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Tarot Shadow Work: Using the Dark Symbols to Heal Paperback – October 8, 2000
"In Tarot Shadow Work, Christine Jette bravely takes the practice of tarot readings to new depths and places many people fear to go. She shows us how we can use the cards to trigger awareness in ourselves of troubling aspects of our lives and histories, and then go beyond discovery to use the cards as tools for healing. This is part of the work that needs to be done with tarot in this new century."
―Rachel Pollack, author of 78 Degrees of Wisdom and the forthcoming Shining Tribe Tarot
Deep within our psyches, the unconscious holds our forbidden feelings, secret wishes, and creative urges. Over time, these "dark forces" take on a life of their own and form the shadow―a powerful force of unresolved inner conflicts and unexpressed emotions that defies our efforts to control it. The shadow takes its shape from a menagerie of archetypes, each recognizable throughout time and around the world―troubling characters who thrive within our persona. The shadow is sabateur, martyr, victim, addict, sadist, masochist, or tyrant; all the dark figures that prey on the lighter qualities of the human personality.
The shadow also represents those latent talents and positive traits that were banished from us at some time along our life path: artistic, musical, athletic, or creative talents. An undeveloped ability, a dream that has gone unexpressed, a fantasy of what might have been―these too make up the personal shadow, the lost parts of ourselves.
Tarot Shadow Work shows you how to free yourself from the shackles of the shadow's power. Through tarot work, journaling, meditation, creative visualization, and dream work, you will bring the shadow into the light. 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.
By exploring the dark and uncharted territory of the unconscious mind, you will work towards understanding and integrating the shadow. No prior knowledge of the tarot is required. You will learn to use the cards as a tool to help you break free from negative patterns and self-destructive behavior.
Once we realize that we are made of both light and darkness, life will start to make sense. When we accept our dual natures, we stop sabotaging our own efforts and learn to be compassionate with others and with ourselves.
- Print length264 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherLlewellyn Publications
- Publication dateOctober 8, 2000
- Dimensions6.25 x 0.75 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101567184081
- ISBN-13978-1567184082
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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
There is a shadow lurking in every person's inner life, a psychic darkness sheltering our inner conflicts and unexpressed emotions. It takes its shape from a menagerie of archetypes, each recognizable throughout time and around the world―troubling characters who thrive within our persona. The shadow is the saboteur, martyr, victim, addict, sadist, masochist, or tyrant, all the dark figures that prey on the lighter qualities of the human personality.
The shadow also represents those latent talents and positive traits that were banished from us at some time along our life path: artistic, musical, athletic, or creative talents. An undeveloped ability, a dream that has gone unexpressed, a fantasy of what might have been―these, too, make up the personal shadow, the lost parts of ourselves.
To channel the negative characters in our personality, we first must bring them into our waking consciousness. Tarot Shadow Work will help you come to terms with life's dualities, show you how to embrace the darkness, and teach you how to balance the light with the shadow in your own life. The entire world of the human psyche can be mapped out using the twenty-two cards of the tarot's major ajrcana, with each card tapping into a different quality of our psychology.
Accepting that we are made of both light and darkness, life will start to make sense. When we accept our dual natures, we stop sabotaging our own efforts and learn to be compassionate with others and with ourselves.
Prologue
Dusk
I was raised on a large Ohio farm in a traditional family structure―mother, father, older sister. I met my first dark shadow at the age of fourteen. Its name was anorexia nervosa. Despite the illness, I was valedictorian of my high school class. Graduation day was a happy time. I could not predict the descent into darkness that lay before me.
While in college, I met two more shadows. Their names were alcoholism and drug addiction. Not yet conscious of their power, I was swept into a downward spiral of self-destruction. I found myself in a physically abusive first marriage and here I met the fourth shadow―my willingness to be a victim. I felt controlled by nameless, powerful forces. My life was a frightening place.
After my divorce, I spiraled deeper and was taken to a psychiatric hospital by my family. It was 1983 and I was thirty years old. While hospitalized, I was introduced to psychotherapy and the concept of shadow. The horrible things happening to me had names and I had a personal responsibility to acquaint myself with them. It was up to me to take charge of my own recovery. After years of struggling, I was informed I had a choice. I could choose to live . . . or not. There was no way over, under, or around the shadow. The only path to freedom was through the darkness.
It was slow, painful work, but I discovered the shadow had a purpose. It carried messages about my personal growth. It pointed me to where I had been hurt and what I needed to examine. My life started making sense.
In this book, I define "shadow" as a person's unresolved inner conflicts and unexpressed emotions. Drawing on the experience of my own losses, I began to develop the idea of shadow work using tarot cards.
Tarot Shadow Work is a culmination of that endeavor; using the methods found here, inner conflicts can find resolution, unexpressed emotions can find a voice. Change occurs because of the power of choice. Choice leads to healing and the gift of healing is creative freedom.
The goal of this workbook is acceptance and integration of the shadow, not its rejection. What are the messages carried by your shadow? What is the shadow trying to convey to you about your personal growth? By understanding your own humanity you can extend that insight to others and know compassion.
I hope Tarot Shadow Work opens a new chapter in the story of your life. May it bring peace and healing to all souls in pain.
Christine Jette
Winter, 1999
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
There is a shadow lurking in every person's inner life, a psychic darkness sheltering our inner conflicts and unexpressed emotions. It takes its shape from a menagerie of archetypes, each recognizable throughout time and around the worldtroubling characters who thrive within our persona. The shadow is the saboteur, martyr, victim, addict, sadist, masochist, or tyrant, all the dark figures that prey on the lighter qualities of the human personality.
The shadow also represents those latent talents and positive traits that were banished from us at some time along our life path: artistic, musical, athletic, or creative talents. An undeveloped ability, a dream that has gone unexpressed, a fantasy of what might have beenthese, too, make up the personal shadow, the lost parts of ourselves.
To channel the negative characters in our personality, we first must bring them into our waking consciousness. Tarot Shadow Work will help you come to terms with life's dualities, show you how to embrace the darkness, and teach you how to balance the light with the shadow in your own life. The entire world of the human psyche can be mapped out using the twenty-two cards of the tarot's major ajrcana, with each card tapping into a different quality of our psychology.
Accepting that we are made of both light and darkness, life will start to make sense. When we accept our dual natures, we stop sabotaging our own efforts and learn to be compassionate with others and with ourselves.
Prologue
Dusk
I was raised on a large Ohio farm in a traditional family structuremother, father, older sister. I met my first dark shadow at the age of fourteen. Its name was anorexia nervosa. Despite the illness, I was valedictorian of my high school class. Graduation day was a happy time. I could not predict the descent into darkness that lay before me.
While in college, I met two more shadows. Their names were alcoholism and drug addiction. Not yet conscious of their power, I was swept into a downward spiral of self-destruction. I found myself in a physically abusive first marriage and here I met the fourth shadowmy willingness to be a victim. I felt controlled by nameless, powerful forces. My life was a frightening place.
After my divorce, I spiraled deeper and was taken to a psychiatric hospital by my family. It was 1983 and I was thirty years old. While hospitalized, I was introduced to psychotherapy and the concept of shadow. The horrible things happening to me had names and I had a personal responsibility to acquaint myself with them. It was up to me to take charge of my own recovery. After years of struggling, I was informed I had a choice. I could choose to live . . . or not. There was no way over, under, or around the shadow. The only path to freedom was through the darkness.
It was slow, painful work, but I discovered the shadow had a purpose. It carried messages about my personal growth. It pointed me to where I had been hurt and what I needed to examine. My life started making sense.
In this book, I define "shadow" as a person's unresolved inner conflicts and unexpressed emotions. Drawing on the experience of my own losses, I began to develop the idea of shadow work using tarot cards.
Tarot Shadow Work is a culmination of that endeavor; using the methods found here, inner conflicts can find resolution, unexpressed emotions can find a voice. Change occurs because of the power of choice. Choice leads to healing and the gift of healing is creative freedom.
The goal of this workbook is acceptance and integration of the shadow, not its rejection. What are the messages carried by your shadow? What is the shadow trying to convey to you about your personal growth? By understanding your own humanity you can extend that insight to others and know compassion.
I hope Tarot Shadow Work opens a new chapter in the story of your life. May it bring peace and healing to all souls in pain.
Christine Jette
Winter, 1999
Product details
- Publisher : Llewellyn Publications (October 8, 2000)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 264 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1567184081
- ISBN-13 : 978-1567184082
- Item Weight : 13.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 0.75 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,114,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,390 in Tarot
- #14,139 in Occult & Paranormal
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- Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2023Christine Jette is brilliant! Her work is so important for each of us! The book may be $200+ but that is cheaper than a lot of himming and hawing with behavior! Let's live our best lives
- Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2023This book is the best shadow work book I have come across. Well written and full of great information.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2014I bought this for my daughter as a way of bringing her interest in Tarot on to what I felt was a more practical footing: the Jungian examination of the self. She's enjoying this.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2008A friend of mine, loved my copy so much he ask that I purchase a copy for him. This book is great for helping to identify our talents, abilities, gifts and challenges.A positive approach to shadow work.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2000I think I was expecting something else when I picked up this book. There are just so many ways of working with shadow energy. But I am not at all disappointed (even though my copy apparently had a few printing errors, fuzzy pages, etc.) This book fills a little gap in my Tarot library.
Author Jette provides readers with a little-explored area of working with Tarot Cards. It involves using the Tarot to release yourself from the grips of your shadow, be it an addiction, bad habit, an illness, or unresolved feelings or conflicts. The first thing to mention is that Jette only utilizes the 22 Major Arcana cards, noting that they symbolize the spiritual journey, and shadow work itself is a spiritual endeavor.
Jette provides some primer information on the tarot -- background, Jung and the Tarot, the care and use of the cards and setting the proper tone and atmosphere (meditating, grounding, etc) for the readings. She also spends plenty of space discussing the shadow and shadow work, including, for example, how to prepare for shadow work, building a shadow altar and forgiveness as part of the letting go process.
What is truly inspired are the readings you follow along, and do in sequence, as you make your way through the book. They all use a star-patterned spread design. The "Star of Discovery" spread is about uncovering exactly what you need to know about your shadow. The "Star of Recovery" spread examines, in greater detail, one of the cards from the first reading that troubled the reader the most, in order to focus in on what may be in need of healing or coming to terms with. The next spread, "Star of Illumination", reveals the gifts of working with the shadow -- the positive energy you receive through self-acceptance and awareness. It again involves one of the cards from the first spread. The "Star of Hope", the final spread, allows you to plan and visualize a possible future, one of hope.
There are even more exercises, affirmations, meditations, etc. provided for seekers, and an appendix of Major Arcana meanings -- the shadow meaning and the shadow gift interpretation of each card.
The author is an RN, health educator, and theraputic touch practitioner who has 25 years experience in working with and studying the Tarot. This is a wonderful book for those seeking healing and recovery, or for anyone looking for methods of deeper self exploration.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2020The book looks great! Is there a deck to go with the book?
- Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2005I bought this book based on the unanimous positive reviews here at Amazon. I'm glad I got a used copy, because what I received is a volume of weak-minded New Age pabulum. I thought it would be interesting to see how the symbols of the tarot might be used for shadow work, but I was expecting--hoping for?--something considerably more rigorous and credible, something with the clarity and common-sense applications of, say, a Robert A. Johnson book. But, unlike Johnson, Jette is not an analyst, and so we get a lot of pseudo-pagan nonsense about casting circles of protection and crystals. I can't take seriously declarations like, "Onyx can cause depression in some..." or "Rose quartz radiates universal love," or "Diamonds hold, absorb, magnify, and transmit pain." Is there really any clinical evidence to prove this, or is the author just passing along the standard gruel that she has read in other Llewellyn publications?
The author's method uses only the trump cards. I guess the standard wisdom is that the major arcana represent archetypes, and the Jungian psychology on which shadow work is predicated also relies on archetypes, but that seems to be as much of a reason that we get for limiting ourselves to 22 of 78 cards. It seems arbitrary an unnecessarily restrictive. After all, the entire deck presents a much wider range of experience than the 22 cards do, and to limit ourselves to the major trumps just because they have been historically referred to as "archetypes" seems silly and illogical. The unconscious--where the Shadow dwells--speaks the language of symbols, and there is no reason whatsoever to assume that it can only respond to the symbols presented in the trump cards.
The author claims to be non-sectarian in her presentation, but that seems to really mean that she is non-religious, at least in the sense of any mainstream religion. But her repeated references to "Crone wisdom" and her exhortation to call upon "Crone power" during shadow work belie that. The rituals she presents use wiccan rhetoric. Here's an example: "I ask that the Dark Goddess...bless and protect me during this rite. I ask for wisdom, guidance, and comfort as I deeply mourn my losses. I release the past and I am free. This is correct and for the good of all. May it harm none. So shall it be." Non-sectarian, my eye.
I don't really have a problem with the use of ritual, or candle-burning, or any of that. I don't think this stuff works in any supernatural or magical way--and there is certainly no credible evidence to suggest they do--but the unconscious does seem responsive to the symbols of ritual, and I think a good argument can be made for making healthy, life-affirming rituals a large part of our lives. But calling on "Crone power"....well, I don't think so.
This book is written by a woman and seems aimed primarily at women, although that might not be obvious on first reading. I don't think it excludes men, but where gender-specific issues are brought up, they tend to be female issues like rape and menopause and domestic abuse. That's fine, I guess, if you're a woman, or a Sensitive New Age guy who responds to the nurturing warm fuzzies this book throws around. I'm not that kind of guy, though, and don't respond to it--that is my own subjective experience, and not a problem with the book, which is free to find any audience it wants. (Readers might object that the crystal-healing nonsense is also free to find its own audience, and in a sense they might be right, but I think it is a completely different thing to pass off crystal-healing mumbo-jumbo as therapy.)
I still think that the symbolism of tarot might be used effectively for shadow work, and that the author's idea was a good one. Jette is sincere in what she offers, and her writing strong. She seems to genuinely care about helping people.
Top reviews from other countries
- TanyaReviewed in the United Kingdom on March 12, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Great study book!
My book arrived on time and in good condition. I received a lovely handwritten cat postcard too. Thank you Jill and the Moggies!
-
fabienneReviewed in France on January 13, 2013
2.0 out of 5 stars DECUE
JE N AI RIEN TROUVE DE NOUVEAU DANS CE LIVRE!!
C EST COMME SI JE LISAIS LES ARCANES DANS LEURS ASPECTS NEGATIFS, RIEN DE PLUS.
JE DEPLORE EGALEMENT L ABSCENCE DES ARCANES MINEURS DANS CET OUVRAGE, QUI A MON SENS EST INCOMPLET ET
BIEN TROP SUCCINCT PAR RAPPORT A D AUTRES LIVRES BIEN PLUS APPROFONDIS.
- Sarah LawrenceReviewed in the United Kingdom on August 21, 2013
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant!
Lost my original copy of this fabulous book so I'm delighted to have it back in my tarot library :o)
- Petite FaeReviewed in Canada on February 26, 2022
1.0 out of 5 stars Not readable on phone
I bought the digital version and it is not working on my phone. Not readable this way. Half cut. Sideways. Missing chapters. I asked for a refound but I am still disapointed because the subject was interresting.
Petite FaeNot readable on phone
Reviewed in Canada on February 26, 2022
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