In the Star of Discovery and the Star of Recovery, I was able to identify my Shadow qualities and therefore become acquainted with them, delving further into where they came from and how through the years they had grown. My journey now, as I work through Tarot Shadow Work, using the dark symbols to heal, has brought me to learning how to communicate between my intellect (my conscious mind) and my non-rational Shadow side (my unconscious mind) in order to bring them out of the shadows and into the light.
The personal Shadow resides in the unconscious mind and can be accessed by dreams, artistic expression, fairy tales and myth...in my case.. writing is my form of creativity to which I express myself (and you have all come with me on my journey each time you have read my posts). We all dream each night but not all of us remember these dreams... a terrific idea is a dream journal. I am going to be keeping a dream journal beside my bed so that I may jot down my dreams (that I remember) in the morning while they are still fresh in my mind.Our conscious self (or ego as identified by Carl Jung) is the gatekeeper and most of the time our rational mind prevents any communication with our non-rational mind. We develop defenses or coping skills in order to help us survive painful emotional traumas and events... they serve to protect us from fears and anxieties and when we try to bury these uncomfortable emotions they can often emerge as depression. The Shadow will never be deceitful about itself but the ego (or acceptable parts of our conscious self) will falsify it's true motives.
The intellectual side will refuse insight and actually contribute more to it's unhappy state than the very Shadow it tries to repress. These repressed parts hold a great amount of energy and potential for growth but we must travel the path through the darkness into healing and freedom...all that is required is honesty on our part.
