The Ultimate List of Resources for Shadow Work
Here are some amazing resources that can help you when trying to explore your shadow self:
Robert Augustus Masters - Bringing Your Shadow Out of the Dark: This book provides a direct, very comprehensive look at shadow (in personal and collective contexts) as well as the tools needed to explore and effectively work with it. In this book you will find:
The nature of our shadow and how to optimally work with it—exploring our conditioning and core shadow elements, including in the domains of shame, fear, aggression, resistance, addiction, death, and spirituality
How to work with the child within, self-sabotage, narcissism, sexuality, dreams, and other matters deeply influenced by our shadow
Why turning toward our pain is an essential part of shadow work—making wise use of our pain
Collective shadow domains we share with family, social groups, political party, or nation—bringing them and their associated traumas into the light
Christine Jette - Tarot Shadow Work: Through Tarot work, journalling meditation, creative visualization, and dream work, you can free yourself from the shackles of the unbridled, unconscious power of your shadow self. This book is ideal for those who are in recovery from a serious addiction or illness, as well as any person seeking a deeper understanding of his or her true self.
Mastin Kipp - Claim Your Power: Mastin Kipp as he guides you on a 40-day journey, inspired by Joseph Campbell’s model of the hero’s journey, to identify and dissolve whatever’s holding you back, break free from trauma and victimhood, and transform your life. Not only will you change your life for the better, but in doing so, you’ll improve the lives of the people you love. With Claim Your Power, you’ll wake up energized by the momentum you’ve unleashed, an energy that will only increase with each new accomplishment and breakthrough.
Alyce Barry - Practically Shameless: How Shadow Work Helped Me Find My Voice, My Path, and My Inner Gold: Practically Shameless reveals for the first time that our resistance is a good guy, not a bad guy, in our inner drama. It demonstrates the surprising key to turning resistance into a forwarding movement: befriending that resistance by honoring the role it's been playing in protecting us. Once honored, our resistance becomes willing to stand down and take on, with its treasury of information on risks we've faced in the past, a new role as a valued ally as we begin to move forward.
Connie Zweig - Romancing the Shadow: As therapists Connie Zweig and Steve Wolf show in this landmark book, the shadow can actually be a source of emotional richness and vitality, and acknowledging it can be a pathway to healing and authentic life.
James Hollis - Why Good People Do Bad Things: In addition to its presence in our personal lives, Hollis looks at the larger picture of the Shadow at work in our culture—from organized religion to the suffering and injustice that abounds in our modern world. Accepting and examining the Shadow as part of one’s self, Hollis suggests, is the first step toward wholeness. Revealing a new way of understanding our darker selves, Hollis offers wisdom to help you to acquire more conscious conduct of your life and bring a new level of awareness to your daily actions and choices.
Debbie Ford - The Dark Side of the Light Chasers: Reclaiming Your Power, Creativity, Brilliance, and Dreams: Rather than reject the seemingly undesirable parts of ourselves, Ford offers advice on how to confront our shadows. Only by owning every aspect of yourself can you achieve harmony and "let your own light shine," she explains. "The purpose of doing shadow work is to become whole. To end our suffering. To stop hiding ourselves from ourselves. Once we do this we can stop hiding ourselves from the rest of the world."
Journal Prompts: There are so many benefits to journaling, especially for your mental wellness. If you deal with stress, anxiety, depression, or even if you’re just feeling a bit overwhelmed, journaling can really help.
Marie-Louise von Franz - Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales: Dr. von Franz concludes that every rule of behavior that we can learn from the unconscious through fairy tales and dreams is usually a paradox: sometimes there must be a physical struggle against evil and sometimes a contest of wits, sometimes a display of strength or magic and sometimes a retreat. Above all, she shows the importance of relying on the central, authentic core of our being--the innermost Self, which is beyond the struggle between the opposites of good and evil.
Other useful links:
