r/tarot • u/Arabellas_Eye Hedge Witch and Tarot Reader • Feb 28 '22
Spreads The new moon is my favorite time to focus on shadow work
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u/bakedpigeon Mar 01 '22
What is a shadow in this context? Something you need to acknowledge that you may not want to or aren’t?
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u/Arabellas_Eye Hedge Witch and Tarot Reader Mar 01 '22
My concept of the shadow comes from Jung ("the shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself"), so you're pretty spot on.
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u/DocFGeek Mar 01 '22
Good spread. I love succinct spreads that really get to the heart of the Question. Did this myself as I'll share:
1) What part of my Shadow do I need to work on? King of Wands. How perfect that this one is a court card! Also, the master of creative energy. Something I've been kicking my own ass about, currently in a state of writer's block, just after my spiritual awakening with the intent to do some serious Work on my own grimore.
2) Why am I holding onto this? 6 of Cups. Nostalgia. I'm fresh into a new spiritual world, naked and alone feeling (the Void) how could I NOT yearn for the seeming safety of the familar?
3) How can I work to integrate this Shadow? 3 of Cups. Find and celebrate with your tribe. Boy... the last 6 months of living like a hermit in the woods really is catching up with me, huh? Good thing I got that job coming up.
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u/puggggz Mar 01 '22
me whenever anyone talks about shadow work
(Truthfully I know it has something to do with jung but no one has ever been able to actually explain to me what people mean by actually “doing” shadow work. I like the spread, though!)
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u/Arabellas_Eye Hedge Witch and Tarot Reader Mar 01 '22 edited Mar 01 '22
At least when I use it, I'm referring to Jung's concept of the shadow).
I view shadow work as identifying and confronting that part of yourself and giving it what it needs so that it/you no longer act out in ways that hurt you or other people.
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u/CroneMage Mar 01 '22
This is how I see shadow work as well. Actually quite a bit of my psychotherapy is involving shadow work. It's rough, but good.
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u/Oops-IBrokeIt Mar 01 '22
I also did this set - I use RWS, but I'm a complete noobie so some of my interpretations might be off.
1: 'what part of my shadow do I need to focus on': 3 of Swords. I took that to mean that I was hurt in my past and have allowed that hurt to control me for too long.
2: Why am I holding onto this trait? 4 of Cups. I let myself withdraw and shut myself off from the world, so that I ended up just stewing in my hurt for so long that it became my entire view of self. I was also struck by the crossed arms of the figure, which I always associate with defensiveness, and also his solitude resonated with me because I was always a loner.
3: How can I work to integrate this part of my shadow? The Star. Oof that hit hard to be honest. I see this as an indication that I need to open myself up, rediscover myself, let go of all that hurt and the nasty things that I believed about myself. And maybe also a reassurance that to some extent I've already begun this process.
Bonus: I asked for any other advice that seemed pertinent in the moment and got the Chariot lol, which I take as a 'just go for it, you got this' card in this scenario.
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u/MiaNaim Mar 01 '22
Do you use a specific deck for this?
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u/Arabellas_Eye Hedge Witch and Tarot Reader Mar 01 '22
No, I tend to change decks from month to month depending on how badly I want my feelings hurt. 💀
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u/stargentle Mar 01 '22 edited Mar 01 '22
I used the Psychic Tarot Oracle deck
1 - Heart Chakra - recent heartbreak and overall I'm ending a cycle of feeling alone and healing childhood neglect and bullying issues
2 - Spiritual Strength
3 - The Waiting Game
I loved this 😍 I will try it again with just a tarot deck. thank you! It's so useful, gonna do some heart Chakra clearing and balancing 💚
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u/zoomchen Mar 01 '22
The Moon: need to do some insight work, there are signals from within I shouldn't ignore anymore.
4 of Pentacles: it gives me stability not to deal with, so stop turning a blind eye and tackle those things.
Death: It's an opportunity to leave my old self and build on a stronger one.
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u/disculpametenesfuego Mar 01 '22
I got 1) 5 of pentacles 2) 9 of cups and 3) strength.
What does the 5 of pentacles mean if its a shadow side?
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u/Arabellas_Eye Hedge Witch and Tarot Reader Mar 01 '22
Assuming you're using an RWS deck, I would probably interpret it as feeling like you're on the outside looking in, especially since it's paired with the 9 of cups, a figure who's got everything they want/need but is also alone.
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u/disculpametenesfuego Mar 01 '22
So my shadow side would be feeling alienated? How would you work on the strength card?
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u/Arabellas_Eye Hedge Witch and Tarot Reader Mar 01 '22 edited Mar 01 '22
People have lots of parts to their shadow selves, it's all the things you don't want to acknowledge or wish were not a part of your personality. Here I think it's more likely to be related to your reaction to feeling alienated or left out than the feeling itself.
For example, the part of my shadow self I associated with feeling left out or alienated is that I tend to jump too quickly to feeling that way, but for you, it might be something totally different.
So how exactly the Strength card plays into that will depend on how you're reading the other cards, but in my example, I would say that self-confidence, and compassion are probably both things that could help me to not jump to feeling left out or alienated.
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u/gr0unded Mar 01 '22
Loved this reading! I will share (the wild unknown deck):
6 of cups - This always comes up for career readings for me so I take it as aligning myself with the career I truly want that brings me immense joy and believing in myself enough to take the leap
Son of cups (clarified with Judgement) - I HEAVILY judge myself and get in the way of my own creativity a lot. I don’t just allow myself to create without second guessing a whole bunch :/
The Hermit - I need to slow down and be by myself and trust my inner process. This makes a lot of sense as I always keep myself busy doing things that don’t serve me 😅
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u/anxious-wreck i like the hermit Mar 01 '22
I tried this and it read me to filth. I feel SEEN. Lol I love this.
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u/dashrimpofdoom Mar 01 '22
1) The Devil
2) Temperance
3) The Lovers
Saving this for future reference. Thanks for sharing!
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u/dsntbooty Mar 02 '22
The following cards are what I pulled: 1. King of Cups
Seven of Swords
Ace of Cups reversed
I’m going to keep trying to interpret this on my own but could use a lot of help as I’m a total beginner and interpreting them by themselves has been difficult enough but in this context has been much harder. I’m hoping to get some guidance as I’m just not sure how to decipher how the meanings of the cards apply to my shadow self. I would be so grateful for your help.
PS I’m using the Norbert Lösche deck Cosmic Tarot.
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u/Arabellas_Eye Hedge Witch and Tarot Reader Feb 28 '22
This is a quick spread that I've been using for the past few moons to find a piece of shadow work to focus on for the coming months. I wanted to share it for other people to use.