The integration of the shadow is the first step of the analytical process on the path of Individuation, even before we become aware of the Anima and Animus.
The shadow reveals itself and is fulfilled as a direct result of our encounters with “others” (this is the meaning of an Opposition, and especially 1st House <=> 7th House), while the anima and the animus are unveiled later when we encounter the opposite sex. It’s often helpful to highlight that what we call the anima (the feminine nature) or the animus (the masculine nature) for one sex becomes the shadow for the other sex.
Uniting with their inner partner thus means that a person has already integrated their shadow, which means, in part, that they are also united with their fears, their madness, and that which they have rejected. This phase is often accompanied by Depression.
What is the shadow ?
The term Shadow brings to mind the archetype of a God right out of the horrific, mythological universe of H. P. Lovecraft, and in some ways this is true… 😉
The shadow is darkness, the destructive, repressed part of one’s outward personality : the unconscious part, a sort of “negative” that exists behind the “positive” that we put on display every day, and an inverted copy of our personality. And the sum of the “positive” and the “negative” together form the psyche in its entirety.
The ego is the structure of our mind that defines what is part of us and what is “othered”; the ego is the conscious, and the shadow is the unconscious. And like all parts of the unconscious, the shadow fiercely yearns to be a part of the conscious.
The shadow is thus a threatening, malevolent character that lies dormant inside of us. To find and understand our shadow, we need to objectively analyze those parts of our personality (our sub-personalities) that we judge to be problematic and detestable (for whatever reason). We are thus able to obtain an inventory of our shadow.
Any ethical judgment has an aspect of shadow because judging good and evil unavoidably implies a completely subjective evaluation that depends on a persons personality and even culture; the shadow is in some ways the “negative” of morality (and of tradition), it’s the “repellent” that pushes us to defend our “values” (or at least the elements that are judged as such, wrongly or rightly : again these ideas are subjective and not absolute). Given all of this, we see just how much the shadow has shaped people’s personalities, the collective unconscious, and different cultures since the beginning of time.
It’s important not to confuse the shadow with the Anima and Animus. In one’s mind, the “sex” of the shadow is the same as that of oneself.
We project our shadow onto people of our own sex (or onto “asexual” moral entities: states, businesses, religions, or any other group in our communities, which act as substitutes). We attribute our “negative qualities” to them so as to experience this dark side of our personality through others.
When we criticize someone for some sort of behavior that we judge to be negative, we are in fact speaking to and confronting our shadow : it’s our own “negative” that we are lashing out at ! There is no negative aspect that exists in the world outside of us that does not also exist inside of us. If a particular negative aspect did not exist somewhere inside of us, we would be incapable of recognizing it.
Any insignificant event that concerns a person other than ourselves but also arouses in us a significant emotional response inevitably leads us to question ourselves, because this reactionwhich is partially unjustified or disproportionateis a sign of our deep, repressed nature expressing itself, and thus a sign of our shadow expressing itself. This reaction is proportional to our shadow : the more intense and energetic the reaction, the deeper our unconscious repression is.
The purpose of these projections onto “others” is to establish contact with them, to make us move towards them, to have us to confront each other, and sometimes even to make us fight, but also to lead us to rely on each other, to expect the personal change that may be born from our relationships, and to hope that some sort of inner Creativity comes out of it all.
Our psychological complexes are in part the result of our shadow, and of the emotional impact that it may cause. Our shadow solidifies and eventually becomes “autonomous”. These resulting complexes are the part of our shadow that has not been integrated into ourselves and that causes mental blocks and psychological conflicts. They are the weak links in our personality, the repressed parts of our individuality.
The shadow may be extremely dark and destructive if we attempt to eliminate it, whereas it is not “bad” in and of itself if we accept it.
In order to gain access to the Anima and the Animus, one thing that we need to do is to experience the shadow; psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung said that we first need to meet our shadow in order to meet ourselves.
The pain that we feel when we come into contact with the shadow is directly proportional to our lack of self-understanding.
The less we know ourselves, the more we lie to ourselves, and the more we deny the reality of this part of ourselves, the harder it’ to be in contact with the shadow ! This is hard for everyone, because even the most objective and receptive of people drag their feet when faced with this worrying part of themselves that they wish did not exist. This is because gaining awareness of this “negative doppelganger” leads to psychological chaos and a partial collapse of the highly structured ego, which attempts to resist by “over-asserting” itself as the “true me”. Yet, we ourselves are the ones who create the shadow exactly as it is in our personality. Thus, we may be able to fight it, as we often wish to do, but we will never free ourselves completely from it : the shadow is part of life !
This is because the shadow holds in itself powerful, dark energies that we need in our lives. Even though the shadow is oriented toward the unconscious and might obscure the mind and interfere with the ego’s beliefs, it’s still “the negative intuition” that we need. It has many things to teach us if we know how to listen to it and understand it, and above all if we do not consider it as a shameful disgrace that should remain hidden.
Despite all of the negative aspects that we ascribe to it, the shadow is a necessary archetype for Individuation, as it has its own “qualities” that need to be integrated into one’s personality. We have to allow it to exist, to find the right balance, to analyze our reactions so that we can keep ourselves from repressing it, rather than attempting to stifle it at the risk of it inevitably emerging in our conscious through other means of expression and dividing our personality. It’s not desirable to eliminate our negative, dark side (at least that which we subjectively judge to be this way) because it’s a powerful motor of deep transformation.
Integrating one’s shadow means fulfilling the entirety of the potential that one showed at birth, finding the path of transcendence, and heading towards creativity.
The shadow in astrology
To analyze the shadow in the context of astrology, it’s necessary above all else to determine the essential “positive” features of a birth chart : the dominant planets, in the Signs and in the Houses, the dominant elements, etc. The shadow is influenced directly by the qualities of those Astrological Elements that are repressed, conflicting, and complementary. But the problem is that any part of the sky at one’s birth can be, or can become, a significator of the shadow.
Often, the best way to start is the following : the shadow is expressed most notably through Saturn, the “great malefic” of traditional astrology, in both signs and houses that it’s in because it’s this Saturnian essence, full of rigor and structure, that shapes the ego, in part unconsciously, and that the shadow reinforces. These obstacles lead us to higher levels of Individuation and understanding of our unconscious.
Saturn embodies “the inner enemy” (at least it’s an epicenter of the shadow, though it’s never the only relevant piece of the puzzle), and it mainly represents the Saturnian state of suffering, solitude, solemnity, etc. However, it can also be a sign of taking control of one’s life or of deep moral and spiritual values (see the theme of morality evoked above) : essentially, a sign of social accomplishment, once one has integrated its virtues (see the sign of Capricorn, which Saturn rules over).
The shadow may also be expressed through Pluto and the instincts that it represents. The forces of metamorphosis that accompany this planet are born from the unconscious, and thus in part from one’s dark side.
The Black moon, depending upon on how it’s experienced, and generally somewhat unconsciously, is an agent of transcendence that also works hand in hand with the shadow. In this unconscious dark side, our personality will find the complementarity necessary to fully express the seed of our incarnation in our search for perfection. It may also reflect sources of anxiety, phobias, and failures, and “suck the life-giving energies” from our conscious, that is to say from our “positive” personality, even leading to self-rejection, including the rejection of our physical body (ultimately causing various complexes and associated problems, such as anorexia or bulimia).
The Lunar Nodes, both the north node and the south node, may have an unconscious dark side. Chiron might as well, given the fact that it represents a wound. Likewise, Intercepted signs and the houses that are involved, given the imbalance that they indicate, highlight the dark side of one’s personality.
There is no magic spell to determine where the shadow is hiding in a Birth chart because many other factors that are much less obvious than the nefarious planets Saturn or Pluto may have an influence : anything, including that which we least suspect, can contribute to the shadow. “Do-gooder” planets afflicted by a complicated planetary configuration (Aspects of tension, arduous Framings, unfortunate Houses, etc.) may find themselves to be an integral part of the dark side affecting a particular sub-personality.
Depression (and the psychiatric disorders that are associated with it) is part of a natural, salutary process of transforming one’s personality that often puts the ego face to face with its shadow in a cathartic way (see also Visualization Techniques for the sub-personalities).
Transits often reactivate the unconscious and spur on the shadow. We should of course monitor the longer cycles of Saturn and Pluto and make sure that we know where they will intersect with the shorter cycles, particularly those of the Black moon, the Lunar Nodes, and Mars.
The manifestations of the shadow may also be detected through Progressions, especially when it comes to negative reactions.
In Synastry, the agents of the shadow in each chart give us information about each person’s unconscious, instincts, and dark side, which may be projected onto the other person and allow for mutual fulfillment. Experiencing one’s dark side through another person often allows us to integrate and accept it. Sometimes, the two peoples shadows may mutually reinforce each other and thus give rise to very telling social relationships.