Shadow Witchcraft: Fear, Love, Dreams, and the Self
My practice takes on a selfish route. I am a Shadow Witch and I work with myself. My specific areas of Shadow Work have to do with Beauty, Vanity, Fear, Dreams, and Nightmares. This is how I interpret my own personal path, and thus this has experiences I have had in this path. I apologize in advance for awkward articulation. I hope this can provide some sort of aid or insight.
Shadow
Shadow is the side of us we may hide or lock away, or even avoid. For some, it’s due to trauma, and for others we may not even know about this side of ourselves yet, and there is a large variety of reasons and no single person fits a single reason, but everyone has a Shadow.
Shadow Work I: A Series of Little Deaths
Shadow Work II: Types and Terms
Shadow Work III: Timing
Musings on Shadow Work
Shadow Work Masterpost
Shadow Work Exercises Masterpost
Shadow Work Mega Masterpost
On Shadow Work by GLE
Shadow Work by Cauldron And Brew
How to Meet and Own Your Shadow by Scott Jeffrey
About Shadow Work by Seminars Incorporated
The Shadow by Society of Analytical Psychology
Chasing the Shadow by Peter Michaelson
Ultimately, it is neither bad nor good. It simply is, and it shapes us into who we are. There is a reason, nature or nurture or both, for the way we are, and exploring it helps us understand ourselves. Sometimes it can be rough, and so it may not be for everyone, and not every aspect of ourselves are ready to be explored. Part of Shadow Work is understanding your limitations before pushing too far.
Fear
Shadow Work is often the discovery of why you feel the way you do, down to it’s roots. Not everything can be completely overcome, especially for the traumatic or irreparable, but to understand why you feel the way you do, be it fear or the necessity of something, you can understand how to better manage it yourself.
The Psychology of Fear by Saberi Roy
The Psychology of Fear by Arthur Westermayr
Facing Your Shadow by Denise Linn
On Suffering, Fear, and the Shadow Self by Lawrence Black
Fear and Anxiety by Carissa Kelvens
Stress, Trauma, Anxiety, Fears and Psychosomatic Disorders
In some of these they brief the psychology of fear (a couple may be rather old, but should not be completely dismissed). We usually fear things for a reason, even the most “irrational” fears. A friend of mine had a deep fear of seeing a velociraptor in his hallway in the middle of the night when he goes to use the bathroom. It’s very specific, but we come to find he had a memory of watching Jurassic Park when he was very young and the velociraptors in the kitchen scene scared the wits out of him. Sometimes finding your Shadow and facing your fears doesn’t mean you stop being afraid, it just means you understand where they are coming from. I often see many people, especially blood and death workers talk about overcoming fear of blood and death. I don’t think it’s necessary. Certain fear is healthy, there is often reasons why, but I also don’t think it’s bad to overcome them. Good for you for doing so, but personally that is not my goal.
Understand Fear, Not Rule Over It
If being afraid of something interferes with your daily life, then that is when you need to begin to overcome it. Otherwise, unless you really want to, there isn’t any real need to overcome any fears at all. There are points, however, you may not realize a fear is hindering you. Shadow Work often helps you realize how and why it is. Your fear of spiders or clowns can still continue, so long as you understand where it comes from. Usually, understanding where the fear comes from helps you overcome them, anyway, but it’s not always the case.
Love
When it comes to Love, Beauty, and Vanity, there is nothing wrong with any of these things. Some people don’t believe that everyone is beautiful and that ugliness can still exist - which is fine. Ugliness is a part of Beauty. Just as it isn’t necessary to overcome fear, it isn’t necessary to believe everything is beautiful, and you can come to terms with ugliness. This is where Love comes in. TO love yourself above all things should be a decent goal to have in mind. You don’t have to love yourself to be loved, but you should work on trying to love yourself. Start by accepting things. Accept you can’t do XYZ, accept you can’t be XYZ, and be fine with it. Be fine with things you can’t do, have, or be.
If you wear makeup, the act of putting on makeup should be more therapeutic than work. If you find it deeply stressing, if you get upset by missing a wing in your eyeliner, or you skewed your false lashes a bit, take a breather. Accept that it’s not perfect and go about your day. Even if you think about a mess up all day, don’t do anything about it. It’s not as bad as you think. If you wear a lot of makeup, start wearing slightly less, bit by bit. For some people, makeup, as fun and glamorous as it is, becomes an obsession more than a hobby or an art form. Take a break.
During this time, think about why you feel it’s necessary. Trust me when I say if it becomes a big part of your life, it can become addicting and eventually it’s own form of madness. Do you feel ugly without it? You can either accept that maybe yes, you are ugly. Most people are. That’s fine. That’s life. Or you can accept that maybe you’re not ugly and you’re obsessing over an image that isn’t natural and held to a near impossible standard. Once you can get over the idea that makeup isn’t a necessary part of life, you can accept yourself a little more, love yourself a little more, and simply wear makeup because you want to, because it’s fun, not because you have to.
Acceptance then love. But there is nothing wrong with you if you can’t bring yourself to love yourself immediately. It takes time. That’s what shadow is for. Learn the whys. Accept what you can, overcome what is necessary.
Understand where you stand on Love, and why. Learn the nooks and crannies of why you feel the way you feel. As I said before on fear, it is not always necessary to overcome, but usually knowing why does lead to overcoming.
Vanity and Beauty isn’t just about clothes and makeup. It’s taking care of yourself as best as you can, making yourself feel good. Hedonism, for example, is important to me, to seek happiness and pleasure wherever I can find it. Herbal baths, comfort clothes, mirror spells, slime and stim tools, silk bed sheets, whatever makes you feel comfortable, safe, and happy.
Happiness and Vanity are important with Shadow Work, especially during the recovery process. Shadow can take a lot out of you, especially when you discover things about yourself you didn’t consciously know of or locked away deep. Love comes in many forms, especially in the form of self-care and recovery.
Dreams
Dreams often let us know what’s going on in our minds. Especially Nightmares. The surrealist landscapes and odds and ends of dreams are our minds trying to make sense of our hidden feelings and what we see around us. Sometimes, what may be scary dreams, aren’t that scary at all, and our minds try their best to interpret what may be necessary or what we are thinking into images and how we perceive those images.
Dream Interpretation
Oneiromancy Basics
What is a Nightmare?
The Lost Art of Dream Divination
Dreams are so very personalized, person to person, even culture to culture. One of those links says not to trust Dream Dictionaries. I have had hits and misses both with Dream Dictionaries and I don’t think you should avoid them completely, but not take them word for word. They help provide insights as to how something can be interpreted.
For example, I often dream of dying or dead kittens usually being killed in some brutal or horrible manner. Various dream dictionaries say that kittens represent some kind of innocence. Which is very vague, but not incorrect, and that dreaming of dying baby animals in general may mean the loss of innocence. While this is not entirely correct for me, it did help me realize that every time I have had a dream of a kitten dying or being killed, it was symbolic of myself growing as a person and leaving nostalgic things behind that I can’t do anything about. It’s often so jarring, that I don’t forget it, and I do often feel like a new person. So in part a part of me “died” or rather was left behind.
Dreams and Nightmares both are important and keeping a Dream Journal or Dream Diary, although not crucial, is certainly helpful.
Common dreams, such as teeth falling out have various interpretations, especially across the world. As far as I’m aware, in the US its interpreted as a sign of anxiety, especially something for your self image, a common dream to have before graduation, before a speech, or something else, but can also be an omen of death, a sign of fear of aging or mortality, or even a fresh or new start (typically symbolic of pregnancy if I am correct). So however you, yourself interpret it, also keep in mind whatever the past couple days have been or what the next few days will be. It helps in interpreting the context of your dreams.
Self
Shadow Work is to help you, yourself, and no one else. My personal practice consists of beauty, glamours, protection, and curses all meant to help myself, to make myself feel good, to make myself feel and be protected, to feel safe and secure. Sometimes glamours consist of invisibility, instead of beauty or vanity.
Dream interpretations are incredibly personal and only you may truly know what they mean, but don’t feel as if there is shame in asking for help or looking into dictionaries for a second opinion.
All that you are now, all that you show people, comes from your Shadow. How you act, how you grew, not all of it is always negative in your Shadow self. Sometimes it simply means something that is yet to be discovered.
Sometimes, you can know and learn the Shadows of others. In most cases this may be an invasion of privacy. Sometimes you can aid someone, but personally I usually use it as a form of cursing. To know someone’s fears, weaknesses, how they love, what they think of themselves, it’s a powerful weapon.
Dreadweaving - Weaving fear as magic in the astral
Shadow is supposed to help you. Even if that means it helps you help others, it’s about the self, self-discovery, and the reasons why you are the way you are, why you feel the way you feel.
Understand that Shadow Work is not meant for everyone. Some people may not be ready, if ever, to dive into certain aspects of their lives, especially those with traumas or those who experience troubles with mindfulness. Shadow Work is meant to work for you, so take your steps to keep yourselves safe.
Tools
Any witch can use their own tools, but I have had best results and experiences with using:
Divination tools - Any kind of divination is useful to help you interpret fear, dreams, and search deeper into yourself. There are exercises available for exploration with divination. In general you can use anything for divination, be it cracking open a can of soup and splatting it on the ground or looking in an art book as a form of stichomancy. I prefer to use cards, bones, runes, pendulum, dice, books, and writing.
Incense, smoke sticks, resin, oil, etc - Aromatherapy mixed with witchcraft is helpful. Power yourself with your favourite scent, relax yourself, or use the smoke to make a pattern, a sigil in the air or divine with it, make a spell or a curse as you see fit. The smoke of incense for me is the most important aspect, a visual representation to look into, along with whatever corresponds to the scent you have chosen.
Mirror - Mirror scrying takes a lot out of me, but if you have a decent mirror, a dim room, and a candle behind it, you can scry to your hearts content with better visuals than what most forms of divination can offer. Technically a form of divination, but I still find it to be important. I also feel the symbolism of reflection is an additional help.
Journals/Books - Not just grimoires, but to keep track of symbols in your dreams, in your scrying. I hadn’t noticed myself, but some dreams I have had repeat before. While the kitten killing dreams are vivid and horrendous, there are other dreams thet reoccur that I hadn’t noticed reoccur until I wrote them down. Keeping track of dreams, symbols, images, and more. Likewise, keep a journal for self-discovery. You don’t have to be certain for every entry. I have asked questions in my own entries before. As you continue to grow, you will always learn more. It doesnt have to be fancy. It’s purposeful. However, you can pretty up a binder or bullet journal if you really want to.
Outlets for Self-Care - this is probably the most important. You can do without journals, mirrors, divination, etc but you need an outlet to heal yourself. Think of it like metaphorical self-surgery. Your exploring your spiritual innards and needs to suture and rest after every session. You an take hours, days, or weeks if you’d like, enchant your stim tools or draw yourself a magic bath or cook yourself an energized meal, but whatever you do, make sure you properly heal before you dive back in, else it could end up hurting you.
My path for the Self is always growing, and I hope this provided at least some help or insight for Shadow Work and different aspects of it, as well as any uses of it in your potential craft.
