experiences show us something new about the magic, something that we haven’t talked about so far?
Send a voicemail even if you’re behind on the podcast. If your voicemail is about a previous episode, zodiac season, or tarot card; that doesn’t mean we won’t choose it!
Tips for recording a great voicemail
Make sure you’re somewhere quiet.
Plan what you’re going to say ahead of time, because two minutes goes quickly.
Opt for talking freely based on a bullet pointed list rather than reading word-for word from a script.
Let us know if you’d prefer to remain anonymous.
Wait, don’t go yet!
Thanks for hanging out with me today. If you’ve enjoyed this post of Talk Witchcraft, I invite you to check out mumblesacademy.com.
Mumbles Academy is the place to be for intuitive souls at any stage on their WitchPath. Whether you are a Wildling at the very beginning of witchcraft journey and looking for a safe learning environment, a Creator who is already committed to their practice and wants to develop their witchcraft skills even more, or a Sage who full of wisdom already and is ready to share that with others, Mumbles Academy was designed for you.
With monthly masterclasses and live Q&As, an extensive archive of courses and training, and a supportive community to help you along the way with encouragement and advice, Mumbles Academy is the perfect place for you to be as you as you continue on your WitchPath.
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