Shadow Work Is Not What You Think It Is

This new pushback against shadow work that I’ve been seeing within the last 5 to 10 years is honestly such an absolutely strange thing to me.

🠶 It used to be that psychology was taught as integral to both Witchcraft and Religion within Pagan spaces; where we actually understood things such as the Snowball Effect, and Frequency Bias- and some exasperated old Hag didn’t have to explain it to us after seeing the 5th post from us in the Tumblr tags, panicking because the number of Crows picked up in our neighborhood this week. These were common knowledge among practitioners, taught as standard.

🠶 It used to be that psychology was seen not only as an important part of the Discernment process as a whole ... But that it was especially integral to the process of learning to recognize and understand one’s own intuition, and to the process of Spirit communication and discerning between one’s inner voice and “their voice”, etc- but also important to then Verifying these things instead of going off half cocked like a banshee and getting one’s self hurt.

🠶 There was also point in time where the understanding of the inner self, the true desire, and the true drive were the first steps a budding practitioner took on the road to finding where they fit within Paganism in the first place- because not all paths are meant for everyone. And once more paths started emerging, it became integral to the process of discerning one’s correct path.

🠶 Once upon a time leading students through basic Shadow Work techniques went part and parcel with all of this- as did handing them a Psychology 101 text book.

But now Shadow Work's actual meaning has been completely lost- or warped and twisted in the most ridiculous ways. So now you have the rise of this absolute nonsense like “Jung Created Shadow Work” (he absolutely did not); and “Shadow Work isn’t Witchcraft, it’s just psychology” (despite the fact that it’s all of the above and more; it was explicitly designed as the merger between Spirituality, Witchcraft, and Psychology); and "Shadow Work is just self-directed psychotherapy" (despite the fact it's not, and that's an entirely modern conceptualization of it in the last 5 to 10 years).

You get authors who act as if Jung was always this sort of super serious psychologist who never did anything even remotely magical in his life (and was definitely not the absolutely batshit insane Occult Bro he actually was, going around and proudly giving lectures on the Paranormal); all these puddle deep feel good uwu articles promising people they’re still valid witches if they never do an ounce of shadow work in their entire lives (true, but weird); or the much weirder: “You can’t do Shadow Work alone, it’s too dangewous and scary to handle your own trama!”. But it’s honestly all nonsense.

While Jung certainly was an Occult dude-Bro who had his hands deep in many pies ... Jung didn’t actually create Shadow Work as it is known and practiced among Pagans, Occultists, and Witches ... Hell, Jung didn’t even create the concept of the Shadow at all, in the first place. He just popularized a specific model of it.

Freud and several others throughout history had already invented their own psychological concepts of the Shadow well before Jung ever did. Jung's just became the most popular for a variety of reasons. Namely because of his actual theories (which the Shadow was only a very minute part of) were the concepts of the Collective Unconscious and Collective Archetypalism- which were very popular with Occult practitioners at the time. And likely because Jung was also, again, a seasoned Occultist in his own right- giving his theories more frequent space and weight within the various Occult spaces that were burgeoning at the time.

It was, honestly, more of a "perfect storm for the solidification of an extant idea already swimming around" kind of situation that Jung was just lucky enough to happen to be at the head of at the time, rather than the "one dude had such a damned brilliant idea everyone stole it from him (and now we're all pretending it's Witchcraft when it isn't)" kind of thing everyone seems to be tying to make it out to be these days.

Anyways: The actual Craft (as in Witchcraft) of Shadow Work was a later development based on many elements of Jung’s work in relation to Collective Archetypalism. But while Jung's psychology may have formed the foundation of it, the Craft of Shadow Work was ultimately developed as a pathworking tool by Pagan Elders that explicitly combined this psychological theory with witchcraft and ritual for spiritual and religious purposes; it was explicitly a magico-spiritual and religious Craft focused on The Self, utilizing Jung's theories as a base root from which to work.

Jung’s major contribution is really just the concept of Collective Archetypalism- but specifically how he conceptualized of "The Self" within that Archetypal system; in his theory, the Ego, a force called Anima / Animus, and the Shadow all existed alongside one another within an individual in order to create The (whole) Self.

Jung's own process of actually confronting this Shadow was called Individuation. And Integration or Assimilation of the Shadow during that process of Individuation was only occasionally considered a possibility- but not always. More importantly, Integration or Assimilation during Individuation wasn't even really the point of his process overall. It was just ... Something that might sometimes happen; you weren't supposed to necessarily Integrate or Assimilate it. You were just supposed to acknowledge it in order to better understand The Self.

In other words: Original Shadow Work, as it was developed in those spaces, when correctly practiced, is the complete process of ritually / magically manifesting, confronting, and embracing your Shadow (though not necessarily integrating or assimilating it. However, that did sometimes come to play an important part as Shadow Work continued to develop). And it was explicitly concerned with uncovering the inner self and finding one’s true will- particularly in regards to one's religious and spiritual development, and specifically as part of the overall process of self actualization as a magical practitioner.

It was not conceptualized as purely psychology, nor as a psychological tool in and of itself (indeed, it was often said you should see an actual Psychologist on the side in addition to Shadow Work, as they were considered "complimentary to the same goal" but distinct enough to not be the same). Uncovering and working through your trauma or other psychological issues was, and has never really been (until incredibly recently), the point of Shadow Work in Pagan, Witchcraft, and Occult spaces. And this is in keeping in line with Jung's original intent of Individualization, and the lack of Integration or Assimilation of the Shadow as a necessity of its acknowledgement and confrontation, even.

You will also recognize the actual intent and reasoning behind true Shadow Work as being much more in line with the teachings, beliefs, and work of people like Crowley during the time for a reason. Because while the foundation of the work may come from Jungian psychological theory? The reasoning and methodology is largely influenced by things like Crowley's concept of True Will- which itself was highly influential to most Witchcraft of the Revival.

The reason Shadow Work- or this blend of spiritual, religious, magical, and psychological methods in order to uncover one’s true inner voice and will- was so important to our Elders, and to the budding revival, was multifold. And most of it's already been mentioned.

🠶 First, its practice helped Seekers and Postulants determine which spiritual path was right for them in the first place; even today, not all paths are right for everyone. One of the main tenants of belief was the ability for everyone to chose their own path (as opposed to being “born to it” or “forced into it” as many had been with Christianity). And the ability to properly discern, evaluate, and describe one’s true beliefs is absolutely integral to determining which path is right (or, if none are right at all)- thus determining if a Seeker becomes a Postulant to them, or to some other Coven, or to no one.

🠶 Secondly, once a path is established, it becomes integral to helping one connect to their inner intuition- which is considered an integral guiding force within many of the paths that were developing during the Revival (and is still considered an integral guiding force among many paths today, religious or not). It was also integral in further aiding one in discerning what was one’s own voice and intuition, vs what is genuine Spiritual communication from the Others.

In the process of teaching that, people naturally learned about things such as The Snowball Effect, Frequency Bias, and other things which may effect our personal (and natural) penchant for overblowing things or seeing signs that aren’t actually there; they were explicitly taught to critically evaluate their own experiences, and the process of Discernment, Verification, and Validation; this was a common process, and a required one that everyone was expected to participate in.

🠶 Third, one’s True Will- knowing exactly what you want to achieve, and (through the proper study of the system you have chosen) precisely how to achieve it- is integral to the concept of Intent, and the very act of performing magic itself; someone who does not have strong a strong will does not have strong intent, and therefore does not have strong magic. Strengthening one’s will and ability to solidify their intent, then, becomes and active part of learning magic in the first place, and improving one’s self as a practitioner.

🠶 And finally, they are also susceptible to danger if not … Not in the way that “like attracts like” and other completely modern corruptions of the idea. But because confidence in one’s work and abilities actively makes one less likely to make mistakes, more able to navigate the realm of magic and Spirits safely- though there is a lot to be said about overconfidence. By contrast, someone who is second guessing themselves and their work constantly, and their true will and intent, is more prone to making mistakes and leaving holes or loose ends in their work.

There are many other reasons, of course. This is just a simplistic list of the main ones. But that is ultimately what it's supposed to be about ... And so you are guided through "Shadow Work": The magico-spiritual process of deeply centering within yourself in order to find and uncover your True Self and True Will beneath all that which society and previous systems have placed on you (made manifest as your "Shadow" in a way that you can "tangibly" interact with via ritual)- and of gaining the active confidence to embrace it, and then apply it to both the world and especially your magic.

More importantly? While some elements of proper Shadow Work should reasonably be done with a guide- such as a spiritual teacher or therapist, or at the very least some kind of text materials so that you’re not flying blind as a bat and actually have some kind of idea of what you’re doing and where the end posts are? It’s frankly not “dangerous” for the vast majority of people who attempt it. Because confronting any kind of mental heath issues or trauma isn’t even a part of properly practiced shadow work 99.99% of the time to begin with; the point is to find your True Will and True Desire. Sometimes that necessitates confronting trauma. But most times, and for most people, however, it does not- or, at least, most people do not have significantly dangerous trauma that would make it disasterous to do such work alone and unguided.

Anyways: I’m not here to say “you’re not a valid witch if you don’t do psychology / shadowork”. That’s nonsense; the only maker of the ‘validity’ of a Witch is in whether or not they’re actually doing Witchcraft as defined by whatever Tradition you're a part of. If you’re doing Witchcraft according to the definition of whatever established practice or tradition you belong to, then congratulations, you’re a Witch. There’s no question of validity there- and anyone who says otherwise can piss up a pole.

But I am here to say- even as someone who loathes Jung and Freud both with every fiber of its being ... That Shadow Work was never any of ... That ... Originally; what is being practiced now isn't Shadow Work. It's not even Jungian based at all at this point. It's all modern Pop Psychology now- focused largely on using Therapeutic Journaling and other methods, done under the false guise of "Inner Exploration" and "Healing Your Trauma". And I think that's where a lot of this misunderstanding is coming from. But honestly, I don’t know where this new pushback against it is coming from. This has not been a thing until recently. And it's absolutely an uneducated and completely ahistorical take on Shadow Work’s traditional usage within the community (there is a reason that Shadow Work was seen as so integral to Witchcraft by our Elders). It is entirely a modern bit of nonsense that has only recently cropped up. It's brand new. And I need y'all to understand that: This is not normal.