i am currently researching Shadow Magick, i understand that the shadow self shows the individual hidden aspects of him or herself that they should face in order to spiritually evolve, is there anything else that i should know?
You may want to look into Jung as this is largely where Shadow Magick stems from, I also enjoyed Raven Digitalis' work "The Shadow MagickCompendium".
The Shadow is a portion of the unconscious mind in which every quality you ignore about yourself, every event you have ever suppressed, every thought and feeling which your conscious mind deems 'too scary' or 'too shocking' resides. It is a portion of the Self which has lots of psychological energy bundled up within it and opening up those memories and thoughts can be a dangerous task.
I recommend taking it slowly and if things get too much or something is uncovered and you feel out of your depth, seek help from a psychologist.
As the person above said it is more about embracing, energy of any form cannot be destroyed merely transformed, it is about taking this energy, embracing it and re-purposing it so it works for you rather than against you.
As stated above shadow work isn't about casting 'dark spells' but looking into what Carl Jung coined 'the shadow' which is the aspect we all have to hide things. Maybe it's guilt from the time you stole the cookies and blamed your sibling, avoiding the emotion of anger, childhood bullying, or a breakup that still haunts you. Anything you deem 'wrong' or 'too hard to handle' is stored in 'the shadow self'. The shadow can manifest in unexpected ways, a random outburst followed by 'I don't know where that came from' is normally the shadow trying to break out. Even aspects that you see as normal could be a way to suppress the shadow [say as a child people told you that you can't dance, so now you tell people you're a terrible dancer and simply refuse to dance regardless of how much you want to]
There are a number of places online you can research further, I would try reading some work on the subject by Jung himself since he's the founder of this concept. You might also wish to check out Kelly-Ann Maddox, she has a whole section on her YouTube channel about shadow work as well as resources [some you have to pay for. She's a spiritual counsellor] on her website to help you get started. An easy one I have found when you don't know where to start is to write a statement and break it down.
Example: I am a bad dancer.
Why do you think that?
Because whenever I have danced people told me to stop.
were these people loved ones?
No
Are you still friends with them?
No.
What small steps can you take to get back into dancing?
I could dance alone in my bedroom.
That's just a little example, but it's just to show you to break down the statement and question it. Really sit and be honest with yourself [shadow work is all about healing yourself, you don't need to involve others unless you feel you need professional help]
You might also consider making shadow work into a ritual [i meditate, call on my Goddess and drink a specific tea when I do my shadow work] this can put you in a specific state and in a way let your guard down so you can be 'real' with yourself and get to the bottom of things.
